Psychology of Peop 00 Le Bo Rich

A. P.
Lange
Education
|L
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PEOPLES
THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF PEOPLES
By Gustave Le Bon
Author of "The
Crowd
"
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN
CO,
L35
[All rights reserved.]
CONTENTS
BOOK
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RACES

CHAPTER
PAGE
THE SOUL OF RACES
3-16
How
the naturalists classify species

Application of their
to man
Defective side of the classifications of the
human races at present in vogue Foundations of a psychoThe average types of the races
they
logical description
may be established by observation The psychological factors
which determine the average type of a race The influence of
ancestors and that of the immediate parents
Common psychological groundwork possessed by all the individuals of a race
Immense influence of bygone generations on the present
generation Mathematical reasons for this influence
the collective soul has spread from the family to the village,
from the city to the surrounding district Advantages and
dangers of the conception of the city Circumstances under
which the formation of the collective soul is impossible
the natural races have given way to
Example of Italy
the historic races.
methods
How
How
How
CHAPTER
THE
II
LIMITS OF THE VARIABILITY OF

RACTER OF RACES
THE CHA17-24
The
variability of the character of races, and not its fixity,

constitutes the apparent rule
Reasons for this appearance
Invariability of the fundamental characteristics
and
variability
CONTENTS
vi
PAGE
characteristics
Analogies between the
psychological characteristics and the irreducible and modifiable
characteristics of the animal species
It is only environment,
of
the
secondary
circumstances, and education that influence the accessory

psychological characteristics The possibilities of character
Examples furnished by the different periods The men of the
How
What they became at different periods

national characteristics endure in spite of revolutions Various
examples Conclusion.
Terror
CHAPTER
III
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HIERARCHY OF RACES
25-38
assiPsychological classification is based, as are anatomical

fications, on the determination of a small number of irreducible
and fundamental
Psychological classification
primitive races The inferior races
superior races The psychological
elements the grouping of which allows of this classification
The elements which are of the most importance Character
Morality The intellectual qualities are modifiable by education
The qualities appertaining to character are irreducible
and constitute the unvarying element in each people Their
role in history
it is
impossible for different races to
understand and influence one another The reasons why it is
characteristics
human races The

The average races The
of the
Why
impossible for an inferior people to adopt a superior civilisation.
CHAPTER
IV
THE PROGRESSIVE DIFFERENTIATION OF
INDI-
VIDUALS AND RACES

The
inequality between the
39-49
different individuals of a race
is
Mental
greater in proportion to the superiority of the race
equality of all the individuals of inferior races To appreciate
the differences that separate races, the superior individuals of
each people and not its average representatives must be compared The progress of civilisation tends towards a greater
and greater differentiation of individuals and races Conse-
quences of this differentiation The psychological reasons

which prevent its becoming too considerable The individuals
of the superior races are highly differentiated as regards their
intelligence, and very slightly so as regards their character
heredity constantly tends to reduce individual superiorities
to the average type of the race
Anatomical observations
confirming the progressive psychological differentiation of
How
races, individuals,
and
sexes.
CONTENTS
vii
CHAPTER V
PAGE
FORMATION OF THE HISTORICAL RACES

How historical races are formed Conditions
.
50-60
which allow of
different races combining to form a single race
Influence
of the number of the individuals involved in the process, of
the dissimilarity of their characters, of the environments, etc.
Results of cross-breeding Causes of the great inferiority of
half-breeds
Mobility of the new psychological characteristics
created by cross-breeding How these characteristics come to
be fixed The critical periods of history Cross-breeding
constitutes an essential factor in the formation of new races,
and at the same time a powerful factor in the dissolution of
civilisations
Importance of the regime of castes Influence
of environment Environment can only exert its influence on
new races in process of formation, and on races whose
ancestral characteristics are giving way before the action of
cross-breeding Environment is without influence on old
races Various examples
The majority of the historical races
of Europe are still in process of formation
Political and
social consequences
Why the period of formation of historical races will
soon be over.
BOOK
II
HO IV THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

RACES ARE DISPLAYED IN THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF THEIR CIVILISATIONS
CHAPTER
THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF A
CIVILISATION CONSIDERED AS AN EXTERIOR MANIFESTATION

OF THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE
....
The elements
63-80
of which a civilisation is composed are the

exterior manifestations of the soul of the peoples which have
created them The importance of these various elements
varies with the different peoples
According to the several
peoples it is the arts, literature, institutions, etc., that fill the
fundamental role Examples from antiquity the Egyptians,
Greeks, and Romans The evolution of the different elements
of a civilisation may be independent of the general march of
that civilisation
Examples supplied by the arts What they
:
CONTENTS
viii
PAGE
Impossibility of finding in a single element of a
civilisation the measure of the level of that civilisation
Elements which assure the superiority of a people Elements
which philosophically are very inferior may be socially very
express
superior.
CHAPTER
How
INSTITUTIONS, RELIGIONS,
ARE TRANSFORMED
II
AND LANGUAGES
.81-99
The
superior races are as powerless as the inferior races to

transform suddenly the elements of their civilisation Contradictions presented by the peoples which have changed their
The example of Japan In
religions, languages, and arts
what respect these changes are only apparent The profound
transformations undergone by Buddhism, Brahmanism, Mahometanism and Christianity according to the various races
by which they have been adopted The variations undergone
by institutions and languages according to the race that adopts
them That the words which in different languages are considered to correspond represent very dissimilar ideas and
modes of thought Impossibility for this reason of translating
certain languages
Why, in books of history, the civilisation
of a people sometimes seems to have undergone profound
Limits of the reciprocal influence of different
changes
civilisations.
CHAPTER
III
How THE ARTS ARE TRANSFORMED
100-126
Application of the principles already set forth to the study of

the evolution of the arts among the Oriental peoples
Egypt
The religious ideas from which its arts are derived Developments that await its arts when they are transplanted
amid different races
Ethiopians, Greeks, and Persians
Primitive inferiority of Grecian art Slowness of its evolution
Adoption and evolution in Persia of Grecian art, Egyptian art,
and Assyrian art The transformations undergone by the arts
depend on the race and not on religious beliefs Examples
supplied by the great transformations undergone by Arabian
art according to the races which have adopted Islamism
Application of our principles to the investigation of the origin
and evolution of the arts in India India and Greece went to
the same sources, but in consequence of the diversity of the
races they developed arts having no relationship
Immense
transformations undergone by architecture in India among the
different races in spite of the similarity of their beliefs.
:
CONTENTS
ix
PAGE
BOOK
III
THE HISTORY OF PEOPLES CONSIDERED AS A

CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR CHARACTER
CHAPTER I
How THE SOUL OF PEOPLES is RESPONSIBLE FOR
THEIR INSTITUTIONS
129-137
The
history of a people is always determined by its mental

constitution
the political institutions
Various examples
of France are the outcome of the soul of the race Their real
How
invariability beneath their apparent variability

different political parties pursue identical political
Our most
ends under
different names
Their ideal is always centralisation and the
destruction of individual initiative to the profit of the State
the French Revolution merely executed the programme
of the old monarchy Contrast between the ideal of the AngloSaxon race and the Latin ideal The initiative of the citizen
substituted for the initiative of the State
Peoples' institutions
are always the outcome of their character.
How
CHAPTER
II
APPLICATION OF PRECEDING PRINCIPLES TO THE

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EVOLUTION
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND
OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS
.
The English
138-152
How
character
the American soul has been
formed Severity of the selection resulting from the conditions
of existence
Forced disappearance of the inferior elements
The negroes and the Chinese Reasons of the prosperity of
the United States and of the decadence of the SpanishAmerican republics in spite of identical political institutions
Inevitable anarchy of the Spanish-American republics as a
consequence of the inferiority of the characteristics of the race.
CHAPTER
III
How THE
MODIFICATION OF THE SOUL OF RACES

AFFECTS THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF
PEOPLES
153-164
The
influence of foreign elements at once transforms the soul

of a race, and in consequence its civilisation Example of the
Romans
Roman
civilisation
was not destroyed by military
CONTENTS
p
by the pacific invasions of the Barbarians The

Barbarians never formed the project of destroying the Empire
Their invasions were not of the nature of conquests The
early Frank chiefs always considered themselves to be
functionaries of the Roman Empire
They always respected
Roman civilisation, and their aim was to continue it It was
only from the seventh century onwards that the Gallic barbarian
invasions, but
chiefs ceased to consider the
Emperor
as their superior
The
complete transformation of Roman civilisation was not the

consequence of a work of destruction, but of the adoption of
an ancient civilisation by a new race The modern invasions

of the United States The civil strife and the breaking up of
the United States into independent and rival States to which
these invasions will lead The invasion of France by
foreigners and their consequences.
BOOK
HOW THE
IV
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
RACES ARE MODIFIED.

CHAPTER
THE ROLE OF
IDEAS IN THE LIFE OF PEOPLES
The
167-189
leading ideas of each civilisation are always very few in

number Extreme slowness of their birth and disappearance
Ideas do not influence conduct until they have been transformed into sentiments They then form part of the character
It is thanks to the slowness of the evolution of ideas that
ideas take root
civilisations possess a certain fixity
The reason has no influence whatever The influence of
The role of enthusiasts and apostles
affirmation and prestige
Deformation undergone by ideas as they penetrate the
admitted
idea soon influences all the
masses
universally
elements of civilisation It is thanks to their community of
ideas that the men of each age have a sum total of average
conceptions which makes them very much alike in their
thoughts and actions The yoke of custom and opinion It is
not relaxed until the critical ages of history when the old
ideas are losing their influence and have not as yet been
replaced This critical age is the only age in which the discussion of opinions can be tolerated
Dogmas only hold their
own on the condition that they are not discussed Peoples
cannot change their ideas and dogmas without being at once
How
obliged to change their civilisation.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
xi
II
PAGE
THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
IN
THE EVOLU-
TION OF CIVILISATIONS
190-198
Preponderating influence of religious ideas They have always

constituted the most important element of the life of peoples
Religious ideas responsible for the majority of historical events
and
social
and
political
institutions
always comes into existence with a
new
new
civilisation
Power
religious idea
of the religious ideal Its influence on character It directs

all the faculties towards the same end
The political, artistic,
and literary history of peoples is the offspring of their beliefs
The slightest change in the state of a people's belief results in
an entire series of transformations in its existence Various
examples.
CHAPTER
THE ROLE OF GREAT MEN
IN
III
THE HISTORY OF
PEOPLES
199-208
The
great advances made by each civilisation have always

been realised by a small elite of superior minds Nature of
their role
They synthesise all the efforts of a race Examples
supplied by great discoveries Political role of great men

