576 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLYI. No. 1198 



■slioiild be observed in passing, however, 

 in fairness to our friends the humanists, 

 that they are not alone in their regressive 

 efforts to establish metes and bounds for ad- 

 vancing knowledge. Contemporary scien- 

 tists have likewise pursued the same ignis 

 fatuus with similarly futile results, as is 

 best shown by the arbitrary and often 

 thought-tight compartments into which 

 science is divided by academies and royal 

 societies. A sense of humor leads us to 

 conclude that these likenesses between 

 groups and assemblages thereof, still more 

 or less hostile at times to one another, serve 

 well to prove that the individuals con- 

 cerned are human if not humanistic and 

 that they all belong to the same genus if 

 not to the same species. 



In the third place, there is included in 

 the extensive correspondence on which this 

 section is mainly based a special contri- 

 bution of letters furnished mostly by uni- 

 versity presidents and professors and by 

 men of letters selected with a view to ex- 

 cluding all those who might be suspected 

 of any non-humanistic predilections. 

 These letters were received as replies to a 

 communication issued first during the 

 year 1910, and occasionally since then, so- 

 liciting counsel from those well qualified 

 to assist the institution in determining 

 how it may best promote research and 

 progress in the humanities and how it maj^ 

 be relieved of the charge of unfairness to- 

 ward them 'in the allotment of its income. 

 The essential paragraphs in this communi- 

 cation are the following: 



Amongst other suggestions arising naturally in 

 this inquiry is that of the desirability of some- 

 thing like a working definition of the term hu- 

 manities. To the question What are the humani- 

 ties? one finds a variety of answers, some of which 

 seem much narrower than desirable. 



In order to get additional information on this 

 subject and in order to make this part of the in- 

 quiry as concrete and definite as possible, I am 



sending copies of the inclosed list of publications 

 to a number of friends requesting them to mark 

 those entries of the list which they, as individuals, 

 would consider works falling properly in the 

 fields of the humanities. I shall esteem it a great 

 favor, therefore, if you will kindly examine this 

 list, indicating by some sort of cheek-mark what 

 works, if any, may be rightly so classed, and then 

 mail the sanie in the inclosed stamped envelope. 

 It will be of service also, to indicate to me, if you 

 care to do so, the lines of distinction which may 

 be drawn between the humanistic sciences and the 

 physical sciences. I am sure you will agree with 

 me that it will be a decided aid to all of us to se- 

 cure something like common definitions for these 

 boundaries of knowledge. 



About thirty distinguished authors have 

 participated in this symposium; and their 

 frank and generous expressions of opin- 

 ion would be well worthy of publication 

 if they had not been assured that their re- 

 sponses would not be used for such a pur- 

 pose. The identities and details of their 

 letters must therefore be retained, for the 

 present at any rate, in the archives of the 

 institution. But since many of them have 

 offered to relieve the solicitor of this ob- 

 ligation, and probably all of them would 

 do so on request, it is believed that no 

 confidence will be violated in stating the 

 two following statistical facts, which not 

 only agree with one another but strongly 

 confirm also the inductions referred to 

 above, drawn from the more miscellaneous 

 correspondence of the institution : 



1. The definitions of the term humani- 

 ties vary from the exclusiveness of litera- 

 ture alone to the inclusiveness of the more 

 recent definitions of anthropology, with a 

 noteworthy tendency toward inclusiveness 

 rather than the reverse. 



2. To the concrete question What works, 

 if any, already published by the institution 

 fall in the humanities, the answers vary 

 from 2 to 33, the number of publications 

 up to 1910 being 146. 



The correspondent who assigned the 



