THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 59 



THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY.* 



BY DANIEL G. BRINTON. 



A MODERN philosopher has advanced the maxim that what 

 is first in thought is last in expression, illustrating it by 

 the rules of grammar, which are present even in unwritten lan- 

 guages, whose speakers have no idea of syntax or parts of 

 speech. 



It may be that this is the reason why man, who has ever been 

 the most important creature to himself in existence, has never 

 seriously and to the best of his abilities made a study of his own 

 nature, its wants and its weaknesses, and how best he could sat- 

 isfy the one and amend the other. 



The branch of human learning which undertakes to do this is 

 one of the newest of the sciences ; in fact, it has scarcely yet 

 gained admission as a science at all, and is rather looked upon as 

 a dilettante occupation, suited to persons of elegant leisure and re- 

 tired old gentlemen, and without any very direct or visible prac- 

 tical applications or concern with the daily affairs of life. 



It is with the intention of correcting this prevalent impres- 

 sion that I address you to-day. My endeavor will be to point out 

 both the immediate and remote aims of the science of anthro- 

 pology, and to illustrate by some examples the bearings they 

 have, or surely soon will have, on the thoughts and acts of civi- 

 lized communities and intelligent individuals. 



It is well at the outset to say that I use the term anthropology 

 in the sense in which it has been adopted by this association that 

 is, to include the study of the whole of man, his psychical as well 

 as his physical nature, and the products of all his activities, 

 whether in the past or in the present. By some writers, es- 

 pecially on the Continent of Europe, the term anthropology is 

 restricted to what we call physical anthropology or somatology, a 

 limitation of the generic term which we can not but deplore. 

 Others again, and some of worthy note, would exclude from it 

 the realm of history, confining it in time to the research of pre- 

 historic epochs, and in extent, to the investigation of savage 

 nations. 



I can not too positively protest against such opinions. Thus 

 "cabined, cribbed, confined," it could never soar to that lofty 

 eminence whence it could survey the whole course of the life of 

 the species, note the development of its inborn tendencies, and 

 mark the lines along which it has been moving since the first 



* Address of the retiring president of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, delivered at Springfield, Mass., August 29, 1895. 



