MC gee] AN THR0P0L0G1C U TERA TURE 375
sun and environing organisms ; and it is no less true of the mineral realm, in which affinity precedes combination. In a more recent address he took occasion to define activities in a certain order, and to indicate some of the reasons for regarding this order as normal and necessary, pointing out that " the primary activities of mankind [both ontogenetic and phylogenetic, and presupposing the antecedent organic development] are connected with more or less spontaneous sensations of pleasurable character." ' Others have contributed to the subject, both before and since the issue of these addresses. Contributions of the first magnitude have been made by Powell in various publications, particularly in his recent epistemology,* in which the spontaneity of all primary action is not only recognized in the mineral, vegetal, and intellectual realms, as well as in that of animals, but is traced to fun- damental principles ; while the relations are explained by his rendering of the law of the persistence of motion — a rendering by which it be- comes virtually a law of cosmic kinesis, illumining natural processes of every grade from chemic union to psychic action. It may be noted further that for some years the researches of the Bureau of American Ethnology have rested on a classification of the humanities in which the
nascency of pleasurable activity is fully recognized. In this classifica- '
tion it is postulated, even more definitely than in the table with which
Professor Groos closes his book (page 328), that those original and \
spontaneous functions which arise in play and mature in fine arts give character to the primary science of human activities, or esthetology ; and
the classification goes much farther than that of Groos's tabulation in ; seriating the several activities maturing in (1) arts (including play and sports in their various forms), (2) industries, (3) institutions, (4) languages, and (5) opinions (including myths, beliefs, and philosophic systems).' This statement concerning the extension and application of the principles formulated by Professor Groos is not designed as criticism, but is intended chiefly to indicate the soundness of his work and the strength of his position ; at the same time it opens the way for an expression of high appreciation of the able manner in which he has brought together invaluable observations and records. His work is in the direct line of scientific progress, and marks a degree of advancement highly gratifying to his fellow-students. W J McGee.
1 The Science of Humanity {Proceedings of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, Salem, 1898, p. 315. The American Anthropologist ', vol. x, No. 8, August, 1897, p. 241. Science, vol. vi, n. s, No. 142, September 17, 1897, p. 213).
- Truth and Error, or the Science of Intellection ; Chicago, 1898.
8 Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for i893-'94, '
1897, p. xix. Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for .
i894-'95, 1897, pp. xvi-xviii. \
�� �
