The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-01

Beautiful. are in their first edition.
The work Of DR.. Frazer compliments
-Snhe physical researches Of Tyndall and
Huxley to the right angle OF human
thought, Il parallels and at times inter-
laces with the discoveries OF Herbert
Spencer in the constitution OF morals
and the organization Of human socie-
ties. He has discovered for English
learning the science of ethnology. Just
how far we may regard any learning
as bounded by racial lines is a matter
omen to dispute. We are forced to con-
TESS that the bar Of language Is still
a great barrier: in the course OF the
examination Of this great work we shaal
have occasion to observe that the Az
eence Of facility with German mas
proved a hindrance. Noting, ana drop-
ping, the extinct book of Tylor, we may
say that before Frazer began the labors
Of which these ten volumes are so many
~ranaries OF garnered grain ethnology
in English amounted to no more tnah
the collection Of data, the collection
being without method and the preserva-
ton without order or system.
As a result Of these studies In a
nav field there has arisen at the Uni
versity Of Cambridge. and particularly
st Trinity College, Of which the author
IN n fellow. q school of anthropolog1cai
research. II has fostered the expedi-
tion to Torres Straits, OF which the
results have been almost completely
published. 1t has extended to the d.
rection OF all the newer explorers VINO
1o to the wilds From dozen recent
reports, ranging all the way from
Papua to Kordofan, We infer the ex-
tstence Of a QUESTIONABLE placed IN the
hands of each new field worker in order
that his Investigations may De ad-
dressed the more accurately to the ac-
ouisition of the truth as the basis OF
knowledge. 1t has secured for anthro-
pology in it's widest sense such students
"a Haddon, Rivers. Ray. Seligmann-
all disciples Of Frazer.
Before Frazer entered upon this great
work the material which he has put to
such good use lay ready to the mana
Of any man. The books OF the great
circumnavigators and Of lesser travel
lers were in the libraries. the mission
AIRY reports were by no means neglected.
q long line Of administrators In the FAR
corners Of the earth had reported upon
20 whom they had brought civilization
in dts most convincing and con-
stabulary guise. But no one had
thought to give the material study. 1t
lay in three heaps. the revelation OF
inspiration, classical myth, savage su-
perstition; one remained the theme OF
theology, the other was neglected in
the niceties Of the grammarian and
had only just been enlivened by the
venturesome theory Of the sun myth,
the third was held beneath contempt.
The Germans and the French had made
q beginning at the study of this class
Of material, but English scholarship
had regarded these efforts as quite too
materiallstic east of the Rhine. quite
too rat!opalistic west of the same happy
stream, certainly dangerous and I'M
settling and not worth the pains Of
digging out with a dictionary. In the
English universities classical mythol-
cry. through its experts. manifested
respectful ignorance Of Semitic the
elogy; the divines to the mythologians
likewise bowed; together they looked
upon the story Of life which the savage
had to tell from his own experience OF
life as vulgar. matter Of no importance.
Here IL the point at which DR.. Frazer
has opened to English thought the
treasures Of the new learning He
takes the postulate that man Is man.
no matter where and no matter how he
lives. He develops the theme that
faith IL but the solution Of mans
wonder at his inscrutable life, a solu-
ton reduced to form and order; that
superstition In the material Of faith
but not yet codified. He establishes
that in the sacred books, whatever they
b. We have mans wonder satisfied by
the arts OF religion: that the classical
mythology presents US the same wonder
beautihed by the growth Of good taste
In the legends and in the superstitious
practices Of rude savages he shows us
the same material In the raw. H.
works upon the theory that these
things are In essence the same and
subject to the same rules of analysis
that superstition is refined into reli.
gSon or becomes the product of emoli-
snt arts according to the hazard of the
hne OF development which offers the
least resistance to the course Of cul.
tural evolution.
We may not in the space OF a few
columns even SO much as advert to the
proof OF these points: II Ii cumulative
lt must OF necessity be a sorites In
which premise leads to conclusion which
In turn becomes premise until the hui
mainly OF the world IL linked within
the argument. But we may give our
attention to certain Of the motives OF
human life which we share with the
GAvage on the bottom plane Of society.
No fear god.
What, then. Is god?
In the anthology Of positivism god Is