128 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



all arranged witli perfect symmetry in radiating lines; but a 

 naturalist does not consider an animal of this kind as more 

 perfect than a bilateral one with comparatively few parts, 

 and with none of these parts alike, excepting on the oppo- 

 site sides of the body. He justly considers the difierentia- 

 tion and specialization of organs as the test of perfection. 

 So with languages; the most symmetrical and complex 

 ought not to be ranked above irregular, abbreviated, and 

 bastardized languages, which have borrowed expressive 

 words and useful forms of construction from various con- 

 quering, conquered, or immigrant races. 



From these few and imperfect remarks I conclude that 

 the extremely complex and regular construction of many 

 barbarous languages is no proof that they owe their origin 

 to a special act of creation." ISTor, as we have seen, does 

 the faculty of articulate speech in itself offer any insuper- 

 able objection, to the belief that man has been developed 

 from some lower form. 



Sense of Beauty. — This sense has been declared to be 

 peculiar to man. I refer here only to the pleasure given 

 by certain colors, forms, and sounds, and which may fairly 

 be called a sense of the beautiful; with cultivated men such 

 sensations are, however, intimately associated with complex 

 ideas and trains of thought. When we behold a male bird 

 elaborately displaying his graceful plumes or splendid colors 

 before the female, while other birds, not thus decorated, 

 make no such display, it is impossible to doubt that she 

 admires the beauty of her male partner. As women every- 

 where deck themselves with these plumes, the beauty of 

 such ornaments cannot be disputed. As we shall see later, 

 the nests of humming-birds and the playing passages of 

 bower-birds are tastefully ornamented with gayly colored 

 objects; and this shows that they must receive some kind 

 of pleasure from the sight of such things. Yf ith the great 



" See some good remarks on the simplifioation of languages, by Sir J. Lub- 

 bock, "Origin of Civilization," IStO, p. 278. 



