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Tolerance by Hendrik van Loon Review by: M. F. Ashley Montagu Isis, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Jun., 1941), pp. 305-306 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/330781 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 13:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Isis. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:34:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Toleranceby Hendrik van Loon

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Page 1: Toleranceby Hendrik van Loon

Tolerance by Hendrik van LoonReview by: M. F. Ashley MontaguIsis, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Jun., 1941), pp. 305-306Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/330781 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 13:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:34:18 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Toleranceby Hendrik van Loon

Reviews Reviews

autonomous aspect of culture in the same way as art or religion or folklore or linguis- tics are generally so considered" (p. 466).

Either I mistake Professor HERSKOVITS' meaning here, or Professor HERSKOVITS means exactly what he says. What, indeed, is "an autonomous aspect of culture"? All aspects of a culture are interrelated, and it is the anthropologist's task to discover those interrelations, and if possible, their historical development, and to state them. The economic life of any people cannot be treated apart from the "rest" of the cul- ture in which it functions, for it is a dynamic part of a cultural framework. Certainly the art, religion, folklore or linguistics of a people may be described monographically in separate works, but surely only after each aspect of the culture has been investi- gated in all its functional interrelationships as a part of a whole culture? This seems so obvious that I can only conclude that on this point I have misunderstood Pro- fessor HERSKOVITS whose book is conspicuously one which stimulates understanding.

An irritating mechanical feature of the present volume is the relegation of the notes and references to the back of the volume. On what grounds such a practise can be justified it is difficult to see. Whenever one wishes to know who it was who wrote what is quoted, or where it was that he wrote it, instead of finding the answer at the foot of the page one must continually interrupt one's reading to turn for the hun- dredth time to the back of the book, and then back again to where it was that one left off. This is enormously time consuming, and does not make for the uninterrupted reading which every reader has a right to enjoy. A prize should also be awarded Professor HERSKOVITS for writing a larger number of enormously long and qualified sentences than I ever recall to have seen between the covers of a single volume. Being an expert at this kind of sinfulness myself, I believe that I ought to know when a man is worthy of some recognition in this connexion.

M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU

HENDRIK VAN LOON: Tolerance. Pp. 386. New York, Liveright Publishing Cor-

poration, 1940, ($1.98). This is a reissue of a beautiful book first published in 1925. The original edition

has always occupied an honoured place in my library, and so will this new one, with its newly added epilogue and illustrations in Dr. VAN LOON'S characteristic style. On the whole the older edition was produced in a somewhat more attractively dig- nified manner than the present one with its blue and golden back, and its new title

page, from which the two admirable quotations from SPINOZA and LUCATELLI, which would have been so appropriate for to-day's lesson, have disappeared. For those who obtain the new edition, and I highly recommend that they do, I shall supply the two quotations here. SPINOZA writes "The final end of the State consists not in dominat- ing over men, restraining them by fear, subjecting them to the will of others. Rather it has for its end so to act that its citizens shall in security develop soul and body and make free use of their reason. For the true end of the State is Liberty." LUIGI LUCATELLI writes "Farewell, good Sirs, I am leaving for the future. I will wait for Humanity at the crossroads, three hundred years hence." I am glad that the opera- tion of certain inexorable physical laws will spare LUCATELLI the spectacle of man- kind in its present state. Three hundred years is not, in any phase of human develop-

autonomous aspect of culture in the same way as art or religion or folklore or linguis- tics are generally so considered" (p. 466).

Either I mistake Professor HERSKOVITS' meaning here, or Professor HERSKOVITS means exactly what he says. What, indeed, is "an autonomous aspect of culture"? All aspects of a culture are interrelated, and it is the anthropologist's task to discover those interrelations, and if possible, their historical development, and to state them. The economic life of any people cannot be treated apart from the "rest" of the cul- ture in which it functions, for it is a dynamic part of a cultural framework. Certainly the art, religion, folklore or linguistics of a people may be described monographically in separate works, but surely only after each aspect of the culture has been investi- gated in all its functional interrelationships as a part of a whole culture? This seems so obvious that I can only conclude that on this point I have misunderstood Pro- fessor HERSKOVITS whose book is conspicuously one which stimulates understanding.

