450 TKADITION AND HEKEDITY 



Scotch differ from the English in disposition and though this 

 is more doubtful there may be intellectual differences. There 

 may be some slight difference between the English and the French 

 intellect ; it is hardly likely that the French passion for logic 

 and the English aversion to it are altogether traditional charac- 

 teristics. It would, therefore, appear that there are innate mental 

 differences between European races which tend not so much to 

 thrust races along certain paths as in the course of generations 

 to colour tradition and even at crises in national life, when 

 a choice is presented, to determine which path shall be taken. 

 These differences may be explained though it is a somewhat 

 speculative enterprise by supposing that the ancestors of the 

 various racial types were exposed to different surroundings 

 the ancestors of the Alpine race to patriarchal institutions, of the 

 Nordic race to more individualistic institutions and that thus 

 subservient and assertive types were respectively favoured. 1 



The influence, however, of innate racial differences between 

 races so closely related as those of modern Europe must not be 

 overrated. It is possible to point to many examples of the fact 

 that the distribution of institutions, customs, and so on does not 

 always correspond to that of racial types. In Belgium, to take 

 only one instance, the Walloons are of Alpine stock, that is to 

 say, they are racially similar to the great majority of Germans. 

 But the Walloons are distinctly French in character and sym- 

 pathy, whereas the Flemings the other element in the Belgian 

 population are Nordic and are in certain respects more allied 

 to the Germans with whom racially they have little in common. 

 Either in such a case innate racial differences do not exist of the 

 kind suggested, or, as is more probable, they exist but have been 

 obscured by tradition. That tradition is the predominant factor 

 in shaping those characteristics, of which we think when we have 

 any nation in mind, can be seen when we look at two examples 

 of race formation in modern times. Those characteristics which 

 we find to be distinctive of the Boer race, for instance, can be 

 traced to the peculiar turn given by the environment to the 

 peculiar tradition remarkable both in its religious and social 

 aspects brought by the first settlers. The racial elements repre- 

 sented among the Boers of to-day are well known Dutch for the 

 most part with some admixture of French and English blood. 



1 See McDougall, Group Mind, ch. xvii. 



