RACIAL DIFFERENCES 117 



ing degrees of civilisation. But North Europeans 

 are more civilised, though more drunken, than 

 South Europeans. West Africans, savages of a 

 very low type, are conspicuously more temperate 

 than other savages.^ It is certainly true that the 

 more civilised races are, generally speaking, the more 

 temperate. But with exceptions,^ with which we 

 shall deal later, all civilisation has been accom- 

 plished at the cost of prolonged alcoholic selection. 

 Education has been supposed to influence dif- 

 ferently different races, making some races more 

 temperate than others. But a question is begged. 

 It does not follow that education accentuates the 

 differences between races. It may, and actually 

 does, minimise them. What is there in the educa- 

 tion of Jews and South Europeans that renders 

 them so much more temperate than North 

 Europeans ? The latter, though their alcohol is 

 dear, have suffered fearfully from drink in recent 

 times, and, as a consequence, have a vigorous 

 temperance propaganda ; the former, though their 

 alcohol is cheap, have suffered very little, and 

 have no temperance propaganda. It is frequently 

 claimed, particularly by Jews and by the temper- 

 ance advocates of the orthodox school, that Jewish 

 sobriety is due to moral teaching. The claim is 

 one of the strangest, especially when made by Jews. 

 ' Vide Appendix H. ''' Mahomedans and Buddhists. 



