456 ANTHROPOLOGY 



pushed out into their wilderness like their forbears of generations 

 gone, but faced the novel experiment of life in contact with savage 

 or barbaric tribes. To this new stimulus their vigorous minds re- 

 sponded promptly; the daily experiences were quickly flocked on 

 distaffs of thought, spun into threads of knowledge, and duly 

 woven into a web of practical science a fabric no less independ- 

 ent in the making than that of Bacon in his day. Notable among 

 the American pioneers was Albert Gallatin (1761-1849), statesman 

 and scientist; he not only perceived, like his fellows, that the color 

 and stature and head-shape of the savages were of trifling conse- 

 quence in contrast with their actions and motives, but that the 

 index to their real nature was to be found in what they habitually 

 did; and he summed American experience up to his time in a pre- 

 liminary classification of the native tribes on the basis of language. 

 This advance marked an epoch in science no less important than 

 that of Linne ; true, it was not minted at a stroke nor finished with- 

 out aid from others, yet Gallatin was the coiner, and the rough- 

 stamped system was history's most memorable essay toward the 

 scientific arrangement of mankind by what they do rather than 

 what they merely are. Later Morgan (1818-1881) extended practical 

 observation to the institutions of the aborigines in such wise as to 

 found inductive sociology; * and still later Brinton (1837-1899) 

 made noteworthy advances toward classifying the Amerinds (i. e., 

 the native tribes) by their own crude philosophies, thus forecasting 

 an inductive science now called sophiologjr. These advances seem 

 simple and easy in the light of present knowledge, and may look 

 small to present backsight, yet in originality of work and boldness 

 of conception they rank with the advances of Linne and Lavoisier ; 

 and be it remembered that they were not borrowed in any part, but 

 bought at cost of the sweat and blood of often tragic experience. 

 The unprecedented practicalness of American anthropology is 

 attested by the fact that, while Morgan and Brinton still wrought 

 (in 1879), a governmental bureau was created to continue the classi- 

 fication of the native tribes; and its direction was intrusted to 

 Powell, a master able not merely to occupy but greatly to extend 

 the foundation laid by Gallatin. Under this impetus the new science 

 progressed apace; American students multiplied; observations 

 spread afar; each discovery prepared the way for others, and the 

 new principles opened to scientific view the entire field of the hu- 

 manities that field aforetime claimed on one side by scholastic 

 and statist, and held on the other by devotees of poesy and romance. 

 The growing knowledge bridged the seas, and the Powellian product 



1 The speculative sociology of Anguste Comte (1798-1857) and the semi-specu- 

 lative system of Herbert Spencer are to be noted merely as standing on somewhat 

 distinct bases. 



