FUNDAMENTAL FORCES IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION 213 



has been the intellectual nation that has overcome the 

 one with less intelligence; but just as often it has 

 been the nation with the less intelligence that has 

 overcome her more intellectual foe. When the Per- 

 sians became masters of Egypt it was an intellectual 

 nation yielding to one less intelligent, for the intelli- 

 gence of the people of the Nile certainly surpassed 

 that of their Persian conquerors. But presently the 

 history was reversed. Of all the nations of early 

 times none surpassed the G-reeks in intelligence. 

 This race quickly overcame the Persians, giving us 

 an instance of the intellectual nation conquering one 

 less intelligent. But presently Greece herself yielded 

 to the cohorts of Eome, a nation which was clearly 

 her inferior in intelligence. Even the Romans them- 

 selves recognized this inferiority, and soon the vic- 

 torious Romans learned to depend upon Greece for 

 their masters in education, art, and literature, and 

 always recognized the superiority of Greece in these 

 respects. A few centuries later this same Rome, 

 that had by that time become the one intellectual race 

 of the world, was overcome by the barbaric races of 

 the north, among whom hardly the rudiments of 

 intelligence had appeared, and education was un- 

 known. That it is not the intelligent races that win 

 is illustrated by examples in abundance. The cul- 

 tured, wealthy Byzantine nation failed to be a force 

 compared to the crude Teutons. The brilliant and 

 intellectual Spanish nation yielded to the rough, 

 almost uneducated inhabitants of the Netherlands. 

 Even in more recent times it is no less evident that 

 the intelligence of the race does not give it a domi- 

 nating influence. The Latin peoples of Europe have 

 always been the intellectual races, compared with 



