Heredity' and the Law of Evolution. 295 



view, there are three races of men, perfectly distinct and different, 

 not by any mere external difference, but by a radical and essential 

 one j the blood of one race is as different from that of another 

 ' as water is different from alcohol.' These three races are the 

 black, the yellow, and the white. The black race, which is unin- 

 tellectual, sensual, passionate, abandoning itself to its instincts, 

 represents, according to M. de Gobineau, the female element. The 

 yellow is the male element ; it possesses a positive mind, a narrow 

 intellect, a love of comfort, utilitarian tendencies, and totally lacks 

 artistic aptitude. The white is the noble race, gifted with superior 

 faculties, and possessing aptitudes for poetry, sciences, and politics. 

 Of this noble race the noblest branch is the Aryan, and of this 

 branch the noblest family is the Germanic. 



The first two races, left to themselves, are totally incapable of 

 attaining to civilization. This power is possessed only by the white 

 race. But in lifting the other two out of barbarism the white race 

 itself is degraded by contact with them. What the other two 

 races gain the white loses, just as when an exquisite wine is mixed 

 with wines of inferior quality. Nor is this all ; not only is the 

 mongrel race inferior to the white, but also, inasmuch as every 

 cross is in itself a cause of degradation, it follows that the white 

 blood, though it does not change in quantity, yet loses its virtues 

 on occasion of every new cross. From all this the reader will 

 conjecture what our author thinks of modern civilization. An 

 epoch which, by travel and by the multiplied needs of commerce 

 and civilization, brings all peoples into mutual contact, and brings 

 about alliances of every description, is, in his eyes, a ' horrible con- 

 fusion.' The white race, which was uncontaminated in the time of 

 the gods, still pure enough in the heroic age, already tainted in 

 the days of the aristocracy, has now entered 'the era of unity.' 

 When the confusion becomes complete, and when the white blood 

 in every human creature shall bear to that of the other races the 

 ratio of one to two, then ' the nations, or rather the human herds, 

 oppressed by a gloomy somnolence, will live swallowed up in their 

 nullity, like buffaloes ruminating in the stagnant puddles of the 

 Pontine Marshes. Our shameful descendants will surrender to 

 vigorous nature the universal dominion of the earth, and the 

 human creature will be no longer her master, but only a guest, 



