284 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



the entire race. And this would be quite in keeping 

 with the remark of Prof. Sayce* that "For anything we 

 know, the parent- Aryan may have been the language of 

 a race essentially different from that to which we belong; 

 indeed, it is highly probable that it was spoken by more 

 than one race/' 



And now, allowing that the hypothesis presented in 

 this second suggestion should be found to be justified 

 by the facts, when once (if ever) the facts come to be 

 adequately known, it would seem to contain an intima- 

 tion of the .primary reason why at the present day the 

 various races of man present such striking contrasts in 

 the degrees of civilization wliicli they have severally at- 

 tained. I do not forget, or lightly esteem, the fact that 

 the existing differences are far greater than those separat- 

 ing race from race three or four thousand years ago; nor 

 do I forget, or lightly esteem, the fact that the increased 

 superiority of the more advanced races is due, mainly, 

 to their own superior self-activity. But the real ques- 

 tion would seem 'to be this: How came the superior 

 races to be superior primarily? To what could this be 

 due, if not to an earlier start in the human degree of 

 life ? And what could be the cause of this earlier start 

 unless it be the greater stimulus of a more favorable 

 environment ? 



'"Modern "man has reduced nature to the grade of 

 mere instrumentality. "Ancient" man bowed in fear 

 before the various aspects of nature, worshiping them 

 as gods. But by " ancient " man we who use the term 

 commonly mean the "primitive " men who were our own 

 forefathers. On the other hand, the " ancient " men of 



*" Science of Language," II., 122. 



