CAIN AND ABEL in 



of the Vandal Conquest of Germany in The " Times " History 

 of the World, in which the Editor, commenting on the atroci- 

 ties of the Vandal conquerors, says he cannot conceive that 

 these atrocities could have really taken place, but considers 

 they must have been magnified by the hatred of the vanquished 

 races of Germany for their new rulers. But when in this war 

 Germany has all the world against her, and little to fear from 

 the restraining influence of the fear that her plans may be 

 frustrated by the addition to the number of her foes, which 

 would otherwise act a deterrent to her cruelty, we find that 

 the hereditary tendencies of her Mongolian ancestry outweigh 

 the sedative action of her Aryan rulers, so much stronger are 

 the forces of heredity than those of variation or environment. 



So we find that in a thousand years the influence of 

 custom over national character is so slight as to be scarcely 

 visible. Thus in the same way the following characteristics 

 of the English race viz., their being able to adapt themselves 

 to greater variation of climate than any other race of men, a 

 tendency to meet danger with a smiling face, and the charac- 

 teristic that he never knows when he is beaten, either physi- 

 cally or in argument, are three that date back to the Glacial 

 Period, when, the British Isles having become separated from 

 the rest of Europe, and as navigation was not invented then, 

 he was unable, like other northern races, to flee from the snow 

 and cold and seek refuge in a milder climate. So we find 

 to-day that despite the passage of over one hundred thousand 

 years, they still remain his predominant characteristics, 

 and this only is another proof of the importance of here- 

 ditary fitness, for certain duties and occupations outweigh 

 in all but exceptional cases the influences of environment. 



But at the same time we must not forget that 

 although in a large majority of cases heredity decided fitness 

 and adaptability for certain work or production of like results 

 under like circumstances ; on the other hand, so great is the 

 strength, in the case of the individual, of the form of variation 

 we call habit that in cases of more than the usual adaptability 

 to variation and contact with powerful and exceptional en- 

 vironment either pre- or post-natal, that are conducive to 

 extreme forms of genius or variation or eccentricity, when 

 these habits may become so marked during an individual life- 

 time as to entirely obscure and obliterate the underlying 



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