EDITOR'S TABLE. 



411 



It is needless, however, to pursue 

 the parallel further, though the Rev. 

 Mr. Smith very properly carries it 

 into the region of morals, where it is 

 no less close than in that of intellec- 

 tual action. There is another inter- 

 esting aspect of evolution which the 

 reverend gentleman glances at, and 

 that% its bearing on general courses 

 of study. History and literature, 

 considered as departments of re- 

 search, it has largely transformed by 

 substituting for conventional cate- 

 gories and abstract notions the per- 

 ception of a genetic process pervad- 

 ing all the works of the human spirit 

 and linking them into an organic 

 unity. In conclusion, we may ob- 

 serve that, if Superintendent A. J. 

 Smith had not made some foolish re- 

 marks in a rather ostentatious man- 

 ner, it is probable the Rev. S. G. 

 Smith would not have delivered the 

 excellent discourse on which we have 

 commented, and which we feel sure 

 will far outweigh in general effect 

 the performance which called it forth. 

 The conclusions to be drawn are the 

 pleasing ones that good may some- 

 times come out of evil, and that a 

 free pulpit is admirably adapted to 

 guard the interests of liberty and 

 common sense. 



LESSONS OF ANTEEOPOLOGY. 



The address delivered at the last 

 meeting of the British Association 

 by the president of the Anthropologi- 

 cal Section contained nothing that 

 was strikingly novel — it is not every 

 year that striking novelties can be 

 announced — but it dealt in an inter- 

 esting manner with several phases 

 of a most important subject. The 

 speaker, Professor Brabrook, took 

 the position that the order of the 

 universe is expressed in continuity, 

 not cataclysm, and that this principle 

 will be found illustrated in every 

 branch of anthropological research, 



in direct proportion to the complete- 

 ness of the data obtamed. He ad- 

 mitted the vastness of the gap which 

 still separates the remains of palaeo- 

 lithic from those of neolithic man, 

 but expressed the belief that further 

 explorations would bring interme- 

 diate relics to light. To quote the 

 speaker's words: "The evidence we 

 want relates to events which took 

 place at so great a distance of time 

 that we may well wait patiently for 

 it, assured that somewhere or other 

 these missing links must have ex- 

 isted, and probably are still to be 

 found." 



Reference was made to the labors 

 which are now being usefully ex- 

 pended in gathering what is called 

 the folklore of various communities, 

 and to the result which continually 

 appears with fuller evidence, name- 

 ly, that the tendency of mankind 

 everywhere is to develop like fancies 

 and ideas at a like stage of intellec- 

 tual development. Full of detail as 

 these stories are, they are found to 

 contain but a few primitive ideas; 

 and it seems not improbable that to 

 a large extent they are essentially 

 Nature myths. Mr. Brabrook hap- 

 pily quotes Lord Bacon's description 

 of such narratives as " sacred relics, 

 gentle whispers and the breath of 

 better times." The "better times" 

 are a part of the general system of 

 myth; but who will deny that there 

 is a special charm in these early 

 documents of our race? "Let one 

 of our literary exquisites," said a 

 thoughtful French writer, "try to 

 write a fairy tale which shall neither 

 be a pretentious apologue nor a tire- 

 some and transparent allegory, and 

 he will soon feel that meie clever- 

 ness does not suffice to create these 

 marvelous narratives, and will con- 

 ceive a just admiration for those who 

 constructed them, that is to say, every- 

 body and nobody." 



The progress of anthropology, 



