444 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899
effect of language to harmonize opinions, to bring individuals and groups into closer accord, to integrate pleasures and industries and institutions and, in the last analysis, to unify mankind.
Sophiology. — In every stage of human development, current knowledge is synthesized in the form of philosophies, or systems of opinion or belief; initially the act of synthesis seems to be normal and spontaneous as youthful playfulness, an expression of hunger for better things intellectual; later the instinct is con- trolled by the products of its own activity, much as pleasures arc regulated by the devices involved in the pursuit of pleasure. In each stage, current philosophy conforms to the fundamental law of knowledge ; by reason of its spontaneous quality it upwells and expands constantly, like its offshoot plant of poesy that doth feed upon itself ; by reason of its function as the synthetic bond and essence of the simpler activities, it spreads from man to man and from group to group, steadily eliminating its own incon- gruities through the attrition of contact ; by reason of its natural tendency to follow the paths of least resistance, it serves to bring mental operations into conformity with the processes of nature, and eventually to exalt the mind of man to its true place (so clearly seen by Bacon) as first the mirror and then — as passive coordination grows into forceful coordination — the master of na- ture; and by reason of its tendency toward diffusion, synthesized knowledge tends to combine men and groups in ever larger and more sympathetic units, and so to unify humanity.
The demotic activities in general. — When the several human activities are scanned separately, their tendencies are easily traced ; all diverge in form, yet converge in essential quality and in their effects on mankind ; and when the several categories of activities are juxtaposed their trend is still more clearly displayed — for all the main lines are convergent. Comparison between the lines of human progress and the lines of biotic evolution is especially significant, since the essentially biotic lines diverge toward infinite differentiation, while the essentially human lines converge toward
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