JOHN WESLEY POWELL 121 



while he gave less thought than some deemed needful to the 

 physical characters of man, he strove unceasingly to harmonize 

 the New Ethnology with the philosophies of the earlier epochs, 

 and thereby to erect a comprehensive anthropology broad 

 enough to touch every human ideal and passion and law and 

 motive, as well as the physical structures of the human body 

 and brain. The Anthropology of today is the science of the 

 realm of self conscious activity ; and Powell was its chief creator. 



In detining Powell's career as an anthropologist, it is to be 

 remembered that he began a naturalist and developed as a 

 geologist, so that he brought to the study of men a rich store of 

 knowledge of Nature as well as a strong grasp of the scientific 

 method. Especially notable among his possessions was a prin- 

 ciple brought over from geology — the principle of interpreting 

 natural phenomena in terms of agency, or primary force, pri- 

 mary so far, at least, as current knowledge goes. This prin- 

 ciple was perhaps the key note of Powell's work in geology ; 

 certainly it became the key note of his researches in ethnology 

 and general anthropology. 



Now the third epoch in science, or that of the New Ethnology 

 to which Powell gave character, opened slowly, and, curiously 

 enough, largely through the efforts of statesmen rather than of 

 scientists. The actual pioneer of the new era was, indeed, 

 inspired by the practical problems of statecraft ; this was Albert 

 Gallatin, who classified the American tribes known early in the 

 last century by their languages, grouped them in linguistic fami- 

 lies or stocks, and indicated their distribution on a map, the fore- 

 runner of Powell's map of Indian linguistic families of North 

 America north of Mexico. It is somewhat singular that prevail- 

 ing opinion, even in scientific circles, should credit Powell with 

 originating that work in Indian linguistics in which he was a 

 follower rather than a leader ; and this despite the fact that he 

 constantly gave due credit to the eminent statesmen in both 

 public and private utterances. The next notable pioneer of the 

 new epoch was Lewis H. Morgan, who sought to classify the 

 American tribes on the basis of their law as expressed in terms 

 of relationship. This masterly work, published in a noble vol- 



