Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of DiscussionsSpencer, Herbert
Philosophy
Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of Discussions
Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy; Political science; Science
In the co-ordinate origin and gradual differentiation of Poetry, Music and
Dancing, we have another series of illustrations. Rhythm in speech, rhythm
in sound, and rhythm in motion, were in the beginning parts of the same
thing, and have only in process of time become separate things. Among
various existing barbarous tribes we find them still united. The dances of
savages are accompanied by some kind of monotonous chant, the clapping of
hands, the striking of rude instruments: there are measured movements,
measured words, and measured tones; and the whole ceremony, usually having
reference to war or sacrifice, is of governmental character. In the early
records of the historic races we similarly find these three forms of
metrical action united in religious festivals. In the Hebrew writings we
read that the triumphal ode composed by Moses on the defeat of the
Egyptians, was sung to an accompaniment of dancing and timbrels. The
Israelites danced and sang "at the inauguration of the golden calf. And as
it is generally agreed that this representation of the Deity was borrowed
from the mysteries of Apis, it is probable that the dancing was copied from
that of the Egyptians on those occasions." There was an annual dance in
Shiloh on the sacred festival; and David danced before the ark. Again, in
Greece the like relation is everywhere seen: the original type being there,
as probably in other cases, a simultaneous chanting and mimetic
representation of the life and adventures of the god. The Spartan dances
were accompanied by hymns and songs; and in general the Greeks had "no
festivals or religious assemblies but what were accompanied with songs and
dances"--both of them being forms of worship used before altars. Among the
Romans, too, there were sacred dances: the Salian and Lupercalian being
named as of that kind. And even in Christian countries, as at Limoges, in
comparatively recent times, the people have danced in the choir in honour
of a saint. The incipient separation of these once united arts from each
other and from religion, was early visible in Greece. Probably diverging
from dances partly religious, partly warlike, as the Corybantian, came the
war dances proper, of which there were various kinds; and from these
resulted secular dances. Meanwhile Music and Poetry, though still united,
came to have an existence separate from dancing. The aboriginal Greek
poems, religious in subject, were not recited, but chanted; and though at
first the chant of the poet was accompanied by the dance of the chorus, it
ultimately grew into independence. Later still, when the poem had been
differentiated into epic and lyric--when it became the custom to sing the
lyric and recite the epic--poetry proper was born. As during the same
period musical instruments were being multiplied, we may presume that music
came to have an existence apart from words. And both of them were beginning
to assume other forms besides the religious. Facts, having like
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