The Blood of the Nation 



molins, asks, " In what consists the su- 

 periority of the Anglo-Saxon ? " The 

 answer is found in defects of training 

 and of civic and personal ideals, but 

 the real cause lies deeper than all this. 

 Low ideals in education are developed 

 by inferior men. Dr. Nordau and his 

 school of exponents of "hand-painted 

 science " find France a nation of deca- 

 dents, a condition due to the inherited 

 strain of an overwrought civilization. 

 With them the word " degenerate " is 

 found adequate to explain all eccen- 

 tricities of French literature, art, poli- 

 tics, or jurisprudence. 



But science knows no such things as 

 nerve-stress inheritance. If it did, the 

 peasantry of France have not been sub- 

 jected to it. Their life is hard, no 

 doubt, but not stressful; and they 

 suffer more from nerve-sluggishness 

 than from any form of enforced psychi- 

 cal activity. The kind of degeneration 



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