546 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Christianity, again, while he remains in contact with the white 

 man distinctly advances, " Uncle Tom " is an abnormal specimen, 

 it may be, and we are not inclined to place the moral condition of 

 the negroes of the Southern States very high ; but still, they have 

 displayed a perfectly wonderful absence of vindictiveness toward 

 the former slave-owners, obey the ordinary laws with fair regu- 

 larity, and keep themselves above starvation by the labor of their 

 own hands. The best of them, moreover, rise far beyond this 

 point, the South containing both doctors and lawyers who, by the 

 admission of the whites, are thoroughly competent men ; and it 

 may be said of the whole body that, though not equal to any Eu- 

 ropean community of the same extent, they are far superior to 

 any four millions of j)agan negroes who could be selected in Af- 

 rica. As they can not owe this rise in the scale to slavery, which 

 at the best could only drill the negroes to industry, and at the 

 worst must beget a permanent distaste for labor, the change must 

 be owing to Christianity, plus the operation of laws based upon 

 that faith. It follows that the largest group of negroes under 

 civilized observation, the descendants, as is believed, of four widely 

 distinguished tribes, have been raised in the scale of humanity by 

 embracing a rude form of the Christian faith. The total conclu- 

 sion, therefore, as yet justified by evidence, is that intermarriage, 

 especially with the Arab, improves the negro tribes, that they 

 gain in manliness by embracing Islam, and that they gain in the 

 social virtues by embracing Christianity, the latter to a degree 

 measured by the depth and earnestness of their faith. At home, 

 when unconquered and unconverted, they do not advance, and the 

 point still doubtful is whether, when left to themselves, they will 

 not, even when converted, again recede or stop. The Abyssinians, 

 who are Semites, have been Christians for ages. The conclusion 

 is not very satisfactory ; but it is certain that races of imperfect 

 powers exist — e. g., the Australian aborigines — and that Provi- 

 dence does, for unknown purposes, occasionally waste even fine 

 races — e. g., the Maoris — who will, to all appearance, die out, hav- 

 ing fulfilled no function at all, not even that of preparing the way 

 for the ultimate occupants of their country. — Spectator. 



A CURIOUS economical study is afforded by the four groups of the Scilly Islands 

 'and Orkneys — which are as a rule prosperous— and the "Western Hebrides and 

 Shetland Islands — which are miserable — under similar outward conditions and 

 surroundings. Those conditions and the rule of race failing to account for the 

 difference, Mr. T. H. Farrer suggests that the explanation may be found in the 

 fact that in Scilly and Orkney the industries by which men live "have become 

 separated, specialized, and perfected, each practiced and developed by separate 

 classes as a separate pursuit," while in the Hebrides and the Shetlands the 

 crofter has to be at the same time a kind of Jack at all trades. 



