244 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 349 



EVOLUTION OF MUSIC FROM DANCE TO SYMPHONY.i 



A BLUE egg may become a robin. The latent life sequestered 

 by marble walls may be warmed into activity, and'gather to itself 

 the crumbs from a cottage table, and weave therefrom the tissues 

 of life, — feet to perch among the blossoms, wings to fly among the 

 trees, eyes to revel in the scenes disclosed by sunlight, and vocal 

 organs to sing the song of love to mate. 



A tiny seed may become a " big tree ; " for, warmed into life, it 

 sends its rootlets into the nourishing earth and its branches into 

 the vivifying air, and gathers materials with which to build a Se- 

 qiioia, that stands for centuries as a glory in the forest of the 

 sierra. 



The rill born of a summer shower carries the sand from the hill- 

 side and gives it to the brook, and the brook bears it on to the 

 river, and the river transports it to the sea, and the impregnated 

 tide finds a nest beneath the waves and in it lays the egg of an 

 island. Then this boss on the floor of the ocean has the power to 

 gather about it more sands as they come from the distant hills, and 

 still more sands. Every summer shower gives it more, and every 

 storm adds to the sands that are thus buried beneath the sea, 

 until at last an island is hatched, as it lifts its head above the 

 waves. 



Robins grow to be robins by minute increments ; trees grow to 

 be trees by minute increments ; islands grow to be islands by mi- 

 nute increments. There is an aphorism current in the world that 

 like begets its like : it is but half the truth. Whatever is, changes, 

 and no repetition comes through all the years of time : some mi- 

 nute change must ever intervene. Among living things one gener- 

 ation follows another, always with some change ; and change on 

 change in sequent reproduction, as the stream of life flows on, re- 

 sults at last in transformation. This slow but sure metamorphosis 

 is called evolution, and the scientific world is engaged in the for- 

 mulation of its laws. 



The laws of animal and vegetal progress, otherwise called biotic 

 evolution, do not apply to mankind in civilization.' Biotic evolution 

 is progress in bodily function : human evolution is progress in cul- 

 ture. The one is dependent on the laws of vitality ; the other, de- 

 pendent on the laws of psychology. The first great law of biotic 

 evolution is denominated "the survival of the fittest in the struggle 

 for existence." This law does not directly apply to man in his 

 progress in culture. The bad are not killed off by any natural pro- 

 cess in order that the good may survive and propagate their kind. 

 Human progress is by human endeavor, by conscious and designed 

 effort for improvement in condition. 



The second great law in biotic evolution is denominated " adap- 

 tation to environment." But man is not adapted to environment : 

 he adapts the environment to himself by creating that which he 

 desires. For example : no natural protection to his body is de- 

 veloped by which he is adapted to a boreal climate ; but he adapts 

 that climate to himself, modifies it in its effect upon himself by 

 building a house and creating a home climate at the fireside, and 

 when outside of his home he protects himself with clothing, 

 and creates a personal climate, and laughs at the wmds that drift 

 the snow. Man is not adapted to environment ; but he adapts 

 his arts to environment, and creates new conditions to please him- 

 self. 



The third great law of biotic evolution is denominated " progress 

 in heterogeneity." With time, animals become more and more di- 

 verse in structure and function. Kinds or spepies multiply. But 

 this law is reversed with men in civilization, for they become more 

 and more homogeneous. The tendency is not to differentiate into 

 species, some with horns and hoofs, some with tusks and claws, 

 and some with arms, and some with wings. The tendency is 

 not towards specific differentiation, but towards specific homo- 

 geneity. 



There is, however, another kind of differentiation that: develops 

 by culture, which may be denominated "qualitative differentiation." 

