JOHN WESLEY VOWELL. 639 



He }H)iiit(Ml out also that oui' land laws did not jxMiuit the lean ])as- 

 tiire lands of the West to l)eac(|uired by pi'ivate owners in tracts laroe 

 enough for eeononiic nianagenient. and that o\-ersto<'kiiig and ])(>riodie 

 disasters were the log-ical results of public ownership; and his i(l<?as 

 as -to remedial leg-i^^lation weri^ embodied in the unheeded i-epoi-t to 

 the Pul>lic Lands Comnussion. 



In descriptive ethnology PowelFs published conti'it)utions are meager 

 in comparison with his body of observations and notes. Th(>y are 

 compriscnl in a magazine article on the IMoki. an essay on tlu^ Wvan- 

 dot, and a few myths, chiefly Shoshonian, introduced in various 

 writings for illustrative purposes. In his "Introduction to tlu^ Study 

 of Indian Languages'" he gives instructions for American ethnologic 

 observation, covering not only the subjectof language. l)ut arts, insti- 

 tutions, and mythology. Other writings belong moi(> })ro})(M"lv to 

 anthropology, and deal with its broader principles. In a. series of 

 essays, (lesigi\ed as i-ha})ters of a manual of anthro])()logy but aciualU' 

 publislunl as occasional addresses and never assem])led, he ])oints out 

 the lines of e\'olution in th(> various tields of human thought and 

 activity, philosophic, linguistic, esthetic, social, and industrial. The 

 ground covered l)y these essays is so broad that a brief summai'v is 

 impossibl(\ They include the ideas which have dinn'ted th(> work of 

 the Bureau of Ethnology, and they include also nuuh which has found 

 no immediate application, belonging to tields of thought as vet un- 

 touched by others. As to their ultimate value futui-e generations 

 must decide, but they stand nearly or quite unicpuMis a comprehensi\ c 

 body of philosophic thought founded on the c()m])ai'ison of aboriginal 

 with advanced culture. 



In latter years attention was gradually turned from anthropologv 

 to psychology and the fundamental concepts of natui-al ])liilosophv. 

 His interest in these sid)j(X'ts began in early manhood, and the>- ai'e 

 l)riefly touched in various writings; but he ga\ c the last eight v(mii-s 

 of his life almost wholly to their study. Two books were written and 

 a third planned. "'Truth and Error,'' wdiich appeai-ed in lS',»l), trcMits 

 of matter, motion, and consciousness as related to the external uni\ crse 

 or the field of fact. " Good and Evil," printed as a series of essavs 

 in The Anthropolog-ist with the intention of eventual assemblage in 

 book form, treats of the same factors as r(dated to humanity or to 

 welfare. The field of the emotions was assigned to th(^ thii-d 

 volume. His i)hilosophy was also endxxlied in a series of poems, of 

 which only one has received publication. 



In much of his scientific writing PowelTs style is terse to a fault. 

 Usually he is satisfied with the simplest statement of his conclusions. 

 Sometimes he adds illustrations. Oidy rarely does he explain them 

 by setting forth their premises. It has thus happened that som(> of 

 his earlier work\ though eventually recognized as of high importance, 



