In the realm of American antiquities, and of anthropology generally, Dr.
Brinton, Professor of American Archæology and Linguistics in the
University of Pennsylvania, stands foremost. He has been President of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and his
knowledge and his work have had marked recognition in the International
Oriental Congresses, in the American Philosophical Society, in the
Academy of Natural Sciences, and in other learned bodies. He writes:
“I have gone over, with constantly increasing interest, your pages on
‘The Threshold Covenant,’ an interest associated with admiration of the
wide reading you have brought to bear on the theme, and the temperate
and enlightened spirit in which you have presented the facts.
“You have, without question, established the practical universality of
the rites and ceremonies you describe, and the ideas from which they
took their origin. Your volume is another and powerful witness to the
parallelisms of culture, and to the unity in the forms of expression of
the human mind.
“These analogies and identities are, as you well know, open to several
interpretations or explanations. The main one offered by you seems to
me, as a fact, quite probable; certainly it was constantly associated
with such rites.
“I am not able altogether to agree with the point of view expressed in
your Preface, and on pages 193–195, in reference to the general origin
and trend of religious ideas; but possibly I should find myself closer
to your position were I to see it more amply defined. I cannot think the
earliest religions were, as a rule, more ‘uplifting’ than the later
ones; I think there was a general progress upwards.