262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



being exercised by other parts of the nervous system. As we ascend 

 to higher actions, guided by more and more complicated combinations 

 of stimuli, there is not the same instantaneous discharge in simple 

 motions ; but there is a comparatively deliberate and more variable 

 adjustment of compound motions, duly restrained and proportioned. 

 It is thus with the passions and sentiments in the less developed 

 natures and in the more developed natures. Where there is but little 

 emotional complexity, an emotion, when excited by some occurrence, 

 explodes in action before the other emotions have been called into 

 play ; and each of these, from time to time, does the like. But the 

 more complex emotional structure is one in which these simpler emo- 

 tions are so coordinated that they do not act independently. Before 

 excitement of any one has had time to cause action, some excitement 

 has been communicated to others often antagonistic ones and the 

 conduct becomes modified in adjustment to the combined dictates. 

 Hence i-esults a decreased impulsiveness, and also a greater persist- 

 ence. The conduct pursued, being prompted by several emotions 

 cooperating in degrees which do not exhaust them, acquires a greater 

 continuity ; and while spasmodic force becomes less conspicuous, there 

 is an increase in the total energy. 



Examining the facts from this point of view, there are sundry 

 questions of interest to be put respecting the difl'erent races of men : 

 (a.) To what other traits than degree of mental evolution is impul- 

 siveness related? Apart from difference in elevation of type, the 

 New- World races seem to be less impulsive than the Old-Woi'ld races. 

 Is this due to constitutional apathy? Can there be traced (other 

 things equal) a relation between physical vivacity and mental impul- 

 siveness ? (Z.) What connection is there between this trait and the 

 social state? Clearly a very exj^losive nature such as that of the 

 Bushman is unfit for social vmion ; and, commonly, social union, 

 when by any means established, checks impulsiveness. (c.) What 

 respective shares in checking impulsiveness are taken by the feelings 

 which the social state fosters such as the fear of surrounding indi- 

 viduals, the instinct of sociality, the desire to accumulate property, 

 the sympathetic feelings, the sentiment of justice ? These, which 

 require a social environment for their development, all of them in- 

 volve imaginations of consequences more or less distant ; and thus 

 imply checks upon the promptings of the simpler passions. Hence 

 arise the questions In what order, in what degrees, and in what com- 

 binations do they come into play ? 



7. One further general inquiry of a different kind may be added: 

 What effect is produced on mental nature by mixture of races ? There 

 is reason for believing that, throughout the animal kingdom, the union 

 of varieties that have become widely divergent is physically injuri- 

 ous ; while the union of slightly-divergent varieties is physically bene- 

 ficial. Does the like hold with the mental nature ? Some facts seem 



