August 24, 1SS3. 



SCIENCE. 



as the Clierokces lived at the sources of the 

 streams that watered the country occupied l)v 

 the other tril)es, the_v, the Cherokecs, should 

 be called "ehler brothers,' and the tribes living 

 on the lower courses of the streams should 

 come in order from east to west as second, 

 third, fourth, fifth, and sixth l)oru sous, be- 

 cause such was the course of the sun as it 

 travelled over their lauds. Then the people 

 of one trihe called the people of another 

 • elder ' or \vounger ' brothers, and took pre- 

 cedence and authority in council and war 

 therefrom. 



This plan of organization is a distinct 

 methotl of aggregation, designated as kinship, 

 or tribal ; but it graduall}- developed into 

 something else. As tribes, bj' alliance, b.y con- 

 quest, and various other processes, enlarged, 

 it was done by establishing artificial kinship, 

 — by what Sir Henry Maine denominates a 

 ' legal fiction ; ' and in manj- cases it came to 

 be that the whole organization was chiefly a 

 legal fiction. Kinship ties were chiefly arti- 

 ficial. Under these circumstances the kinship 

 bond, composed of marriage-ties and streams 

 of kindred blood, was found to be but a lope 

 of sand ; and gradually, bv many stejjs, the 

 basis of aggregation was changed to territory, 

 and the bonds of society became the organs of 

 government for the regulation of relations 

 arising from propert3-. But, before a territo- 

 rial S3"stem of aggregation is fully established, 

 intermediate stages are discovered. First, the 

 tribal organization occupies a distinct territory, 

 but the territorial organization is latent ; then 

 aggregations partly by territory- and partly 

 by kinship supervene ; and finally, by man}' 

 steps, kinship organization is abandoned, and 

 territorial orgauization remains. This gives 

 two very distinct methods of aggregation or 

 plans of social organization, viz., kinship and 

 territorial society, or tribal and national gov- 

 ernment ; and the two are objectively dis- 

 covered, and not simjjly theoretical. The first 

 in its simplest state is Morgan's .Status of 

 savagery ; the second in its simplest state is 

 Morgan's Status of civilization. His Status 

 of barbarism includes the higher forms of 

 kinship organization ancj the transition forms 

 mentioned above. If we confine his Status of 

 barbarism to the transition forms, we will then 

 have savagery, barbarism, and civilization 

 established properly on modes of .nggregation ; 

 but barbarism will merely be a transition stage, 

 and comparatively ephemeral. 



Of Mr. Ward's fourth st.age, it is simply 

 necessary to say that he himself recognizes it 

 as an ideal of the future ; but it is proiwrly 



based upon history, and is in the manifest 

 course of social evolution. Of the myriads of 

 languages once existing, and of many of which 

 we now have but mere glimpses, few remain, 

 aud of these few a very small number are rap- 

 idly predominating. The many have become 

 few, and the few will be completely unified, for 

 such is the course of philologic evolution. Of 

 the myriads of tribes scattered by the shores 

 of the seas, on the margins of the lakes, and 

 along the streams of all tlie habitable earth, 

 but few remain. They have been gradually 

 integrated into larger tribes, and finally, with 

 the most advanced, iuto nations ; and the time 

 will come when there will be but one body 

 politic, for such is the course of sociologic 

 evolution. Every tribe of the myriads that 

 have spoken distinct languages has each for 

 itself developed a mythologic philosophy. 

 These mythologic piiilosophies are- rapidly dis- 

 appearing, and now are comparativelj- but few ; 

 and the time will come when but one philosophy' 

 will remain, — the philosophy of science, the 

 truth. — for such is the course of philosophic 

 evolution. The fourth stage of society — the 

 cosmopolitan or pantarcliic — is a legitimate 

 induction, a qualitative but not a quantitative 

 prophecy, for who shall say when it shall 

 come ? 



Morgan's method of basing his stages upon 

 the arts is unphilosophic : it was simply stages 

 of art development, not st.iges of social organ- 

 ization. But, because art and society have 

 evolved interdependently together, it ver^' 

 nearly represents the truth ; but the .ictual 

 condition of the progress of any given societv" 

 or body politic can be determined with less 

 accuracy from its arts than from any other de- 

 jxirtmcnt of anthropology, and this from the 

 fact that art is expressed in material form that 

 can be easily imitated. Its use is at once ap- 

 I)arent ; and a people may easilv borrow an art. 

 or an aggregate of arts, without passing through 

 the stage necessary for its invention. Arts, 

 therefore, travel beyond the boundaries of 

 tribes, languages, and philosophies, an<l are 

 rapidly spread throughout the world. Tribes 

 that to-da}" use the l)ow and arrow nia^- to- 

 morrow use the gun, though they have no 

 kudwledge of chemistry and metallurgy. The 

 attempts of the archeologists of modern times 

 to trace migrations, or to connect peoples by a 

 genetic tie. have been to a large extent ren- 

 dered vicious by the failure to recognize this 

 jjrinciple. Tribes ami nations, peoples, bodies 

 politic, cannot bo classified by arts : but the 

 evolution of arts may be marked off in stages, 

 as done by Morgan ; and his stages arc the 



