EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL STRUCTURES 853 



but the only difference is that Austria is now in the midst of a new 

 social assimilation. The equilibration is not yet complete. The 

 Magyar and the Slav are still in the stage of resistance. It is said 

 that, on account of the differences of language, they can never be 

 assimilated. But in England there was the same diversity of lan- 

 guage, and the languages of the Romans, of the Normans, of the 

 Saxons, and of the Welsh and Scots had all to undergo a process of 

 mutual concession, of giving and taking, and of ultimate blending, 

 to form the new resultant language. It is not probable that just 

 such a result will be attained in Austria, and no one is probably wise 

 enough to foresee the end; but it seems probable that the time will 

 come at last when all these race-elements will be fully conciliated 

 and a great new race, people, and nation will emerge. The world 

 regards the struggle sympathetically and unanimously echoes the 

 sentiment: Tu felix Austria nube. 



We know less of the great Asiatic peoples, and still less of the 

 African; but so far as their history is known it is shown to have 

 been one of perpetual war. This means the repeated conquest and 

 subjugation of one race or nation by another, and a long series of 

 social assimilations, all similar to those described. That these 

 countries have not attained the same stage of culture as have those 

 of Europe is due to causes too subtle and obscure to be discussed 

 here, even if I were competent to discuss them; but one truth 

 seems to be growing more and more clear, viz., that the difference 

 is due much less to the native abilities of these peoples than to the 

 external conditions to which they have been subjected. Fifty years 

 ago Japan and China were habitually classed together, and they 

 were regarded as inferior races incapable of any such civilization as 

 that of the Western world. No one so classes them now, and it is 

 all because Japan has resolutely set about adopting Western methods. 

 Should China ever do so, the result would be the same, and it is 

 impossible to calculate what this might be. 



But it is not necessary that the two races brought into conflict 

 be of the same degree or order of assimilation. It is equally possible 

 that they be of very different degrees in this respect. Of course, 

 in such cases it is easy to see which will be the conquering race. 

 The race having the greatest social efficiency will easily subdue the 

 other, and the process of assimilation will be somewhat different. 

 The new racial product will differ much less from the conquering 

 race. That race will be prepotent and will virtually absorb the 

 inferior race. If the difference is very great, as where a highly 

 civilized race invades the territory occupied by a race of savages, 

 the latter seems soon to disappear almost altogether, -like the North 

 American Indians, and to exert scarcely any influence upon the 

 superior race. It is so in Australasia and in South Africa. But 



