RACIAL MENTAL DIFFERENCES 297 



hence the extraordinary variety of sexual customs in the 

 past and the present. The parental instinct, also, has often 

 been under the direction of religion. 



471. The special advantages which a comparative study 

 of religions offers to an inquirer in heredity arise, first from 

 the fact that in past times many races have very rapidly 

 changed their religions ; second, from the fact that in several 

 instances many diverse races follow the same religion ; and, 

 third, from the fact that sections of the same race sometimes 

 follow diverse religions. One outstanding fact greets us at 

 the beginning of our inquiry; all communities that have 

 any given religion in common have also mental characteristics 

 so much in common that the resulting state of society in any 

 one of the communities is such as is more or less common 

 to all the other communities; in other words, they have 

 a nearly similar civilization, attain to a nearly similar 

 level of prosperity and enlightenment, exhibit a nearly 

 similar degree of respect for law and order, are nearly 

 equally progressive, and so on. Of the truth of this there 

 is unlimited evidence; for throughout the world whatever 

 community of whatever race in whatever climate professes a 

 given religion, it has invariably a state of society nearly 

 similar to that of all the other communities professing the 

 same religion. Other educational influences, of course, may 

 modify the civilization which is associated with any religion, 

 but so great, so dominant, is the influence of the latter that 

 in all cases the modification is surprisingly slight. 



472. The example of modern Mahomedans, since they 

 include within their ranks a great number of races, dwelling 

 in a variety of climates, under very diverse physical con- 

 ditions, admirably illustrates the argument. It is manifest 

 that the Mahomedan civilization, the Mahomedan mind, is 



characteristics were inborn, what process of Natural Selection had 

 previously caused, in quite a short period, the inhabitants of a few 

 small towns in Greece and Italy to evolve mentally so far beyond the 

 people of the surrounding areas 1 What process of Natural Selection 

 has caused the modern descendants of the stupid aliens to become 

 mentally so superior to their forefathers of the Dark Ages? In the 

 time of Queen Elizabeth the superiority was a very sudden and recent 

 affair in England. It is still a somewhat recent affair in some of the 

 awakening communities in the South of Europe. Who can doubt that 

 the change is dawning in the East of the Continent ? A few generations 

 more and when we scratch the Russian we shall no longer find the 

 Tartar. The philosophy which attributes the mass of racial peculiarities 

 to innate qualities, and not to mere acquirement, is, in effect, a philosophy 

 which attributes evolution to miracle and not to orderly processes of 

 Natural Selection. 



