site
to the comprehension of ethnic psychology, and therefore are desirable
to both the ethnologist and the historian. The one of these is the
poetic instinct.

I fear this does not sound well from the scientific rostrum, for the
prevailing notion among scientists is that the poet is a fabulist, and
is therefore as far off as possible from the platform they occupy. No
one, however, can really understand a people who remains outside the
pale of the world of imagination in which it finds its deepest joys; and
nowhere is this depicted so clearly as in its songs and by its bards.
The ethnologist who has no taste for poetry may gather much that is
good, but will miss the best; the historian who neglects the poetic
literature of a nation turns away his eyes from the vista which would
give him the farthest insight into national character.

The other trait is more difficult to define. To apprehend what is
noblest in a nation one must oneself be noble. Knowledge of facts and an
unbiased judgment need to be accompanied by a certain development of
personal character which enables one to be in sympathy with the finest
tissue of human nature, from the fibre of which are formed heroes and
martyrs, patriots and saints, enthusiasts and devotees. To appreciate
these something of the same stuff must be in the mental constitution of
the observer.

Such is the ethnologist's view of history. He does not pretend to be
either a priest or a prophet. He claims neither to possess the final
truth nor to foresee it. He is, therefore equally unwelcome to the
dogmatist, the optimistic naturalist and the speculative philosopher. He
refuses any explanations which either contradict or transcend human
reason; but he insists that human reason is one of the causal facts
which he has to consider; and this brings him into conflict with both
the mystic and the materialist.

Though he exalts the power of ideas, he is no idealist, but practical to
the last degree; for he denies the worth of any art, science, event or
institution which does not directly or indirectly contribute to the
elevation of the individual man or woman, the common average person, the
human being.

To this one end, understanding it as we best can, he claims all effort
should tend; and any other view than this of the philosophy of history,
any other standard of value applied to the records of the past, he looks
upon as delusive and deceptive, no matter under what heraldry of title
or