APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 51 



existence, he has slowly accumulated and organised 

 the experience which is almost wholly lost with the 

 cessation of every individual life in other animals ; so 

 that, now, he stands raised upon it as on a mountain 

 top, far above the level of his humble fellows, and 

 transfigured from his grosser nature by reflecting, 

 here and there, a ray from the infinite source of 

 truth. 



Ethnology, as thus defined, is a branch of 

 Anthropology, the great science which unravels the 

 complexities of human structure ; traces out the 

 relations of man to other animals ; studies all that is 

 especially human in the mode in which man's complex 

 functions are performed ; and searches after the 

 conditions which have determined his presence i:i the 

 world. And Anthropology is a section of Zoology, 

 which again is the animal half of Biology the 

 science of life and living things. 



Such is the position of ethnology, such are the 

 objects of the ethnologist. The paths or methods, by 

 following which he may hope to reach his goal, are 

 diverse. He may work at man from the point of 

 view of the pure zoologist, and investigate the 

 anatomical and physiological peculiarities of Negroes, 

 Australians, or Mongolians, just as he would inquire 

 into those of pointers, terriers, and turnspits, 

 " persistent modifications " of man's almost universal 

 companion. Or he may seek aid from researches 

 into the most human manifestation of humanity 

 Language ; and assuming that what is true of speech 

 is true of the speaker a hypothesis as questionable 

 in science as it is in ordinary life he may apply to 

 mankind themselves the conclusions drawn from a 

 searching analysis of their words and grammatical 

 forms. 



Or, the ethnologist may turn to the study of the 

 practical life of men ; and relying upon the inherent 



