SEPTEMIiEn 14. ISSo. 



SCIENCE. 



361 



ami other characteristics? If so, what are the laws 

 of correlation ami coiisiMvation in the races '.' Slioiilil 

 the same set of structures be depended on in each 

 race ? How many races of men are there ? and are 

 these species, or varieties ? 



In what manner should the question of race enter 

 into the administration of (lolitics, economy, educa- 

 tion, and colonization '? 



It is impossible to say wlien this subject of race 

 first became attractive to human minds. In the old- 

 est histories and on very ancient monuments, are to 

 be seen attempts to classify the families of mankind. 

 In all the encyclopaedias, under tlie word " ethnology ' 

 will be found the sclu^mes of modern writers. But, 

 since the commencement of our century, the subject 

 has been taken out of the hands of individuals, and 

 has engrossed the attention of societies. Manuals of 

 instruction have guided the voyager and the traveller 

 in recording the characteristics of races. In Stan- 

 ford's Compendiums, based on von Hellwald, Mr. A. 

 H. Keane has commenced a codification and synonymy 

 of all the tribes of men. This he proposes to follow 

 up with a biographical dictionary of tribes. The 

 Bureau of ethnology has collated the names, priscan 

 homes, migrations, and bibliography of all the North- 

 American Indian tribes. So that we are in a fair 

 way to know something about the races of men, by 

 proceeding from particulars to a general view. 



I'a-sing from man to his works, we are face to face 

 with aestlietic aiul practical art as a unique study. 

 All art relates to human desires for food, clothing, 

 shelter, for activity in peace and war. for beauty, for 

 social ami spiritual happiness. Mr. Tylor has taught 

 us to look upon art products as species that have had 

 an evolution, a life history; and this was very raucli 

 the plan of Gustav Klemm. This sort of study has 

 captivated many anthropologists, and they are asking 

 such questions as these: — 



Ailuiitting that the arts have been progressive, 

 wliat have been the lines of their elaboration? 



May we, by a process of elimination, trace backward 

 the life history of each art, as a patent attorney or a 

 chancery lawyer ? 



At what degree of workmanship may we be sure 

 that flakes of flint, gashed bones, and wrought wood, 

 give evidence of human handicraft? 



When does similarity of art-forms indicate social or 

 commercial contact? when, consanguinity? and when, 

 merely tlie same gradus of culture ? 



Is degenerate art a facsimile of early, progressive 

 art ? 



Is it allowable to fill up the gaps in the arts of any 

 tribe by seemingly intennediate forms from other 

 tril«:s? 



Whence is the sense of beauty ? 



The answers which we unconsciously give to tliese 

 queries are the major premises of our arguments re- 

 specting the history of civilization. 



I5y marriage in some of its forms, human beings are 

 united into consanguineous gnmps, whose other needs 

 demand and produce other bonils of union, and widen 

 the separation from other groups. With reference to 

 each set of duties in the tribe, unwritten or written 



codes embody a system of ethics, regulating conduct 

 in every particular. Fartln-r <ui in their history, 

 groups have relations of war and peace, aiid the ab- 

 sorption of homogeneous and heterogeneous peoples 

 into a defined area gives rise to nationalities. 



Were men ever herded together in promiscuity? 



What were the earliest forms of social life ? 



What were the most primitive forms of marriage in 

 groups ? 



nave all the tribes of men passed through the same 

 systems of consanguinity and affinity? 



Can the highest .systems of altruistic ethics be ex- 

 plained by natural processes? 



What are the most beneficial relations of labor to 

 natural resources ? and how have the present relations 

 been brought about ? 



What is the history of the control of the body 

 politic over the individual, and of the jurisdiction of 

 corporations ? and to what extent may individual free- 

 dom be controlled without discouraging private 

 ambition? 



What has been the life history of communism, 

 crime, fashion, and politics? 



Is it possible to regard and define facts in sociology 

 by the terms of physical science? 



Again, these human beings spend a great portion 

 of their time acting and speaking as if other eyes 

 and ears than those of mortals were cognizant of 

 them. In the darkest nights, at the rising sun, 

 tliroughout the day, at certain seasons of the year, 

 this unseen world is involved. In groves, in caverns, 

 in eslufas. or in costly temples, it is all the same: 

 praises, petitions, and offerings confront the inscru- 

 table power that can work men weal or woe. 



How did man come to believe in the animation of 

 things, fetiches, the wanderings of gliost-souls. spirits 

 benevolent and lualigi'ant, the gods of classic myth- 

 ology, and the Great Fatlier of all ? 



What are the first conceptions of children respects 

 ing such things? and will these guide us aright to 

 the childhood of faith? 



Has the history of mythology run parallel with the 

 history of material and intellectual progress ? 



How may we divest ourselves of the personal 

 C()uation. and learn the true psychology of savage 

 worship ? 



Is Dr. Brinton right in applying the rules of inter- 

 pretration adopted for Aryan mythology to American 

 Indian myths, and in assuming that their crude 

 stories are disguised deifications of the phenomena 

 and powers of natui e ? 



Finally, as men wander about the earth, and certain 

 families are to be found chiefly in certain localities, 

 so is it with races. Longevity, fecundity, and vigor 

 are influenced by such causes as height above the 

 sea-level, purity of the atmosphere, amount and dis- 

 tribution of heat, moisture, winds, fertility of the 

 .soil, and proximities, whether they be vegetal, animal, 

 or human, whether they be beneficial or injurious. 



By what subtle chemistries of the things around 

 us, by what exposures in this terrestrial camera, come 

 to pass the various hues of the skin and liair and 

 eyes, the long skull and the short skull, the long face 