An irritating mechanical feature of the present volume is the relegation of the notes and references to the back of the volume. On what grounds such a practise can be justified it is difficult to see. Whenever one wishes to know who it was who wrote what is quoted, or where it was that he wrote it, instead of finding the answer at the foot of the page one must continually interrupt one's reading to turn for the hun- dredth time to the back of the book, and then back again to where it was that one left off. This is enormously time consuming, and does not make for the uninterrupted reading which every reader has a right to enjoy. A prize should also be awarded Professor HERSKOVITS for writing a larger number of enormously long and qualified sentences than I ever recall to have seen between the covers of a single volume. Being an expert at this kind of sinfulness myself, I believe that I ought to know when a man is worthy of some recognition in this connexion.

M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU

HENDRIK VAN LOON: Tolerance. Pp. 386. New York, Liveright Publishing Cor-

poration, 1940, ($1.98). This is a reissue of a beautiful book first published in 1925. The original edition

has always occupied an honoured place in my library, and so will this new one, with its newly added epilogue and illustrations in Dr. VAN LOON'S characteristic style. On the whole the older edition was produced in a somewhat more attractively dig- nified manner than the present one with its blue and golden back, and its new title

page, from which the two admirable quotations from SPINOZA and LUCATELLI, which would have been so appropriate for to-day's lesson, have disappeared. For those who obtain the new edition, and I highly recommend that they do, I shall supply the two quotations here. SPINOZA writes "The final end of the State consists not in dominat- ing over men, restraining them by fear, subjecting them to the will of others. Rather it has for its end so to act that its citizens shall in security develop soul and body and make free use of their reason. For the true end of the State is Liberty." LUIGI LUCATELLI writes "Farewell, good Sirs, I am leaving for the future. I will wait for Humanity at the crossroads, three hundred years hence." I am glad that the opera- tion of certain inexorable physical laws will spare LUCATELLI the spectacle of man- kind in its present state. Three hundred years is not, in any phase of human develop-

305 305

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:34:18 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: Toleranceby Hendrik van Loon

306 Reviews

ment, a long time. Two thousand million years is in zoological time a reasonably long time, but the million and a half years during which man has been upon this earth is, in comparison, a short time. The three score and ten years of the life of the individual is but a flash in the pan, and to hope for a cure of the ills of mankind within such a brief period is, in each generation, an ideal which we must all of us die without hav- ing seen realized. But in a world which is a hospital where men and women are merely patients, hope is a valuable asset in the medical chest; but hope is not enough. All the maxims, as PASCAL said, for wise and good living have long been available to us, but of what use is wisdom unless we act upon it? To think and to know what is good is not wisdom, it is only when we act upon these thoughts and this knowledge that it becomes so. But most of us slumber at the foot of the ladder of our high ideals, and leave the scaling of them to others. Here is something which requires to be done, we say, why doesn't someone do it? Instead of saying: here is something which badly needs doing, why don't I do it? WILLIAM JAMES has some- where admirably made this point. Dr. VAN LOON makes it beautifully again in his epilogue in looking back over the events of the last fifteen years since his book was first published. Tolerance, a sympathetic attitude of mind towards one's fellow men, neither condemning nor condoning their behaviour, but always trying to un- derstand and to be sympathetic with it, such an attitude of mind will greatly assist to draw us out of the slough of meretricious living into which most of us have fallen. Dr. VAN LOON'S book is a popular history of the development of this ideal in the western world, it is sound and beautifully well done, and it is to be hoped that it will be as widely read as it deserves to be.

M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU

FRANK J. JIRKA: American Doctors of Destiny. xix+316 pp. 20 pls. Chicago, Nor- mandie House, 1940.

