532 MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



so simple. The brunettes, representing both Iberians and Kelts, 

 certainly increase, as we should expect from north-east to south- 

 west, though even here there is a considerable dark patch, due to 

 local causes, in the home shires about London. But the stature, 

 almost everywhere a troublesome factor, seems to wander some- 

 what lawlessly over the land. The little people under 5 ft. 6 in. 

 are perhaps more numerous than they ought to be ; nor are they 

 always in evidence where we should look for them. In Ireland 

 especially the positions are reversed, the tall being all in the west 

 (Connaught and Munster), the less tall in the north and east 

 (Ulster and Leinster), though the difference is but slight. For 

 details on this and some other points, which become rather 

 technical, I must refer the reader to Ripley, and especially to the 

 Reports of the Anthropometric Committees appointed to deal with 

 these matters systematically by the British Association in 1875. 



Strange to say, the element that appears to have undergone 

 the least change is the racial temperament. The Kelt is still a 

 Kelt, mercurial, passionate, vehement, impulsive, more courteous 

 than sincere, voluble or eloquent, fanciful, if not imaginative, 

 quick-witted and brilliant rather than profound, elated with success 

 but easily depressed, hence lacking steadfastness, and still as of 

 old novarum reruni cupidissimus. The Saxon also still remains 

 a Saxon, stolid and solid, outwardly abrupt but warm-hearted and 

 true, haughty and even overbearing through an innate sense of 

 superiority, yet at heart sympathetic and always just, hence a 

 ruler of men ; seemingly dull or slow, yet preeminent in the realms 

 of philosophy and imagination (Newton, Shakespeare). 



While the Saxon prefers duty to glory, both are largely gifted 

 with some of those qualities which make for empire pluck 1 , or 

 personal valour as distinguished from courage in the mass, the 

 spirit of daring enterprise and a love of adventure for its own 

 sake. Jointly they have struggled to the front, and secured for 

 our people some 12 million square miles of habitable lands beyond 



1 This quality is no monopoly of the Saxon, as has been contended. The 

 Kelts, and especially the Irish and Scotch Gaels, possess it in large measure, 

 as shown by the incidents recorded of Clontarf, Aughrim, Limerick, Cremona, 

 Fontenoy, and by such names as Sarsfield, Dundonald, Kavanagh, O'Higgins, 

 and a hundred others. 



