X ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY 277 



lower creatures and ourselves, there is one which 

 is hardly ever insisted on, 1 but which may be very 

 fitly spoken of in a place so largely devoted to 

 Art as that in which we are assembled. It is 

 this, that while, among various kinds of animals, 

 it is possible to discover traces of all the other 

 faculties of man, especially the faculty of mimicry, 

 yet that particular form of mimicry which shows 

 itself in the imitation of form, either by modelling 

 or by drawing, is not to be met with. As far as I 

 know, there is no sculpture or modelling, and 

 decidedly no painting or drawing, of animal origin. 

 I mention the fact, in order that such comfort may 

 be derived therefrom as artists may feel inclined 

 to take. 



If what the biologists tell us is true, it will be 

 needful to get rid of our erroneous conceptions of 

 man, and of his place in nature, and to substitute 

 right ones for them. But it is impossible to form 

 any judgment as to whether the biologists are 

 right or wrong, unless we are able to appreciate 

 the nature of the arguments which they have to 

 offer. 



One would almost think this to be a self- 

 evident proposition. I wonder what a scholar 

 would say to the man who should undertake to 

 criticise a difficult passage in a Greek play, but 

 who obviously had not acquainted himself with 



1 I think that my friend, Professor Allman, was the first to 

 draw attention to it. 



