SOCIAL HEREDITY 291 



students. When every allowance is made for the 

 fact that the non-European students are often 

 selected representatives of large numbers, there 

 remains nevertheless no evidence to which weight 

 can be given tending to establish the existence of 

 any inborn quality of superior intellect in the 

 students of European races. More than once in 

 my inquiries experienced and competent observers, 

 familiar with the capacities of students of various 

 races in University or Bar examinations in England, 

 have expressed to me the opinion that it would be 

 impossible to make out a serious case for accepting 

 the existence of any inborn intellectual superiority 

 in the English students, and that if such an opinion 

 were urged the case would be quite as strong for 

 holding the opposite view. 



Confining attention to the peoples who have played 

 a ruling part in the history of the Western world in 

 the past, it would in the same manner be impossible 

 to make out a case for inborn intellectual pre- 

 eminence in any one of them over other European 

 races. In the face of world- wide evidence it would 

 be entirely foolish to attempt to maintain that the 

 Teutonic peoples possessed inborn intellectual 

 superiority over the Celts, or the Celts over the 

 Slavs, or the Slavs in turn over the Teutons. It 

 would be equally absurd in face of the evidence to 