They embody the dominant ideal of their race Influence of
the great hallucinated
Inventors of genius transform a
civilisation
The fanatics and the hallucinated make history.
BOOK V
THE DISSOCIATION OF THE CHARACTER OF RACES
AND THEIR DECADENCE
CHAPTER
How CIVILISATIONS FADE AWAY AND DIE OUT
211-229
psychological species How hereditary dispositions which had required centuries for their formation
may be rapidly lost
very long time is always necessary for
a people to raise itself to a high level of civilisation, and in
some cases a very short time for it to descend therefrom The
principal factor in the decadence of a people is the lowering of
its character
The mechanism of the dissolution of civilisations
Dissolution of
CONTENTS
xii
PAGE
has hitherto been the same for all peoples Symptoms of
decadence presented by some Latin peoples Development of
egoism Diminution of initiative and will power Lowering
of character and morality The youth of the present day
Probable influence of Socialism Its dangers and its strength
How it will cause the civilisations that undergo it to return
to wholly barbarous forms of evolution
The peoples among
whom it will be able to triumph.
CHAPTER
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
II
...
230-236
INTRODUCTION
MODERN IDEAS ON SOCIAL EQUALITY AND THE
PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS OF HISTORY
Origin and development of the idea of equality The consequences it
has had The price already paid for its application Its influence
The problems examined in the
at the present day on the masses
present work An inquiry into the principal factors of the general
evolution of peoples Is this evolution determined by institutions ?
The elements
of each civilisation
and whether they have not

peculiar to each people
its permanent laws.
f^HE
*
institutions, arts, creeds, etc. ,
psychological foundations
of chance in history and
The element
civilisation of a
people
number of fundamental
literature
come very slowly
into being,
Long
is
ideas,
and
its institutions, its
slow to disappear.
certain
based on a small
which determine
its arts.
These ideas
and they are
also very
after their erroneous nature
has become clear to cultivated minds, they remain

indisputable truths for the masses, and
continue to
exert their influence on the rank and
of a nation.
It is difficult
but
it is
no
file
to obtain recognition for a
less difficult to discredit

xiii
new
idea,
an idea that has
INTRODUCTION
xiv
long been generally accepted.
Humanity has always
been exceedingly loth to abandon
and
its
It is
its
decayed ideas
moribund gods.
barely a century and a half ago that certain
philosophers, who,
it
should be remarked, were very
ignorant of the primitive history of man, of the varia-
and of the laws of
tions of his mental constitution
propounded the idea of the equality of

individuals and races.
heredity,
This
idea,
which would naturally be most attractive
to the masses,
their mind,
ended by firmly implanting
and speedily bore
fruit.
It
itself in
has shaken
the foundation of the old societies, given
birth
to
the most formidable of revolutions, and thrown the
Western world into a

of which
it is
series of convulsions, the
end
impossible to foresee.
Doubtless certain of the inequalities
among
indi-
viduals and races were too apparent to be seriously
disputed
but people found
selves that these inequalities
it
easy to persuade them-
were merely the outcome
of differences of education, that
all
men
are
born
equally intelligent and good, and that the sole responsibility for their
they
live under.
perversion
lies
with the institutions
This being the case the remedy was
simple in the extreme
all
that
had
to
be done was
INTRODUCTION
and
to reform the institutions

identical education.
xv
to give every
It is in this
way that
man an
institutions
and education have ended by becoming the great

panaceas of modern democrats, the means of remedying inequalities which clash with the immortal
principles that are
the only divinities that survive
to-day.
And
yet science, as
has progressed, has proved
it
the vanity of the theories of equality and shown that

the mental gulf created
by the past between
viduals and races can only be
accumulating action of heredity.

together with the stern
indi-
up by the slowly
Modern psychology,
filled
lessons
of experience, has
demonstrated that the institutions and the education
which
suit
some
individuals
harmful to others.
lation
it is
But when ideas are once
in circu-
not in the power of philosophers to destroy
them when they
arrive at the conviction that they are
Like a swollen stream that has overflown
erroneous.
its
and some races are most
banks, the idea continues
its
destructive progress
with which nothing can interfere.
There
is
no psychologist, no
intelligent statesman
is
this
chimerical
who
is
traveller,
not aware
how
no
fairly
erroneous
notion of the equality of men,
which has thrown the world into confusion, brought
INTRODUCTION
xvi
about
in
Europe
gigantic
revolution,
War
involved
of Succession, and
America
in the
landed
the French colonies in a state of lamentable
all
decadence
sanguinary
yet in spite of this knowledge they are
few indeed who venture to combat
Moreover the idea of

the decline, continues to
name
this notion.
equality, far
from being on
make headway.
It is in
to enslave before long the majority of
Western peo-
pretends to ensure their welfare.
ples,
name
the
of this idea that socialism, which seems destined
in
It is
its
modern woman, forgetting the deep-
that the
lying mental differences that separate her from man,
claims the same rights and the
and
will end, if
same education
as
man,
she be triumphant, in making of the
European a nomad without a home or a family.
The masses
political
and
scarcely trouble themselves about the
social upheavals to
which these levelling
principles have given rise or about the
far
graver
events they have yet to bring forth, and the states-
men
for
of the present day are in power too short a time
them
to
be
more
heedful.
Moreover public
opinion has become the sovereign authority, and
it
would be impossible not to bow to it.

The only real measure of the social importance of
an idea
is
the influence
it
exerts on
men's minds.
INTRODUCTION
The degree
of truth or error
it
xvii
contains
is
When
from a philosophic point of view.
interest
idea has
come
only of
an
to be a sentiment with the masses, all
the consequences
must be undergone
involves
it
in
succession.
We
see then that
by means of education and

modern dream of equality en-
it is
institutions that the
deavours to seek realisation.
It is in their
reforming the unjust laws of nature,

cast
in
the
same mould the
name
that,
we attempt
intelligences
of
to
the
negroes of the Martinique, of the Guadeloupe and

of the Senegal, those of the Arabs of Algeria and
finally those of the Asiatics.
less quite unrealisable,
The chimera
is
doubt-
but experience alone can show
Reason
the danger of chimeras.
is
incapable
of
transforming men's convictions.
The
logical
races,
object of this
work
characteristics
is
to describe the psycho-
which constitute the soul of
and to show how the history of a people and
its civilisation
Neglecting
are determined
details, or
by these
characteristics.
only considering them so far as
they are indispensable to the proof of the principles

advanced,
we
shall
examine the formation and mental
constitution of the historic races, that

i*
is
of the races
INTRODUCTION
xviii
>
jff
formed
artificially
in historic
times by the chances of
we
conquest, immigration and political changes, and

shall
endeavour to demonstrate that their history
determined by their mental constitution.

'-
We
is
shall
note the degree of fixity or variability of the charac-
We
teristics of races.
shall try to find out
whether
individuals and peoples tend towards equality or, on
the contrary, towards greater and
We
tiation.
shall
then examine whether the elements
composing a civilisation,
its
its institutions, its
arts,
not direct manifestations of the soul
beliefs, are
races,
greater differen-
and whether
in
it is
consequence
of
not impossible
that they should pass from one people to another.
We
shall
are
the
conclude by attempting to determine what

necessities
civilisations
under the influence of which
decay and die
We
out.
have dealt at
length with the problems in question in various works
on the
This short volume
civilisations of the East.
should be regarded as a brief synthesis.
The
my
point that has remained most clearly fixed in
mind, after long journeys through the most varied
countries,
is
that
each people possesses a mental
constitution as unaltering as
teristics,
a constitution
sentiments,
its
which
anatomical charac-
is
thoughts, institutions,
the
source of
beliefs
and
its
arts.
INTRODUCTION
xix
Tocqueville and other illustrious thinkers have ima-
gined that they have discovered in the institutions of

the various peoples the cause of their evolution.
am
on the contrary,
while
choosing
studied
by
my
I,
persuaded and hope to prove,

examples from the countries
Tocqueville, that institutions are of ex-
tremely slight importance as regards the evolution of
They
civilisation.
are
most often
and but
effects
very rarely causes.
The
history of peoples
very different factors.
determined, no doubt, by
is
It is full
of particular cases,
of accidents which have taken place but which might
not have taken place.
Side by
however, with
side,
these chances, with these accidental circumstances,

there
are
great permanent laws which govern the
The mental
general course of each civilisation.

stitution of races proceeds
from the most general, the
most primordial of these permanent

of a people,
its
institutions, beliefs,
The
life
arts are
but
laws.
and
the visible expression
of
people to transform
its
institutions, beliefs,
must
its
soul
its
first
transform
civilisation to
sary that
it
its
invisible
to enable
another people,
it
is
For a
soul.
it
and
arts
it
to bequeath
would be neces-
should be able to bequeath
Doubtless this
con-
its
soul.
not what history teaches, but
we
INTRODUCTION
xx
shall easily
it
show that
has allowed
The
itself to
reformers
in recording contrary assertions
be misled by vain appearances.
who have
followed one another for
a century past have endeavoured to change everything
Gods, the earth and
men
have been wholly unavailing so
but their
efforts
far as regards the
century-old characteristics of the souls of races which
time has established.
The conception of the

separate human beings
ideas of
modern
irreducible differences
is
it is
not the teachings
of science that could induce the apostles of a
dogma
to renounce their
efforts are
humanity
in
new phase
the
entirely contrary to
but
socialists,
which
illusory doctrines.
new
Their
of the eternal crusade of
quest of happiness, that
treasure
of
Hesperides for which the peoples have been searching
from the dawn of history onwards.
The dream
of
equality would perhaps avail as much as the old

illusions which cradled us in the past, were it not that
it is
destined to be shattered at an early date on the
immovable rock of natural
inequalities.
Together
with old age and death, these inequalities are a part of

those apparent iniquities of which nature
to which man must submit.
is full
arid
BOOK
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

OF RACES
BOOK
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

RACES
CHAPTER
THE SOUL OF RACES

low the
Application of their methods to

Defective side of the classifications of the human races at
naturalists classify species
man
Foundations of a psychological description

How they may be established by
present in vogue
The average
observation
types of the races
The
psychological factors which determine the averThe influence of ancestors and that of the
age type of a race

immediate parents
by
all
Common psychological groundwork possessed

the individuals of a race
Immense influence of bygone
generations on the present generation Mathematical reasons for

this influence
How the collective soul has spread from the family
to the village, from the city to the surrounding district
Advantages
and dangers of the conception of the city Circumstances under
which the formation of the collective soul is impossible Example
of Italy
How
the natural races have given
way
to the historic
races.
TV T
* ^
ATURALISTS base the classification of species

on the observation
characteristics
of
certain
anatomical
regularly and constantly reproduced
by
TtfEj.PSYCHOLOGY OF PEOPLES:
We are
heredity.
teristics are
aware to-day that these charac-
transformed by the hereditary accumula-
tion of imperceptible changes.
Still,
if
attention be
confined to the comparatively short period covered
by
history, the species
may
be said to be invariable.
Applied to man, the methods of
classification of
the naturalists have allowed of the determining of a

certain
number of
perfectly distinct types.
By
the
aid of clearly defined anatomical characteristics, such

as the colour of the skin,
of the skull,
human
distinct
it
and the shape and volume
has been possible to establish that the
race comprises several species which are quite
and probably of very
eyes of the scientific
men who
traditions, these species are
unanimously
snails,
that
all
In the
are respectful of religious
simply races.
as has been rightly observed,
Caucasian were
different origin.
"
However,
Negro and the

zoologists would affirm
if
the
they constitute excellent species,
which could never have descended from the same

couple
from which
they
had gradually come
to
differ."
These anatomical
characteristics, those at least of
them that can be traced by our

of very
summary general
divisions.
analysis, only allow
Their divergencies
are only perceptible in the case of the most distinct
ITS
human
INFLUENCE ON THEIR EVOLUTION
species
for
negroes
of the white and yellow races, or the

Peoples, however, that closely
example.
resemble one another as regards their physique,
may
be widely different as regards their modes of feeling
and
and
acting,
in
and
civilisations, beliefs,
stance, to class in
consequence as
Is
arts.
that
everybody, and
history
possible, for in-
one and the same group a Spaniard,
an Englishman, and an Arab?

