WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE? 175 



mentally inferior, that it will be hard for him to become 

 accustomed to the idea that even the repulsive Fiji Is- 

 lander is his equal in intelligence. 



Yet this is exactly what is being found to be a scientific 

 fact, and the world must accept it if we are to have any 

 success in civilizing the lower races. 



According to this revolutionary idea the difference be- 

 tween us and the savages is not one ot mental capacity, 

 but rather of the objects upon which that capacity is ex- 

 erted. 



A man may, for example, display just as much intelli- 

 gence in tracking a kangaroo through the bush as in solv- 

 ing a problem in higher mathematics. 



What makes the savage a savage is not the lack of in- 

 telligence, but the fact that his intelligence is exerted 

 largely upon foolish superstitions. The contents of his 

 brain differs from ours in kind, rather than breadth and 

 depth. 



"Dr. Alfred G. Mayer, of the Carnegie Institution, 

 found some interesting evidence to support these argu- 

 ments among the Fiji Islanders, who are the lowest, most 

 cruel and most repulsive of primitive savages. 



I remember how my parents used to consider the Cath- 

 olics a very ignorant and uneducated lot of people, and 

 the free thinkers, as we called them, the most ignorant of 

 all, and also dangerous to associate with. 



As I came to maturity, I soon noticed that it was only 

 a matter of opinion and that one was about as smart as 

 the other. 



My father, who read only republican papers, was a re- 

 publican, while my brother and I happened to read 

 some democratic literature and we turned out to be demo- 

 crats for a while, but later saw that it was all a matter 

 of politics. Whether any person is really sane, is a ques- 



