Preface 



races now despised may occasion some twinges 

 to the pride of the " Aryan " or the " Cauca- 

 sian " (obsolete term !) and while the certainty 

 that rehgions of the highest grade have passed 

 through lowly stages of growth is not favorable 

 to intellectual hauteur, nay, is painful to de- 

 vout believers, yet such conclusions may at 

 least have some compensation, by causing us 

 to feel the solidarity of mankind, by begetting 

 in us charity toward those who, by the widest 

 stretch of courtesy, cannot be included in the 

 aristocracy of the Aryan and the Semite. 

 After all, even those who are not heirs to 

 the religions of Moses, Buddha, Christ, or 

 Mohammed are men ! It can do no harm to 

 recall once more that our remote ancestors 

 were immersed in the same sea of superstitious 

 fears that make the life of lowly races a con- 

 stant struggle with nightmares and urge them 

 to crimes from which a natural kindly instinct 



revolts. 



xvii 



