John Wesley Powell

“ History now proves that many of the elements of culture to which classical times had attained as a blossom of fine arts, were not sufficiently rooted in a soil of free institutions. That classical culture might firmly be founded, a greater liberty had yet to be given to men, and that there might be greater liberty there yet had to be greater scientific knowledge. So the superstitions of the dark ages constituted but a cloud under which mankind labored while it laid the foundations of representative government. ”

“ I refer to the pain produced in the body by injury, as in cutting, tearing, concussion, compression, pinching, the stresses and strains produced by inflammation, the lesions of disease, and all the pains known as physical discomforts. Is the pain in the tooth a quality or a property? Is pain in the head a quality or a property? Is the pain from a bullet wound a quality or a property? We have already seen that all other pleasures and pains are derivative in the individual and in the race, and appear from the point of view. Is this true of physical pain? ”

“ The drama of the savage, dancing about the firelight which glints the trees of the surrounding forest, does not constitute an entertainment for which the civilized man longs and which he would sedulously promote. That which brings gladness in one stage, brings contempt in another. True, the ethnologist may be delighted to witness the wildwood scene and even to engage in its revelry; but his purpose would be not to dance for joy, but to dance for knowledge. ”

“ Qualification, similitude, and allegory still remain with a more or less clear cognition that qualities are but qualities, similitudes are but similitudes, and allegories are but allegories, and that they are legitimate only as metaphors and constitute only a poetical method of expression through which the wisdom of science may be expressed in such manner as to impress them deeply upon the heart. Trope, therefore, is the last and greatest acquisition to poetical art. Romance is poetry without rhythm. ”

“ Thus the blending of tones in melody becomes at last the blending of tones in harmony. The pleasure derived from harmony does not inhere in sounds themselves; sounds are colorless to the ear. The spoken word is but sound until it is informed with a meaning; so sound as sound has no power to create emotion until it is informed with an emotional meaning, and harmony is developed as a pleasure only by long experience. Perfect evidence of this is furnished through the modern and scientific investigation of folk music. ”

“ Hunting and fishing are primeval industries by which wildwood men obtain no small portion of their food. To some extent in civilized society they still remain as industries. In fact, fishing is yet a fundamental industry. But hunting and fishing are now games, and the fruit of the play is called game. Although these activities are often called sports, in science we must call them games, as for success they depend on elements of chance and skill, and the real gamester or sportsman looks with some degree of contempt on the man who hunts or fishes for food. ”

“ Is pain, like pleasure, the product of judgment? Am I conscious of a pain, or do I infer it by an habitual judgment when the signs of pain appear in the body? Is the animal body endowed with pain as an essential, or is pain also the child of experience? In order that we may examine this subject somewhat critically, it becomes necessary to repeat briefly that which has been set forth more elaborately in a former work. There we begin with the definition of consciousness, inference, and verification. ”

“ We must here call attention to an important law of demotic evolution. Growth is made usually by minute increments. Rarely indeed is there a sudden outgrowth, but the increments of development are all made by men with a genius for the activity. Such a man is a leader in the arts. A multitude is led by one, so that demotic evolution is dependent very largely for its initiative on the few which the many learn by imitation. This law is observed not only in all the esthetic arts, but it rules throughout the whole realm of human activities. ”

“ Is the pleasure of sports a property of the activity, or is it a quality which depends on the point of view of the person engaged as well as the looker-on? It is within the experience of every normal human being that these pleasures grow and decay; but some are ephemeral and pass away in childhood, others pass away in youth, and still others pass away in adult age, while some undeveloped in childhood scarcely develop in youth, continue and grow in old age. ”

“ Poetry is an art of pleasure. Its fundamental purpose must be pleasure, although it sometimes may be a good method of presenting the truth; in fact it often serves this purpose in an admirable manner, but its philosophy must be veiled whether it be intellectual or moral wisdom. ”

“ The artist may succeed in all else, but if he fails in this it is failure indeed. It is the difference between the artist and the artisan. The intellectual characteristics of works of graphic art are more pronounced than those of musical art, while the emotional characteristics are less vividly expressed, A painting may be excellent, though the theme may be trivial; but a great painting must have a great theme, and the picture must be judged by its successful presentation of the theme. We cannot here stop to treat of the evolution of themes, but will reserve the subject for a future occasion. ”

