202 RACE 



danger, may fire the people to throw aside un- 

 warlike habits when, in the words of Tennyson 



The smooth-faced snub-nosed rogue will leap from 

 his counter and till 



And strike, if it be but a blow with his cheating yard- 

 wand, home. 







We may, then, conclude that the history of the 

 Mediterranean up to quite recent times has 

 been determined by successive floods of northern 

 blood, each of which left a stratum of novelty, 

 the relics of which are disinterred, like fossils, 

 by the spade of the archaeologist. There was a 

 similar current towards India which could not 

 be diverted even by the barrier of the Himalayas. 

 Ceaseless immigrations of Aryans, Scythians, and 

 Tartars are clearly to be discerned across the 

 misty backgrounds of Indian history. To an 

 uncivilized people the north offers little hope of 

 riches or leisure. Nature requires to be combated 

 with practised skill. The south allured them 

 with its easier opportunities, and they drifted 

 southwards, infusing accessions of vigour into 

 the southern races, but forfeiting in time their 

 own vitality. During recent centuries there has 

 been a change. The arts of civilization have 

 enabled the northmen to produce wealth at home ; 

 and America and Australia have offered fields for 

 colonization which promise to be less enervating 

 than those of the Mediterranean. 



But migration has not always been from the 

 north to the south*. The Jews and the gipsies 

 are Asiatic peoples who have drifted northwards, 

 far afield from their homes. And it is to be re- 

 marked that they have preserved their charac- 

 teristics with a persistency which we cannot find 

 illustrated by any northern race which has been 



