October ii, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



245 



is the product of human endeavor. This is the burden of my 

 argument. 



In man's progress from savagery to enlightenment, he has trans- 

 ferred the laws of beast evolution from himself to his inventions, 

 and, relieved of the load, he has soared away to the goal of his 

 destiny on the wings of higher laws. 



The evolution of music has been presented as an illustration of 

 this fact. Man as a poet has not developed by the survival of the 

 fittest. There has been no natural system of laws by which the 

 bad musician has been killed, and the good musician permitted to 

 live and propagate his kind. There has been no system of natu- 

 ral selection to kill poor singers and cheap fiddlers. 



There is no adaptation of musicians to environment. There are 

 no aquatic musicians ; there are no aerial musicians ; there are no 

 tropical musicians ; there are no boreal musicians — as those terms 

 are used in biology. The prima donna that sings in Rome may 

 sing in St. Petersburg. The artist on the violin may enrapture the 

 people in Toronto, in Washington, or in Mexico, and an orchestra 

 may play on the land and on the sea. 



Again, there has been no progress in the differentiation of musi- 

 cians. There is no musical species. There is no distinct race of 

 prima donnas. There is no endogenous clan of organists. Mu- 

 sical folk spring up among the people everywhere. Of two chil- 

 dren of the same parents, the one will be musical, and the other will 

 not be. A sister will play the violin with beauty, and a brother 

 may love nothing better than an accordion. 



Every nation and tribe on the face of the earth has developed its 

 own musicians; and when a great artist springs up in any land, he 

 travels the world, and delights all the people of civilization. Ole 

 Bull, like Orpheus, would make the stony hearts of all men dance ; 

 and Jenny Lind could sing a song of sorrow to weeping multitudes 

 in any city of Christendom, and, if the angels loved not her music, 

 small be the meed of praise for angels. 



And, lastly, there is no integration of musicians. They are not 

 organized into one body politic. They do not inhabit one little 

 nook of the world. They are not gathered by themselves on one 

 isle of the sea. The king of players is metaphoric king, the queen 

 of singers is metaphoric queen. 



But though these laws of evolution do not apply to musicians, 

 they do apply to ftiusic itself. Man has transferred them from 

 himself to his musical inventions. Ever there has been a survival 

 of the fittest. The music of savagery is lost in barbarism. The 

 songs of barbarism are lost in civilization, and modern music is 

 replacing the music of our fathers. So the old grows into the new 

 by the survival of the fittest ; not by natural selection, but by 

 human selection, for men choose to keep the music they love the 

 best. 



There has been progress by differentiation in music. Gradually 

 music has developed into distinct parts ; and with the invention of 

 musical instruments, musical compositions have been produced 

 adapted to each. There is the music of the organ, the piano, the 

 flute, the violin, and instruments too many to tell, and thus the 

 world is filled with varied music. 



Music has been adapted to environment. There is music for the 

 dance and for the battle ; music for the wedding and the funeral ; 

 music for the theatre and tfje temple ; and there is music about 

 every thing, — the land, the sea, and the air, the valley and the 

 mountain, the flower and the forest, the fountain and the river, the 

 worm and the serpent, the zephyr and the tempest. There is 

 music for all peoples, in all climes, in all conditions. The varieties 

 of music parallel every human thought. 



There is integration of music. When a band plays organized 

 music for the military parade, many instruments combine to play 

 their parts in harmony. There is organized music for the temple, 

 where the choir and the instruments combine to make music for 

 prayer and praise. But the highest development of musical inte- 

 gration is found in the orchestra, where the parts of the symphony 

 are played in sweet unison, in grand harmony and sublime sequence, 

 guided by the magic baton of the leader. 



Music is the invention of mankind ; not of one man, but of all 

 nien, — of composers, performers, and hearers. Music has come 

 down the stream of time ; and as the rivers grow from source to 

 sea, so music grows from primal time to vast eternity. 



In the same manner we may take up any one of the elements of 

 human culture, and develop the laws of its evolution, and find that 

 all culture comes by human endeavor. All arts, all institutions, all 

 languages, all opinions, have grown in obedience to the laws of 

 evolution as set forth ; and in the exercise of all these human ac- 

 tivities man himself has been developed : so the laws of biotic 

 evolution apply not to mankind. Beast is beast, man is man. 



I have affirmed that the laws of biotic evolution do not apply to 

 human culture. To make this clear, concrete demonstration is 

 necessary. On this occasion one of the aesthetic arts will be used 

 for this purpose. The evolution of music will be portrayed and 

 its laws developed, and it will be followed briefly through the four 

 stages of culture, — savagery, barbarism, civilization, and enlighten- 

 ment. 



The classific categories of biology should represent genesis by 

 differentiation, but it has been shown that man cannot thus be 

 classified. Man by his genius has transferred the application of 

 the four great laws of biotic evolution from himself to his inven- 

 tions. Human inventions evolve by human selection ; and there is 

 a survival of the fittest, an adaptation to environment, a progress 

 in differentiation, and a progress in integration. Human inven- 

 tions, therefore, should be classified in such a manner as to exhibit 

 their genesis by differentiation. 



If we classify the fine arts on these principles, we must place 

 them in four groups, as we find them arising from four germs. It 

 is true that their development has been more or less interdepend- 

 ent, yet they have four origins, and have developed along four 

 lines, both in form and motive. 



Fetich carving was the germ of sculpture. Stone, bone, shell, 

 wood, and various other materials, were used by the sculptor in 

 which to carve the forms of his beast gods. Carving begun in 

 this rude way developed at last along two lines, one leading to 

 idolatry, and the other to sculpture. 



Picture-writing was the germ of painting. Early man daubed 

 rude pictures on bark and other materials, and etched them on 

 stone. The alphabetic arts also sprang from this source, as writ- 

 ing, printing, and telegraphing. 



Mythology was the germ of drama. Early man believed the 

 animals to be the creators and movers of his universe, and the 

 stories of the doings of beasts constituted the first drama. Later 

 romance sprang from the same source ; and from romance, biog- 

 raphy and history. Along another line from the same germ sprang 

 science. 



The dance was the germ of music and poetry. Poetry derived 

 its form from the dance, and its earliest motive from mythology. 

 The evolution of music will be set forth more fully. 



Sculpture represents material forms in solid matter, as wood, 

 clay, stone, ivory, and metal. 



Painting represents forms and scenes of nature and human life 

 in color, as light, shade, and hue, through the aid of form perspec- 

 tive, distance perspective, and aerial perspective. 



Drama represents scenes in the life of human and mythic heroes 

 by personation or mimicry combined with literary presentation. 



Romance represents biography and history in fictitious tales. 



Music represents ideas in sound by rhythm, melody, harmony, 

 and symphony. 



Poetry represents psychic pictures by metaphor, through the aid 

 of rhythmic literature, sometimes using rhyme and alliteration. 



The arts have thus been described by defining their forms ; but 

 each has something more as a reason for its being an assthetic art, 

 — a purpose to fulfil. The motive of all the aesthetic arts is to 

 reach the intellect through symbols, and thus kindle the emotions. 

 All art is therefore symbolic and emotional. 



Let us turn to the evolution of music. 



This is the burthen of my song, this is the theme that runs through 

 my melody : that music, in harmony with all of the processes of 

 becoming in nature and art, becomes by minute increments, — by 

 growth. How, then, did music grow? 



It has been assumed by writers that music has its origin and 

 development in the innate appreciation of the human mind for the 

 rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and symphonies of nature ; that it 



