888 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1016 



There is a mutual stimulation whieli carries 

 them into greater power than either could 

 have attained alone. It is like the produc- 

 tion of certain alloys where the mixed 

 metal is much more useful than either of 

 its constituents. The combination pos- 

 sesses properties which do not seem to be in 

 either of the elements combined. It is this 

 intermingling which gives to the character 

 of colonial peoples that remarkable virility 

 which it is often observed to possess. It is 

 this which throws back from the colonies 

 such an influs of power into the mother 

 country. We shall get a picture of how 

 all this is so if we consider the human race 

 to have had at first certain potentialities 

 of development and each group to have lost 

 or to have weakened certain of these while 

 developing others to a considerable or to 

 a vast extent. What we get, then, by the 

 intermingling of these different peoples is 

 the reuniting of these various potentialities, 

 in their developed and strengthened form, 

 so that we come to have in a single indi- 

 vidual a combination of elements of power 

 which could be brought to him only by the 

 junction of divergent streams of progress. 

 Looking at the matter thus we see strong 

 grounds for optimism as to the prospect 

 of further development. Never before in 

 the history of the world has there been so 

 much amalgamation of peoples as at the 

 present time; and consequently there has 

 never before been such an opportunity for 

 reuniting the potentialities which have 

 developed along divergent lines. There is 

 greater facility of travel; means of com- 

 munication have increased to a remarkable 

 extent; and nations and peoples begin to 

 exhibit a spirit of cosmopolitanism, so that 

 the feeling of world citizenship is coming 

 to play an effective part in the affairs of 

 commerce and government. There is grow- 

 ing up also a demand for a universal lan- 

 guage to facilitate intercourse; but what 



this will result in one can not at present 

 predict with confidence. 



World-wide intermingling of peoples 

 carries with it, no doubt, its characteristic 

 attendant dangers. The various local 

 civilizations which were developed in ear- 

 lier times, such, for instance, as those of 

 Greece and Rome, ceased to flourish when 

 their central populations became stagnant 

 through the lack of accretions from with- 

 out. It appears that one line of develop- 

 ment can not continue indefinitely unless 

 the potentialities which the people lose in 

 their progress are supplied to them again 

 by another people who have retained what 

 the former had lost. Therefore, if the 

 whole world should become a single com- 

 munity with a single life, we should have 

 only one line of development in progress 

 and hence should naturally suffer in the 

 end a resulting stagnation. 



This, however, is probably a danger 

 which should not be anticipated. Though 

 the whole world may be brought very close 

 together by the present tendencies of civili- 

 zation, it can hardly be supposed that it 

 would grow into a single people with a 

 single life. Such a thing has hardly yet 

 taken place in England after a thousand 

 years of close association on the part of 

 peoples which were descended from a com- 

 mon stock not far removed. Furthermore, 

 if any one should feel that there is ultimate 

 cause for alarm in this matter, the prob- 

 lem could yet be safely left to the future 

 for solution. We may be confident that it 

 will be dealt with in a wise manner when 

 it arises. So many new influences are now 

 coming into play and so many lines of 

 progress are converging into a great central 

 stream that it would be hazardous to under- 

 take a suggestion as to how this problem 

 could be dealt with. It is a question for 

 the future and the future must answer it. 



Will you allow me, now, to turn abruptly 



