It is well known that, in the earlier classical times, philosophy, history, and science were inseparably connected with poetry. And it is as familiar a truth that pictographs and ideograms were used for writing before phonetic signs had been invented. But it is not enough to recall that poetry and the arts of design have in this way been serving the requirements of intellectual information; it can also be shown that among primitive tribes every one of the lower art-forms—the dance, the pantomime, and even the ornament—has been of great importance as a means of interchanging thoughts. When attempting in this chapter to take a cursory survey of the various art-forms as used for purely intellectual purposes, we find it most advantageous to start with the dramatic examples. It is true that the art of the theatre, in the modern sense of the word, must be considered as a late, perhaps even as the very latest, result of artistic evolution. A literary drama, which fulfils all the claims of a work of art, is possible only on a highly advanced level of culture, and it has consequently by most authors on æsthetic been considered as the latest of all art-forms.[175] When dealing, however, with the productions of primitive tribes, we have to adopt a lower æsthetic standard. Although we do not meet with any tragedies, nor even with any real comedies, at this stage of evolution, we can at least point to the fact that simple farces, pantomimes, and pantomimic dances are to be found among tribes which have so far been unable to create any kind of epics, and whose lyrical poetry is restricted to a few rhythmical phrases with no intrinsic meaning. And if we use the word in its widest sense, so as to include every representation by action, drama can be spoken of as the very earliest of all the imitative arts. It was certainly in use long before the invention of writing, either by pictures or letters; perhaps it is even older than language itself. As an outward sign of thought, action is more immediate than words. Dramatic communication does not even presuppose any conscious intention nor any common consent. It may appear on the side of the “speaker” as the unchecked result of the “Einhaltsstreben,” the universal impulse to put into gesture any idea of action which is distinctly conceived—for instance to clench the fist at the thought of striking—and it may be comprehended without any effort by the audience, which by unconscious imitation partakes of the communicated thoughts.[176] Such pantomimic forms of intellectual exchange seldom indeed occur in civilised life. The “Einhaltsstreben” in a civilised man is generally lost during the transfer from thought to word. Pantomimic display, which involves an unnecessary waste of force and time, was doomed to disappearance with the growing development of conventional language. Moreover, the rules of propriety tend to confine, at least in educated society, the language of the body within as narrow limits as possible.