INTR.] GIST OP THE PSYCHOLOGICAL QUESTION. 267 



Though we may all agree that the capacity of the Negroes 

 is at present far inferior to that of the White race, and who 

 would not admit this ? nothing can be deduced from this ad- 

 mission in favour of the assumption, that there exist specific 

 psychical differences among the races of man. 



Like our preceding physical investigation, the results of the 

 present inquiry will depend on the solution of the question 

 relating to the greatest differences existing in the various races 

 as regards mental development, and the greatest changes 

 which in this respect take place among the same people. 



If we find in the same stock, or in different peoples at dif- 

 ferent periods, or at the same period in different nations, psy- 

 chical diversities which equal or approach the generally exist- 

 ing differences, the latter cannot be considered as specific. 

 This also holds good when the differences of individuals, apart 

 of course from morbid phenomena (idiocy, etc.), approach that 

 maximum. The intellectual development of individuals is 

 doubly important for our investigation; partly because the 

 most and the least gifted of every people gauge the limits of 

 its intellectual capacity, and thus furnish us with an indi- 

 cation whether or not we have to do with specific differ- 

 ences; and partly in as far as the most gifted may, under 

 favourable circumstances elevate the people to which they 

 belong, to a higher degree of civilization, and (what is insepa- 

 rable from it) to a higher degree of mental capacity. 



It is easy to see, that for the solution of this question a per- 

 fect and special description of the intellectual life, and all its 

 peculiarities of barbarous nations, is requisite, as its affirmation 

 or negation can only be obtained by contrasting their chief 

 features with the most striking performances of civilized 

 nations in their historical development. Reserving the details 

 for the sequel, we will consider here the psychological problem 

 generally. 



We may start from the assumption that, as in the life 

 of individuals, so also in that of nations, all cultivation is 

 something secondary, resting upon a gradual progress to a 

 better state than was the primitive or natural state of mankind. 

 This natural state, marked by the absence of all cultivation, 