differences
it
their
regards
between
exist
be
to
Are not the mental

them apparent
detected
to
throughout their
In the absence of anatomical characteristics,
it
has
been proposed to base the classification of certain

peoples on various elements, such as language,
and
political organisation
but this
belief,
mode of classifica-
tion will scarcely bear examination.
The elements
of
classification
which anatomy,
languages, environment, or political organisation are
incapable of furnishing are supplied by psychology,
which shows that behind the
and
political
institutions, arts, beliefs,
upheavals of each people,
lie
certain
moral and intellectual characteristics that determine

its
evolution.
that form
It is
the whole of these characteristics
what may be
called the soul of a race.
Each race possesses a mental
constitution as un-
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PEOPLES:
varying as
its
anatomical constitution. There seems to
be no doubt that the former corresponds to a certain

special structure of the brain, but as science
sufficiently
structure,
advanced as yet to acquaint us with
we cannot have
recourse to
it
this
as a basis of
Moreover, a knowledge of
classification.
not
is
it
would
in
no way modify the description of the mental constitution of which it is the determining factor and
which
is
revealed to us
The moral and
by observation.
intellectual
characteristics,
whose
association forms the soul of a people, represent the
synthesis of
its
entire past, the inheritance of all
ancestors, the motives of
its
conduct.
to be very variable in individuals of
its
They appear
the same race,
but observation proves that the majority of the indiof
viduals
number of
a given
race always
common
possess a
psychological
certain
characteristics,
which are as stable as the anatomical characteristics

that allow of the classification of species, while, like
these latter characteristics, the psychological characteristics
are regularly
and constantly reproduced by
heredity.
This aggregate of psychological elements observable

all
the individuals of a race constitutes what
jti
r igj>tly
be called the national character.
may
Together
ITS
they form the average type which permits of a people
A thousand
being defined.
Frenchmen, Englishmen,
or Chinamen, chosen at hazard, offer notable differ-
ences amongst themselves, but nevertheless, owing to

racial heredity,
common
they possess
characteristics
which allow of the determining of an ideal type of
Chinaman
the Frenchman, the Englishman, and the
analogous to the ideal type which the naturalist presents
when he
describes in a general
manner the dog
Applicable to the different varieties of
or the horse.
dogs or horses, such a description can only include

the characteristics
common
which enable
numerous individual specimens
their
to
them
all
and not those

to
be distinguished.
Provided a race be sufficiently ancient, and
sequence homogeneous,
its
average type
with sufficient clearness for
it
to
is
in
con-
established
be readily noted by
the observer.
When we
teristics
visit
that can arrest our attention are precisely
those that are
country
a foreign people the only charac-
we
common
to all the inhabitants of the
are travelling through, since they are the
only characteristics that are constantly repeated.
seldom
The
individual
characteristics,
escape
and before long we not only distinguish
us,
being
repeated,
at first sight
between an Englishman, an
a Spaniard, but
them
certain
we
Italian, or
are perfectly able to ascribe to
moral and intellectual characteristics,
which are the very fundamental characteristics that
we
An
referred to above.
Englishman or a Gascon,
an inhabitant of
to a type of
of which
Normandy or Flanders, corresponds

which we have a perfectly clear idea and
we can
easily give a description.
to an isolated individual, the
very inadequate and sometimes inexact
Applied
may seem
description
;
applied to
the majority of the individuals of one of these races

it
will depict
cess
them
The unconscious
perfectly.
by which we arrive
at
and mental type of a people

in its essence
pro-
an idea of the physical

is
absolutely identical
with the method by which a naturalist
classifies species.
This identity of the mental constitution of the

majority of the individuals of a race
simple physiological reasons.
Each
is
due to very
individual
is
the
product not merely of his immediate parents but also

of his race, that
ants.
is
of the entire series of his ascend-
learned economist, M. Cheysson, has calcu-
lated that in
France,
supposing there to be three
generations in a century, each of us would have in

his veins the blood of at least
twenty millions of the
ITS
people living in the year 1000.
"
In consequence
all
the inhabitants of a given locality, of a given district,
common
necessarily possess
ancestors, are
moulded
of the same clay, bear the same impress, and they
brought back unceasingly to the average type
are
all
by
this
heavy chain, of which they are

We are the children at once
links.
long and
merely the
last
of our parents and our race.
second mother
Our country
our
is
physiological and hereditary as
for
well as sentimental reasons."

If
it
language the
in-
which govern the individual and direct
his
be wished to state
fluences
may
conduct, they
first
in precise
be said to be of three kinds.
and certainly the most important
of ancestors
diate parents
is
the influence
the second, the influence of the
The
the third,
commonly supposed
immeto be
the most powerful, but nevertheless the weakest,

the influence of environment.
vironment, including in
and moral influences

jected
during his
to
life,
its
The
is
>
influence of en-
scope the various physical
which the individual
is
sub-
and particularly during
education, produces but very slight variations.

influences of environment only
become
his r
The
really effective
when heredity has caused their action to be continued

in the same direction during a long period.
io
Do what
above
all
he may, then, the individual
The
of the ideas and sentiments that are, as
termines
is
Invisible in
race.
very visible in
in
it
totality
were, the
the individuals of a given country
all
form the soul of the

this soul
always and
is
the representative of his race.
birthright of
the
reality
its
effects,
entire
its
essence,
since
evolution
de-
it
of
people.
race
may
be compared to the totality of the
that constitute a living being.

milliards of cells
is
of the being formed
long
The existence
and a
collective
life,
of these
very short, whereas the existence
by
their union
they possess at once their
cells
is
relatively very
own
personal
life
that of the being of which they
same way each individual

of a race has a very short individual life and a very
form the substance.
In the
long collective
life.
This
of which he
sprung, which he helps to perpetuate,
is
and on which he
A
is
race
is
is
latter life is that of the race
always dependent.
to be regarded as a
independent of time.
permanent being that
This permanent
composed of the long succession

were
who
its
being
of the dead
is
who
ancestors, as well as of the living individuals
constitute
it
at a given
moment.
the true signification of a race,
it
To understand
must be considered
ITS
with regard both to
its
past and
more
besides being infinitely

living, are infinitely
The dead,
its future.
numerous
more powerful.
than
the
reign over
They
the vast domain of
the unconscious, that invisible
domain which exerts
its
tions of the intelligence

is
guided
far
members.
departed
more by
It is
that a race
sway over all the manifestaand of character. A people
is
by
its
dead than by
dead, and
its
founded.
conduct.
The
dead alone,
fashioned our
sentiments, and in consequence
all
living
after century our
Century
ancestors have
its
by
its
ideas
and
the motives of our
generations that have passed
away do
not bequeath us their physical constitution merely;
The dead
they also bequeath us their thoughts.
We
the only undisputed masters of the living.

the burden of their mistakes,
we reap
are
bear
the reward of
their virtues.
The formation
of the mental constitution of a people
does not demand, as does

species,
those
geological
duration defies calculation.

is
considerable.
To
yet,
periods
Still,
of animal
creation
whose
the time
it
immense
demands
create in such a people as the
French, even to the
accomplished as
the
comparatively
the
and thought that forms
its
slight
extent
community of sentiments
soul, more than ten cen-
12
have
turies
result
important
hasten
been
this
necessary.
of the French
formation
Flemish,
Provence,
which
into
&c.,
complete, and
it
is
promoting the
nationalities
more
Picards,
men
Bretons,
was
France
Doubtless the unification
divided.
most
Revolution was to
Gascons,
Burgundians,
the
Perhaps
by greatly
up of the minor
breaking
is
far
of
formerly
from being
especially because
we
are
composed of too varied races, and in consequence

have too different ideas and sentiments, that we are
the victims of dissensions
geneous peoples
1
to the
This lapse of time, long as
history,
is
it
unknown
to
more homo-
English, for example.
may seem from
in reality comparatively short, since
it
In
the point of view of
only represents thirty
generations. The reason why so relatively brief an interval is sufficient

to fix certain characteristics is that when a cause acts for some length or
time in the same direction, it speedily produces very considerable effects.
Mathematics teach us that when a cause persistently produces the same

effect, the
and the
causes increase in arithmetical progression
(i, 2, 3, 4, 5,
&c.
),
The
progession (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, &c.).
In the famous problem of the
causes are the logarithms of the effects.
doubling of the grains of wheat on the squares of a chessboard, the
effects
successive
in geometrical
numbers of the square are the logarithms of the number of
Similarly in the case of money invested at compound

grains of wheat.
interest, the number of years is the logarithm of the accumulated capital.
It is for
may be
work
reasons of this order that the majority of social phenomena

expressed by very nearly similar geometrical curves. In another
arrived at the conclusion that these curves might be expressed
by the equation of the parabola or the hyperbola. My

learned friend, M. Cheysson, is of opinion that they are better represented, as a rule, by an exponential equation.
analytically
ITS
13
England, the Saxon, the Norman, and the Ancient

Briton have ended
by forming, as the result of fusion,

a very homogeneous type, and everything in consequence is homogeneous in the domain of conduct.
Thanks
to this fusion, the English
have acquired
in
a high degree the three fundamental bases of the soul

of a people
common
and common
all its
When
beliefs.
this stage, there is
common
sentiments,
interests,
a nation has reached
an instinctive agreement amongst
members on
great questions, and
all
ceases
it
to be a prey to serious dissensions.
This community of sentiments, ideas,

interests, created
gives
by
slow, hereditary accumulations,
a high degree of identity and fixity to the
mental constitution of a people.

of
the greatness of
Rome
day
of England.
The moment
to break up,
end when
it
it
is
It
was the cause
ancient times, and
in
the source of the greatness
at the present
begin
and
beliefs,
The
it
disappears,
role of
ceased to possess
peoples
Rome was
at
an
it.
The
congeries of sentiments, ideas, traditions, and
beliefs
which form the soul of a collectivity of men
has always existed more or less in the case of

peoples and
at all ages,
but
its
has been slowly accomplished.
all
progressive extension
Restricted
at first
to the family
and gradually extended
to the village,
the city, and the province, the collective soul has only
the inhabitants of a country in com-
spread to
all
paratively
modern
It
was only when
this last
had been achieved, that the notion of a native
result
country, as
The
ence.
soul
times.
is
we understand
notion
formed.
notion of the
is
it
came
to-day,
not possible until the national
The Greeks never
city,
into exist-
and
got beyond the
were always at
their cities
war, because in point of fact they were always very

to
foreign
past
India
village,
and
one another.
has
it is
For two thousand years
known no
other
unity
for this reason that for
than the
two thousand
years the country has always been subject to foreign

rulers,
whose ephemeral empires have come
to an
end as easily as they were formed.
Weak
though
it
be from the point of view of
military strength, the conception of the city as the

sole native country has,
on the contrary, always been
very effective from the point of view of the develop-
ment of
civilisation.
Though
less spacious
than the
soul of the native country, the soul of the city has

at times
been more
fruitful.
Athens
in ancient times,
Florence and Venice during the Middle Ages, show

us the degree of civilisation which
to
may
by small agglomerations of men.
be attained
ITS
When
15
small cities or small provinces have lived an
independent
for a considerable length
life
of time,
they end by possessing so stable a soul that

fusion with those of neighbouring
soul,
becomes almost impossible.
even
if
it
and pro-
cities
vinces, with a view to the formation
its
of a national
Such a
fusion,
be capable of being brought about, as
happens when the elements brought together are not

too dissimilar,
never the work of a day, but only
is
that of centuries.
lieu or
it
a Bismarck
to a head,
It is possible
To
achieve such a work, a Riche-
is
necessary, but they only bring
when
it
has been long in elaboration.
indeed for a country, as has happened
in the case of Italy, to arrive suddenly, as the result
of exceptional
State, but
it
circumstances, at forming a single
would be a mistake
to
suppose that
it
thus acquires simultaneously a national soul.
is
clear to
me
It
that in Italy there are Piedmontese,
Sicilians, Venetians,
Romans,
etc.,
but
it
is
not clear
as yet that there are Italians.
At
the present day, whatever be the race under
consideration, whether
it
the mere fact that
civilised
past has played
regarded as an
its
it is
be homogeneous or not, by
and
part in history,
artificial
for a
it
long while
must always be
and not as a natural
race.
16
Natural races are scarcely to be met with except
among
is
savages.
It is
only
among
savages that
it
possible to find peoples of absolute racial purity.
At
the present day the majority of civilised races
are merely historical races.
We are
not concerned here with the origin of races.
That they have been formed by nature or by history

is
beyond our purpose.
characteristics
What
interests us
is
their
such as they have been constituted
by a long past. Kept up during centuries by the

same conditions of existence and accumulated by
heredity, these characteristics have ended by acquiring a high degree of fixity and by determining
the type of each people.
CHAPTER
II
THE LIMITS OF THE VARIABILITY OF THE

