JOHN WESLEY POWELL. 51 



condition no whit superior to that of the millions of India, who for 

 many centuries have been buried in the metaphysical speculations 

 of the philosophy of ontology. When a man loses faith in himself, 

 and worships nature, and subjects himself to the government of 

 the laws of physical nature, he lapses into stagnation, where mental 

 and moral miasma is bred. All that makes man superior to the 

 beast is the result of his own endeavor to secure happiness. 



"Man, so far as he is superior to the beast, is the master of 

 his own destiny, and not the creature of the environment. He 

 adapts the natural environment to his wants, and thus creates an 

 environment for himself." 1 



The three methods of evolution correspond to a classification 

 of the sciences in three groups : the sciences of matter, the sciences 

 of life, and the science of man as a thinking animal. The individ- 

 ual sciences composing these groups, and their order among them- 

 selves, are set forth in an address to the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science in 1888. 



The essays devoted to the amplification of the outline of hu- 

 man evolution constitute two series. The first series is based upon 

 the recognition of three stages of progress savagery, barbarism, 

 and civilisation. One address to the Anthropological Society is 

 entitled From Savagery to Barbarism (1885); a second is entitled 

 From Barbarism to Civilisation (1888); a third Evolution in Civil- 

 ised Man (1887). 



"By the division of labor men have become interdependent, 

 so that every man works for some other man. To the extent that 

 culture has progressed -beyond the plane occupied by the brute, 

 man has ceased to work directly for himself and come to work di- 

 rectly for others and indirectly for himself. He struggles directly 

 to benefit others, that he may indirectly but ultimately benefit him- 

 self. This principle of political economy is so thoroughly estab- 

 lished that it needs no explication here ; but it must be fully ap- 

 preciated before we can thoroughly understand the vast extent to 

 which interdependence has been established. For the glasses which 

 I wear, mines were worked in California, and railroads constructed 

 across the continent to transport the product of those mines to the 

 manufactories in the East. For the bits of steel on the bow, mines 

 were worked in Michigan, smelting-works were erected in Chicago, 

 manufactories built in New Jersey, and railroads constructed to 

 transport the material from one point to the other. Merchant- 

 houses and banking-houses were rendered necessary. Many men 



1 Bull. Philosoph. Sac., Washington, Vol. VI., pp. li-lii. 



