178* THE SERI INDIANS [eih ax.\M7 



arbitrarily yet none the less safely, into its esthetic and economic 

 factors; and, for convenience, the latter may be considered to comprise 

 the industrial, institutional, linguistic, and sophic constituents — i. e., 

 the esthetic activities may be juxtaposed against the several other activi- 

 ties of demotic life. When this division is made, it at once becomes 

 manifest that the esthetic activities are the freest and most spontaneous 

 of the series, and hencte lead the way to that autonomy which marks 

 the highest development. This significant relation has been glimpsed 

 bj^ various artists and poets, scholars and naturalists; it was at least 

 partly caught by Goethe when he taught that knowledge begins in 

 wonder; it was loosely seized by Schiller, aud later bj^ Spencer, in the 

 surplus-energy theory of play; it was grasped by Groos iu his prophecy 

 theory of play,' and still more firmly (although less cons]ncuously) by 

 Setou-Thompson in his analysis of animal conduct and motives. The 

 relation has for some years been recognized as one of the princii)les 

 underlying the American ethnologic researches; yet it is not so well 

 understood as to obviate the need for furtlier consideration. Accord- 

 ingly it may be pointed out that while the human activities and the 

 agencies of lower nature rest alike on a mechanical foundation, the 

 mechanical element diminishes iu relative magnitude in passing from 

 the lower to the higher realms of nature: iu the mineral realm the 

 agencies may be deemed mechanical in character and individual in 

 effect; in the vegetal realm vitality is superadded, and the efl'ects are 

 carried forward through heredity; in the animal realm motility is 

 added in turn, and instinct arises to shape the individual and heredi- 

 tary and motile attributes; the social realm maybe considered to be 

 marked by the accession of coujustmeut, with its multifarious and 

 beneficent ett'ects on individuals, generations, movements, and groups; 

 while the rational realm maybe defined as that arising with the acces- 

 sion of reason as a guide to action, and with the development of 

 uatui-e-conquest as its most characteristic effect — though it is to be 

 noted that the several transitions are progressive rather than saltatory. 

 Thus each realm is characterized by the attributes of each and all of 

 those lower in the scale, plus its own distinctive attribute. It may 

 also be pointed out that each new attribute defining a higher realm is 

 freer and more spontaneous than those of lower realms; for vitality is 

 freer than mere affinity, self-movement than mere growth, and cooper- 

 ation than mere movement, wliile reason-led action is freest of all. 

 Accordingly each realm (as already implied) is characterized by a larger 

 autonomy than any of those lower in the scale; i. e., by all the factors 

 of autonomy in the lower realms, plus its own distinctive factor. 



It may be pointed out further that, in the higher realms at least, 

 the action normal to each realm tends to generate that characteristic 

 of the nest higher realm: the self-movement of the animal realm is, 

 under favorable conditions, constrained through vital economy to fall 



' Cf. American Anthropologist, new series, Tol. 1, 1899, p. 374. 



