236 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



future almost certainly contain oriental also. For the 

 races of India, Japan, and even China, are no farther 

 from us to-day than the ancestors of many of our occi- 

 dental fellow-citizens were a century ago. Bacial 

 prejudices, however strong, weaken rapidly through 

 intercourse and better acquaintance. One of the grand- 

 est and least perceived results of missionary work is 

 the preparation for this great fusion. 



Many races will undoubtedly go down before the 

 advance of civilization and have no share in the fut- 

 ure. Progress seems to be limited to the inhabitants 

 of temperate zones ; and even here the weaker may be 

 crowded out before the stronger rather than absorbed 

 by them. But many whom we now despise may have a 

 larger inheritance in the future than we. God is clear- 

 ly showing us that we should not count any man, much 

 less any nation, common or unclean. And the laws of 

 evolution give us a firm confidence that no good at- 

 tained by any race or civilization wiU fail to be pre- 

 served in the future. 



The forms which seem to us at any one time the 

 highest are as a rule not the ancestors of the race of 

 the future. These highest forms are too much special- 

 ized, and thus fitted to a narrow range of space, time, 

 and general conditions ; when these change they pass 

 away. Specialization is doubly dangerous when it 

 follows a wrong line. But whenever it is carried 

 far enough to lead to a one-sided development, it nar- 

 rows the possibility of future advance ; for it neglects 

 or crowds out or prevents the development of other 

 powers essential to life. The mollnsk neglected nerve 

 and muscle. But the scholar may, and often does, cul- 

 tivate the brain at the expense of the rest of the body 



