ETHNOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND PROBLEMS 565 



quite apart from idiosyncrasy, the time-element is a most important 

 factor. No, the rapid collector does positive harm, as, like the 

 unskilled excavator, he destroys the collateral evidence. He may 

 add a unit to a collection, but its instructive value is reduced to a 

 minimum: it is the gravestone of a lost opportunity. 



A thorough scientific training is essential for satisfactory field- 

 ethnology. It is quite a mistake to assume that practically any 

 one can successfully undertake this class of research, for it is mainly 

 owing to a lack of training that such a great deal of the work of 

 the earlier observers requires to be done over again. There are 

 numerous instances of men trained in various branches of science 

 who have proved to be successful ethnologists, but preliminary 

 instruction in ethnology would have saved them much time and 

 would have considerably improved their results. We need travel- 

 ers who can observe accurately and record intelligently, who have 

 trained minds and can understand the value of evidence, who 

 have sufficient previous knowledge to know what to look for, and 

 who are instructed not only in all the methods of ethnological re- 

 search, but who have been warned of the pitfalls that endanger 

 the unwary. As the investigator usually has to study all the as- 

 pects of the life of the people he visits, so is it necessary for him 

 to have a wide knowledge of arts, crafts, and sciences, otherwise 

 he will be unable to grasp the full significance of what he sees and 

 hears. As a matter of fact, there is practically no branch of know- 

 ledge which may not prove useful to the field-ethnologist. 



So far I have spoken merely of his intellectual equipment, but 

 there are other qualifications which should not be passed over. 1 

 The field-ethnologist should be an artist, or at least have the artistic 

 temperament. Only thus will he be able to appreciate what it is 

 in the art expression of the people he is studying that gives them 



"There are also two personal traits which, it seems to me, are requisite to 

 the comprehension of ethnic psychology, and therefore are desirable to both the 

 ethnologist and the historian, the one of these is the poetic instinct. 



"I fear this does not sound well from the scientific rostrum, for the prevailing 

 notion among scientists is that the poet is a fabulist, and is therefore as far off 

 as possible from the platform they occupy. No one, however, can really under- 

 stand a people who remains outside the pale of the world of imagination in 

 which it finds its deepest joys; and nowhere is this depicted so clearly as in its 

 songs and by its bards. The ethnologist who has no taste for poetry may gather 

 much that is good, but will miss the best; the historian who neglects the poetic 

 literature of a nation turns away his eyes from the vista which would give him 

 the farthest insight into national character. 



"The other trait is more difficult to define. To apprehend what is noblest in 

 a nation one must one's self be noble. Knowledge of facts and an unbiased judg- 

 ment- need to be accompanied by a certain development of personal character 

 which enables one to be in sympathy with the finest tissue of human nature, 

 from the fiber of which are formed heroes and martyrs, patriots and saints, 

 enthusiasts and devotees. To appreciate these something of the same stuff must 

 be in the mental constitution of the observer." 



D. G. Brinton, An Ethnologist' ft View of History, an address before the 

 Annual Meeting of the New Jersey Historical Society at Trenton, N. J., Jan. 28, 

 1896. 



