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impulses which shall call them forth, or limit the mode of their operation.

That Wesley and his associates were men of this stamp, and fulfilled this purpose, we do not doubt-we thankfully recognise it. All honour to them for what they were, and what they did. Honour above all to the noble old man whose faith and energy were the mainsprings of the movement. Νο purer, more upright, more single-minded spirit can be found in the annals of Christendom. Among the vessels of gold ' and of silver, of wood and of earth' that have been employed in the great household of God, he was assuredly of the nobler metal; nor is it presumptuous to add the far higher commendation, that he was meet for the Master's use.'

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ART. IV.-1. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. By EDWARD B. TYLOR. 2 vols. 1871.

2. Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilisation. By EDWARD B. TYLOR. 1865.

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N this elaborate work, Mr. Tylor continues, on an ampler scale and with fuller details, the task commenced in his previous volume, entitled 'Researches into the Early History of Mankind.' The main object of this latter work was to show that there is a community of manners, customs, and beliefs amongst primitive races separated from each other by vast intervals of space and time, and that their advance in culture takes place in a given order, and may be arranged in stages very much irrespective of historical connexion and chronological sequence. The leading chapters of the volume investigated the more primitive and direct means of intercourse represented by gesture, language, and picture-writing, the mental law or tendency embodied in magical beliefs and practices, the growth of a particular class of myths, the history of one or two simple arts, and of a few extraordinary customs. In the new work, the author extends his researches into other branches of early speculation and practice, attempting to trace in expanded detail the development, as well as in a measure to explain the origin, of language, mythology, philosophy, religion, and religious rites and ceremonies. Both works are thus devoted to the history of civilisation, especially in its earlier stages, to tracing inductively the steps by which men have emerged from the savage state, and lower races gradually

acquired the arts, sciences, and accomplishments of higher and more cultivated nations. The author seeks to place himself ideally at the very cradle of human experience, and to trace the progress of the race, from the rudeness of its savage infancy, through the strength and freedom of its barbaric youth, to the complex refinements and mature power of its adult civilisation. Of course, such an attempt virtually proceeds on the assumption that savage life is the primitive state of man, and that the ascent from that state takes place according to definite laws that may be accurately generalised from a sufficient collection and analysis of the facts. This assumption, in the present state of our knowledge, cannot however be positively affirmed or denied. But whatever may be true with regard to the primitive state of man, it is certain that there exist numerous and widely-scattered accounts of tribes and races in almost all stages of cultivation, and that these, though partially studied for special purposes, have never yet been adequately collected, compared, and scientifically analysed for the express purpose of throwing light on the laws of early culture, of ascertaining as far as possible the rational principles of human progress. Mr. Tylor's is thus, to some extent, a virgin enterprise, a sufficiently arduous one, but at the same time full of interest and promise, as well as in the direct line of modern speculation and research.

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Hardly any branch of inquiry has, indeed, within the last few years, made more rapid strides than that which has man, his origin, antiquity, and history, his advancements and retrogressions, his powers, achievements, and prospects, for its object. The complaint made a dozen years ago by Professor Waitz, that the great questions raised by this branch of inquiry were orphan problems' excluded from the existing divisions of science, neglected by philosophy, and unacknowledged by any established faculty or chair, can no longer be made with any force or relevancy. Since the publication of his own painstaking and valuable work, a number of elaborate treatises on the subject have appeared, both in this country and on the Continent. In England, the diffusion of interest in these inquiries has of late been more rapid than elsewhere, having been directly stimulated by our ablest scientific thinkers, such as Lyell and Darwin, Huxley, Wallace, and Lubbock. The enthusiasm with regard to this branch of inquiry results naturally from the great and characteristic movements of scientific thought in our own day. It was almost inevitable that the modern scientific conceptions of unbroken continuity and progressive development of life should be applied to the

highest manifestations of this inscrutable power, and that the scientific investigation of humanity as the culminating point in a great scheme of vital evolution should be attempted. The rapid and assured progress made in the comparatively modern sciences of geology, language, and archæology, have directly contributed to the same result. The discoveries of geology, and the science of language in particular, have so completely swept away the old dogmatic chronologies, so extended the period of man's duration on the earth, and widened the sphere of his primeval activities, that it became necessary to construct, at least provisionally, some scheme of his origin and history more in harmony with the facts of science than the existing historical or semi-historical traditions and beliefs. Hence the ardent zeal displayed in investigating and analysing afresh the early records, traditions, and mythologies of lettered nations, in interpreting the cuneiform and hieroglyphic inscriptions still found amidst the ruins of once splendid but now extinct civilisations, in deciphering the mouldering pictorial symbols on the fragmentary but colossal monuments of forgotten peoples, and in illustrating from every available quarter the fanciful legends and superstitious beliefs of savage tribes and barbarous races. Hence, too, the keen and persistent inquisition into the buried hearths and homesteads, the sepulchral mounds and bergs, the cinerary urns and mortuary chambers of early ages. In all directions lakes and estuaries are searched, drift gravels and boulder clays explored, ancient river-beds laid bare, peat mosses and primitive sea-margins probed to their depths, dens and caves of the earth ransacked for any form of vanished life, any fragment of ancient culture that may throw light on pre-historic times, and help us to form a picture of the past, that, however imperfect in its details, may at least be tolerably accurate in the outline and proportions of its leading groups. The materials hitherto collected, though numerous, are as yet altogether inadequate for this purpose. Still, much has been done; and, in tracing back the long line of our ancestry, we are able, even now, to extend our gaze beyond the dawn of history, beyond the extremest verge of hazy tradition. Every day adds to the necessary facts, increases the accumulated materials of unwritten history, and, by the cautious and discriminating use of these, we may hope eventually to explore the earlier forms, if not to find the origin, of the complex civilisation we have inherited.

