236 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



future almost certainly contain oriental also. For the 

 races of India, Japan, and even China, are no farther 

 from us to-day than the ancestors of many of our occi- 

 dental fellow-citizens were a century ago. Racial 

 prejudices, however strong, weaken rapidly through 

 intercourse and better acquaintance. One of the grand- 

 est and least perceived results of missionary w^ork is 

 the preparation for this great fusion. 



Many races will undoubtedly go down before the 

 advance of civilization and have no share in the fut- 

 ure. Progress seems to be limited to the inhabitants 

 of temperate zones ; and even here the weaker may be 

 crowded out before the stronger rather than absorbed 

 by them. But many whom we now despise may have a 

 larger inheritance in the future than we. God is clear- 

 ly showing us that we should not count any man, much 

 less any nation, common or unclean. And the laws of 

 evolution give us a firm confidence that no good at- 

 tained by any race or civilization will fail to be pre- 

 served in the future. 



The forms which seem to us at any one time the 

 highest are as a rule not the ancestors of the race of 

 the future. These highest forms are too much special- 

 ized, and thus fitted to a narrow range of space, time, 

 and general conditions ; when these change they pass 

 away. Specialization is doubly dangerous when it 

 follows a wrong line. But whenever it is carried 

 far enough to lead to a one-sided development, it nar- 

 rows the possibility of future advance ; for it neglects 

 or crowds out or prevents the development of other 

 powers essential to life. The mollusk neglected nerve 

 and muscle. But the scholar may, and often does, cul- 

 tivate the brain at the expense of the rest of the body 



