INTRODUCTION 9 



We must now endeavour to place on record some 

 aspects of the human mind, in its interrelation to 

 The Races of the growth of science. Let us admit, in 

 Europe. t he first place, that it is possible for a 

 race to attain a high standard of civilization without 

 assigning any appreciable part in its development to 

 the effects of organized scientific discovery, which is 

 indeed mainly a creation of the last three or four 

 centuries. The knowledge of the workings of nature 

 and the interest in natural phenomena have fluctu- 

 ated from age to age, and from nation to nation. 

 Some races of high standing seem to be entirely 

 deficient in the necessary faculties either of observation 

 or experiment. From considerations such as these, we 

 must probably believe the growth of natural science to 

 be dependent ultimately on some peculiarity of brain 

 convolution and quality of mind inherent in certain 

 individuals or types of the human species, and capable 

 of stimulation by appropriate circumstances. The 

 properties of the human mind, in this as in everything 

 else, are but an indication of some biological factor. 



When we pursue the problem a little further, it 

 seems possible fairly to treat European science as a 

 separate creation of persons or races dwelling in or 

 derived ancestrally from the one continent. Natural 

 science as we know it now is almost entirely the product 

 of the races of Western and North- Western Europe, 

 the part where the dominant elements of the nations 

 belong to a distinct, well-defined stock. The science 

 of ancient Greece was probably less isolated, and cer- 

 tainly received considerable accretions, for good or 

 evil, from the civilizations of Assyria and Egypt. But, 

 whether we are considering ancient or modern European 



