MAN-MUSICAL POWERS. 567 



musical powers.™ We can thus understand how it is that music, 

 dancing, song, and poetry are such very ancient arts. We may 

 go even further than this, and, as remarked in a former chapter, 

 believe that musical sounds afforded one of the bases for the de- 

 velopment of the language.*" 



As the males of several quadrumanous animals have their vocal 

 organs much more developed than in the females, and as a gibbon, 

 one of the anthropomorphous apes, pours forth a whole octave of 

 musical notes and may be said to sing, it appears probable that 

 the progenitors of man, either the males or females or both sexes, 

 before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual love in ar- 

 ticulate language, endeavored to charm each other with musical 

 notes and rhythm. So little is known about the use of the voice 

 by the Quadrumana during the season of love, that we have no 

 means of judging whether the habit of singing was first acquired 

 by our male or female ancestors. Women are generally thought 

 to possess sweeter voices than men, and as far as this serves as 

 any guide, we may infer that they first acquired musical powers 

 in order to attract the other sex." But If so, this must have oc- 

 curred long ago, before our ancestors had become sufficiently hu- 

 man to treat and value their women merely as useful slaves. The 

 impassioned orator, bard, or musician, when with his varied tones 

 and cadences he excites the strongest emotions In his hearers, lit- 

 tle suspects that he uses the same means by which his half-human 



™ See the very interesting discussion on the 'Origin and Function of 

 Music' by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his collected 'Essays,' 1858, p. 359. 

 Mr. Spencer comes to an exactly opposite conclusion to that at which 

 1 have arrived. He concludes, as did Diderot formerly, that the ca- 

 dences used in emotional speech afford the foundation from which 

 music has been developed; whilst I conclude that musical notes and 

 rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of man- 

 kind for the sake of charming the opposite sex. Thus musical tones 

 became firmly associated with some of the strongest passions an ani- 

 mal is capable of feeling, and are consequently used instinctively, or 

 through association, when strong emotions are expressed in speech. 

 Mr. Spencer does not offer any satisfactory explanation, nor can I, 

 why high or deep notes should be expressive, both with man and the 

 lower animals, of certain emotions. Mr. Spencer gives also an in- 

 teresting discussion on the relations between poetry, recitative, and 

 song. 



" I find in Lord Monboddo's 'Origin of Language,' vol. i. (1774), p. 

 469, that Dr. Blacklock likewise thought "that the first language 

 "among men was music, and that before our ideas were expressed by 

 "articulate sounds, they were communicated by tones, varied ac- 

 "cording to different degrees of gravity and acuteness." 



" See an interesting discussion on this subject by Hackel, 'Gene' 

 relle Morph,' B. ii. 1866, s. 246. 



