DISCOVERY 



37 



migrations, different types live or try to live side 

 bv side, and ^\^th differences of physical character 

 we have to consider differences of mental character, 

 as above suggested. 



But we must beware of treating all that we consider 

 to be mental character as rigidly bound up \nth 

 racial physical character. A great majority of the 

 \\'elsh people has a natural gift for vocal music ; 

 oratory is widespread and may often be of high 

 character ; the poetic gift is frequent ; but there is 

 little W'elsh architecture or purely Welsh painting. 

 Interest in vocal music and weakness in painting may 

 also be said to be features of Swiss life. The physical 

 racial characters of most Swiss people differ very 

 deeply from those of most Welsh people, and these 

 physical characters cannot be invoked for interpreting 

 some partial similarities just noted in mental affairs. 

 We are, rather, face to face with certain reactions to 

 conditions of life which, in both cases, rather limit 

 the opportunities and the equipment for artistic 

 expression along lines needing wealth for their de- 

 velopment. But while allowing full weight to this 

 kind of interpretation, we need not forget that hUl-life 

 with its shepherding has a musical tradition that 

 is world-old, and that it encourages lung develop- 

 ment as well. Again, the post-classical development 

 of the arts of painting and sculpture has been 

 most notable in the Italian cities of the Renais- 

 sance and in Flanders, both, at the time of their 

 artistic flowering, foci of intercourse on a large scale 

 and regions of accumulation of wealth. Opportunity 

 would seem to have been a bigger factor here as 

 weU. 



Nevertheless, in spite of all that may be said for 

 influence of circumstances acting directly or indirectly, 

 a good deal maj- also be claimed for the influence 

 of race inheritance, even if it be freely admitted that 

 the race character ma\- possibly be the expression of 

 the exposure of manj' generations to the influence of 

 similar conditions, a character capable of change with 

 changed conditions. 



It is claimed that the prime home of the agricultural 

 \"illage-communitv, with its system of common fields 

 and governance by custom, is the region on the north 

 side of the Alps — a region where the simpler folk, at 

 least, are of Alpine race. The system is usually 

 thought to have been weak when transplanted among 

 other peoples. The same area is noted for small 

 industry-, based on wood from the forests and \\-inter 

 leisure no doubt, but developed along lines requirmg 

 patient application and refined handling ; the watch- 

 making industry and the modern electrical-machinery 

 industry have closeh' similar distribution and seem to 

 depend on the same patient tenacity and love of 

 detail. The complex workmen's insurance schemes. 



the public ownership of services of many kinds, the 

 concentration on local interests and disregard of large 

 ambition, are all features of the same people. Thence 

 we get a picture of some aspects of mentality very 

 common, not of course universal, among people of 

 Alpine race in Western Europe, that is, among the 

 stocky, round-headed, round-faced, rather dark people 

 who form a large proportion of the population of lands 

 on the north side of the Alps, as well as of certain 

 parts of France. 



One might argue about characteristics widely 

 distributed among the Chinese and so on, but this 

 argument from observation in the mass is far less 

 interesting than argument based on a finer analysis, 

 for which purpose it will be best to consider a few 

 \arieties in the British population. 



Without repeating here an argument often worked 

 out, it may be said that the basis of the population 

 of England and Wales has the following characters 

 present in a large number of individuals : The head is 

 long and the body is bony, rather than thick-set or 

 fleshy ; the stature is very often low, but \'arieties 

 are decidedly tall ; the colouring is dark, as regards 

 the hair at least, though the eyes are gre}' in many 

 cases. It is a type produced in all probability by 

 descent with modification from the early Neolithic 

 people of the country, though many subsequent 

 migrants, both from the south and from the north- 

 east, may have contributed to it. In Wales it runs 

 darker and smaller, and so it does in Derbyshire, 

 north Hertfordshire, Dartmoor, and elsewhere. 



In Wales its representatives will be found in force 

 at religious gatherings, Eisteddfodau, and the like. 

 In the villages among the hills they live poorly on tea 

 and bread and butter, with dire consequences to their 

 health. House-pride is not at all well developed, 

 nor is there much gardening instinct present. They 

 may flee from rural poverty to the mining and industrial 

 areas, where, with more food, they seem uniquely 

 able to survive slum conditions, though they do this 

 at the cost of much warping of fine nature, which 

 made a gentle courtesy a widespread feature of their 

 rural life. 



It is the people who possess these physical characters 

 who therefore suffer exploitation by the industrial 

 system, and that system is most probably spreading 

 these characters at the expense of all others through- 

 out the less-privileged ranks of society. A sympathetic 

 psychological study of these people and the conditions 

 that favour their development might do something 

 to limit human devastation due to mass- production 

 based on irresponsible speculation. In the remoter 

 corners of Britain it would seem that there linger 

 in the minds of these people strange elements or 

 faculties which, in our deep ignorance, we call " second 



