8 



tury has passed, with little diiference until we come within the magic influence 

 of steam, and then suddenly the Aryan race acquiring the power to draw larger 

 crops from the soil, to distribute them more evenly, thus preventing disease 

 and famine, and also, to visit new and more profitable fields of industry, multi- 

 plies so as to keep pace with the increased supply of food, and with the demand 

 for labor." 



But with all this development, with all this unparalelled progress within 

 one hundred 3'^ears, there are elem nts of weakness in our civilization. Let us 

 consider for a moment some of the characteristics of this Aryan race. It is 

 not only the most active and intelligent, it is also the most stalwart of races. 

 More even than this, the Aryan of to-day is more robust than his Greek and 

 Roman predecessors. His civilization is more destructive, but his power of 

 resistance is greater. Luxury is not enervating. A proof of this is seen in the 

 fact that wherever the modern Aryan goes, among inferior races, he destroys 

 them. Such was not the case in ancient times. We read of conquests then ; 

 of whole provinces overrun and subdued, but the inferior race survived ; yes, 

 survived, and assimilated with its conquerors. Now it is destroyed; it disap- 

 pears not by the agencies of force, of cruelty, of blood-shed, but by simple 

 contact with a superior civilization. In the words of Mr. Bageshot, Savages 

 waste away before modern civilization ; they seem to have held their ground 

 before the ancient. There is no lament in any classical writei for the barbar- 

 ians. * * Modern science explains the wasting away of savage men ; 

 it says that we have diseases which we can bear though they cannot, and that 

 they die away before them as our fatted and protected cattle died out before 

 the rhinderpest, which is innocuous, in comparison, to the hardy cattle of the 

 Steppes." Mr. Francis Galton, upon the same point, though in a different 

 vein, remarks : "The number of the races of mankind that have been entirely 

 destroyed under the pressure of the requirements of an incoming civiliza^on 

 reads us a terrible lesson Probably in no former period of the world has the 

 destruction of the races of any animal whatever, been effected over such wide 

 areas, and with such startlmg rapidity as in the case of savage man. On the 

 North American Continent, in the West Indian Islands, in the Cape of Good 

 Hope, in Australia, New Zealand and Van Dieman's land the human denizens 

 of vast regions have been entirely swept away, in the short space of three cen- 

 turies, less by the pressure of a stronger race, than through the influence of a 

 civilization they were incapable of supporting. And, he continues, we too, 

 the foremost laborers in creating this civilization, are beginning to show our- 

 selves incapable of keeping pace with our "wn work. The needs of centraliza- 

 tion, communication and culture call for more brains and mental stamina than 

 the average of our race possess. An extended civilization like ours comprises 

 more interests than the ordinary statesmen or philosophers are capable of deal- 

 ing with, and it exacts more intelligent work than our ordinary artisans and 

 laborers are capable of performing. Our race is overweighted, and appears 

 likely to be drudged into degeneracy by demands that exceed its powers." 



Now the currents of thought set in motion by such reflections as^hese are 

 manifold, but we must necessarily direct attention to one or two. Of their 