CHARACTER OF RACES
The
variability of the character of races,
and not
its fixity,
constitutes
the apparent rule

Reasons for this appearance Invariability of
the fundamental characteristics and variability of the secondary
characteristics
Analogies between the psychological characteristics
and the irreducible and modifiable
characteristics of the animal
It is only environment, circumstances, and education that

species
influence the accessory psychological characteristics
The possibilities
of character
The men
How
national characteristics
Various examples
endure in spite of revolutions
Conclusion.
civilisations that the fixity of the
stitution of races
is
brought home
At
is
variability
first
appears
different periods
different periods
only by a careful study of the evolution
is
ITof
Examples furnished by the

What they became at
of the Terror
sight
to
it
be the general
mental con-
to the observer.
and not
rule.
The
fixity that
of
history
peoples might induce the belief that their soul under-
goes on occasion very rapid and very far-reaching

transformations.
Does there not seem,

3
for
example,
'7
i8
to be
a very considerable
between the
difference
character of an Englishman of the time of Cromwell
and that of a modern Englishman ? Does not the

circumspect and subtle Italian of the present day
seem a very different being from the fierce and
impulsive Italian described in the Memoirs of Ben-
Not
venuto Cellini?
afield,
and to
how numerous
are the
go so
to
confine ourselves to France,
far
apparent changes of character in the course of a
few centuries, and even at times

a few years
difference
the
What
in the
historian has not
between the French national character of
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
modern
course of
remarked the
times, can anything
seem more
and
in
distinct than
the character of the ferocious Conventionalists and

that of the
docile
slaves of
Napoleon
they were the same men, though

a few years they seem
To
in
And
the space of
to have changed
elucidate the causes of these changes,
remind the student

logical species
is
of a very small
in the first place that a
formed, as
number of
is
yet
entirely.
we
will
psycho-
an anatomical species,
irreducible,
fundamental
around which are grouped accessory

characteristics which are modifiable and changeable.
characteristics
The breeder who
transforms the apparent structure
ITS
of an animal, or the gardener
who
modifies the aspect
of a plant to such a degree that

the
to
the species
the
all
unrecognisable
affected
to
the
of
they have done has been to influence

In spite of
accessory characteristics.
artifices
is
the fundamental characteristics
extent
slightest
it
eye, has not
unpractised
19
all
the
fundamental characteristics
employed, the
always tend to reappear with each new generation.
The mental
characteristics
constitution
the
as
characteristics of animal species, but
characteristics
accessory
It is
are
easily
may
modified.
easily be
by environment, circumstances, education
and various other

It
that
anatomical
also possesses
it
these latter characteristics that
changed
fundamental
possesses
immutable
as
must
factors.
remembered, and the point
also be
essential, that
we
all
is
possess in our mental constitu-
tion certain possibilities of character,
which circum-
stances do not always provide with an opportunity
of manifesting themselves.
front,
new and more
at once takes shape.
of
great
political
When
or less ephemeral personality
way
that at times
crisis,
momentary
It is in this
or
they come to the
religious
changes of character are observed, which would seem

to indicate that manners, ideas, conduct, everything
20
had undergone a change.
in short,
Everything has
indeed changed, as happens to the tranquil surface

of a lake lashed
is
change
It
character
but
it
is
rare that the
lasting.
in
is
by a storm
consequence of these
put
in
operation
by
possibilities
certain exceptional
and
events, that the actors in great religious
appear to us to be
crises
made
in
selves,
whom
whom we
In reality they were
men
for
who
are the
like our-
circumstances had given free rein
to possibilities of character possessed
Take,
political
of superior stuff to
ourselves, to be a sort of giants of
degenerate sons.
of
"
example, the
of us.
all
by
giants of the Convention
"
held Europe in check, and sent their adversaries
to the guillotine for a
mere
At bottom
contradiction.
they were respectable, pacific citizens like ourselves,
who
the
in
ordinary times would probably have led
most tranquil and
studies
or behind
retired
their
existence
counters.
in
their
Extraordinary
events caused the vibration of certain of their brain

cells
which under usual conditions would not have
been called into
activity,
those colossal figures,

to understand.
pierre
and they developed into
whom
posterity
Born a hundred years
is
at a loss
later,
Robes-
would doubtless have been an upright magis-
ITS
trate
on excellent
terms
with
the
local
21
priest
Fouquier-Tinville a magistrate possessing, perhaps

rather a higher degree than
in
his colleagues, the
harshness and supercilious manners of his profession,
but greatly appreciated for

delinquents to book
his
zeal
in
Saint-Just would have
schoolmaster, esteemed
an excellent
bringing
by
made
his chiefs
and very proud of the decoration he would certainly

have ended by obtaining.
to the accuracy of these
To remove
previsions
it
all
doubt as
is
sufficient
what Napoleon accomplished with such of

the ferocious Terrorists as had not the time to cut
to note
off
mutually each others' heads.
The
majority of
them became
staid officials, tax collectors, magistrates
or prefects.
The waves
stirred
up by the storm of
which we spoke above had calmed down, and the

troubled lake had recovered
Even
in the
its
tranquil surface.
most troubled periods,
in those
which
produce the strangest variations of personality,

is
easy to
trace
the
fundamental
of the race beneath the

there
much
difference
characteristics
new developments.
in reality
it
Was
between the cen-
tralised, dictatorial and despotic regime of our strict

Jacobins and the centralised, dictatorial and despotic
regime to which fifteen centuries of monarchy had
22
accustomed the French nation
All the revolutions
of the Latin peoples result in this obstinately recurring
regime,
governed, because
of
being
represents a sort of synthesis
it
of the instincts of the race.
glamour attaching
need
incurable
this
in
to
his
It
was not
solely the
enabled
that
victories
When
Bonaparte to make himself master of France.
he transformed the republic into a dictatorship, the

hereditary instincts of the race manifested themselves
day by day with greater intensity

an
absence of
might have
officer
of
indeed, in the
genius,
any adventurer
Fifty years later the heir
filled his part.
to his
name had only
votes
of a people tired of liberty and
servitude.
It
to
was not
show himself
the
to obtain the
eager for
Brumaire
i8th
that
established the fortunes of Napoleon, but the soul
of his race which he was about to trample beneath

his iron heel. 1
"At his first gesture," writes Taine, "the French bowed in

obedience, and they persisted in their attitude, as if it were their
natural condition ; the humble, the soldiers, and the peasants, with
1
animal
fidelity
Byzantine
contrary,
the great,
the
dignitaries
and
functionaries,
it
with
The Republicans offered no resistance on the

was among them that he found the best instruments of his
servility.
reign, his Senators, Deputies, State Councillors, judges and officials

Beneath their talk of liberty and equality, he had been
of every rank.
quick to divine their dictatorial instincts, their need of commanding,

of surpassing their fellows,
and even,
subsidiarily
and
in addition, their
ITS
The
influence
men by environment
exerted on
appears so great, because
it
23
operates on the accessory
and transitory elements, or on those possibilities of

In
character of which we have been speaking.
The
changes are not very profound.
the
reality,
by hunger, attains to a degree

of ferocity which renders him capable of every crime,
and even leads him occasionally to devour his fellow
mildest man, driven
man. Will
it
be said on
this
account that his habitual
character has definitely changed
If the conditions of civilisation procure a
extreme wealth and develop

vices
if
in its
minority
members
all
the
which are the inevitable consequence of luxury
they arouse violent desires in the remainder of the
population without supplying the means of satisfying
them, the result will be general discontent and unrest,
which
will influence
of every kind, but
conduct and provoke upheavals
amid
this discontent
and these
upheavals the fundamental characteristics of the race

will
always
show
In
themselves.
the
past,
English-born inhabitants of the United States,

hungering after wealth and pleasure.
the
when
Between the delegate of the

Committee of Public Safety and the Minister, the Prefect or the subThe man is the same
Prefect of the Empire, the difference is slight.
and it is only the costume that is altered the carmagnole has been
:
exchanged
for
an embroidered uniform. "
24
engaged
in civil war, displayed the
energy as they exhibit to-day

universities,
ter
When
it
in
founding towns,
and manufactories. The national charac-
has not been modified
that bring
same indomitable
into play that
examining
it
is
merely the objects
have changed.
in succession the various factors
capable of influencing the mental

peoples,
we always observe
exerted on
constitution
that their
influence
of
is
accessory and transitory sides of
the
character, while they scarcely affect the fundamental
elements, or only affect
them
as the result of very
slow hereditary accumulations.
We
do not conclude from what precedes that the
psychological characteristics of peoples are invariable,
but
only that
characteristics,
they possess, like

a
high degree of
the
fixity.
anatomical
It
is
on
account of this fixity that the soul of races changes

so slowly during the course of ages.
CHAPTER
III
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HIERARCHY OF RACES

Psychological classification is based, as are anatomical classifications,
on the determination of a small number of irreducible and funda-
mental characteristics
races
races
The
The
primitive
superior
Psychological classification of the human

races The inferior races The average
The
races
psychological
elements
the
grouping of which allows of this classification The elements

which are of the most importance Character Morality The
The qualities
intellectual qualities are modifiable by education
appertaining
to
character
are
irreducible
and
constitute
the
Their role in history Why

it is
impossible for different races to understand and influence one
another The reasons why it is impossible for an inferior people
unvarying element in each people
to
adopt a superior
^7 HEN
the grounds are examined, in a
on natural
species,
in
civilisation.
it is
work
history, of the classification
of
at once observed that the irreducible, and
consequence the fundamental characteristics, which
allow of the determination of each species, are very
few
in
number.
but a few
lines.
Their enumeration always occupies
26
The
reason
naturalist only concerns
that the
is
himself with the unvarying characteristics, and pays
no heed
fundamental
these
Moreover
to the transitory characteristics.
inevitable
have
characteristics
an
consequence
entire
series
as
their
of
other
characteristics.
The
case
of
characteristics
same with the psychological
the
is
If
races.
be gone
details
into,
innumerable slight divergencies are found to exist
between
On
the other hand,
teristics
in
different peoples
only the fundamental charac-
each people.
for
that
characteristic
of
this
characteristics
it
is
only by examples
show
possible to
small
on the
The only way
It is
adduce examples that are highly
shall shortly
influence
different individuals.
be considered, they are seen to be very few
number
we
if
and
life
clearly the
number of fundamental
of peoples.
to set forth the bases of a psycho-
logical classification of races being to
study
in detail
the psychology of the different peoples, a task that
would demand
in-
itself several
volumes,
we
shall
confine ourselves to indicating their main lines.

