SEPTEMBER 17, 1897. ] 
land-forms and formations of the earth, 
provided time enough be allowed them; the 
present generation of geologists, beginning 
with Powell and including two score others, 
have scanned the pages of the Great Stone 
Book, so well laid open by Colorado and 
other rivers, and have learned to read 
earth-history from land-forms as well as 
formations, and have shown that at least a 
portion of those earth-crust movements 
which were sheer mystery to Lyell result 
from the slow transfer of rock-matter by 
the action of running water. As interpre- 
tation grew definite and the mystery of 
earth-making dissolved, the classification 
gradually changed from chiefly material or 
static to chiefly dynamic; for a time the 
formations were classified by the processes of 
accumulation; and now the foremost geol- 
ogists classify earth-science primarily by 
the great agencies of earth-making. 
In anthropology interpretation has not 
yet grown definite and there are nearly as 
many modes of interpreting as there are 
men to interpret, yet even in the short and 
complex history of this youngest of the sci- 
ences the general tendency appears ; for the 
earlier classifications were based on bodily 
or somatic features, while the more ad- 
vanced among current classifications rest 
either on collective attributes or on the ac- 
tivities of the human groups—i. e., the 
older classifications indicate what men are, 
the newer indicate whatmen do. Onlyhalfa 
generation past was it definitively suggested 
that human mentality is a form of energy, 
but already the testimony of the plethysmo- 
graph has been corroborated in so many 
ways and so widely extended that most sci- 
entific students of mental phenomena as- 
sume, either explicitly or implicitly, the es- 
sentially physical character of intellectual 
action ; and in this writing it is assumed 
that intellectual energy is paramount in 
that it is able to control other forms of en- 
ergy and make conquest of nature through 
SCIENCE. 421 
invention and construction, and the facul- 
ties and works of man are classified and in- 
terpreted accordingly. 
So in astronomy and physics and chem- 
istry, and equally in biology and geology, 
the progress of science may be measured by 
the ever-increasing recognition of the dy- 
namic aspect of phenomena, of the physical 
forces by which the material things are 
moved; with the recognition of inherent 
energy or motion, observation progresses 
from the merely qualitative to the quantita- 
tive, and constantly increases in refinement; 
and in view of this progress in other sci- 
ences it can hardly be regarded as prema- 
ture to attempt the extension of quantitative 
measure and dynamic interpretation to that 
side of anthropology which deals with the 
purely human attributes. 
5. In general, scientific interpretation 
progresses from the stationary to the se- 
quential; for the idea of action engenders 
the idea_of succession. The Chaldean shep- 
herd, the Egyptian soothsayer and the 
Peruvian priest, like the earlier oriental 
astrologer, probably first took note of the 
celestial bodies as striking features of the 
cosmos, and later observed their rhythmic 
procession with such care that cycles were 
established and eclipses and other prodigies 
were foretold long before the true structure 
of the solar system was understood. These 
ancient observations and interpretations 
must have implanted that idea of the uni- 
formity of nature which has borne so 
splendid fruit during the present century ; 
the budding notion found poetic expression 
in pleasing fancies of firmaments of crystal 
and the music of the spheres; yet it was 
not until the germinal idea was fertilized 
by the Newtonian law that the marvelous 
measure of celestial rhythm came to be 
known. led by the planless experiments 
of daily toil, the mechanic—forerunner of 
the physicist—was the next to lay hold on 
the notion of uniform succession; it grew 
