BENEFICENT CORRELATIONS.

209

sheep by thousands, an equal number would be somehow disposed of in a state of nature. The domestic. horse is better cared for than any wild animal, and the dog is positively happy in man's society. Towards man there would be the exercise of great beneficence; for we may so far agree with Dr Kidd as to believe that the absence of these animals would be almost incompatible with the continuance of the human race.1

A similar argument might be drawn out for the guidance of the variations which have given man the cereals for his food; but repetition is wearisome.

Beneficence in Correlation.-If there be any truth in our previous argument relating to the correlation of man's improving brain with some part of his frame on which Natural Selection had a strong hold, the fact is as great a proof of Beneficence as of Wisdom. We know not how many useful structures may have been assisted through their early stages by the working of this "law" and that it should work in this way for beneficent purposes is quite consistent with what we know of nature's processes; for what is the correlation of the kangaroo's pouch to the young kangaroo, or of the human infant to its mother, but the burdening of one structure with another which it is able to carry?

As an instance of the beneficent working which we suppose possible, let us look at the powers of the human voice and the human ear-the wonderful range, flexibility, and sweetness of the sounds producible by the larynx, and the extreme delicacy of the auditory organ which appreciates them. The apparatus of the ear is very complicated, and includes a key-board arrangement of filaments, concerned in giving the sensation of

1 Bridgewater Treatise, chap. ix.

particular tones: the human throat is a complicated instrument of muscle, cartilage, ligament, and bone, so delicate that a little cold destroys its powers. Now, even among birds, where the faculty of song may have been increased by sexual selection, the power of appreciating song can hardly have been evolved by the same means without the aid of correlation; and among savages, as Mr Wallace remarks, singing is a more or less monotonous howling; the females seldom sing at all, and are certainly not selected as wives because of their fine voices.1 Neither will any other form of Natural Selection account for these powers in man, unless the aid of correlation be called in: for Natural Selection preserves only what is immediately useful; and Mr Darwin remarks that neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in reference to his ordinary habits of life, and must therefore be ranked among the most mysterious with which he is endowed.2 How, then, are we to account for the evolution and preservation among savages of successive generations, of the extreme delicacy and refinement in the organs of voice and hearing necessary to serve as the foundation for the powers of a Jenny Lind, and for the ears that can appreciate Handel and Mendelssohn (to say nothing of the mental appreciation without which the perfection of the organs would be useless)? In this case it would not appear to be the ear which has preserved the larynx, nor the larynx which has protected the ear, nor any third organ which has fought the battle for either; but the organ being complex in itself, one power of it has been correlated with another—a useful part with a part not yet useful—like 1 Natural Selection, p. 350. 2 Descent of Man, ii. 333.

THE FACULTY FOR MUSIC.

211

an independent society supporting its own weak members. Delicacy of hearing would serve the savage in guarding against the approach of enemies, and with this has been correlated perception of the intensity and quality of sounds. Strength of voice and accuracy of articulation would be useful in ordinary intercourse, and with these have been correlated melodiousness and those differences in voices which make harmony possible. The business of life could have gone on without music— it is only when man becomes civilized that he takes pleasure in it—and yet, on the theory of Evolution, the foundation of his powers in this respect is to be sought in the far-off ages of which we have no historical record, and in the living forms which were not yet worthy to be called human. Such long anticipation and patient quiet working is only what we might expect, if we believe in an Almighty Being, to whom the process of evolution is to be ultimately ascribed; yet still it is only as we look at them that our admiration is called forth and the patient working might have been with a view to simple utility, whereas it appears that the delight of man is an end also.

Sexual Selection: Colour and Ornament.-Beauty of form, symmetry of outline, richness of colour, delicacy of tint, variety of pattern-the living world is full of these; and man delights in them. It used to be thought sufficient to point to the bird's plumage, the butterfly's wing, and the colours of flowers, in proof that the Creator delighted in beauty, and desired to gladden the eyes of man: but the Evolutionists have checked us in this. There was a time, we learn, when flowers were not beautiful in colour, but those which showed a tendency that way were more easily discovered by insects, and

selected to be fertilized; there was a time when birds were not handsome, but the females being possessed of Caste selected the males in whom spots and stripes of colour were occurring; the majority of birds, again, have no colour, reptiles are ugly, and much of the beauty that does exist in nature is buried beneath the waters, or hidden deep in the forests.

Mr Darwin thinks that moths and butterflies have sufficient mental capacity to admire bright colours-bees and butterflies may be watched flying from flower to flower, disregarding all other parts of the plant—they certainly discover flowers by colour, and it is proved that plants which are fertilized exclusively by the wind never have a conspicuously coloured corolla. The humming-bird sphinx may often be seen to swoop down from a distance on a bunch of flowers in the midst of green foliage; and in the south of France, as Mr Darwin was assured by a friend, these moths repeatedly visited flowers painted on the walls of a room. Of course there is honey in flowers, for unless a bait co-existed with the colour, the insect would not be attracted; but this correlation of sweetness and colour being once established in some slight degree, the plants presenting most of the desired food, and showing most clearly where it lies, would have their fertilization and multiplication furthered their beauty would be useful in the struggle for existence; and where beauty is not useful it is not given, for Natural Selection never wastes its energies on sentiment. To butterflies and birds it would be an advantage to be of dull colour, and many of them are protected from their enemies by this very means; so that Natural Selection, in the narrower sense of the word, would scrupulously weed out all brilliant colours, top-knots,

fine plumage, &c., as threatening the safety of the species but here sexual selection comes in-the colours are arranged as if for display, their possessors take pains to exhibit them before the female, and the female chooses the most brilliant suitors. The beauty, after all, is useful to its possessor; and Mr Darwin stated in the Origin of Species, that it would be absolutely fatal to his theory if it could be shown that structures were created for beauty in the eyes of man, or for mere variety.1 The Creator has not uniformly abolished deformity from the world, as a man possessing high taste and unlimited wealth would banish ungraceful and disagreeable forms and colours from his domains: if the horse and deer are graceful, the elephant, hippopotamus, and camel are the reverse; monkeys and apes are not beautiful; many insects and reptiles are positively ugly; and not more than half the plants in the world have bright-coloured or beautiful flowers.2

If these are truths they must be received, and in the long run truth will prove of more value than delusion. But let us look at the cases. With regard to flowers, we may admit the theory at once, and admire the means by which about half the plants of the world have been rendered beautiful, when it appears that the wind could have been made to fertilize them without any such enticement. We do but see here the method of creation -and we knew before that there had been some method adopted; we are but thrown back on the circumstances or "conditions" which cause the colours the insects are so quick to detect; we read beneficent design in the final outcome of beauty, and trace it back along all the lines 1 Origin of Species, p. 219.

2 Wallace: Natural Selection, p. 284.