SECT. II.] MENTAL ENDOWMENT. 323 



we mean that which is peculiar to a people or an individual at a 

 given time, or, in other words, that we must not speak of 

 mental capacity or endowment as universally applicable, but 

 only in relation to a certain period and condition in the life of 

 the subject. Hence it is clear that mental endowment is not 

 immutable, being constantly changed in the course of life ; and 

 that though the fixed character of brutes, which psychically 

 remain the same, must be sought for in their mental capacities, 

 the differences of mankind cannot be traced to the same cause, 

 unless the absolute incapacity of mental improvement in some 

 races be demonstrated, namely, that they must remain sta- 

 tionary under all circumstances, and are confined to some defi- 

 nite limits which are passed by other. Instead of positive 

 demonstration, we have only vague assertions on the improv- 

 ability of the so-called savages and the excellence of European 

 civilization. 



If, according to the usual view, the civilization of a people is 

 the simple product of its mental capacity, then the powerful 

 influences of surrounding nature, historical events, and educa- 

 tion, are underrated; and we commit, moreover, the error of 

 ascribing to the people as a whole a mental capacity which 

 is only possessed by individuals. These differ greatly in 

 mental capacity ; and for the development of a people it is of 

 considerable importance in what relations these individuals 

 stand to each other and to that people, for upon these relations 

 depends their influence on society at large. What, there- 

 fore, appears as the endowment of a people, is mainly deter- 

 mined by the effects produced on the mass by individuals, each 

 of whom with his special gifts becomes a factor at a certain 

 period in the social machinery ; and as the performance of a ma- 

 chine depends on the combination of its parts, so does the devel- 

 opment of a people depend on the mode of combination of differ- 

 ently gifted individuals at definite periods and under particular 

 conditions. From this point of view, the notion of people 

 is not collective, but that of a constantly fluctuating yet spe- 

 cially definite combination and collocation of individualities, 

 on which depends the degree of development that is generally 

 attributed to the people as a whole. To consider the mental 



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