If only their general psychological characteristics
be considered, the
four groups
human
races
may
(i) the primitive races
be divided into
(2)
the inferior
ITS
races

the
(3)
average
races
(4)
the
27
superior
races,
The
primitive races are those in which
of culture
met
is
state bordering
with.
no
They have remained
trace
in that
on animality which was traversed by
our ancestors of the age of stone instruments.
The
Fuegians and the aboriginal Australians are examples

in point.
Above
the primitive races are found the inferior
more
races, represented
They
especially
by the negroes.
are capable of attaining to the rudiments of
but to the rudiments only.
civilisation,
They have
never been able to get beyond quite barbarian forms

of civilisation, even
heirs,
as
at
Saint
when chance has made them

Domingo, of superior
the
civilisa-
tions.
Among
Chinese,
the average
the
Japanese,
Semitic peoples.
races,
the
we
place
the
Mongolians, and
the
shall
In the case of the Assyrians, the
Mongolians, the Chinese, and the Arabs, they have

created high types of civilisation,
European peoples have been able
which only the

to surpass.
Only the Indo-European peoples can be classed

among the superior races. Both in antiquity, at the
epoch of the Greeks and Romans, and
in
modern
28
times they alone have been capable of great inven-
and industry.
tions in the arts, the sciences,
them that
is
due the high
at the present day.
steam and
level
It is
the Hindoos
superior races,
who have
least
discovered
developed of these
in particular,
have risen
and philosophy
to
which
Chinese, or the Semites
have
to a level in the arts, letters,
the Mongolians, the
reached by civilisation
they
The
electricity.
It is to
never been able to attain.
No
confusion
possible between the four great
is
we have
divisions
just
abyss that separates them
when
it
is
The mental
enumerated.
is
evident.
It
is
only
desired to subdivide these groups that the
difficulties begin.
An
Russian belong
of them to the division of superior
peoples,
but
all
it
is
Englishman, a Spaniard, or a
matter
of
common know-
ledge that the differences between them
are very
great.
To
determine these differences with precision,
it
would be necessary to take each people separately,
and
to describe
its
character.
This
is
the course
we
two of these peoples

give an application of the method and to
shall shortly follow in the case of
in order to
show the importance of its consequences.

For the moment, we can only indicate very
ITS
29
summarily the nature of the principal psychological

elements which allow of the differentiation of races.
Among
and
the primitive and inferior races
find such races
savages,
since
societies
are
to
it is
not necessary to go to the pure
the
lowest strata of the
European
homologous with the primitive men

is always met
a greater or less incapacity to reason

with, an incapacity, that
is,
to associate in the brain,
with a view to compare them and to perceiving their

analogies and differences, the ideas produced
by past
sensations or the words that are their signs, and the

ideas produced
from
by present
There
sensations.
results
and a
this incapacity to reason a great credulity
complete absence of the
In the case of
critical spirit
the superior being, on the contrary, the capacity of

associating ideas,
their association
is
and of drawing conclusions from

very great, while the
critical spirit
and precision are highly developed.
The
inferior
finitesimal
races
further
display
power of attention and
but
reflection
an
;
in-
they
possess the spirit of imitation in a high degree, the
habit of drawing inaccurate general conditions from

particular cases, a feeble capacity for observation
for deriving useful results
and
from their observations, an
extreme mobility of character and a very notable lack
30
The
of foresight.
Like Esau
only guide.
mess of pottage.
his
is
their
the type of the primitive
they are inclined to
being
moment
instinct of the
their birthright for a
sell
When man
capable of weighing
is
future against his immediate interest, of giving
himself a goal and pursuing
it
with perseverance, he
has realised a considerable progress.
The
incapacity to foresee the distant consequences
of acts and the tendency to be guided solely by the

/
instinct of the
moment condemns the
individual as well
as the race to remain for ever in a very inferior state.

It is
only
in
proportion as they are able to dominate
their instincts, in proportion, that

will
power and
selves, that
discipline,
in
is,
as they acquire
consequence empire over them-
peoples can understand the importance of

the necessity of sacrificing themselves to
an ideal and of raising themselves to a
Were
it
required to measure
by a
social level of peoples in history,
civilised state.
single standard the
should be disposed
to take as standard the degree of their aptitude for
dominating their reflex impulses.

antiquity,
the
Anglo-Americans
represent the peoples

in the highest
who have
measure.
assure their greatness.
It
The Romans
in
modern
in
times,
possessed this quality
has largely contributed to
ITS
It is
by
their general
31
grouping and their respective
development that the various psychological elements

just enumerated form the mental constitutions which
allow of the classification of individuals and races.
Certain of these psychological elements appertain
to character,
The
and others
superior
inferior races
by
intelligence,
but
races
to the intelligence.
are
distinguished
their character as well as

it
is
more
especially
character that the superior races are
from
social
one
from the
another.
This
importance, and
it
point
by
their
their
distinguished
has
deserves
by
considerable
to
be clearly
established.
Character
is
formed by the combination,
in
varying
proportions, of the different elements which psychologists are
accustomed at the present day to designate
by the name of sentiments. Among the sentiments

which play the most important part must more
especially be
power of
on the
noted
perseverance, energy, and the
self-control, faculties
will.
We
more or
less
dependent
would also mention morality among
the fundamental elements of character, although
it
is
somewhat complex sentiments. By|

morality we mean hereditary respect for the rules on
the synthesis of
which the existence of a society
is
based.
To possess
32
morality means, for a people, to have certain fixed
these
As
conduct and not to depart from them.
rules of
time and
vary with
rules
morality
place,
appears in consequence to be a very variable matter,
and
it is
moment,
so in fact
it
but for a given people, at a given
The
ought to be quite invariable.
off-
spring of character, and in nowise of the intelligence,

it
is
not solidly constituted
until
it
become
has
In a
hereditary, and, in consequence, unconscious.
way
general
the greatness of peoples depends in a
large measure on the level of their morality.
The
intellectual qualities are susceptible of being
slightly modified
by education
almost wholly escape

does affect them,
natures,
whose
its
is
it
will
is
those of character
influence.
When
education
only in the case of neutral
almost non-existent, and
who
are ready in consequence to follow whatever impulse
may
with
These neutral natures are met
be given them.
in
individuals,
but very rarely in an entire
people, or, should they be thus observed,
it
is
only in
times of extreme decadence.
The
of
discoveries
transmitted
from
one
the
are
easily
another.
The
intelligence
people
to
transmission of the qualities appertaining to character

is
impossible.
They
are the irreducible fundamental
ITS
33
**
ments which allow of the differentiation of the

of the superior peoples.
ntal constitutions
due to the intelligence are the
scoveries
of
patrimony
humanity
common
defects
or
qualities
The
of
character constitute the exclusive patrimony of each

people, they are the firm rock
which the waters must
h day by day for centuries before they can even

r
away
its
external
They
asperities.
are
the
equivalent of the irreducible element of the species,
of the fins of
fish,
of the beak of the bird, of the tooth
of the carnivorous animal.
The
character of a people and not
determines
destiny.
its
It
is
historical
evolution,
its
intelligence
and governs
its
always to be met with behind the
apparent fantasies of that most powerless chance,

that
most
fictitious
Providence, that very real Fate
which, according to varying beliefs, guides the actions

of men.
The
influence of character
is
sovereign in the
of peoples, whereas that of the intelligence
very feeble.
is
life
in truth
The Romans
of the decadence possessed
more
refined than that of their
intelligence far
rude ancestors, but they had lost the qualities of

character of the latter
the perseverance, the energy,
the invincible tenacity, the capacity to sacrifice them4
34
selves to
an
ideal, the inviolable respect for the
which had made the greatness of

It is
their forefathers.
due to their character that sixty thousand English
are able to maintain beneath their
and
laws
fifty
millions of Hindoos,
yoke two hundred

of
many
whom
least their equals in intelligence, while a
them immensely
few surpass
as regards their artistic taste
depth of their philosophic views.
It is in
are at
and the
consequence
of their character that they are the masters of the
most gigantic colonial empire known to history. It

is character and not intelligence that goes to the
founding of
it is
and empires. Character

feel and act.
They have
societies, religions,
that enables peoples to
never derived
much advantage from
desire to reason
and
too great a
think. 1
1
The extreme weakness and slight practical interest of the works of
professional psychologists is more especially to be ascribed to the fact
that they have confined themselves almost exclusively to the study of
the intelligence, and have almost entirely neglected that of charucter.
M. Paulhan
in his interesting
Essai sur
les
caracteres ,
and M. Ribot
few passages, unfortunately only too short, are almost the only
psychologists I can recall who have pointed out the importance of
character, and noted that it forms the true basis of the mental con-
in a
"The intelligence," the learned professor of the College

of France rightly declares, "is only an accessory form of the mental
The fundamental type is character, which the intelligence
evolution.
stitution.
rather tends to destroy when it is too developed."

It is to the study of character that attention must be directed, as I
attempting to show in these pages,
comparative psychology of peoples.
when
It
it is
am
desired to describe the
would be
difficult to
understand
ITS
It is
the mental constitution of races that determines
their conception of the
world and of
We
sequence, their conduct.

this
life,
manner by external
a certain
and acts
feels, thinks,
which
that in
will
and, in con-
shall shortly support
statement by important examples.
Impressed
very different manner from
in a
think,
feel,
that
is
sequence
is
it
in
things, the individual
and act those who
possess a different mental constitution.
impossible
constitutions, constructed as they are

lines,
35
The
con-
mental
that
on very varied
should arrive at mutual comprehension.
The
of races are the result
more
century-old
conflicts
particularly of the incompatibility of their respective

characters.
It is
impossible to arrive at any under-
standing of history unless
mind that
the
cannot
different
comprehend
be continually borne
cannot
different races
same manner, and
it
that,
one
in
feel,
consequence, they
another.
Doubtless
peoples have in their languages
that a science so important
should never have been
knowledge that
it
for history
and
in
think, or act in
the
common
politics are its derivations
made
the object of study, were it not for the

can be acquired neither in laboratories nor in books,
but only in the course of long travel.

There is no indication moreover
that it is on the eve of being taken up by the professional
psychologists,
who at the present day are more and more abandoning what used to be
their
domain, and confining themselves to anatomical and psychological
researches.
36
words which they imagine are synonymous, but these
common words
arouse entirely dissimilar sensations,
and modes of thought
ideas,
uttered.
It is
whose mental
in those
necessary to have lived
who hear them
among
peoples
constitution differs to a sensible
degree
from our own, even though frequenting amongst them

only such individuals as speak our language and
have received our education, to appreciate the depth

of the gulf that separates the thought of the various
peoples.
It is possible to
obtain
some idea of
this
phenomenon, without having recourse to extensive
exists
by observing the great mental separation that

between the civilised man and woman, even
when
the latter
travel,
the
is
highly educated.
woman may have common
The man and
ments, but never like chains of thought.
one
converse with
another
and
interests
for
senti-
They might
centuries
without
understanding one another, because they are constructed on lines too different to allow of their being
impressed in the same manner by external things.
The
difference
sufficient
to
in
create
their
faculties
logical
between
is
alone
them an insuperable
gulf.
This abyss between the mental constitution of the

different races explains
how
it
is
that the superior
ITS
37
peoples have never been able to impose their civilisa-
on
tion
inferior
The
peoples.
still
idea,
so wide-
spread, that education can achieve this result,
is
one
of the most baneful illusions that the theoreticians of
pure reason have ever brought into existence. Thanks

to the
memory
possessed by the most inferior beings
a privilege in nowise confined to
somewhat low down
become
is
however quite
his
mental
it is
doubt-
scale the totality
by a European.
negro or
easily take a university degree or
may
a lawyer
human
in the
of the notions possessed
a Japanese
man
education to impart to an individual
less possible for
the sort of varnish he thus acquires
superficial,
constitution.
and has no influence on
What no
education can
give him, because they are created by heredity alone,

are the forms of thought, the logic,
character of the Western man.
Japanese
may accumulate
all
and above
Our negro
possible
all
the
or
our
certificates
without ever attaining to the level of the average
European.
It is
easy to give him in ten years the
culture of a well-educated Englishman.

