THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 65 



from bias. It deprecates alike enthusiasm and antipathy. Like 

 Spinoza's god, nullum amat, nullum odit. Its aim is to compare 

 dispassionately all the acts and arts of man, his philosophies and 

 religions, his social schemes and personal plans, weighing and 

 analyzing them, separating the local and temporal in them from 

 the permanent and general, explaining the former by the condi- 

 tions of time and place, referring the latter to the category of 

 qualities which make up the oneness of humanity, the solid 

 ground on which he who hereafter builds "will build for aye." 



This, then, briefly stated, is the aim of that department of 

 anthropology which we call ethnology. In yet fewer words, its 

 mission is "to define the universal in humanity," as distin- 

 guished from all those traits which are the products of fluctu- 

 ating environments. 



This universal, however, is to be discovered, not assumed. 

 The fatal flaw in the arguments of most philosophers is that 

 they frame a theory of what man is and what are the laws of 

 his growth, and pile up proofs of these, neglecting the counter- 

 evidence, and passing in silence what contradicts their hypoth- 

 eses. 



Take, for instance, the doctrine of evolution as applied to man. 

 It is not only a doctrine but a dogma with many scientists. They 

 look with theological ire on any one who questions it. I have 

 already said that in the long run and the general average it has 

 been true of man. But that we have any certainty that it will 

 continue true is a mistake ; or that it has been true of the vast 

 majority of individuals or ethnic groups is another mistake. As 

 the basis for a boastful and confident optimism it is as shaky as 

 sand. Taken at its real value, as the provisional and partial 

 result of our observations, it is a useful guide; but swallowed 

 with unquestioning faith as a final law of the universe, it is not 

 a whit more inspiring than the narrowest dogma of religious 

 bigotry. 



We have no right, indeed, to assume that there is anything 

 universal in humanity until we have proved it. But this has been 

 done. Its demonstration is the last and greatest conquest of eth- 

 nology, and it is so complete as to be bewildering. It has been 

 brought about by the careful study of what are called " ethno- 

 graphic parallels " that is, similarities or identities of laws, games, 

 customs, myths, arts, etc., in primitive tribes located far asunder 

 on the earth's surface. Able students, such as Bastian, Andree, 

 Post, Steinmetz, and others have collected so many of these paral- 

 lels, often of seemingly the most artificial and capricious charac- 

 ter, extending into such minute and apparently accidental details 

 from tribes almost antipodal to each other on the globe, that Dr. 

 Post does not hesitate to say : " Such results leave no room for 



VOL. XL VIII. 6 



