Excerpt from The Anthropological Review, Vol. 3: 1865-1868

Even with this extension, however, the intellectual outlook of the scholar is still solely and essentially Caucasian. Of other modes and phases of mental existence, he was and is practically ignorant. Of the vast and venerable Mongolic civilisation Of China and Japan, or the American culture of Peru and Mexico, he knows nothing, but that they differ in degree from the more effectually developed civilisa tion of Greece and Rome, of France and Britain. That they are fundamentally different in kind is a truth which has yet to dawn upon him. That they originate in alien elements and rest on another ethnic basis, and tend in their process of internal growth and unfolding to divergence from, rather than assimilation to, the forms of culture appropriate to a Caucasian area, is a discovery, which, however well known to men of science, is yet but very imperfectly appreciated by men Of letters. In a sense, it has not yet found its way into books. It is a truth still on the outside of the literary arena.

The origin of these literary prejudices is not far to seek. It arises, from the fact that the culture of the scholar is still mainly, and we may say essentially, dogmatic, not scientific. He is accustomed to accept assertions rather than seek for proofs, and prefers abiding by the law and the testimony to entering on a course of inquiry which may unsettle his established habits of thought, and land him in a region where his old masters would no longer serve as guides for his pilgrimage. He is still, in short, what he was originally, a man Of authority and tradition, whose proofs must be written, and whose facts lie on his shelves. In saying this, do not let it be supposed that we undervalue scholarship, even as an instrument for progression. Of its invaluable labours in the sphere of criticism and exegesis it is impossible to speak too highly. Here it has done its work most nobly, and we were worse than ingrates did we fail to acknowledge our indebtedness to it in this department of inquiry. But it is still very imperfectly posted up in facts, and, what is of far more import ance, very inadequately impressed with their value.

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