EDITOR’S PREFACE
The manuscript of the following work was left by Dr. Brinton at his death in 1899 in a state of approximate completion, lacking only final revision at his hands. The editor has contented himself, therefore, with making such verbal corrections as were necessary and, by slight rearrangement of certain sections to conform to the obvious scheme of the work, bringing the text into readiness for publication. The verification and noting of references have not been attempted. The author’s encyclopedic acquaintance with the literature of his subject as well as his general method of quotation has made this impracticable.
Dr. Brinton’s contributions to anthropology are too well known to call for especial comment, his writings, particularly in the fields of American archæology and linguistics, being so numerous and valuable as to give him a world-wide reputation. His interest, however, was general as well as special, and the development of anthropology owes much to his insight and ready pen. Among the doctrines for which he stood at all times an active champion was the psychological unity of man, a principle which is now widely accepted and forms the working basis for most of our modern ethnology. Tacitly assumed, as it is and has been, for the most part since the writings of Waitz, the need of a succinct statement of the doctrine has long been felt, and this is now given, possibly in somewhat extreme form, in the present work.
Apart from its intrinsic interest the book will be welcomed as the last word of the distinguished author whose lamented death has deprived the science of anthropology of one of its ablest representatives.