72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It seems clear, therefore, that the teachings of anthropology, 

 whether theoretical or practical, lead us back to the individual as 

 the point of departure and also the goal. The state was made for 

 him, not he for the state ; any improvement in the group must 

 start by the improvement of its individual members. This may 

 seem a .truism, but how constantly is it overlooked in the most 

 modern legislation and schemes of social amelioration ! How 

 many even of such a learned audience as this have carefully con- 

 sidered in what respects the individual man has improved since 

 the beginning of historic time ? Is he taller, stronger, more beau- 

 tiful ? Are his senses more acute, his love purer, his memory 

 more retentive, his will firmer, his reason stronger ? Can you 

 answer me these questions correctly ? I doubt it much. Yet if 

 you can not, what right have you to say that there is any im- 

 provement at all ? 



To be sure there is less physical suffering, less pain. War and 

 famine and bitter cold are not the sleuthhounds that they once 

 were. The dungeons and flames of brutal laws and bigoted reli- 

 gions have mostly passed away. Life is on the average longer, its 

 days of sickness fewer, justice is more within reach, mercy is 

 more bountifully dispensed, the tender eye of pity is ever 

 unscarfed. 



But under what difficulties have these results been secured ! 

 What floods of tears and blood, what long wails of woe, sound 

 down the centuries of the past, poured forth by humanity in its 

 desperate struggle for a better life a struggle which was blind, 

 unconscious of its aims, unknowing of the means by which they 

 should be obtained, groping in darkness for the track leading it 

 knew not whither ! 



Ignorant of his past, ignorant of his real needs, ignorant of 

 himself, man has blundered and stumbled up the thorny path of 

 progress for tens of thousands of years. Mighty states, millions 

 of individuals, have been hurled to destruction in the perilous 

 ascent, mistaking the way, pursuing false paths, following blind 

 guides. 



Now anthropology steps in, the new Science of Man, offering 

 the knowledge of what he has been and is, the young but wise 

 teacher, revealing the future by the unwavering light of the past, 

 offering itself as man's trusty mentor and friend, ready to con- 

 duct him by sure steps upward and onward to the highest sum- 

 mit which his nature is capable of attaining ; and who dares set 

 a limit to that ? 



This is the final aim of anthropology, the lofty ambition which 

 the student of this science deliberately sets before himself. Who 

 will point to a worthier or a nobler one ? 



