i84 RACE 



period, at all events, it can maintain its identity, 

 although culture and environment are completely 

 changed. 







Character is the product of a multiplicity of im- 

 pulses, and is affected by any special strength or 

 weakness in any one of them. The resulting pecu- 

 liarities of disposition must make their mark upon 

 the genius and the development of a people. But 

 they may often lie hidden from observation 

 behind the veil of conventional behaviour. In 

 some cases, however, they are sufficiently apparent 

 amongst the generality of individuals to be recog- 

 nized as typical racial features. Thus we speak of 

 the fierce pride of the Arabs, the agreeable levity 

 of the Persians, the incurious introspective pessi- 

 mism of the Hindus, the placid industry of China- 

 men, and the energetic adaptability of the 

 Japanese. These, it may be objected, are merely 

 habits of mind, not innate peculiarities. May we 

 concede this ? Is there reason to believe that an 

 Arab, a Chinaman, or a Japanese, brought up from 

 infancy in a European family, would lose the tem- 

 perament of his race ? Experience shows, on the 

 contrary, that he preserves it, however thickly 

 overlaid by European conventions, and shows it 

 on occasions in his behaviour. His character, 

 must, then, be innately affected by some peculiar 

 strength or weakness of instinctive impulse. The 

 larger are the populations we contrast in this 

 fashion, the more evident become the differences 

 between them. Thus there is a gulf between 

 tropical peoples and those of temperate climates, 

 a breach between Asiatics and Europeans. In 

 Europe itself dissimilarities between race and 

 race, or nation and nation, are overlain by a 

 broader difference that which separates the 

 North from the South which distinguishes the 



