600 RACE AND CIVILIZATION. 



How such a sense of proportion in the world is to be attained, and 

 what course of instruction will eradicate political fanaticism and plant 

 a reasonable tolerance of other forms of civilization is the problem 

 before us as practical anthropologists. The highest form of this per- 

 ception of other existence is reached in the best history — writing or 

 fiction — which enables the reader to strip himself for the time of his 

 prejudices and view of life and reclothe the naked soul with an entirely 

 different personality and environment. Very few writers, and those 

 only in rare instances, can reach this level. It needs consummate 

 knowledge, skill, sympathy, and abandon in the writer, and if without 

 these, it is neither accurate nor inspiring. The safer course is to care- 

 fully select from the best literature of a civilization, and explain and 

 illustrate this so as to leave no feature of it outside of the reason and 

 feelings of the reader. Here Ave run against the special bigotry of the 

 purely classical scholar, who looks on ancient literature as a peculiar 

 preserve solely belonging to those who will labor to read it in its orig- 

 inal dress. No one limits an acquaintance with Hebrew, Egyptian, or 

 Arabic authors to those who can deal with those tongues, and Greek 

 and Latin authors ought to be as familiar to the English reader as 

 Milton or Macaulay. To say that because it is impossible in a business 

 education to give several years to a working knowledge of ancient lan- 

 guages, that therefore all thought written in those languages shall be a 

 sealed book, is pedantry run mad. A few months or even weeks on 

 translation will at least open the mind and give an intelligent sense of 

 the variety and the standpoint of the intellect of the past. And such 

 a course is certainly better than the total ignorance which now prevails 

 on such lines where the classics are not taught. 



What seems to be the most practical course would be the recognition 

 of civilization or social life as a branch of general reading to be stimu- 

 lated in schools and encouraged by subsequent inquiry as to the extent 

 to which it is followed and understood, without making it an additional 

 fang of the examination demon. 



The books required for such reading should cover the life of Greece, 

 Eome, Babylon, Egypt, and Mexico in ancient times 5 and China, India, 

 Persia, Eussia, Spain, and one or two low civilizations, such as the 

 Andamans and the Zulus, in modern times. Neither histories nor 

 travels are wanted for this purpose, but a selection of the literature 

 which shall most illustrate the social life and frame of the community, 

 with full explanation and illustrations. We need not to excite wonder, 

 astonishment, or disgust, but rather to enable the reader to realize the 

 daily life, and to live in the very minds of the people. Where no liter- 

 ature is available, a vivid study of the nature of the practical working 

 of their civilization should take its place. 



Such is the practical scope of anthropology in our daily life, where 

 it needs as much consideration and will exercise as great an influence 

 as any of the other subjects dealt with by this Association. 



