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SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. II. No. 35. 



present its results free from bias. It de- 

 Ijrecates alike enthusiasm and antipathy. 

 Like Spinoza's God, nullum amat, nullum 

 odit. Its aim is to compare dispassionately 

 all the acts and arts of man, his philoso- 

 phies and religions, his social schemes and 

 personal plans, weighing and analyzing 

 them, separating the local and temporal in 

 them fi-om the permanent and general, ex- 

 plaining the former by the conditions of 

 time and place, referring the latter to the 

 category of qualities which make up the 

 oneness of humanitj', the solid ground on 

 which he who hereafter builds, ' will build 

 for aye.' 



This, then, brieflj^ stated, is the aim of 

 that department of anthropology which we 

 call ethnology. In yet fewer words, its 

 mission is ' to define the universal in hu- 

 manity,' as distinguished from all those 

 traits which are the products of fluctuating 

 environments. 



This universal, however, is to be discov- 

 ered, not assumed. The fatal flaw in the 

 arguments of most philosophers is that they 

 frame a theorj^ of what man is and what 

 are the laws of his growth, and pile up 

 proofs of these, neglecting the counter-evi- 

 dence, and passing in silence what contra- 

 dicts theii" hypotheses. 



Take, for instance, the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion as applied to man. It is not only a 

 doctrine but a dogma with many scientists. 

 They look with theological ire on any one 

 who questions it. I have already said that 

 in the long run and the general average it 

 has been true of man. But that we have 

 any certainty that it will continue true is 

 a mistake ; or that it has been true of the 

 vast majority of individuals or ethnic 

 gi'oups is another mistake. As the basis 

 for a boastful and confident optimism it is 

 as shakj' as sand. Taken at its real value, 

 as the pro\dsional and partial result of our 

 observations, it is a useful guide ; but swal- 

 lowed with unquestioning faith, as a final 



law of the universe, it is not a whit more 

 inspiring than the narrowest dogma of re- 

 ligious bigotry. 



We have no right, indeed, to assume that 

 there is anj'thing universal in humanitj' 

 until we have proved it. But this has been 

 done. Its demonstration is the last and 

 greatest conquest of ethnology, and it is so 

 complete as to be bewildering. It has been 

 brought about bj' the careful study of what 

 are called ' ethnographic parallels,' that is, 

 similarities or identities of laws, games, 

 customs, mj'ths, arts, etc., in primitive 

 tribes located far asunder on the earth's 

 surface. Able students, such as Bastian, 

 Andree, Post, Steinmetz and others have 

 collected so many of these parallels, often 

 of seemingly the most artificial and ca- 

 pricious character, extending into such mi- 

 nute and apparently accidental details, from 

 tribes almost antipodal to each other on the 

 globe, that Dr. Post does not hesitate to 

 say : ' ' Such results leave no room for doubt 

 that the psychical faculties of the individual 

 as soon as they reach outward expression 

 fall under the control of natural laws as 

 fixed as those of inorganic nature."* 



As the endless variety of arts and events 

 in the culture history of different tribes in 

 diSerent places, or of the same tribe at dif- 

 ferent epochs, illustrates the variables in an- 

 thropologic science, so these independent 

 parallelisms prove beyond cavil the ever- 

 present constant in the problem, to wit, the 

 one and unvarying psychical nature of man, 

 guided by the same reason, swept by the 

 same storms of passion and emotion, di- 

 rected by the same will towards the same 

 goals, availing itself of the same means 

 when they are within reach, finding its 

 pleasures in the same actions, lulUng its 

 fears with the same sedatives. 



The anthropologist of to-day who, like a 

 late distinguished scholar among ourselves, 



*Dr. A. H. Post, ' Ethnologisclie Gedanken, ' in 

 Globus, Band 59, No. 19. 



