NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOL. VIII 



of science" that lay behind them. Evidently in such case the 

 failure to carry conviction should not be charged to insufficient 

 investigation on Powell's part, but rather to the condensed 

 form of presentation which he was forced to adopt, alike by 

 his many original ideas which called for expression, and by 

 his many administrative duties that called for execution. The 

 absence of citations may, furthermore, contribute to a feeling 

 that some of his essays are too speculative, for in these modern 

 days of international acquaintance it has become the fashion 

 for an author to give the source and authority of every state- 

 ment that lies outside of his own responsibility. But Powell 

 did not read French or German, and his method of work did 

 not allow him to follow this fashion, even if he had cared to, 

 and he probably did not care to. He had learned his lesson, 

 and it was the lesson, not the text-book, that interested him. 

 Foot-notes and references to sources are wanting in nearly all 

 of his publications ; if he had attempted to cite authorities with 

 any completeness, he would never have had time to finish his 

 work. Hence when one of his addresses presents an evident 

 inference in the form of an observed fact for example : "The 

 primary and principal source of disagreement among primitive 

 men at the inception of organized society grew out of their 

 desires for the possession of women" (Presidential Address, 

 Outlines of Sociology, Anthrop. Soc. Wash., I, 1882, p. 116) 

 and cites no evidence in support of it, we must understand that 

 the object for which the address was prepared made biblio- 

 graphic completeness unnecessary, and that the conditions 

 under which it was prepared made such completeness impos- 

 sible. 



Sometimes the inferential nature of adopted conclusions is 

 more explicitly set forth, as in the following extracts regard- 

 ing the .primitive condition of mankind, which form a sum- 

 mary for several paragraphs of more detailed statement: "It 

 will thus be seen that from the five great co-ordinate depart- 

 ments of anthropology, i. e., from somatology, . . . tech- 

 nology, . . . sociology, . . . philology, . .-". and 

 philosophy, we arrive at the common conclusion that man was 

 widely scattered throughout the earth at some early period in 

 his history in a, very low state of culture ; that in such state he 



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