ORGANIC EVOLUTION — MENTAL 179 



.other none at all ; that the Irish have " by nature " one 

 kind of temperament, and the Scotch another. 



Almost alone among historians. Buckle has questioned 

 whether races differ inherently as regards their mental 

 peculiarities. He says — 



"I cordially subscribe to the remark of one of the 

 greatest thinkers of our time, who says of the supposed 

 differences of race, ' Of all vulgar modes of escaping 

 from the consideration of the effect of social and moral 

 influences on the mind, the most vulgar is that of 

 attributing the diversities of conduct and character to 

 inherent natural differences' (Mill's Principles of Political 

 Economy, v(A. i. p. 390). Ordinary writers are constantly 

 falling into the error of assuming the existence of this 

 difference, which may or may not exist, but which most 

 assuredly has never been proved. Some singular in- 

 .stances of this will be found in Alison's Histm'ij of 

 Europe, vol. ii. p. 336, vol. vi. p, 139, vol. viii. pp. 525, 

 526, vol. xiii. p. 347, where the historian thinks that 

 by a few strokes of his pen he can settle a question of 

 the greatest difficulty connected with some of the most 

 intricate, problems in physiology." — Buckle's History of 

 Civilization, vol. i. p. 40. 



"Whatever, therefore, the moral and intellectual 

 progress of men may be, it resolves itself not into a 

 progress of natural capacity, but into a progress, if I 

 may say so, of opportunity ; that is, an improvement in 

 the circumstances under which that capacity after birth 

 comes into play. Here, then, lies the gist of the whole 

 matter. The progress is one, not of internal power, 

 but of external advantage. The child born in a civilized 

 land is not likely as such to be superior to one born 

 among barbarians; and the difference which ensues 

 between the acts of the two children will be caused, 

 so far as we know, solely by the pressure of external 

 circumstances; by which I mean the surrounding 

 opinions, knowledge, associations, in a word, the entire 



