THE ARTS AND RELIGION 255 



to each other in many ways. Moreover, these reac- 

 tions and the instincts which they express are bound 

 closely to certain derived reactions. And these 

 reactions are, in turn, so closely bound, and indeed 

 overlap in so many ways, that the undertaking of 

 separating them for separate discussion is an arbi- 

 trary one. Nevertheless, it is profitable to think of 

 the derived or secondary nervous reactions in their 

 bearing upon the acquisition of knowledge, on the 

 growth of aesthetic experience, and on the develop- 

 ment of ethical qualities. That the growth of these 

 derived reactions is destined to affect profoundly the 

 parent reactions from which they sprang the sur- 

 vival and sexual instincts seems an obvious conclu- 

 sion, and there can be no reasonable doubt that this 

 reflected influence must profoundly modify human 

 conduct. 



I 



Art, the skilled expression of beauty through 

 human agency, stands in close and relatively obvious 

 and tangible relation to biology, because it is medi- 

 ated very definitely by specific and known nervous 

 mechanisms. The relation of the optic or second 

 cranial nerves to painting, sculpture, and architecture 

 is similar to the relation of the acoustic or fifth 

 cranial nerves to music. In each case the artistic 

 product is in part based on the function of the 

 analytical and representative powers of special sense 

 organs. Other sensory cranial nerves fall far below 

 the optic and acoustic in analytical faculty. The 



