Heredity and National Character. 1 1 1 



of more interest to us, he shows that the chief traits of the national 

 character and habits have been transmitted ; thus, the Arcadians 

 still lead a pastoral life, and the inhabitants of Sparta, their neigh- 

 bours, have a love for fighting, and an excitable, quarrelsome tem- 

 per. In the middle ages the Byzantine possessed all the essential 

 characteristics of his ancestors. 



If the reader will examine with us the ponderous, but scarce 

 known, volumes of the histories of the Lower Empire, he will find 

 that this people which called itself Roman * remained thoroughly 

 Greek, notwithstanding their Latin traditions, their imperial 

 routine, their manners imported from the East such as eunuchs, 

 the dress and worship of the emperor, etc. and their narrow 

 Christianity. There is here a curious study in historical psycho- 

 logy which we would one day willingly attempt. From the Greek 

 the Byzantine derived, besides language and literary traditions, a 

 subtlety which, for want of mental force to strengthen it, degener- 

 ated into low cunning. The love of the Greek for rhetoric and 

 brilliant conversation became the braggart self-assertion of the 

 Byzantine ; the subtle sophistry of the philosophers degenerated 

 into the empty scholasticism of the theologians; and the versatility 

 of the Grceculiis into the perfidious diplomacy of the Emperors. 

 The Byzantine is the Greek of Pericles' time, but in a dry and 

 withered old age. 



Similar observations might be made on any nation whatsoever, 

 but it is enough to direct the reader's attention to this subject. 

 To sum up, every people has its own physiognomy, and this results 

 (i) from certain primary characteristics, considered here as final 

 causes ; (2) from external conditions, or the influences of cir- 

 cumstances ; (3) from heredity, which maintains the primitive 

 characteristics. To this last factor, so often overlooked, we will 

 now attend. 



II. 



It may be further observed that crossings and alliances take 

 place between different nations to their advantage, say some, 

 to their great disadvantage, say others. This, at least, is certain, 

 that such intermingling of blood must, to some extent, modify 



1 'Oi Pw/iotot : so the Byzantines always designated themselves. 

 6 



