182 RACE 



eye,fan intellectual forehead, a sensual mouth 

 connections which have been established by 

 practical experience. The Jews are generally 

 distinguished by a particular type of features : 

 they also possess a distinctive character which 

 they have preserved during centuries of vicissi- 

 tude. It may be urged that they have preserved 

 their national culture through these changes, 

 and that to the continuity of their culture should 

 be ascribed the endurance of their distinctive 

 disposition. In preserving, or modifying, tradi- 

 tional behaviour, culture exercises beyond doubt 

 an immense influence. Anglo-Saxons who have 

 settled down amongst lower races " squaw- 

 men " or " beach-combers " appear to sink 

 almost to the level of their associates. But there 

 is something in character that is independent of 

 cultured or uncultured habits. We feel that it is 

 absurd to attribute to culture alone the persistence 

 of British characteristics in the white population 

 of North America and Australia, and of Dutch 

 characteristics in the Boers of South Africa. 



It is difficult, as has already been observed, 

 to isolate the effects of racial, or hereditary, 

 traits from those of artificial conventions that 

 are imposed upon man by the conditions of 

 his environment, or by his culture, especially 

 as there is reason to believe that some racial 

 traits owe their origin to conditions of environ- 

 ment. But in some cases we can make this analysis. 

 The in-and-in breeding of the Indian caste system 

 has established or preserved, on a hereditary 

 basis, some variations of the Asiatic physique 

 and temperament. The Bengali Kayasths, for 

 instance, possess a character and features of their 

 own : so do the Mahratta Brahmins (Chitpawans) 

 of the western coast, and the martial caste 

 (Rajputs) of Rajputana. These castes are, each, 