In the present state of the sciences connected with the history of man, all that any labourer in the wide field of prehistoric or extra-historic civilisation can accomplish, is to con

tribute something in the way of well-ordered and carefullysifted facts, with suggestions as to the principles they illustrate. This is what Mr. Tylor has attempted to do. As a contribution to the history of culture, he has undertaken to write perhaps the most difficult chapter of all, the first. In endeavouring to find the track of early culture, the path before him is, however, not only intricate and obscure, but crowded with obstructions, and beset with gins and pitfalls on every side. So numerous indeed are these obstacles, that Mr. Darwin, in his recent work, justly says, 'The problem of the first advance of savages towards civilisation is at present much too 'difficult to be solved.' Mr. Tylor is himself well aware of the difficulties and dangers in his way, and his expectations of success are tempered and graduated by this salutary knowledge. In the work before us he avowedly takes the position and discharges the laborious duties of a pioneer. In the introduction to his earlier volume he says frankly:

'The time for writing a systematic treatise on the subject does not seem yet to have come; certainly nothing of the kind is attempted in the present series of essays, whose contents, somewhat miscellaneous as they are, scarcely come into contact with great part of the most important problems involved, such as the relation of the bodily characters of the various races, the question of their origin and descent, the development of morals, religion, law, and many others. The matters discussed have been chosen, not so much for their absolute importance, as because, while they are among the easiest and most inviting parts of the subject, it is possible so to work them, as to bring into view certain general lines of argument, which apply, not only to them, but also to the more complex and difficult problems involved in a complete treatise on the History of Civilisation.'

The new work, while far from attempting the history of civilisation as a whole, assumes to a much greater extent the form and dimensions of a systematic treatise on the subject. It is, as we have seen, devoted to primitive culture, the great end being to illustrate the unanimity that prevails in the earlier stages of civilisation, irrespective of race, or age, or country, to show that the different grades or stages of culture in all lands, and races, and ages, stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect. Mr. Tylor admits at the outset that there are popular objections against treating human life and human history in a scientific manner, and that they are, in part at least, well founded. There are many who would 'willingly accept a science of history if placed before them with substantial definiteness of principle and evidence, but 'who not unreasonably reject the systems offered to them, as falling too far short of a scientific standard. Through

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resistance such as this, real knowledge always, sooner or later, 'makes its way, while the habit of opposition to novelty does 'such excellent service against the invasions of speculative dogmatism, that we may sometimes even wish it were stronger 'than it is.' And elsewhere he says, in relation to the same point: The late Mr. Buckle did good service in urging students to look through the details of history to the great 'laws of human development which lie behind; but his attempt to explain, by a few rash generalisations, the complex phases ' of European history, is a warning of the danger of too hasty an appeal to first principles.' This is perfectly just; for while working in the right direction, Mr. Buckle, by his partial induction of facts, and dogmatic assertion of extreme opinions, produced for a time a strong reaction against the so-called science of history he claimed to have established. Mr. Tylor is well aware that as yet no such science exists, the most distinguished labourers in this wide and difficult field having hitherto only prepared the way for a really useful and trustworthy philosophy of history.

'That the labours of so many eminent thinkers should have as yet brought history only to the threshold of science, need cause no wonder in those who consider the bewildering complexity of the problems which come before the general historian. The evidence from which he is to draw his conclusions is at once so multifarious and so doubtful, that a full and distinct view of its bearing on a particular question is hardly to be attained, and thus the temptation becomes all but irresistible to garble it in support of some rough and ready theory of events. The philosophy of history at large, explaining the past and predicting the future phenomena of man's life in the world by reference to general laws, is in fact a subject with which, in the present state of knowledge, even genius aided by wide research, seems but hardly able to cope. Yet there are departments of it which, though difficult enough, seem comparatively accessible. If the field of inquiry be narrowed from History as a whole to that branch of it which is here called Culture, the history, not of tribes or nations, but of the conditions of knowledge, religion, art, custom, and the like among them, the task of investigation proves to lie within far more moderate compass. We suffer still from the same kind of difficulties which beset the wider argument, but they are much diminished. The evidence is no longer so wildly heterogeneous, but may be more simply classified and compared, while the power of getting rid of extraneous matter, and treating each issue on its own proper set of facts, makes close reasoning on the whole more available than in general history.

This passage states and estimates very fairly the aim of the volumes before us, and through the whole of their elaborate detail the author keeps the main object in view with steadiness, persistency, and determination. Still, in going over the

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