“ The new element added to music in this stage of culture is harmony. When music was but rhythm, there was a germ of harmony in it, for the waning sound would blend with the waxing sound, and the succession of sounds that become melodious also become harmonious; but more than this: in folk chant the voices of men and women differ in pitch, and still other differences arise in the commingling of children’s voices. When music became melody, the bonds which held music to the dance were broken and melody was married to song as chant was married to dance ”

“ A few simple facts known in savagery become germs that develop and multiply through the centuries until science becomes a controlling element in civilization.
The time of science is marked by events, but the time of science as a stage of culture may be considered as beginning with the discovery of the new world and the invention of printing, together with scientific principles that had been developed up to that time. Research is born of the love of truth, and the truth discovered breeds more research, so the child becomes the parent that new children may be born ”

“ Consciousness is awareness of self, inference is awareness of the cause of the change in self, and verification is proof of the inference by experience. Now, we must especially call attention to the fact that the term consciousness is used only to signify awareness of self, and that it is not used to signify cognition. With this understanding we are prepared to proceed with the exposition. If we are conscious of physical pain, instead of cognitive, then pain itself is an essential; but if we are only cognitive of pain, it arises from inference and verification. ”

“ With the sense of vision, the human mind having come to a knowledge of its power in transforming the environment by minute increments, gradually so transforms it for the pleasures of decoration. Exercising activities in making artificial transformations, human beings develop the sense of the beautiful and the ugly in qualities of art and transfer them to the properties of nature. In the evolution of decoration everywhere we find that it proceeds by degree of organization, that is, by the differentiation and integration of its elements. ”

“ That the dance is a religious activity is revealed by a study of the lower races of mankind. Dance is a play; not imitative, but religious play. Here the play motive and the religious motive are differentiated, so that we can separate sport from drama but religion and drama are one in their tribal life. Dancing is the first primeval expression of joy as praise, and is the fundamental element of worship. ”

“ An ornament may be designed wholly for decoration, as when jewels are worn; but a garment may have its chief purpose in utility, though a secondary purpose in ornamentation, and the form and color of the garment may be considered as having an importance almost equal to that derived from its utility.
Man is rarely content with utility, but he also desires pleasure from the objects which are produced through his activities. In both classes of endeavor the decorative arts are involved. The decorative arts are arts of form. ”

“ We have seen how cognition becomes intuitive by hereditary transmission. From the earliest tribal life to the highest state of culture the way is long and the years are counted by millions. Every animate individual in all this time has experienced the effects of lesions and bruises until the concept has been woven into the constitution of mankind by experience, and the intuition is perfected through verified judgments. It is unnecessary for the man to pass through a complex ratiocination for the purpose of discovering this variety. ”

“ Music is the most fundamental of the fine arts in that it more fully expresses the emotions than any of the others, while it is but a feeble method of expressing the intellections. This characteristic is well known, and music has been called the art of expressing the emotions. ”

“ In savagery men play for effects and control the causes, as they suppose, by necromantic figures which they carve or paint upon the pieces of the game; thus they try to win by sorcery. In later stages of culture the sorcery to a greater or less extent is abandoned, and skill is recognized as the true cause; but there yet remains an element of chance. With primal man chance and sorcery are the elements of all games, while with civilized man chance and skill are its elements.
There is a secondary though potent motive in games which inheres in the desire to take advantage for individual profit. ”

“ Romance is the fine art next in logical order. The first form of romance is myth. We cannot understand its nature without understanding the cosmology with which it is associated. All tribes, savage and barbaric alike, have a cosmology based on a notion of seven worlds. This notion is developed through that phase of the evolution of language which Max Müller has called a disease. ”

“ With this view of the world savage man develops a vast body of story lore which reveals his thoughts of the nature of things with the causes and effects of events that constitute the history of life and change. This lore is myth. But more; by agencies which are now well recognized in science, he believes that every body has a dual existence, as gross body and attenuated body, and that the attenuated body may enter the gross body or depart from the gross body, and that the attenuated body may sojourn in one gross body or another at will. ”

“ The drama is not designed as a language by which men may talk with the gods, but it is designed as a language by which men may be instructed. In savagery, the language by which the gods are addressed is sign language; in barbarism, it is gesture speech; in monarchy, the national god is the only true god,—all others are devils,—and this true god understands and employs the national language, and religious drama is a gesture speech designed to instruct men in divine lore. ”