 Human beings do not develop along divergent lines, but along par- 

 allel lines, and they differ mainly in the degree in whiph they have 

 made progress. Human evolution develops not different kinds of 



1 Address by Major J.W. Powell, the retiring pr< 

 for the Advancement of Science, delivered at the 



ent of ihe American Association 

 :ting in Toronto in August. 



men, but different qualities of men."' .The apple-tree under human, 

 culture does not develop in one line to bear peaches, another to 

 bear plums, and another to bear pine-apples : but the fruit of one 

 tree is sour, and that of another is sv^'eet ; one is dwarfed, gnarled, 

 and bitter, another is large, roseate, and luscious. Human prog- 

 ress is stich culture. It develops different qualities and degrees 

 of the same thing. There are apple-trees that bear nothing but 

 sorry fruits. There are tribes of the world that are all savages. 

 The trees of higher culture bear fruits of diverse qualities. The 

 well-developed pippin, the diseased pippin, and the shrivelled knot 

 of bitterness grow on the same tree. So in lands of highest culture 

 men are good and bad, wise and unwise, but they do not thus be- 

 come specifically different. 



The fourth great law of biotic evolution is denominated " prog- 

 ress in integration." The differentiating parts also become more 

 and more interdependent. The organ which can best subserve its 

 purpose is less efficient in performing an unwonted function : it 

 therefore becomes dependent upon other organs, and the interde- 

 pendence of all the parts of the same organism increases with evolu- 

 tion. Society is an organism. The people organized as a body 

 politic, and constituting a nation, become interdependent, and each 

 one is interested in the common welfare. In the growth of society 

 through the organization of kindred into clans, and of clans into- 

 tribes, and ultimately of tribes into nations, great progress in in- 

 tegration is made, and it receives its highest development when 

 despotism is organized. If we study the progress of society 

 through these stages only, we are led to conclude that biotic evolu- 

 tion and human culture follow the same laws, for the integration 

 of mankind in despotic nations is measured by the perfection of 

 despotic governments. The highest integration is secured with 

 hereditary rulers, privileged classes, and enslaved common people. 



The progress of mankind from despotism to liberty has been one 

 vast system of warfare against integration, until in perfect liberty 

 under free institutions this integration is destroyed, and the 

 biotic law is repealed in its application to mankind. The develop- 

 ment of liberty is the overthrow of the fourth law of animal evolu- 

 tion. 



Liberty means freedom to the individual, and is secured by es- 

 tablishing interdependence of industries : thus man transfers des- 

 potism from himself to his inventions. 



No cruel law of destruction belongs to mankind. No brutal 

 adaptation to environments occurs in the course of human culture. 

 No differentiation into antagonistic species is found. And liberty 

 destroys despotic integration. 



The laws of biotic evolution do not apply to mankind. There 

 are men in the world so overwhelmed with the grandeur and truth 

 of biotic evolution that they actually believe that man is but a two- 

 legged beast, whose progress in the world is governed by the same 

 laws as the progress of the serpent or the wolf ; and so science is 

 put to shame. 



Since the doctrines of evolution have been established, the basis 

 of systematic classification has been changed. Artificial catego- 

 ries have given place to natural categories in such a manner that 

 the classes are believed to represent genetic relations. The search 

 for natural categories began anterior to the establishment of the 

 laws of biotic evolution, and the new philosophy would be unrec- 

 ognized but for the work which systematic biology has already 

 done. Natural classifications and the laws of hereditary descent 

 develop together, and are interdependently established. Still it re- 

 mains that genetic biology, or the science of the laws of the prog- 

 ress of life, imposes conditions upon systematic biology ; for a nat- 

 ural classification must reveal the fundamental epochs and phases 

 of evolution. 



As human progress is not upon divergent lines, but upon the 

 same line to the goal of a higher life, men must be classified, not 

 by biotic kinds, but by degrees of culture ; and the three great 

 culture stages, not three great kinds of men, be it understood, have 

 been called savagery, barbarism, and civilization, to which a fourth 

 may well be added, that of modern civilization, — the stage of en- 

 lightenment. 



That which makes man more than the beast is culture. Cul- 

 ture is human evolution ; not the development of man as an ani- 

 mal, but the evolution of the human attributes of man. Culture 



