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THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



After Caesar had invaded and conquered Gaul, Komau civilisation transformed the country. It 

 was not the policy of the conquerors, however, to fuse with the conquered, and from Rome 

 France received only her language and her laws. Prance was afterwards overrun by tribes of 

 Teutonic stock, Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, from the latter of whom the French have 

 acquired the name they now bear. Later came the Normans, a Scandinavian people. Thus it 

 will be seen that the French are a Latin people in language only, while the ethnic basis is 

 undoubtedly Celtic, with a tinge of Teutonic and Scandinavian elements in their composition. 

 In the south-east of France Greek colonisation had gained a slight footing centuries before 



the Roman conquest. Marseilles, Antibes, 

 and Nice were, with one or two other 

 places, the sites of their settlements. 



Two physical types have been noticed 

 in France. In the north there are people 

 of tall stature, light hair, light eyes, and 

 oval-shaped head. These are generally 

 taken to represent the purely Celtic Gaul 

 unmixed with the pre-existing inhabitants, 

 though possibly they owe these character- 

 istics to the Teutonic and Scandinavian 

 elements that have been mentioned. 

 South of the Loire the average stature 

 is lower, the head rounder, and the eyes 

 and hair dark. This phenomenon is ex- 

 plained to be due to the persistence of 

 the Iberian type. It must be admitted, 

 however, that the highly civilised races 

 of Western Europe have undergone so 

 many racial transformations that it is 

 impossible to analyse them with minute 

 precision. 



Mentally the French are characterised 

 by the vivacity and quickness which are 

 the typical traits of the Celtic intellect. 

 They share with the inhabitants of 

 Southern Europe generally the habit of 

 temperance in diet, which is due in a 

 large measure to the lighter strain under- 

 gone by the system than it is subjected 

 to in the more bracing climate of the 

 North. 



It is from the bourgeoisie the great 

 middle class and the peasantry that we 

 get the most typical Frenchman. In the 

 various political catastrophes that have 



befallen France the aristocracy have practically disappeared as a social force. The possession 

 of a title is of little assistance to its owner in obtaining State employment, and the few 

 remaining representatives of noble families, for the most part impoverished and retired, exercise 

 hardly any influence on the character of the country at large. 



The bourgeois, however a name which covers professional men, merchants, tradesmen, 

 and public functionaries is the central figure in French life, at all events in the towns. 

 Frenchmen of this class are by no means wanting in alert intelligence and the power of 

 forming independent and shrewd judgments. They are, however, terribly afflicted with a 



Photo by M. Emit Frechon} 



A FRENCH FISHERMAN. 



