TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 819 



by any treatment of gross quantities which are compounded out of a number of 

 variables. The practical development of such a view is the worlc of the embryolo- 

 ■gist : here we only notice a principle of treatment of n. most complex question, 

 which seems to have too often been dealt with as if it were as simple as the 

 •definition of a crystal. 



When we next turn to look at the works of man, it seems that the artistic side 

 of anthropolog-y has hardly been enough appreciated. In the first place, the theory 

 of art has been grounded more assuredly by anthropological research than bv all 

 the speculations that have been spun. The ever-recurring question ' What is art ? ' 

 whether in form or in literature, has been answered clearly and decidedly. When 

 we contrast a row of uninteresting individualities with the ideal beauty and expres- 

 sion of a composite jiortrait compounded from these very elements, we are on the 

 surest ground for knowing how such a beautiful result is obtained. In place of 

 the photographic verity of the person we have the artistic expression of a character. 

 Whatever is essential remains, and is strengthened ; whatever is transient and 

 unimportant has faded away. No one can look, for instance, at the composite 

 heads of Jewish boys and their individual components, published some years a"o 

 in the ' Anthropological Journal,' without feeling the artistic beauty of the com- 

 posite and the unbalanced characters of the individuals. What the camera does 

 mechanically by mere superposition, the artist does intelligently by selection. The 

 unimportant, unmeaning phases of the person, the vacuities of expression, the less 

 worthy turns of the mind are eliminated, whether in form or in words, and the 

 essence of the character is brought out and expressed. Such is the theory of 

 artistic expression which anthropology has established on a sure basis of experi- 

 ment, and which is thus proved to be neither fanciful nor arbitrary, but to be a truly 

 scientific process. 



And as anthropology has thus aided art, the converse is also true— art is one 

 of the most important records of a race. Each group of mankind has its own 

 style and favourite manner, more particularly in the decorative arts. A stray 

 fragment of carving without date or locality can be surely fixed in its place 

 if there is any sufficient knowledge of the art from which it springs. This study 

 of the art of a people is one of the highest branches of anthropology and one 

 of the most important, owing to its persistent connection with each race. No 

 physical characteristics have been more persistent than the style of decoration. 

 "When we see on the Celtic work of the period of La Tene, or on Irish carvings, 

 the same forms as on medireval ironwork, and on the flamboyant architecture "of 

 France, we realise how innate is the love of style, and how similar expressions will 

 blossom out again from the same people. Even later we see the hideous C-curves, 

 which are neither foliage nor geometry, to be identical on late Celtic bronze, on 

 Louis XV. carvings, and even descending by imitation into modern furniture. 

 Such long descent of one style through great changes of history is not only charac- 

 teristic of Celtic art, but is seen equally in Italy. The heavy, stiff, straight-haired, 

 staring faces of the Constantiue age are generally looked on as being a mere degra- 

 dation of the imported Greek art; but they are really a native revival, returning 

 to old Italian ideals, so soon as Greek influence waned. In the Vatican is an infant 

 Hercules of thorough Constantinian type, yet bearing an Etruscan inscription, proving 

 the early date of such work. Further east the long-persistent styles of Egypt, of 

 Babylonia, of India, of China, which outlived all changes of government and 

 history, show the same vitality of art. We must recognise, therefore, a principle 

 of ' racial taste,' which belongs to each people as much as their language, which 

 may be borrowed like language from one race by another, but which survives 

 changes and long eclipses even more than language. Such a means of research 

 deserves more systematic study than it has yet received. 



But if we are to make any wide comparisons and generalisations a free studj' 

 of material is essential, and the means of amassing and comparing work of every 

 age is the first requisite. This first requisite is unhappily not to be found in 

 England. The conception of collecting material for the study of man's history has 

 as yet little root, and struggles to find a footing between the rival conceptions of 

 the history of art and the life of modern man. The primary difficulty is the 



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