PREFATORY 



WHAT, it may be asked, are the qualifications of 

 the writer of this book for entering upon so 

 difficult a subject ? I have travelled much, and 

 have enjoyed favourable opportunities of observ- 

 ing the behaviour and comparing the ideas of 

 different races of mankind. And, during many 

 years of my life, I have been occupied in the task 

 of governing men of inducing large numbers of 

 both Europeans and Asiatics to carry out the 

 desires of the State ; and it is probable that in 

 this business one gets a closer insight into the 

 complicated working of human nature than by 

 any other course of experience or study. So much 

 for what is empirical in these discussions. For 

 my psychology and evolutionary biology I am, 

 of course, immensely indebted to the many able 

 and eminent men who have written on these 

 subjects, and especially to Professors William 

 James, E. D. Cope, E. B. Tylor, W. McDougall, 

 C. Lloyd-Morgan, F. W. Gamble, W. A. Bateson, 

 R. C. Punnett, William Ridgeway, Karl Pearson, 

 Sir Francis Galton, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, 

 and MM. Gabriel Tarde, J. H. Fabre, and Henri 

 Bergson. 



February, 1914. 