real
Englishman of him, that
as an
Englishman would act
stances of
sufficient.
life,
It
is
to say a
To make a
man acting
in the different
circum-
a thousand years would scarcely be

is
only in appearance that a people
38
suddenly transforms
beliefs
or
its
accomplished,
arts.
it
its
language,
its
constitution,
For such changes
would be necessary that
able to transform
its soul.
its
to be really
it
should be
CHAPTER
IV
THE PROGRESSIVE DIFFERENTIATION OF
INDI-
VIDUALS AND RACES

The
inequality between the different individuals of a race is greater in

Mental equality of all the
proportion to the superiority of the race
individuals of inferior races

To appreciate the differences that
separate races, the superior individuals of each people and not its
average representatives must be compared The progress of civilisa-
tends towards a greater and greater differentiation of indiand races Consequences of this differentiation The psychological reasons which prevent its becoming too considerable
viduals
The
individuals of the superior races are highly differentiated as

regards their intelligence, and very slightly so as regards their character
How heredity constantly tends to reduce individual superi-
Ition
to the average type of the race

Anatomical observations
confirming the progressive psychological differentiation of races,
orities
individuals,
THE
and
sexes.
superior races are not distinguished from
the inferior races solely
and anatomical
is
supplied
characteristics.
by the
by
their psychologica
further distinction
diversity of the elements of
they are composed.
which
All the individuals of the inferior
races, even as regards those of different sex, are on

39
40
sensibly the
same mental
They
level.
all
of
them
resemble one another, and they are thus a perfect ex-
dreamed of by our modern

In the case of the superior races, on the
emplification of the equality

socialists.
contrary, the intellectual inequality of the individuals
and the sexes
is
the law.
For this reason,
in order to appreciate the differences
that separate peoples, their superior representatives
when they
possess such
be compared.
and not
their inferior
Hindoos, Chinese, and Europeans are
but slightly differentiated intellectually so
when
far as their
On
the other
their superior representatives are
compared
average representatives are concerned.

hand,
must
their differentiation
is
found to be considerable.
With the progress of civilisation, not only races, but

also the individuals of each race
superior races
rentiated.
The
those at least of the
tend to become more and more

result of
modern
with our dreams of equality,
is
civilisation, clashing
not to render
more and more equal intellectually,

trary, more and more different.
One
diffe-
but,
men
on the con-
of the principal consequences of civilisation
is,
on the one hand, to differentiate races by the daily

increasing intellectual exertion
who have
it
demands of peoples
attained to a high degree of culture, and
ITS
41
on the other to widen the distinctions between the

various grades
of which each
civilised
people
is
composed.
The
of
conditions
condemn the
modern
industrial
evolution
inferior classes of civilised peoples to a
highly specialised labour which, far from increasing

their
merely
intelligence,
tends to lessen
hundred years ago, a workman was a veritable

capable of executing
mechanism
a mere
intelligence
is
the engineer
his life boring the
same portion of an
same machine.
To-day, he
is
who never produces more than one
who spends
polishing the
artist
the details of any piece of
of a watch for example.
toiler,
speciality,
all
it.
The
result
is
soon complete.
who
directs the
article,
same
holes,
driving the
that the atrophy of his
The manufacturer
workman
is
or
obliged, on
the contrary, owing to the pressure of discoveries
and
more numerous acquirements and much more enterprise and invention than
competition, to possess far
his predecessor of a
stantly
century back.
His brain
exercised, and, undergoing the
applies to
all
is
con-
law which
organs in such a case, becomes more
and more developed.

Tocqueville had already pointed out this progressive
differentiation of the social grades at a period
when
42
industry was far from having attained to the degree
of development
it
"
has reached to-day.
In propor-
tion as the principle of the division of labour receives
more thorough
application, the
workman becomes
weaker, of narrower intelligence, and
Art progresses, the artisan
falls
more dependent,
Every day the
back.
between the employer and the workman
difference
increases."
At
the present day, a superior people
may
be con-
sidered, from the intellectual point of view, to consti-
tute a sort of
pyramid of steps, the majority of which
are formed
steps
by the masses of the population, the upper

by the intelligent classes, 1 and the point of the
pyramid by a very small elite of men of science, inventors, artists, and writers, an exceedingly restricted
group as compared with the
1
rest of the population,
say intelligent without adding cultured.
It
is
but
a characteristic
error of the Latin peoples to believe that intelligence and culture go

Culture merely implies the possession of a certain amount of
together.
memory, but
to acquire
it
no judgment,
reflection, initiative or invention
Persons of very restricted intelligence are often met

are necessary.
with among those who have passed examinations, while it is quite as
who are highly

portion of our pyramid would be formed then
by elements taken from all classes. All the professions contain a very
Still it appears probable, in
small number of notable intelligences.
common
to find persons of a very slight degree of culture
intelligent.
The upper
virtue of the laws of heredity, that

classes contain the greater
superiority
lies.
what are known as the superior
number, and
it is
social
doubtless herein that their
ITS
43
the only group that determines the rank of a country

in the intellectual scale of civilisation.
for
it
It
would
suffice
to disappear for all that constitutes the glory of
"Were
disappear at the same time.
nation to
France, as Saint-Simon has rightly observed, to lose
suddenly
leading
its
fifty
men
leading
artists, its fifty
of science,
leading manufacturers,
the contrary
it
it
soul,
would be decapitated.
were to lose
would grieve at the
all its officials,
fifty
its fifty
become a
would
leading agriculturists, the nation
body without a
its
If
on
the French
because they
are
soft-
hearted, but the country would sustain very
little
loss
harm."
With the progress of civilisation, the
differentiation
between the extreme grades of a population proceeds

with great rapidity
increase
in
it
even tends, on occasion, to
what mathematicians
progression.
certain
effects
It
would
of
suffice
heredity did
call
in
geometrical
consequence,
not
intervene,
if
to
allow time to act to see the superior grades of a
population separated intellectually from the inferior
grades by a distance as great as that which separates

the white
man from
the negro, or even the negro from
the
monkey.
For several reasons, however, this
intellectual differ-
44
entiation of the social grades, considerable
becomes,
differentiation
is
that
In the
place, the
is
it
very slight extent
the character and not the
gence that plays the fundamental part

peoples.
first
almost confined to the intelligence,
affects the character to a
we know
it
not accomplished with the rapidity that
is
might be possible theoretically.
and
though
in
the
and
intellilife
of
In the second place, the masses are tending
and
at the present day, in virtue of their organisation

discipline, to
become
Their hatred of
all-powerful.
intellectual superiority being evident,
that every intellectual aristocracy
is
it
is
probable
destined to be
by periodic revolutions, in proporthe masses become organised, and just as the
violently destroyed
tion as
ancient nobility was destroyed a century ago.
When
Socialism shall have become master in Europe,
its
only chance of enduring will be to exterminate
all
the individuals without exception
endowed with a
superiority capable of raising them,
however
above the most humble
The two
ficial
causes
law
have just
set forth are of
an
arti-
order, since they are the result of conditions of
civilisation that
far
slightly,
level.
may vary.
more important cause

which
will
But there
it is
an
is
a further and
irresistible natural
always prevent the
elite
of a nation,
ITS
45
not from becoming intellectually differentiated from

the inferior grades, but from
ated too rapidly.

tion,
The
becoming so
present conditions of civilisa-
which tend more and more to
of the
same
differenti-
race, are confronted
differentiate
men
by the powerful laws
of heredity which tend to bring about the disappear-
ance of the individuals

too
marked a manner, or
who
surpass the average in
at least to bring
them down
to this average.
Observations already old, recorded by the authors

of investigations into heredity, have proved that the
descendants of families distinguished by their
and most usually
gence are subject sooner or later

at an early date
intelli-
to a process of degeneration
which
tends to extinguish them entirely.
Great intellectual superiority seems, then, to carry

with
it
who
the penalty that those
possess
it
leave
behind them degenerate offspring.
In reality the
point of the social pyramid of which
can only subsist on the condition that

elements from below.
posing this
island,
elite
their
spoke above
it
assimilates
the individuals com-
If all
were to be relegated to an isolated
inter-marriages
would
result
in
the
formation of a race displaying a variety of degenerate
symptoms and destined
in
consequence to
dis-
46
appear speedily. Great intellectual superiorities may

be compared to the botanical monstrosities created
by the
artifice
of a gardener.
Left to themselves
they die off or return to the average type of the

species, for the species
is all
powerful since
it
repre-
sents the long series of ancestors,
Attentive study
that
while
immensely
of the different peoples shows
the individuals of a given race
may
be
differentiated as regards the intelligence,
they are but slightly differentiated as regards the

character, that
unalterable
rock
of which
have
already shown the permanence throughout the ages.

In studying a race
it
should be considered,
in conse-
quence, from two very different points of view.

the intellectual point of view
small
elite to
which
is
its
due the
From
value depends on a
scientific, literary,
industrial progress of a civilisation.
From
and
the point
of view of character, acquaintance with the average
alone important.
dependent on the
do
The
strength of peoples
level of this average.
at a pinch without an intellectual
without a certain level of character.
prove
is
always
Peoples
Mite,
We
is
may
but not
shall shortly
this statement.
It is
thus seen that while the individuals of a race
become more and more
differentiated intellectually as
ITS
47
time goes on, they always tend, as far as character
is
concerned, to oscillate round the average type of the

race.
It
is
to this average type,
which progresses
very slowly, that the great majority of the members

of a nation belong.
is
found
Around
this
fundamental kernel
in the case at least of the superior
peoples
a thin layer of eminent minds, whose action

capital
importance as regards
civilisation,
out importance as regards the race.
being destroyed,
it is
but
is
is
of
with-
Incessantly
incessantly being renewed
at
the expense of the average grades, which, for their

part,
vary but very slowly, since the slightest varia-
tions, in
order to become durable, must be accumu-
lated in the
same
direction
by heredity during
several
centuries.
It
was several years ago that
conclusions on
researches of a
arrived, basing
my
purely anatomical
order, at the idea just enunciated touching the differ-
entiation of individuals
I
have
As
and
races,
now invoked none but
and
to justify
psychological reasons.
the two kinds of observation lead to the
results, I
may be
clusions of
my
which
same
allowed to recall some of the con-
earlier investigations.
They are based
on measurements executed on several thousands of

skulls, ancient
and modern, belonging to
different
48
races.
sages
proceed to give the more essential pas-
The volume
of the skull bears a close relation to the intelligence,
when, leaving individual cases out of consideration, series are dealt

It is then found that what distinguishes inferior from
with.
superior
is not the slight variations in the
average capacity of their skulls,
but this essential fact that the superior race contains a certain number
of individuals whose brain is highly developed, whereas the inferior
races
race contains no such individuals.
Races
differ, in
consequence, not
in
respect to the masses that constitute them, but in respect to the small
number of individuals who stand out from the crowd. The average
difference
between the skull in the case of two peoples
except
when
is never very considerable.

quite inferior races are under consideration
When the skulls are compared of the various human races, belonging
to the past and present, it is found that the races in which the volume
of the skull presents the greatest individual variations are the most
highly civilised races ; that in proportion as a race grows civilised, the

skulls of the individuals composing it become more and more differentiated
a fact which leads to the result that civilisation conduces not to
an inequality that is always growing more

Anatomical and physiological equality only exist in the
case of individuals of quite inferior races.
The differences between the
members of a tribe of savages, all of whom follow the same occupation,
intellectual equality, but to
pronounced.
are perforce of the slightest.

