2 jo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Advancement of Science. He says : " I am compelled to use 

 the word race vaguely for any considerable group of men who 

 resemble each other in certain common characters transmitted 

 from generation to generation." Some satisfactory solution of 

 the problem may be made in the future, but for the present the 

 most useful direction of the work of anthropologists is not in at- 

 tempts to establish racial divisions, but in the determination of 

 the several planes of culture with recognition of specific environ- 

 ments. 



A rabbinical legend tells that Lot was the first to argue the 

 existence of one god ruling the universe, from the irregular phe- 

 nomena observed on land and sea and among the heavenly bodies. 

 " If these had power of their own," he said, " they would have had 

 regular motions, but as they had no regularity they were subserv- 

 ient to the occasional exercise of a higher will." In times of 

 greater scientific knowledge these supposed irregular motions are 

 found to be in accordance with laws considered to be permanent, 

 if not immutable, and the recognition of such tremendous laws 

 gives a higher conception of their maker. The notion that such 

 laws are or can be suspended or violated suggests irresolution and 

 caprice, shocks human reason, and clouds the glory of divinity. 



The doctrine attributed to Lot is instructive, because the con- 

 ception of nature implied in it permeated all the early philosophy. 

 We now define a miracle specifically as a deviation from the laws 

 of nature. But to those for whom nature had no laws, the prime 

 definition as " the wonderful " was alone correct. A supernatural 

 being could do anything whatever in accordance with his arbi- 

 trary will, and was expected to act in that manner. Men who 

 were inspired or empowered by the supernatural were also expect- 

 ed, indeed were required, to work wonders. It would hardly be a 

 paradox to assert that only the supernatural was natural, and that 

 only the irregular was regular. 



That both the Indians and the Israelites were in this stage of 

 philosophy has been conclusively shown. It is also evident that 

 the principle of ancientism was potent in their religion. 



Ancientism, which still has surviving influence, declares the 

 old thought, that of the ancient men, to be always the best. This 

 is false, unless the theory is true that all knowledge comes from 

 revelation, which was given only to the ancient men, who there- 

 fore had it in its pure condition. To cling to the old merely be- 

 cause it is old is bad ; in fact, is the crudest superstition. Some 

 advocates of the old reject all new thoughts, but the more intelli- 

 gent of its praisers seek to force a reconciliation between the old 

 thought and the new. What they now believe must be right. 

 What they are not accustomed to is shocking, and therefore 

 wrong. So the old, which was always right, must be distorted so 



