856 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol XLIII. No. 1120 



importance of encouraging the development of 

 the exceptional individual in every race. 



The fifteen chapters which make up the 

 volume are of rather unequal merit and seem 

 to have no natiu-al sequence. This defect of 

 arrangement is emphasized by faults of style. 

 The writer is discursive and tends to glowing 

 rhetoric, " glittering generalities " and over- 

 much interpolation of poetry and emotional 

 anecdote. There is too much repetition and 

 iteration, oftentimes on trivial points. In 

 spite of all this, the book is readable and en- 

 joyable because of the author's skill in putting 

 telling points in brief, pithy sentences. In 

 discussing physiognomy as a criterion for 

 judging men, he says : " As a man ihinJcs, not 

 as he looks, finally fixes his status," and again, 

 referring to facial angles and jaw form, 

 " Thoughts and not bites win the battles of 

 life." In reference to the origin of the south- 

 ern negroes, we find these apt words : " The 

 question then is, not where did he start from, 

 nor how long has he been on the road, but has 

 he arrived? " In chapter ten, " The Solution," 

 probably the best chapter in the book, there is 

 an admirable plea for the suppression of those 

 people who, and things which, tend to en- 

 courage racial friction. The following deserves 

 quotation. " Dison and Johnson have been 

 drawbacks to their race and country. It was 

 an unfortunate thing for the country that pop- 

 ular notice was given to the Leopard Spots or 

 the Reno Battle. If neither had been noticed 

 the subsequent ' bad eminence ' of the chief 

 actors would not have marred the country's 

 history." 



The frankness and fairmindedness of Dr. 

 Roman are constantly in evidence. His appre- 

 ciation of the point of view of the best south- 

 ern whites is delightful and most encouraging. 

 Referring to their claim of " the absolute and 

 im.changeable superiority of the white race" 

 he says : " Fundamentally erroneous and mis- 

 chievous as I believe this assumption to be, I 

 am not disposed to quarrel over it with such 

 men as Messrs. Page and Murphy." " From 

 different starting points, Mr. Page and I reach 

 the same conclusion : ' Our plain duty is to do 

 the best we can to act with justice and a broad 



charity and leave the consequences to God.' " 

 One other quotation is necessary to reveal the 

 point of view of the best southern colored men 

 on that bugbear " social equality." Dr. Roman 

 says : " I know my people, their hopes, their 

 fears, their aspirations and their desires; and 

 from my youth up I have preferred a discreet 

 silence to false or dishonorable speech. With 

 all candor and earnestness I say to the Amer- 

 ican public: the negro has no desire to Tyreak 

 over social harriers. In this regard he is if 

 possible more strongly prepossessed in favor of 

 his own than the white man. In these matters 

 the negro is not only pleased but happy to 

 work out his own equivalent rights. But in 

 civil, political and economical matters the 

 negro insists and for the good of the country 

 ought to insist upon equal, not equivalent, 

 rights." If this is not a scientifically impregna- 

 ble position, your reviewer fails to detect its 

 weakness. It seems to him obvious that the 

 one possible solution of the race question lies 

 in strengthening racial self-respect and mutual 

 interracial confidence. For this reason, all 

 legislation looking towards segregation of either 

 race is sadly mistaken and postpones indefi- 

 nitely the solution intelligent men on both 

 sides are seeking. As Dr. Roman truly says : 

 " White ignorance is the most serious menace 

 in the race situation; for this ignorance is in 

 power and hopes to benefit itself not by find- 

 ing more light but by increasing darkness." 

 Colored ignorance is much less mischievous be- 

 cause so much less powerful, but it is of course 

 a serious menace. Racial self-respect should 

 be greatly promoted among the negroes by the 

 publication of Dr. Roman's book, and racial 

 comity should be likewise advanced. For there 

 is as much for the white race in the volume 

 as there is for the author's own people. 



Hubert Lyman Clark 



The Elements of Surveying and Geodesy. By 



W. C. POPPLBWELL. Longmans, Green and 



Co., London, 1915. Pp. ix + 244, illustrated. 



The author states in the preface of this vol- 



xane that he has made an attempt to present a 



comprehensive view of the subject of geodesy 



in its widest sense in order to provide students 



and others with such information as may lead 