Between the peasant whose vocabulary
consists of some three hundred words, and the man of learning who is
hundred thousand words and with the ideas that correspond to them, the difference is, on the contrary, enormous.
I should add to what precedes that the differentiation of individuals
familiar with a
brought about by the development of civilisation

case of the sexes.
is
also apparent in the
Among inferior peoples or the inferior classes of

man and the woman are intellectually on much the
superior peoples the

level.
On the other hand, in proportion as peoples
the difference between the sexes is accentuated.
same
The volume
compared, as
ot the
in
Very
skull,
civilised
even when the subjects
same age, height,

differences that increase rapidly with the degree of
slight in the case of the inferior races, these differ-
my
investigations, are strictly of the
and weight, presents

civilisation.
male and female
grow
ITS
49
In these
ences become immense in the case of the superior races.
superior races the feminine skulls are often scarcely more developed
Whereas the average
than those of the women of very inferior races.
volume of the skulls of male Parisians is such as to range them among
known
average of the skulls of female Parisians

skulls with which we are acquainted,
almost on a level with the skulls of Chinese women, and scarcely above
the largest
classes
skulls, the
them among the smallest
the feminine skulls of
les
Dr. Gustave
le
New
Caledonia. 1
Bon, Recherches anatomiqius
et
mathematiqties sur
variations de volume dtt cerveau et sur leurs relations avec
gence : 8vo, 1879 (Memoir crowned by the

by the Society of Anthropology).
Academy
V intelli-
of Sciences and
CHAPTER V
FORMATION OF THE HISTORICAL RACES
How
historical races are
Conditions which allow of different
formed
Influence of the number of

races combining to form a single race
the individuals involved in the process, of the dissimilarity of their
Results of cross-breeding
Mobility of the new
characters, of the environments, etc.
Causes of the great inferiority of half-breeds
psychological characteristics created by cross-breeding
come
be fixed
The
How
these
periods of history
Cross-breeding constitutes an essential factor in the formation of
new races, and at the same time a powerful factor in the dissolution
characteristics
to
critical
Importance of the regime of castes Influence of

Environment can only exert its influence on new
process of formation, and on races whose ancestral
of civilisations
environment
races
in
characteristics are giving
Environment
is
way
before the action of cross-breeding
without influence on old races
Various examples
The
majority of the historical races of Europe are still in process

Political and social consequences
of formation
Why the period
of formation of historical races will soon be over.
WE
have already remarked that genuine

in
the
scarcely to be
scientific
sense
met with among
only historical races, by which
are
civilised peoples, but
is
meant
by the chances of conquest, immigration,

50
races,
of the word,
races created
politics, etc.,
51
and formed,
in
consequence, of a mixture of individuals
of different origins.
How
and
do these heterogeneous races come to combine
to form an historical race
psychological characteristics
possessing
This
common
the point
is
we
are about to investigate.
Let
first
it
of
all
be observed that the elements
brought together by chance do not always combine.
The German, Hungarian,
Slav,
that live under Austrain rule

races
Irish,
which
who
have never attempted to
live
the
quite
As
of fusion not taking place.
inferior
peoples,
such as Redskins,
do they not
or Tasmanians, not only
Australians,
The
fuse.
under the rule of the English, are
another example
for
and other populations

form perfectly distinct
combine with the superior peoples, but they disappear rapidly after they have come in contact with
them.
Experience proves that every
which
is
inevitably
confronted
condemned
with
inferior people
superior
people
is
to disappear at an early date.
Three conditions are necessary to allow of races

fusing and forming a new and more or less homo"geneous race.
The
first
condition
is
that the races which are to
interbreed shall not be too unequal in
number
the
52
second, that their characters shall

similar
not be too dis-
the third, that they shall be subjected
for
a long period to identical conditions of environment.
The
of the conditions that have just been
first
enumerated
of
is
importance.
capital
number of white men transported
small
into the midst of
a numerous negro population disappear, after a few

generations, without leaving
their blood
any trace of
All the conquerors
who
have invaded too numerous populations have
dis-
among
their
appeared
descendants.
in this
way.
They have been
been done by the Latins

Egypt, to leave behind
arts
and
in
them
their language, but
able, as has
Gaul or the Arabs

their
in
civilisation, their
they have never been
able to bequeath their blood.
The second
of the preceding conditions
of very great importance.

races, the black
is
also
Doubtless very different
and the white
for
example,
may
fuse,
but the half-breeds that result constitute a population

very inferior to those of which
it is
sprung, and utterly
incapable of creating, or even of continuing, a

tion.
The
civilisa-
influence of contrary heredities saps their
morality and character.

spring of white
men and
When
half-breeds, the off-
negroes, have chanced to
inherit a superior civilisation, as in Saint
Domingo,
ITS
civilisation has speedily

>t
been overtaken by the
lamentable degeneration.
Cross-breeding
be a source of improvement when

superior
and
allied
sufficiently
it
races,
such as the
it
always
an element of degeneration when the
constitutes
even though superior, are too
To
may
occurs between
English and the Germans of America, but
races,
53
cross
two peoples
is
to
different. 1
change simultaneously
both their physical constitution and their mental conCross-breeding, moreover, constitutes the
stitution.
only infallible means at our disposal of transforming

in a
fundamental manner the character of people,
heredity being
the only force powerful enough to
contend with heredity.

creation of a
new
Cross-breeding allows of the
race, possessing
new
physical and
psychological characteristics.
The
1
characteristics thus created are at the outset
by too large a proportion of half-breeds

given over to perpetual anarchy, unless they
are ruled by an iron hand.
Such will inevitably be the fate of Brazil.
White men form only a third of its population. The remainder is
All the countries inhabited
are, solely for this reason,
The famous Agassiz rightly

have visited Brazil for it to be impossible to deny the decadence that results from cross-breeding which
goes on in this country to a greater extent than elsewhere. This crossbreeding is fatal, he says, to the best qualities whether of the white
man, the black, or the Indian, and produces an indescribable type
composed
of
observed "that
negroes and mulattoes.

it
is
sufficient to
whose physical and mental energy
suffers."
54
very weak
and
To
fluctuating.
fix
hereditary accumulations are necessary.

effect of interbreeding
that congeries of
The
between different races
destroy the soul of the races, and
mean
them
common
long,
first
is
to
by their soul we
and sentiments
ideas
which make the strength of peoples, and without
which there
The
land.
is
no such thing as a nation or a
period
of interbreeding
is
father-
the critical
period in the history of peoples, a period of com-
mencement and hesitancy which

to traverse, for there
that
is
it
all
nations have had
scarcely a European people
not formed of the debris of other peoples.
a period
and
is
full
It is
of intestine struggles and of vicissitudes,
continues so long as the
new
psychological
characteristics are not fixed.
What
precedes shows that interbreeding should be
considered at once as a fundamental element in the
formation of
new
races
and
as a powerful factor in
the dissolution of ancient races.
It is
with reason,
then, that all the peoples that have reached a high
degree of civilisation carefully avoid intermarrying

with foreigners.
Had
it
not been for the admirable
regime of castes, the handful of Aryans that invaded

India,
some
three thousand
years
ago,
would have
been quickly swamped by the immense masses of the
ITS
55
dark-coloured populations that surrounded them on
every
side,
and no
civilisation
would have come
existence on the soil of the great peninsula.
into
If in
modern times the English had not followed the

same system, if they had consented to intermarry
with the indigenous inhabitants, their gigantic Indian
Empire would long
grasp.
overtaken
may sustain many losses, may be

by many catastrophes, and yet recover from
it
when
it
It
is
have slipped from their
people
the ordeal, but

recovery,
since
at the
has lost everything, and

has lost
its
is
past
soul.
moment when decadent
civilisations
have become the prey of peaceful or warlike invaders

that interbreeding
fills
and then the creative
in succession the destructive
role of which
have just spoken.
Cross-breeding destroys an ancient civilisation because

it
destroys the soul of the people that possesses
It fosters
the old
the creation of a
psychological
civilisation
characteristics
because
of the races
contact have been destroyed, and because
in
characteristics
new
the
It
is
may be formed under
new
the influence of
conditions of existence.
only on races
whose ancestral
in
new
it.
in
course of formation, and
characteristics
have been destroyed
consequence by contrary heredities, that the
in-
56
fluence can be effective
mentioned
of
influence
the
at
of the last of the factors

of this chapter, the
beginning
While very
environment.
slight
ancient races, the influence of environment
new
contrary, very great on
by
on the
Cross-breeding,
destroying the ancestral, psychological
teristics, creates
charac-
a sort of blank tablet on which the
of environment, continued during centuries,
action
may succeed
to
races.
is,
on
new
in
impressing and finally in giving fixity

characteristics.
psychological
then only, the formation of a

It is in this
results.
way
new
Then, and
historical race
that the French race
was
constituted.
The
is
in
influence of environment
physical or moral
consequence very great or very slight according
to circumstances,
and
this is the
explanation of the
contrary opinions that have been formulated with
regard to
influence
its
is
action.
We
have just seen that
very great on races
in
this
course of formation
but had we been considering ancient races solidly
by the long action of heredity, we could

that the influence of environment is, on the
established
have said
contrary, almost inappreciable.
As
regards moral environment,
the insignificance of
its
we have proof
of
action in the failure of our
ITS
Western
57
civilisations to influence the peoples of the
when
East, even
these latter have been subjected to
their contact during several generations
the Chinese
inhabitants of the United States are a case in point.
The
by
slight
power of physical environment
is
shown
Trans-
the difficulties that attend acclimatisation.
ported into surroundings too different from those to
which
is
it
statement
plants
is
and the
accustomed, an ancient race
equally applicable to men, animals, and
perishes sooner than submit to transformation.
Egypt has always been the tomb of the many different

races that have effected its conquest.
Not a single
people has been able to acclimatise
itself
in
the
Neither Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs,
country.
nor Turks have been able to leave behind them a

trace of their race.
is
that
exactly
of the
The only type

those
is
met with
Fellah whose features
impassible
resemble
that
engraved
seven
thousand
years ago on the tombs and palaces of the Pharaohs
by the Egyptian
The majority
still
artists.
of the historical races of Europe are
in course of formation,
should be
known
and
that this
understanding their history.
Englishman
is
is
it is
important that
it
the case with a view to
At
the present day the
the only European
who
represents an
58
almost completely fixed race.

