54 THOUGHTS UPON THE MUSICAL SENSE [X. 



Important objections have however been raised against this 

 hypothesis by many writers, and especially by Stumpf. And 

 yet I would freely admit that at present it is difficult, nay 

 impossible, to decide whether sexual selection has or has not 

 had any part in the origin of human song. But even if it has 

 played this part, it by no means follows that there was a 

 similar origin for the musical sense also : this faculty might 

 have been present beforehand. 



It would lead me too far if I were to attempt any detailed 

 exposition of the reasons which, as I think, oppose the 

 hypothesis of the origin of the musical sense by sexual selec- 

 tion. They partly depend upon the above-mentioned fact that 

 any increase in this faculty has not taken place since the stage 

 reached by man in a savage state. Other objections depend 

 upon certain considerations of which I will now speak. The 

 explanation of the musical sense is to be looked for in an 

 entirely different direction ; I do not believe that it originated 

 as something independent and as it were intended for the duty 

 it performs, but that it is simply a bye-product or accessory of 

 the auditory organ. This organ was a necessity in the struggle 

 for existence and has therefore been developed by selective 

 processes, and raised to the highest pitch of perfection. The 

 musical sense is, I believe, a merely incidental production and 

 thus in a certain sense, an unintended one. 



No one can believe that the human hand was created for 

 playing on the piano,— that it became what it now is in order 

 that man might be able to make use of this instrument. It is, 

 as we know, fitted for grasping and for the power of delicate 

 touch ; and as these are very useful qualities, of high importance 

 m the struggle for life, we feel no difficulty in explaining the 

 gradual perfecting, by processes of selection, of that form of 

 hand which the higher animals had already gained. By means 

 of selection, the hand became the perfectly articulated, sensitive, 

 and mobile structure that we find, not onl}^ in ourselves, but in 

 the very lowest savages. But we can do many things with our 

 fingers w^hich were never intended, if I may use the expression ; 

 we can, for instance, play on the piano, now that this instrument 

 has been invented. And furthermore a native African could, if 

 trained as a child and under certain conditions, learn all the 

 technique of the modern piano as thoroughly as a European. 



