592 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



pists of Britain and America seem to look upon as being a kind 

 of pernicious pastime easily capable of suppression. " If you go 

 over the history of nations," he says, " you will find that the 

 downfall of any nation arises through the gradual weakening of 

 its people, and the gradual rise of the dominance of the ruling 

 power. That has gone on in proportion to the destruction of 

 the strong and the fit." He gives some attempts at historical 

 proof of this hypothesis ; but on examination they can scarcely 

 be called satisfactory ; and indeed other instances suggesting the 

 opposite conclusion can easily be cited. For example, one of the 

 most virile periods of English history was that which followed 

 immediately upon the dreadful Wars of the Roses. The greatest 

 development of Prussia followed shortly after the wars of 

 Frederick the Great. Rome reached her highest stage at a time 

 when her individual citizens were themselves most engaged in 

 fighting and began to decay as soon as they conducted their wars 

 more by the help of mercenaries. Perhaps, however, the most 

 remarkable historical instances of the good effect of war upon 

 national physique are to be found in the cases of the Zulus and 

 Masai of Africa, who were well known to be at once the finest and 

 most warlike men. The Sikhs of India were originally a religious 

 sect simply drawn from the surrounding population but obliged 

 to defend themselves by incessant fighting from the attacks of 

 their neighbours. Nevertheless they became and are the finest 

 men in India, as admitted by the British soldiers who recruit and 

 train Indian troops. Another example is the case of the moun- 

 taineers on the north-west frontier of India — men who look upon 

 fighting as a pleasure, and have been engaged upon it amongst 

 themselves from time immemorial, and yet possess a magnificent 

 physique and morale far superior to that of the plain-dwellers. 

 At the same time the Japanese and the Indian Ghurkas, who 

 have also done much fighting, are small people, but remarkably 

 warlike and efficient nevertheless. On the other hand, some of 

 the feeblest races are those which never fight if they can help it, 

 or always run away in order to live and fight another day. 

 According to Chancellor Jordan, these should be the big and 

 strong men, whereas the Zulus, the Sikhs, and the Afridis should 

 be small and feeble. 



Of course the subject, vastly important as it is as regards the 

 whole theory of civilisation, is much more complex than he seems 

 to imagine. It is quite possible that hand-to-hand and modern 



