ON THE ^ESTHETIC SENSE IN ANIMALS. 731 



unable to attain general and abstract ideas, cannot rise to. the cesthetic 

 sense. To conclude : that sense is the exclusive endowment of man. 



This is a concise statement — for neither our subject nor our pow- 

 ers allow us to take a side in this discussion — of the interesting con- 

 troversy raised by Mr. Darwin's last book. We only say that, not- 

 withstanding the deep respect and the frank support that we give to 

 his general doctrine, we here adopt the opinion of his opponents. 

 We, too, believe that the aesthetic sense, in the high and perfect ac- 

 ceptation of the phrase, belongs to man alone. But we must here 

 suggest a correction of the highest importance, which will at once 

 define our opinion, and lead us to a, fundamental reflection upon the 

 arts. 



" Complete the experiment," M. Charles Leveque says. " Place 

 your animal before a work of art representing its male or its female 

 with a precision that deceives the eye ; some of these works that 

 seemed to live existed in the studios of ancient painters ; they are 

 more frequent in modern museums and exhibition-rooms. It was 

 said that mares would neigh when going before horses painted by 

 Apelles. A dog would perhaps stop a moment in front of Oudry's 

 hunting-pieces, if their frames were put on the floor, within reach of 

 his look. He would come up, examine them, ask the canvas a single 

 question with his infallible scent — and that would be all. And yet, 

 what is there in the picture ? There is exactly the element worthy of 

 admiration, that is to say, the expression of life by means of the most 

 attractive colors and the most perfect forms. What does the quad- 

 ruped care for these as he looks at this wonder ? It is not the ex- 

 pression of life in general that he wants ; it is life itself, individual 

 life, life which speaks to his senses, and to that of smell much more 

 strongly than to his eyes and ears. He has no concern with the gen- 

 eral, the ideal, the admirable ; he understands nothing about them." 



This is all strictly and absolutely true. We have never put 

 much faith in the stories invented by the Greeks and collected by 

 Pliny ; we have never remarked, in our long experience as a sports- 

 man, that the most intelligent of man's companions ever gave the 

 least attention to any object represented by painting or sculpture, 

 even to his master's portrait , or that he looked with any feeling of 

 satisfaction at one of those charming landscapes set before us at every 

 step by Nature, enchanting as their view is to us. That seems to us 

 one settled fact. But is M. Leveque quite certain that all men have 

 any greater faculty for that notice and that knowledge which are want- 

 ing in the dog ? Have savages got above the level of animals in this 

 respect ? A traveler, who has studied Australia thoroughly, relates 

 that at a gathering of some native inhabitants of that country he 

 brought out portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, to see 

 what they would think of them. Almost all kept silence, seeing noth- 

 ing in the pictures at all within their range, or that touched their 



