42 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tribute by their immobility to the air of indolence or languor which so 

 impressed padres and rancheros/ Just as complete is the transition from 

 the manifestations of race-hatred culminating on the war-path to ' the 

 abject docility of the Seri when at peace and in camp.' Altogether the 

 Seris offer a brilliant example of intuitive relying upon reserve strength 

 to the disregarding of the mechanical and artificial devices known to 

 civilization, which so often make the individual absolutely dependent 

 upon them and not upon himself, causing many a dire calamity in times 

 of real storm and stress. The rapidity of the transition from extreme 

 inertness to extreme activity is also emphasized by Dr. McGee. It 

 therefore seems that the long periods of inactivity do not appreciably 

 injure either the brief periods of activity or inhibit the swift passage 

 from one to the other so characteristic of these savages. According 

 to Dr. McGee the Seri have acquired a ' race-sense ' in these matters, 

 that never fails them. 



Generalizations are always hazardous, but we can hardly doubt that 

 the Seris as described by Dr. McGee more fairly typify the savage and 

 primitive man than do certain other tribes glimpsed at by incompetent 

 or casual observers. 



The Pace. — That the races of man, and perhaps all mankind con- 

 sidered as a whole, have their alternations of activity and inactivity is 

 very probable. Particularly is this true when we consider some special 

 quality, which may be said to correspond to genius in the individual. 

 There are ' lean ' and ' fat ' years of racial genius. Havelock Ellis, in 

 his careful study of ' British Genius,'* notes as one of the two most im- 

 portant factors, ' a spontaneous rhythmical rise and fall in the pro- 

 duction of genius' ; this is indicated in the distribution of men of genius 

 by centuries and half-centuries, etc. The so-called ' ages ' of English 

 history — Elizabethan, Victorian — the Augustan period in Eome, the 

 era of Pericles in Greece, and their innumerable counterparts in the 

 annals of other lands afford proof of the rhythmic movement of racial 

 genius at its best in comparatively brief intervals, while the 'dark ages ' 

 of much longer duration are represented in many other parts of the 

 world than in Europe. The renaissances and revolutions of various 

 sorts, the outbursts of political energy, invention, maritime discovery, 

 literature, dramatic art, etc., represented in Athens by the period 530- 

 430 B. C, in England by 1550-1650 A. D., and in America by 1783- 

 1814, are well worth studying from this point of view. For Europe the 

 brief period 1550-1700 is particularly glorious, since during it there 

 came into the world Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Bacon and Lope 

 da Vega, while during the period 1620-1640 were bom Dryden, Locke, 

 Moliere, Eacine and Spinoza. Italian art, Semitic religion, Greek 

 philosophy, Hindu metaphysics and Chinese rationalism are not with- 

 * Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LVIII., p. 379. 



