president's address. 15 



white they quickly realised that to hold a position amoug the 

 advanced nations of the world they must develop on other lines. 

 Rapidly they discarded the old order and became "westernised" 

 by their own efforts, and still send their brightest intellects to 

 universities in Europe and America to cull the best. The Negro 

 on coming into contact with advanced nations awaits them to 

 raise him to their own standard. 



As illustrative of the dependent attitude of the black upon 

 the white Dr. Aggrey, with his enlightened appreciation of both 

 the virtues and failings of his fellow natives, is reported as follows : 

 "In the course of his remarks he vigorously preached the gospel 

 of work with his hands, especially farming. He strongly depre- 

 cated natives looking to Europeans for help. The white man had 

 given them lots of things, and the time had come when the blacks 

 should have self-respect enough to do something for themselves." 



The Negro is not to be regarded as an example of "arrested 

 development," as is so often asserted in explanations of his 

 backwardness. The zoologist would rather maintain that his 

 racial characteristics are germinally different from those of the 

 white. Many of his physical characteristics — colour, hair, facial 

 features — are hereditarily different, and we may expect his mental 

 attributes to differ likewise, though these are not determinable in 

 precise terms from the data at present available. If we hold that 

 man had a monophyletic origin, as seems likely, then mutative 

 changes have since occurred which have given the marked heredi- 

 tary characters now differentiating the white and the black. How 

 far under his changed environment, in contact with the white as 

 preceptor and example, the black will show himself inventive and. 

 originative only the future will reveal ; but his history hitherto 

 suggests real constitutional limitations. We need not apologise 

 for his shortcomings by remarking that he has been in contact 

 with the white for only a few generations; had originality been 

 innate it would ere this have displayed itself independently. It 

 should also be clearly appreciated that his hereditary mental 

 nature will not change any more than will his physical nature, 

 however many generations he may be associated with the white. 

 We have ample proof that it «is highly responsive and readily 

 assimilative, but we do not know how far these qualities will carry 

 him. 



It is manifest that if we are to live with people, we should 

 know something of their nature and what they are likely to do and 

 become under given circumstances. The black man in close 

 sympathetic association with the white is a new problem, as he is 

 a new creature. We cannot predict to what he will ultimately 

 attain. We can wait until time slowly reveals it to us, but we 

 can also forestall by investigation and experiment. This latter 

 aspect makes a strong appeal to the man of science. Dr. Loram 

 has already carried out certain experiments in schools to defje'"- 

 mine the mental powers of Bantu children in comparison with 

 Indian and European, and described them in his book, "The 

 Education of the South African Native." More investigational 



