SEPTEMBER 17, 1897.] 
traced ‘The Descent of Man,” the fruitful 
idea of the uniformity of nature was pushed 
into the domain of anthropology, and has 
now guided for a generation those branches 
of the science which deal with the animal 
side of Man; it is true that the rhythmic 
sequence of cause and effect has hardly 
been extended so far as to cover the deli- 
eate and elusive attribute of humanity, but 
this extension is the motive of many in- 
vestigators, the aim of the present writing. 
Already the broad realm of humanity is 
fairly defined, and the distinctive form of 
developmental succession proper to this 
realm is fairly outlined, so that the distinct- 
ness of the science of human attributes has 
been made clear; for while stellar and 
molecular and organic development are 
evolutionary in that the main tendency of 
change is toward differentiation, the de- 
velopment of humanity is involuntary in 
that the main tendencies are toward inte- 
gration and combination. Conformably to 
the fundamental facts of the great realms 
of nature the earlier sciences are largely, 
perhaps chiefly, analytic, while the science 
of humanity is largely, perhaps chiefly, 
synthetic; and its votaries seem to find 
reason for figuring it as the central dome 
crowning and conjoining the separate 
columns in the ideal pantheon of science. 
If the confidence of the votaries is just, the 
youngest of the sciences may be expected 
to repay with interest all that it received 
from the several branches of knowledge 
whence it sprang; already, indeed, it has 
thrown light on the course of organic 
development through researches on the 
human body, and has begun to guide the 
acquisition of knowledge through researches 
on the human brain and its functions; 
already it is contributing to the physical 
Sciences, ¢. g., through the refreshing 
Powellian doctrine of conservation, or of 
* The first edition of this notable work appeared in 
1871. 
SCLENCE. 
423 
common persistence of motion and matter 
in the ultimate particle, whereby ideas 
concerning the mechanism of the universe 
would seem to be immeasurably simplified 
and extended ; and thereare other ways in 
which the youngest science is daily con- 
tributing to the stock of definite knowledge; 
their name is legion. 
So it is that science has always progressed 
from the rare to the common, from the re- 
mote to the near, from the abnormal to the 
normal, from the merely qualitative to the 
quantitative, from the merely material 
aspect to the physical aspect, from the prim- 
itive faith in fixity to living realization of 
causal succession. At first sight this prog- 
ress may seem puzzling, even paradoxical; 
yet the general course is but an expression 
of the order of intellectual operations pur- 
sued in scientific research. The first step is 
observation, which is easy when the objects 
observed are isolated or distinct, increas- 
ingly difficult as the objects increase in 
number and similarity ; the second step is 
generalization, which is relatively easy 
when the objects examined are few, rela- 
tively difficult when they are many; while 
the ancillary process of discrimination of 
the incongruous likewise grows laborious 
with the multiplication of objects and simi- 
larities. Accordingly it is easy to study the 
rare, the remote and the abnormal, and as 
faculty is strengthened by exercise, it grad- 
ually becomes easy to progress toward the 
common, the near and the normal. So, also, 
qualitative determination is easy, quantita- 
tive determination difficult ; indeed, exact 
quantitative work is impossible without 
careful training, as numberless surveyors 
and teachers can testify. In like manner, 
interpretation in terms of the material, 
coupled with appeal to the supernatural 
when obstacles are encountered, is relatively 
easy and characteristic of the indolent or 
immature mind, while the firm grasp of 
