64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



aims of this science quite distinct from those I have mentioned. 

 That branch is ethnology. 



Ethnology in its true sense represents the application of the 

 principles of inductive philosophy to the products of man's facul- 

 ties. You are aware that that philosophy proceeds from observed 

 facts alone ; it discards all preconceived opinions concerning these 

 facts ; it renounces all allegiance to dogma, or doctrine, or intui- 

 tion ; in short, to every form of statement that is not capable of 

 verification. Its method of procedure is by comparison that is, 

 by the logical equations of similarity and diversity, of identity 

 and difference ; and on these it bases those generalizations which 

 range the isolated fact under the general law, of which it is at 

 once the exponent and the proof. 



By such comparisons ethnology aims to define in clear terms 

 the influence which the geographical and other environment exer- 

 cises on the individual, the social group, and the race ; and, con- 

 versely, how much in each remains unaltered by the external 

 forces, and what residual elements are left, defiant of surround- 

 ings, wholly personal, purely human. Thus, rising to wider and 

 wider circles of observation and generalization, it will be able at 

 last to offer a conclusive and exhaustive connotation of what man 

 is a necessary preliminary, mark you, to that other question, so 

 often and so ignorantly answered in the past, as to what he 

 should be. 



Ethnology, however, does not and should not concern itself 

 with this latter inquiry. Its own field is broad enough and the 

 harvest offered is rich enough. Its materials are drawn from the 

 whole of history and from pre-history. Those writers who limit 

 its scope to the explanation of the phenomena of primitive social 

 life only have so done because these phenomena are simpler in 

 such conditions, not that the methods of ethnology are applicable 

 only to such. On the contrary, they are not merely suitable, they 

 are necessary to all the facts of history, if we would learn their 

 true meaning and import. The time will come, and that soon, 

 when sound historians will adopt as their guide the principles, 

 and methods of ethnologic science, because by these alone can 

 they assign to the isolated fact its right place in the vast struc- 

 ture of human development. 



In the past, histories have told of little but of kings and their 

 wars ; some writers of recent date have remembered that there is 

 such a thing as the people, and have essayed to present its hum- 

 ble annals ; but how few have even attempted to avail themselves 

 of the mj^riad of sidelights which ethnology can throw on the 

 motives and the manners of a people, its impulses and acquisi- 

 tions ! 



It is the constant aim of ethnology to present its results free 



