230 THE ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF MUSIC. 



origin, and the only alternative is the untenable position 

 that the vibrations i^roceeding from a vocalist's throat are, 

 objectively considered, of a higher order than those from a 

 horn or a violin. Similarly with harsh and soft sounds. 

 If the conclusiveness of the foregoing reasonings be not 

 admitted, it must be supposed that the vibrations causing 

 the last are intrinsically better than those causing the first ; 

 and that, in virtue of some pre-established harmony, the 

 higher feelings and natures produce the one, and the lower 

 the Other. But if the foregoing reasonings be valid, it 

 follows, as a matter of course, that we shall like the 

 sounds that habitually accompany agreeable feelings, and 

 dislike those that habitually accompany disagreeable feel- 

 ings. 



Once more, the question — How is the expressiveness of 

 music to be otherwise accounted for ? may be supplement- 

 ed by the question — How is the genesis of music to be 

 otherwise accounted for ? That music is a product of civ- 

 ilization is manife^st ; for though savages have their dance- 

 chants, these are of a kind scarcely to be dignified by 

 the title musical : at most, they supply but the vaguest 

 rudiment of music, properly so called. And if music 

 has been by slow steps developed in the course of civili- 

 zation, it must have been developed out of something. 

 If, then, its origin is not that above alleged, what is its 

 origin ? 



Thus we find that the negative evidence confirms the 

 positive, and that, taken together, they furnish strong 

 proof. We have seen that there is a physiological relation, 

 common to man and all animals, between feeling and mus- 

 cular action ; that as vocal sounds are produced by muscu- 

 lar action, there is a consequent physiological relation be- 

 tween feeling and vocal sounds ; that all the modifications 

 of voice expressive of feeling are the direct results of this 

 physiological relation ; that music, adopting all these modi 



