METHOD OF MENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY 591 



of field-workers to points which they had hitherto overlooked, 

 but which, on investigation, may turn out to be of the utmost 

 importance, opening up a novel and fruitful line of research of 

 which the observer might not have dreamed before. On this 

 ground it is very desirable that the work of sifting and comparing 

 anthropological materials should not be deferred, but should be 

 carried on as far as possible simultaneously with the work of 

 observation in the field. This is possible, because the work of 

 comparison need not be done by the same men who observe the 

 facts ; indeed, it may often be done better by others, since it 

 calls for the exercise of different faculties, which are not always 

 possessed even by a keen and accurate observer. A good ob- 

 server is not necessarily a good theorist, and conversely a good 

 theorist may be a very bad observer. Here, as elsewhere in 

 science, a division of labour and an intelligent co-operation of 

 the labourers are the best guarantees of efficiency. Thus in 

 anthropology at the present day, while the most urgent need is 

 the exact observation of races as yet but little affected by Euro- 

 pean influence, there is still room for the student at home side 

 by side with the observer in the field. They should work into 

 each other's hands, the one observing and recording, and the 

 other sifting and comparing the records, marking the similarities 

 or contrasts which he detects between them, and questioning 

 the observer accordingly. Thus labouring together in harmony, 

 they will best contribute to the advancement of anthropology. 

 The work of comparison and theory can be carried on with most 

 ease and to most advantage at a great university, because there 

 the inquirer has full access to all the apparatus of learning which 

 few or no private students can command. As an alumnus of 

 this ancient university, I should wish to see established in Cam- 

 bridge a sort of central bureau or clearing-house, which would 

 receive and examine anthropological reports from all parts of 

 the world, and from which questions, hints, suggestions, and, 

 if you please, theories, would radiate in return to observers 

 stationed in the remotest regions of the earth. Thus a perpetual 

 circulation of facts and ideas would be maintained between the 

 central bureau and the outlying stations ; observation would 

 quicken theory, and theory would stimulate observation. 

 You would possess in the University, as it were, a lighthouse 

 from which the rays of science would stream out to illuminate 

 many dark corners of the earth. Hinc lucent et pocula sacra. 



I have said so much of the method of mental anthropology 

 that I have left myself little time to illustrate by examples the 

 kind of problems with which the science attempts to deal. But 

 this part of my subject is too important to be passed over alto- 

 gether in silence, though in the few minutes at my disposal I 

 can do no more than simply enumerate a few of the problems 



