CHINESE IMMIGRATION. 725 



jority, there would still result the establishment of a non-assimilable 

 class, that would be looked upon as an inferior caste, and would be ruled 

 without regard to their wishes or interests. Such a class, in a repub- 

 lican government, would be as much of an anomaly, and as impossible 

 of permanence, as the institution of slavery. 



That the evolution of societies is governed by the same general 

 laws which govern the evolution of organisms might be assumed, 

 a priori, from the fact that societies are but aggregates of organisms. 

 So, a society itself may be considered as an organism, for its exist- 

 ence as an aggregate necessitates the homogeneity of the parts com- 

 posing it. The people must be of the same race and civilization, and 

 in their institutions, laws, and customs, represent those instincts and 

 temperaments which are characteristic of their race. 



In past ages; war has been the chief means by which different civ- 

 ilizations have been brought together. The customs of the conquerors 

 have been forced upon the conquered, thus leading to the common 

 belief that the force thus employed was the cause of the resulting 

 change in the society. The fact that the conquering race or nation 

 generally prevails by virtue of superior numbers the most imj)ortant 

 element, perhaps, in the conquest of a civilization gives further color 

 to this interpretation. But the numerous instances in which the civil- 

 ization of the conquered nation is that which has prevailed show that 

 the conquest by armed forces has been followed by a conflict of civil- 

 ization, in which the dominant form has been determined, not by suc- 

 cess in arms, but by persistence of characters, and by the relative 

 number and fitness of the contending societies. That hatred of strange 

 peoples which formerly characterized the intercourse of nations, that 

 was born in ignorance and nourished by wars, has been weakened also 

 by the better knowledge of one another which the same conflicts have 

 brought about. Where formerly was only the crossing of arms is now 

 a growing friendly intercourse. Invasions by armies have been suc- 

 ceeded by peaceful immigrations ; but, though the conflict of arms 

 may pass away, the peaceful mingling of nations and races will be fol- 

 lowed still by the same conflict of civilizations. This is illustrated 

 throughout the whole range of human history ; but it may be sufficient 

 to briefly consider for this purpose two civilizations, which were repre- 

 sented by the most powerful monarchies of the Eastern and Western 

 hemispheres, in which the conquerors in war became the conquered 

 in peace, and in which the mingling of races resulted in the subversion 

 of the higher civilizations. Such was the history of the Romans and 

 the Mexicans. 



The civilization of the Romans, to which the modern civilized na- 

 tions are to so great an extent indebted, has naturally attracted the 

 particular attention of scholars and philosophers. In attempting to 

 account for the fall of that mighty structure, and the following period 

 of ignorance and barbarism, there have been given nearly as many 



