Apkil 11, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



567 



notices that when he scrapes the surface 

 of the wood the lashing wears longer. He 

 derives a sensation of pleasure, also, from 

 the contact of his hand with the smoothed 

 surface, and this gradually develops a 

 mental pleasure at the sight of well-made 

 frames. His skill in cutting and carving 

 increases with practice, so that decoration 

 of implements and weapons becomes pos- 

 sible, or, as we say, ' the manual concepts 

 react upon the testhetic mental concepts.' 



"When the student of anthropologic habit 

 of thought contemplates that wonderful 

 product of this industrial age, the ocean 

 liner, he takes-it 'by and large.' His men- 

 tal vision sees beyond it the long line of less 

 and less ambitious craft that terminate 

 ■H'ith the floating log propelled by a pole, 

 or with the naked hands. Yet more than 

 this: he sees migratory movements prob- 

 ably initiated by the food quest that re- 

 quired the use of boats to cross, noAV a 

 river, now an arm of the sea. He sees a 

 resulting development of commercial routes 

 forming a vast network, which even in the 

 earliest historic times was the product of 

 centuries of growth and the interplay of 

 forces ultimately environmental. The vista 

 is a long one, and in viewing the evolution 

 of this single industry the student per- 

 ceives something of the complexity and 

 grandeur of the laws that have moulded 

 the modern arts. And so, because based 

 upon broad lines, and yet balanced by ex- 

 haustive special researches, the science of 

 anthropology develops a sane and wluile- 

 some mind. 



The inherited proclivity of the Anglo- 

 Saxon to despise all non-Caucasians be- 

 comes in the anthropologist a passion for 

 studying them. He knows that his self- 

 assumed superiority has its limitations, 

 that his own ancestors in times geologically 

 recent were tattooed cannibals as primi- 

 tive in habit as the Digger Indians of the 

 Sierras. He knows that his culture is in 



a measure due to environment, to the 

 chance that led those early immigrants to 

 a continent Avhose vast extent of shore- 

 line rendered it immeasurably superior to 

 all others as the home of commerce. His 

 people were surrounded by animals capa- 

 ble of domestication, while the American 

 race, for example, was handicapped by 

 their absence. 



Not only does the anthropologist take a 

 more modest view of the virtues of the 

 Caucasian, but he also learns to credit the 

 savage and barbarian with many praise- 

 worthy qualities. He finds that our aborig- 

 ines are more devout than we, their happy 

 family life most exemplary, their patience 

 and courage under the wrongs of border 

 ' civilization ' most admirable. This knowl- 

 edge induces forebearance and respect. 

 Brought into contact with these and other 

 alien races through field research, the an- 

 thropologic student discovers that they can 

 estimate his worth with surprising quick- 

 ness ; they may not have heard of the nebu- 

 lar hypothesis, they may be unacquainted 

 with the units of the metric system, but 

 they can take the measure of a man with a 

 glance. 



Anthropology, with ever - widening 

 knowledge of the peoples of earth, promises 

 to make real that dream of the poets, the 

 brotherhood of man; not a relationship 

 based upon sickly sentimentality, but a 

 brotherhood resulting from an understand- 

 ing of the capacities and limitations of 

 our fellow beings. We shall then have ap- 

 preciation without adulation, toleration not 

 marred by irresponsible indifference nor by 

 an undue sense of superiority. Anthropol- 

 ogy leads to a more charitable attitude 

 toward the diverse philosophies of men, 

 dealing as it does with the basic motives 

 of all systems. It induces religious tolera- 

 tion, ' which, ' says our greatest of college 

 presidents, ' is the best fruit of the last 

 four centuries. ' And yet, although the sun 



