CHAPTER XXII 



RACIAL MENTAL DIFFERENCES 



Mainly acquired Differences in instinct must be slight Shapes and 

 sizes of brains in relation to intelligence The stability of inborn 

 characters Most racial characters cannot be inborn since they are 

 liable to too rapid alteration The evidence from religion. 



460. No opinion is more universally entertained than the 

 one that races of mankind differ mentally, each from all 

 others, by reason of inborn traits. Though opinions differ as 

 to the mental peculiarities of this or that race, though each 

 race has usually a very flattering opinion of its own mental 

 proclivities and capabilities, and a very unflattering opinion of 

 the proclivities and capabilities of other races, yet it is seldom 

 doubted that such proclivities and capabilities are inborn. 

 For instance, to take the English point of view, few English- 

 men doubt that their own race has " by nature " a genius for 

 empire and colonization, is brave, resolute, cool-headed, law- 

 abiding, liberty-loving, industrious, enterprising, and so on ; 

 that "by nature" Frenchmen are fickle, frivolous, ardent, and 

 logical ; that, for the same reason, Germans and Dutchmen 

 are phlegmatic and thoughtful ; Russians dull and barbarous ; 

 Japanese brave and enterprising ; Spaniards proud, intolerant, 

 and superstitious ; Italians musical, excitable, and prone to 

 violence ; Bengalese cowardly, servile, and subtle ; Afghans 

 fanatical, fierce, and treacherous; Chinese in some things 

 abnormally clever, in others abnormally stupid; West Africans, 

 almost beyond belief, foolish and cruel; Fingoes braggart 

 and timid ; Zulus brave and honest ; that this race has great 

 artistic tendencies and that race none at all ; that this race 

 has considerable capacity for civilization, that race less, and 

 that other none at all ; that the Irish have " by nature " one 

 kind of temperament and the Scotch another. 



461. Almost alone among historians Buckle has questioned 

 whether races differ inherently as regards their mental 



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