FACTORS OF NATIONAL CHARACTER 155 



civilisation found amongst Europeans and Negroes, 

 respectively, it will be found that not only does the 

 race of men vary between Europe and Central Africa, 

 but the climate and institutions also vary largely 

 between the two continents, so that it becomes diffi- 

 cult to allot to any one factor its due share in the 

 variation between the two civilisations. We know, 

 however, of what enormous importance race is in the 

 vegetable world and amongst the lower animals, and 

 it is only reasonable to assign to racial inheritance a 

 position of importance in the case of man ; indeed 

 many scientific writers attach the greatest importance 

 to it. In some countries where large movements of 

 population have taken place in comparatively modern 

 times, history may give us some clue as to the charac- 

 teristics of the various elements of the population. 

 Mr. Theodore Roosevelt makes the following claim 

 for the United States of America : " The first colon- 

 ists to our shores were pioneers who pushed west- 

 wards into the wilderness and laid the foundation for 

 new commonwealths. They were men of hope and 

 expectation, of enterprise and energy ; for the men of 

 dull content or more dull despair had no part in the 

 great movement into and across the new world. Our 

 country has been populated by pioneers, and therefore 

 it has more energy, more enterprise, more expansive 

 power than any other in the wide world." Similarly 

 it is claimed for England that its racial inheritance 

 from the vigorous races of Angles, Saxons, Danes and 

 Normans was good, and was at a later date fortified 



