we cling'^to our own — that is, the familiar. And we fear those whom we do 

 not understand. Being intelligent and more or less civilized, we have to make 

 up good reasons for our dislikes and our antagonisms. We do, therefore, 

 exactly what very primitive people do: we assert that we are the people, and 

 that all others are at best not quite so good. We may base our claim to su- 

 periority on almost anything that we have in larger measure than others. It 

 does not matter whether it is tallness or large teeth or big muscles or narrow 

 skulls. Whatever distinguishes us is naturally superior. When we see others 

 claim superiority, their action appears to be childish. 



In our own times and in our own country, as well as in many European 

 countries, we have attempted to be more "scientific". We have tried to 

 *'prove" by tests and measurements and lists of characteristics that our people 

 are superior. And, properly, we have laid emphasis upon those qualities that 

 distinguish human beings from other species — intelligence, imagination, crea- 

 tive ability in the arts, skills of various kinds. Unfortunately, however, we 

 have neither adequate scales for measuring these qualities nor satisfactory 

 methods of distinguishing native, or inherited, abilities from the effects of 

 culture and tradition. How could you tell, for example, that an Eskimo or a 

 native of New Zealand had a natural aptitude for music or mathematics or 

 mechanics or art appreciation? It would not help us to compare the present 

 accomplishment of a hundred Eskimos of, let us say, twenty years of age with 

 a hundred twenty-year-old Californians or Swedes. 



Illiterate Mexicans learn to operate automobiles and to keep them in re- 

 pair. Ignorant Russian peasants learn to make and to operate huge agricul- 

 tural tractors and military tanks. Peruvian Indians learn to play European 

 musical instruments and to compose symphonies in the classical form. De- 

 scendants of slaves in our own states become distinguished poets, musicians, 

 scientists and mathematicians. 



By the way, the four men shown in the illustration on page 519 all claimed to 

 be Irish. A still greater variety could have been selected from among the "Irish" 

 examined by one local draft board during the First World War; and these "types" 

 could be duplicated by Scandinavian Lutherans, Italian Catholics, Scotch Presby- 

 terians, or Russian Jews who came before the same draft board. 



In Brief 



Some species of organisms have become extinct; new ones have replaced 

 them. 



Occasionally individuals that depart decidedly from their ancestral pat- 

 terns transmit their distinctive quaUties to their offspring. 



The mutation theory of evolution supposes that natural selection, acting 

 upon sports, or mutations, results in new species. ' 



521 



