"nationality." 277 



Ave have no data for any approach to a numerical estimate of 

 the time which would be required to bring about the con- 

 version of a white race to a black, and yet the stable varieties 

 -of the human race are so numerous that it is almost impossible 

 to entertain the idea of independent origin from many different 

 centres. 



With the knowledge of such facts as these we look at the 

 people of each place w^e visit and soon notice some features 

 and colours more prevalent in one area than another. We 

 form in our mind's eye a kind of compound photograph of 

 .such characters, and this become for us the type to which 

 we refer in all comparisons. This is a different and, for certain 

 purposes, a more trustworthy test of race than exact measure- 

 ments. Size, weight, muscle, and bone change rapidly 

 according to food, climate, and other conditions, but physi- 

 ognomy and colour are more persistent. 



Greece. 



To apply these results to cases which can be easily brought 

 under observation I will first refer to the ancient ruling 

 race of Greece, the kings and heroes described by Homer, 

 and the royal or deified personages represented in the archaic 

 statues of the Acropolis at Athens. 



We may be sure that these were portraits* to this extent : 

 that tlie artist combined in one ideal person the characters 

 which were most admired by those to whose taste he was 

 appealing, and that, Avhen he represented members of a 

 dynasty or of a family, he was careful to give those dis- 

 tinctive features which marked their lineage, of which they 

 themselves Av^ere proud, and which others recognised as 

 characteristic of them. Homer's heroes — Achilles, Ulysses, 

 Menelaus, Meleager — had auburn hair, and were described in 

 terms Avhich could only mean that they had light com- 

 plexions. So also we must believe that Agamede, Demeter, 

 •and Ariadne were fair. iVnd in later times this golden hair, 

 being rare in the south, Avas represented as the type of 

 royal lineage and the ideal of youthful beauty. On the 

 Attic Stage it Avas always attributed to Apollo and to 

 princely youths. Electra identified the hair of her brother 

 Orestes upon the tomb because only the royal family had 

 that auburn hair. Had any loyal domestic placed a lock of 



See Camh. Review, April 28, 1898. 



