388 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Mat 8, 1885. 



and very often, too, it "mustn't toucU;" that, be- 

 sides, it can look at a great many objects at a time, 

 while it can grasp only a very few ; so that nature and 

 parental discipline combine to diminish the pleasure of 

 feeling shapes, and to increase the pleasure of seeing shapes. 

 For the faculty which has the most numerous and varied 

 opportunities of exercise will always be that which brings 

 the greatest enjoyment ; so that baby learns to prefer lines 

 followed by the eye to lines followed by the hand. The 

 bird, of course, has no choice, for she possesses no instru- 

 ment of touch which can trace out forms. 



But all kinds of contours will not be equally liked. Curved 

 lines afibrd an exercise more varied than that given by straight 

 lines, and less fatiguing than that given by angles. Herbert 

 Spencer observes that " the delight in flowing outlines 

 rather than in outlines which are angular, is partly due 

 to that more harmonious, unstrained action of the ocular 

 muscles implied by the perception of such outlines ; there 

 is no jar from sudden stoppage of motion or change 

 of direction, such as results in carrying the eye along a 

 zigzag line." Another example, be it noted, of the prin- 

 ciple of smoothness. Mr. Sully carries out a similar idea 

 with more detail.* He shows that " gradation in direc- 

 tion, which is at the basis of all curvilinear movements, 

 depends on a gradual alteration in the relative degrees of 

 activity of two or more muscles, and so corresponds to 

 gradation in colour or tone, which is supposed to rest on 

 a gradual increase of activity in certain nerve elements, 

 and decrease in others." He further points out that a 

 straight line is [the easiest to follow, and therefore gives a 

 certain negative comfort, and that the pleasure taken in 

 symmetry may be partially explained by the harmony in 

 the movements of the two eyes, and by the relationship 

 which the parts of a symmetrical object seem to bear to 

 a real or imaginary centre. " Owing," he says, " to the 

 structure of the retina, the centre of an object, or group 

 of objects, is naturally raised to a place of honour." 



Yet the purely physical gratification derived from va- 

 rieties of form is probably less vivid than the corresponding 

 mental gratification. Not only the lower, but the higher 

 nerve-structures, require diversified and congenial occupa- 

 tion. The cerebral hemispheres want to be kept active, 

 and they exert themselves healthily and pleasurably by 

 taking note of the similarities and dissimilarities of sur- 

 rounding objects. Every fresh curve, every new kind of 

 contour, every pattern of twining and waving and inter- 

 secting lines, is a new intellectual stimulus. 



The bird is exactly at that stage of evolution where, on 

 this theory, a taste for new combinations might be expected 

 to attain a distinct development. Not only is the average 

 weight of the brain in proi)ortion to the body greater than 

 in the lower Vertebrata, but this increased weight is chiefly 

 due to the greater development of the cerebral hemi.npheres. 

 Yet the hemispheres are still unconvoluted, and the intellect 

 correspondingly simple, so that the stimuli which it craves 

 must be elementary, abundant, easily assimilated. These 

 conditions are satisfied by those freaks of conformation 

 which catch the keen eye and fix the practised attention of 

 the bird. 



We now begin to see why the hen is pleased where one of 

 her lovers develops a new streak or spot or eye of colour, 

 or a tuft of feathers arranged in an unhackneyed and con- 

 spicuous fashion. She likes vivid sensations and vivid 

 ideas. It is a joy to be alive, and to be as much alive as 

 possible she must have her faculties brought into vigorous 

 play. So she chooses the mate who will best satisfy this 

 craving for fulness of life. Artist she is not. Of beauty, 



* "Pleasure of Visual Form" (Mind, April, 1S80). 



properly so called, she has perhaps no conception ; but she 

 is a healthy living being, who instinctively takes measures 

 to be as healthy and as living as she can. In fact, she is a 

 flying refutation of pessimism. 



All this, as we shall see, is true under certain limitations. 

 I can imagine that some one will object — " But has the 

 hen-bird, like many human females, an undiscriminating 

 admiration for ' the latest novelty ' 't Does she select her 

 husband simply because the fashion of his coat is ' new this 

 season ' 1 If she did, would such a process of selection be 

 more likely to lead to the evolution of the heaniiful than to 

 the evolution of the queer ? Would it, indeed, lead to any 

 evolution at all, and not rather, as in human fashion, to a 

 capricious see-saw t " 



We must remember that the possibilities of organic 

 evolution are always limited. The human female may one 

 year sprout out at the head, the next year at the shoulders, 

 the third year just below the waist. In the course of a 

 lifetime, she may indulge in every hue and every shape 

 which has ever disguised the human form divine. The 

 " weight of too much liberty " may be her .-esthetic ruin. 

 Yet even with her, custom counts (or much, and she does 

 not make the most of her advantages or disadvantages. 



But the bird has no such power of capricious change. 

 If he has begun to grow a crest, the chances are, not 

 that he will begin next season to grow a rufi" or a 

 hood, but that he will develop the crest, and pass it 

 on to his descendants. And, since the welfare of every 

 being depends on its ability to accommodate itself 

 to its environment, the hen-bird has wisely adjusted her 

 ways to her means. Her hankering after novelty is 

 checked by a deep-seated conservatism. She likes thejresh, 

 but not the ulrange. The male must be recognisable as 

 belonging to her own family, otherwise she will have none 

 of him. Besides, she always prefers the more vigorous 

 male, when other things are equal, and even when they are 

 not equal, and this sensible preference naturally limits her 

 choice. Albino birds are shunned by the rest of their 

 species. Dovecot pigeons dislike all the highly-improved 

 birds ; doubtless suspecting something uncanny beneath 

 the outlandish attire. There seems to be a good deal of 

 individual diflerence in this respect, some hens being much 

 more advanced in their ideas than others, and less imbued 

 with tribal prejudice. A male blackbird and thrush 

 (living in a state of nature) have been known to pair ; a 

 male widgeon chose a jjintail duck ; a Canada goose, living 

 with twenty-three others of her own kind, selected a 

 Bernicle gander ; indeed, it appears that geese are pecu- 

 liarly susceptible to these irregular attachments.* But 

 such instances are exceptions to the general rule. 



The evolution of the queer has, however, very often 

 occurred. Behold the toucan, with its enormous and 

 highly-coloured beak ; the turkey-cock, with his solemn 

 strut and inflated wattles; the " indescribably odd " atti- 

 tudes into which the carrion vulture throws himself at the 

 beginning of the love season. Even the delicately-adorned 

 Argus pheasant presents a decidedly ludicrous appearance 

 when courting, expanding his wing-feathers into an 

 enormous fan, and pushing his head between two of them 

 to watch the efl'ect produced. 



Still, it is natural to suppose that our idea of beauty, in 

 its simplest form, would coincide pretty well with the 

 bird's taste, since it has been nourished on very much the 

 same materials. It is from contrasts of bright colour and 

 from varieties of curved form that the baby and the bird 

 receive their earliest visual satisfaction. 



(Tohe continued.) 

 * " Descent of Man," p. 414. 



