IT DEVEL0PE8 THE LANGUAGE OF THE EMOTIONS. 233 



These two distinct but interwoven elements of speech 

 have been undergoing a simultaneous development. We 

 know that in the course of civilization words have been 

 multiplied, new j^arts of speech have been introduced, sen- 

 tences have grown more varied and complex ; and we ma^ 

 fairly infer that during the same time new modifications of 

 voice have come into use, fresh intervals have been adopt- 

 ed, and cadences have become more elaborate. For while, 

 on the one hand, it is absurd to suppose that, along with 

 the undeveloped verbal forms of barbarism, there existed 

 a developed system of vocal inflections ; it is, on the other 

 hand, necessary to suppose that, along with the higher and 

 more numerous verbal forms needed to convey the multi- 

 plied and complicated ideas of civilized life, there have 

 grown up those more involved changes of voice which ex- 

 press the feelings proper to such ideas. If intellectual lan- 

 guage is a growth, so also, without doubt, is emotional lan- 

 guage a growth. 



Now, the hypothesis which we have hinted above, is, 

 that beyond the direct pleasure which it gives, music has 

 the indirect effect of developing this language of the emo- 

 tions. Having its root, as we have endeavoured to show, 

 in those tones, intervals, and cadences of speech which ex- 

 press feeling — arising by the combination and intensifying 

 of these, and coming finally to have an embodiment of its 

 own ; music has all along been reacting upon speech, and 

 increasing its power of rendering emotion. The use in re- 

 citative and song of inflections more expressive than ordi- 

 nary ones, must from the beginning have tended to devel- 

 ope the ordinary ones. Familiarity with the more varied 

 combir.ations of tones that occur in vocal music, can 

 scarcely have failed to give greater variety of combination 

 to the tones in which we utter our impressions and desires. 

 The complex musical phrases by which composers have 

 conveyed complex emotions, may rationally be supposed to 



