Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/805

Rh great influence on the future of the race. If we determine what traits are valuable, and how these can be developed by suitable marriage, and made universal by early marriage, we may hope for practical results of immense importance. By the development of a code of honor, or by direct encouragement of the parents or the State, degenerative tendencies could be eliminated, and valuable traits could be developed much more rapidly than occurs in the slow course of natural selection. Mr. Galton has shown that the offspring of early marriages will soon supplant the offspring of later marriages. But as things go at present the thoughtless and criminal are apt to have offspring early, while the reliant and mentally endowed postpone marriage until a long course of education is accomplished and a social position is secured.

It is not necessary to dwell on other applications of psychology. Its relation to the fine arts is evident. The external form of art is directly fitted to the senses and its inner essence to the mind. In political economy we need to know more concerning the interest, passions, and needs of the people. Ultimately, we shall be able to determine what distribution of labor, wealth, and power is the best. Indeed, the measurements and statistics of psychology, which at first sight may seem remote from common interests, may in the end become the most important factor in the progress of society. The whole course of life will move forward in straighter and broader channels when we no longer depend on instincts developed by the beast and savage, but on knowledge and reason guiding to an end.

in his recent journey in countries north of Lake Tanganyika, discovered the source of the Kagera or Ruvuvu River in about latitude 3° south, in a lofty range of mountains known as the Mountains of the Moon. The Warundi—whose ancient kings bore the title of Mwezi (Moon), and who looked upon Dr. Baumann as one of their descendants just returned from the moon, and consequently received him with noisy demonstrations expressive of their joy—look upon this spot as sacred. Within a wood close by they used to celebrate the funeral rites of their kings, whom they buried on the top of a mountain rising above the Mountains of the Moon.

has made a study of the Song of the Arval Brethren, a priestly sodality of ancient Rome, of presumed Etruscan origin, which was sung at their annual festival, and has found in it the name of a divinity which is also a divine name among the Libyan tribes of northern Africa, and is perhaps the root of the name of those (the Berber) tribes. This hint of connection between the Etruscans and these peoples is supported by the discovery of the name of "a man of the Tursha" at Gurob, near the Libyan boundary of Egypt, and of an Etruscan ritual book in the same region. The stem Adur, equivalent with that of Tur in Tursha, and with Etrur in Etruria, occurs also in the name Adurmachides—the fighting Adurs—given by Herodotus to a tribe living in the same region."