"American Doctors of Destiny" to quote from the author's subtitle "is a collec- tion of historical narratives of the lives of great American physicians and surgeons whose service to the nation and to the world has transcended the scope of their pro- fession." Beginning with a brief introduction touching upon the early colonial pe- riod, the author takes up the lives of a great number of the familiar leaders in the history of American medicine down to our contemporaries. "I have tried to select each character" says the author "for the originality of his attainments, endeavoring to avoid writing about doctors whose careers and accomplishments would seem to run in a parallel." Keeping in mind the book's grandiloquent title and the author's criterion of selection, there are some astonishing omissions and one misses such names as those of WILLIAM BEAUMONT (1785-1853) and JOHN SHAW BILLINGS (1838-1913) in the midst of many of much lesser stature. Indeed, there are inclu- sions, especially in the dangerous contemporary period, which would seem out of place. In a work such as this, which is largely a collection of essays thinly held to- gether by little more than historical sequence and with no pretence to completeness as a history of American medicine, it would be, no doubt, invidious for the reviewer to dwell on an aspect brought to mind by the book's title and the author's aim.

306 Reviews

ment, a long time. Two thousand million years is in zoological time a reasonably long time, but the million and a half years during which man has been upon this earth is, in comparison, a short time. The three score and ten years of the life of the individual is but a flash in the pan, and to hope for a cure of the ills of mankind within such a brief period is, in each generation, an ideal which we must all of us die without hav- ing seen realized. But in a world which is a hospital where men and women are merely patients, hope is a valuable asset in the medical chest; but hope is not enough. All the maxims, as PASCAL said, for wise and good living have long been available to us, but of what use is wisdom unless we act upon it? To think and to know what is good is not wisdom, it is only when we act upon these thoughts and this knowledge that it becomes so. But most of us slumber at the foot of the ladder of our high ideals, and leave the scaling of them to others. Here is something which requires to be done, we say, why doesn't someone do it? Instead of saying: here is something which badly needs doing, why don't I do it? WILLIAM JAMES has some- where admirably made this point. Dr. VAN LOON makes it beautifully again in his epilogue in looking back over the events of the last fifteen years since his book was first published. Tolerance, a sympathetic attitude of mind towards one's fellow men, neither condemning nor condoning their behaviour, but always trying to un- derstand and to be sympathetic with it, such an attitude of mind will greatly assist to draw us out of the slough of meretricious living into which most of us have fallen. Dr. VAN LOON'S book is a popular history of the development of this ideal in the western world, it is sound and beautifully well done, and it is to be hoped that it will be as widely read as it deserves to be.

M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU

FRANK J. JIRKA: American Doctors of Destiny. xix+316 pp. 20 pls. Chicago, Nor- mandie House, 1940.

"American Doctors of Destiny" to quote from the author's subtitle "is a collec- tion of historical narratives of the lives of great American physicians and surgeons whose service to the nation and to the world has transcended the scope of their pro- fession." Beginning with a brief introduction touching upon the early colonial pe- riod, the author takes up the lives of a great number of the familiar leaders in the history of American medicine down to our contemporaries. "I have tried to select each character" says the author "for the originality of his attainments, endeavoring to avoid writing about doctors whose careers and accomplishments would seem to run in a parallel." Keeping in mind the book's grandiloquent title and the author's criterion of selection, there are some astonishing omissions and one misses such names as those of WILLIAM BEAUMONT (1785-1853) and JOHN SHAW BILLINGS (1838-1913) in the midst of many of much lesser stature. Indeed, there are inclu- sions, especially in the dangerous contemporary period, which would seem out of place. In a work such as this, which is largely a collection of essays thinly held to- gether by little more than historical sequence and with no pretence to completeness as a history of American medicine, it would be, no doubt, invidious for the reviewer to dwell on an aspect brought to mind by the book's title and the author's aim.

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:34:18 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions