1 82 LIFE AND HABIT. 



Negroes, Indians, and Spaniards seldom had, whatever 

 the cause might be, a good expression. " Livingstone " 

 (continues Mr. Darwin) " remarks, ' It is unaccountable 

 why half-castes are so much more cruel than the Portu- 

 guese, but such is undoubtedly the case/ An inhabitant 

 remarked to Livingstone, 'God made white men, and 

 God made black men, but the devil made half-castes.' " 

 A little further on Mr. Darwin says that we may " per- 

 haps infer that the degraded state of so many half-castes 

 is in part due to reversion to a primitive and savage con- 

 dition, induced by the act of crossing, even if mainly due 

 to the unfavourable moral conditions under which they 

 are generally reared." Why the crossing should pro- 

 duce this particular tendency would seem to be intelli- 

 gible enough, if the fashion and instincts of offspring are, 

 in any case, nothing but the memories of its past exist- 

 ences ; but it would hardly seem to be so upon any of 

 the theories now generally accepted ; as, indeed, is very 

 readily admitted by Mr. Darwin himself, who even, as 

 regards purely-bred animals and plants, remarks that 

 " we are quite unable to assign any proximate cause " 

 for their tendency to at times reassume long lost char- 

 acters. 



If the reader will follow for himself the remaining 

 phenomena of reversion, he will, I believe, find them all 

 explicable on the theory that they are due to memory 

 of past experiences fused, and modified — at times speci- 

 fically and definitely — by changed conditions. There is, 

 however, one apparently very important phenomenon 

 which I do not at this moment see how to connect with 

 memory, namely, the tendency on the part of offspring 



