THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. in 



vain that, according to the legend (which ex- 

 presses at least a general truth), the Lace- 

 daemonians received from Athens the lame 

 schoolmaster, who inspired their drooping 

 courage by his songs ; nor that the militant 

 Dorians in general understood the value of 

 music. Music having established its social 

 utility in this way, there can be no doubt that 

 sexual selection (in Darwin's sense) would 

 come in to help the preservation and increase 

 of any musical talent that appeared. The bard 

 would be amonof the first kind of man admired 

 for some other quality than fighting power or 

 skill in hunting, and therefore preferred as a 

 mate. Would not Mr. Wallace's arguments 

 against the utility of music apply equally to 

 the songs of birds, and would he not be equally 

 justified in inferring that the lark and the 

 nightingale manifest, as certain of our poets 

 have said, an influx from the spiritual world ? 



But, of course, a highly complex music, if it 

 could have arisen among savages, would be of 

 no use to them. In order that the great 

 musician may appear, not only must there be 

 the physical inheritance of a fortunate com- 

 bination of musical qualities, but there must be 



