RACE AND CIVILIZATION. 593 



parietals grow conical and not spherically curved, and hence meet at 

 an angle. 



It seems, therefore, that looking at the question as a physical prob- 

 lem, Ave are far more likely to detect racial peculiarities in the separate 

 data of the period of fixation of the skull, and of the amount of growth 

 in different directions, than by any treatment of gross quantities which 

 are compounded out of a number of variables. The practical develop- 

 ment of such a view is the work of the embryologist; here we only 

 notice a principle of treatment of a most complex question, which 

 seems to have too often been dealt with as if it were as simple as the 

 definition of a crystal. 



When we next turn to look at the works of man, it seems that the 

 artistic side of anthropology has hardly been enough appreciated. In 

 the first place, the theory of art has been grounded more assuredly by 

 anthropological research than by all the speculations that have been 

 spun. The ever-recurring question, " What is art ?" whether in form or 

 in literature, has been answered clearly and decidedly. When we con- 

 trast a row of uninteresting individualities with the ideal beauty and 

 expression of a composite portrait compounded from these very ele- 

 ments, we are on the surest ground for knowing how such a beautiful 

 result is obtained. In place of the photographic verity of the person, 

 we have the artistic expression of a character. Whatever is essential 

 remains, and is strengthened; whatever is transient and unimportant 

 has faded away. No one can look, for instance, at the composite heads 

 of Jewish boys and their individual components, published some years 

 ago in the Anthropological Journal, without feeling the artistic beauty of 

 the composite and the unbalanced characters of the individuals. What 

 the camera does mechanically by mere superposition, the artist does 

 intelligently by selection. The unimportant, unmeaning phases of the 

 person, the vacuities of expression, the less worthy turns of the mind 

 are eliminated, whether in form or in words, and the essence of the 

 character is brought out and expressed. Such is the theory of artistic 

 expression which anthropology has established on a sure basis of exper- 

 iment, and which is thus proved to be neither fanciful nor arbitrary, 

 but to be a truly scientific process. 



And as anthropology has thus aided art, the converse is also true- 

 art is one of the most important records of a race. Each group of 

 mankind has its own style and favorite manner, more particularly in 

 the decorative arts. A stray fragment of carving without date or 

 locality can be surely fixed in its place if there is any sufficient knowl- 

 edge of the art from which it springs. This study of the art of a peo- 

 ple is one of the highest branches of anthropology and one of the most 

 important, owing to its persistent connection with each race. No 

 physical characteristics have been more persistent than the style of 

 decoration. When we see on the Celtic work of the period of La Tene, 

 or on Irish carvings, the same forms as on mediaeval ironwork, and oil 

 SM— 95 38 