Briton, the Saxon,
In his case the ancient
and the Norman have given way
new and highly homogeneous
to a
on the contrary, the Provencal

the
Still, if
Normandy.
as yet an average type of the

least
ideas
In France,
from
very different
the
there does not exist
Frenchman, there
exist average types of certain
fortunately these types

their
type.
inhabitant of Auvergne from
Breton, the
inhabitant of
is
at
Un-
regions.
are very distinct as regards
and character.
in
con-
sequence to devise institutions which shall suit
them
all
equally well,
and
concentration that
it
it
is
community of thought.
of sentiment and
which
result
differences of
belief,
therefrom,
is
It
is
only by
difficult
dint of energetic
possible to lend
them some
Our profound divergences

and the
are
political
due,
in
upheavals
the
main, to
mental constitution, which the future
alone will perhaps be able to efface.
Such has always been the

races have
situation
when
found themselves in contact.
different
The
dis-
sentiments and intestine struggles have always been

the more acute in proportion as the races in presence
have been the more

unlike
live
it
different.
When
they are too
becomes absolutely impossible to make them
under the same institutions and the same laws.
ITS
The
history of great empires
races
composed of different
Most often they
has always been identical.
with
disappear
founder.
their
nations, only the English
differing widely
modern
Among
and the Dutch have been
successful in imposing their
due
59
yoke on Asiatic peoples
from them, and their success
to the fact that they
is
solely
have respected the manners,
customs, and laws of the peoples in question, leaving
them
in
reality to
govern themselves, and confining
their role to appropriating a portion of the taxes, to
engaging
in
commerce, and to maintaining peace.
Apart from these rare exceptions,
the great
all
empires composed of dissimilar peoples owe their

foundation to force and are destined to
violence.
To
to endure,
it is
slow,
and the
enable a nation to constitute

necessary that
same
soil,
formation should be
fusion
of but
races, interbreeding, living
on the
result
slightly different
its
by
itself and
perish
of the gradual
undergoing the action of the same environ
ment, and having the same institutions and beliefs

After the lapse of several
may come
races
to
form
centuries these distinct
a highly homogeneous
nation.
As
the world grows older, the races
and more stable and
become more
their transformation
by means
60
of fusion rarer and
rarer.
As
it
advances
in age,
humanity feels the burden of heredity grow heavier,

and transformations become more difficult. So far as
Europe
is
concerned,
it
may
be said that the era of
the formation of historical races will soon be over.
BOOK
II
HO [V THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

OF RACES ARE D ISPLA YED IN THE VARIOUS
ELEMENTS OF THEIR CIVILISATIONS
BOOK
II
HOW THE
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF RACES ARE DISPLA YED IN THE VARIOUS
ELEMENTS OF THEIR CIVILISATIONS
CHAPTER
THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF A CIVILISATION CONSIDERED AS AN EXTERIOR MANIFESTATION

OF THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE
The elements
of which a civilisation
is
composed are the
exterior
manifestations of the soul of the peoples, which have created them

The importance of these various elements varies with the different
According to the several peoples it is the arts, literature,

etc., that fill the fundamental role
Examples from
peoples
institutions,
the Egyptians, Greeks, and

antiquity
the different elements of a civilisation
:
general march of that civilisation
What
Romans
The evolution of
may be independent of the
Examples supplied by the
arts
Impossibility of finding in a single element

of a civilisation the measure of the level of that civilisation
they express
Elements which assure the superiority of a people Elements

which philosophically are very inferior may be socially very
superior.
"^HE
different elements, languages, institutions,
ideas,
civilisation
beliefs,
is
arts,
literature,
of
which
composed should be regarded

63
as the
64
of
manifestation
exterior
who have
the
men
the
of
soul
The importance, however,
created them.
of these elements as the expression of the soul of

a people varies greatly with the period and the races.
Few books
relating to
works of
appear at the
art
present day that do not contain the statement that
works of
art are the faithful rendering of the
thought
of peoples and the most important expression of their

civilisation.
Doubtless
the rule
is
it
often true that this
is
a long
is
the case, but
way from being absolute, and the
development of the
arts
is
far
from corresponding
invariably to the intellectual development of nations.
While there are

art are the
certain peoples for
arts
in
works of
most important manifestation of
soul, there are others,
rank
whom
who
their
occupy, moreover, a high
the scale of civilisation,
among whom
have played but a very secondary
part.
the
If the
history of the civilisation of each people had to be

written on the understanding that only one of
its
elements was to be considered, the element chosen
ought to vary
in the case
of each people.
peoples the element would be the

it
arts,
For some
but for others
would be their institutions, their military organisa-
tion, their industry, their
commerce,
etc.,
that would
ITS
give us the best knowledge of them.
It is
to establish this point at the outset, for
how
us later to understand
that
is
it
important
will
it
65
enable
the various
elements of a civilisation have undergone very unequal
transformations
when transmitted from one
people to another.
the peoples of antiquity, the Egyptians and
Among
Romans
examples of
offer highly characteristic
this
inequality in the development of the various elements
of a civilisation, and even in the various branches of
which each of these elements
is
composed.
Let us begin by considering the Egyptians.
was always very weak,
literature
very poor quality.

the
contrary,
monuments
masterpieces.
excite our admiration.
statues that have
painting of
In architecture and statuary, on
they produced
still
their
Their
come down
Their
The Egyptian
to us, the Scribe, the
and many others

the present day, and it was
Cheik-el-Beled, Rahotep, Nefert-Ari,
would
still
be models at
only during a very short period that they were surpassed by the Greeks.
With the Egyptians let us compare the Romans,

whose role in history was so preponderating. They
lacked neither educators nor models, since they
after the
Egyptians and Greeks
came
and yet they did
66
not succeed in creating a personal

perhaps, has ever displayed
artistic
The Romans
productions.
No
art.
people,
originality in
less
its
held the arts in
very slight esteem, scarcely regarding them from

other than a utilitarian point of view, and looking
on
them
as
merely
of
sort
article
imported
analogous to the other
products, such
aromatics, and spices
which they were indebted
for
At
to foreign peoples.
the period
already masters of the world, the

national
art,
and even
when
later on,
as
metals,
when they were

Romans had no
universal peace,
somewhat developed
sentiments, it was always to
wealth, and the needs of luxury

their
weak,
artistic
Greece that they went

history
of
Roman
for
models and
architecture
The
artists.
and
sculpture
is
more than an appendix to the history of

the sculpture and architecture of Greece.
scarcely
On
the other hand this great
was so
inferior
elements of
in
the
civilisation
people, which
developed three other
arts,
to
Roman
the highest pitch.
possessed military institutions
which insured
empire of the world
and
tions
it
which
still
political
serve
us
as
it
It
the
juridical institu-
models
and
finally,
created a literature which for centuries has been
the source of inspiration of our own.
ITS
We
67
thus have a striking example of the unequal
development of the elements of a
civilisation in the
case of two nations whose high degree
of culture
cannot be contested, and we can divine the errors

that would result from taking as sole standard but
one of these elements
the arts for example.
have just found that among the Egyptians the

with
the
original
contrary,
the
exception
and
of
painting, were
arts,
extremely
remarkable, while literature, on
did not rise above mediocrity.
Romans
We
the
Among
the arts were mediocre and without a
trace of originality, but they shone in the field of

literature,
and
their military
and
political institutions
were of the highest order.
The Greeks
themselves, though one of the peoples
that has displayed the

different fields,
unequal
way
in
may
most superiority
also
be cited
most
proof of the
in
which the development of the various
elements of a civilisation proceeds.
At
epoch their literature was already very

the songs of
in the
Homer
are
still
the
Homeric
brilliant, since
regarded as the models
with which the students of the European universities

are
condemned
to saturate themselves
has been taken for centuries past.

of
modern archaeology have
a view that
But the discoveries
proved
that,
at
the
68
period to which the Homeric songs belong, Greek

sculpture
and architecture were grossly barbarian,
and confined
Assyrian
to crude imitations of
Egyptian and
art.
However,
it
is
furnish us with an
ment of the
more
especially the
Hindoos that
example of the unequal develop-
different elements of a civilisation.
regards architecture they have been
very few peoples.
As
As
surpassed by
regards philosophy the depth
of their speculations has only been attained to by
European thought at a quite recent date. In literature, if they do not reach the level of the Greeks
and Latins, they have nevertheless produced admirable work. Their statuary, on the contrary, is
mediocre, and
the
much below
that of the Greeks.
domain of science and
in
that
In
of historical
knowledge, they have absolutely nothing to show,
and they exhibit an absence of precision that
met with
to an equal degree
in
is
not
any other people.
Their sciences have been mere childish speculations
their histories absurd legends, containing not a single
exact date and probably not a single exact event.

In their case, once again, the exclusive study of the
arts
would be
insufficient to
their civilisation.
determine the level of
ITS
Many other examples might
be adduced
in
69
support
There are races which, although

they have never occupied an absolutely superior rank,
of what precedes.
have succeeded
in creating
an absolutely personal art
The
bearing no visible relation to anterior models.
Arabs are a case
in
Less than a century after
point.
they had invaded the old Greco-Roman world, they
had so utterly transformed
the
archi-
Byzantine
tecture they had begun by adopting, that
it
would
be impossible to determine the types that had

spired them,
were not that we are
if it
still
in-
able to
consult the series of intermediary monuments.
Moreover, even
a people should not possess
if
any
artistic or literary aptitude, it is
capable of creating
a civilisation of a superior order.
This happened
the case of the Phenicians, whose sole superiority

their skill in
commerce.
the ancient world
communication
was they who
It
by bringing
all
its
in
was
civilised
parts
into
but as far as they themselves were
concerned they produced scarcely anything, and the

history of their civilisation
is
the history of their
imerce.
Finally, there
are
peoples
lents of civilisation
among whom
have remained
state with the exception of the arts.
in
all
the
an inferior
The Mongolians
70
were a people of
The monuments they
this kind.
raised in India, in a style about
which there
is
scarcely
anything Hindoo, are so magnificent that competent
some of them rank among the

monuments that have been raised by
artists declare that
most beautiful
the hand of
classing the
It will
most
man
and yet nobody could think of
Mongols among the superior
be noticed, moreover, that even
civilised peoples,
among
the
not always at the culmi-
is
it
races.
nating period of their civilisation that the arts attain

to the highest degree of development.
Among
the
Egyptians and among the Hindoos the most perfect
monuments
Europe,
as
it
are generally the
was
while in
Middle Ages, an epoch regarded
in the
flourished
that
semi-barbarian,
most ancient
that
marvellous
Gothic art whose admirable productions have never
been equalled.
In consequence
it
is
quite impossible to judge of
by the development of
the level of a people solely

its
arts,
which constitute,
repeat, but
elements of
its
civilisation,
superiority
is
not
and an element whose
proven
any
superiority of literature
is
proven.
on the contrary, that
is
among
head of
civilisation
it
the
one of the
more than
It often
the
happens,
the peoples at the
Romans,
for
instance, in
ITS
71
ancient times and the Americans at the present day
show the most weakness.
that artistic productions
Frequently too,
we
as
remarked,
just
has been
it
semi-barbarous ages that the peoples have pro-
in
and
duced
their literary
artistic
masterpieces more especially.
artistic
seem that the period of personality

case of a people,
hood or
its
is
pations of the
not
in the arts, in the
its
maturity
that, among
new world of which we catch
foresee the
among
would even
the
its
child-
and
if it
the utilitarian preoccu-
of the dawn, the role of the arts
we may
It
a growth belonging to
youth and not to
be considered
their
masterpieces
is
scarcely observable,
day when they

at
inferior,
secondary manifestations of a
a glimpse
least
will
be classed
among
if
the quite
civilisation.
There are many reasons why the progress of the

arts in their evolution should not
be parallel to that
of the other elements of a civilisation, and should not

in
consequence be always a sure indication of the
state of this civilisation.
Whether
in
the case of
Egypt, of Greece, or of the various European peoples,
we observe
this general
reached a certain
level,
law that as soon as art has

as soon that
is
as
certain
masterpieces have been produced, there immediately
commences a period of decadence
entirely independent
72
of the
movement of
the
until a political revolution,
new
elements of the
This decadent phase of the arts subsists
civilisation.
of
other
elements into
an invasion, the adoption
new
any other factor introduces
beliefs or
art.
It
was
in this
way
that in the
Middle Ages the Crusades were the source of fresh

knowledge and new ideas, which gave an impulsion
to
art
Roman
way
that
resulted
in
style into the
the transformation of the
Gothic
style.
again that, several centuries
and
of Greek
It
later,
was
in this
the revival
about
the
transformation of Gothic art into the art of
the
Renaissance.
Latin
studies
In India, too, the
brought
Mussulman
caused the transformation of Hindoo art

the
same
invasions
in precisely
fashion.
It is also
of importance to observe, that since the
arts express in general fashion certain of the
needs
of civilisation and correspond to certain sentiments,
they are fated to undergo transformations

formity with these needs, and
entirely
if
in
con-
even to disappear
the needs and the sentiments which have
given birth to them should themselves be transformed

or disappear.
the civilisation
It will in
is
here once more
on
we
this
nowise follow, however, that

account in decadence, and
are confronted with the absence
ITS
73
of parallelism between the evolution of the arts and

that of the other elements of a civilisation.
At no
period in history has civilisation been at so high a

pitch as at the present day, and at no period perhaps
has art been more commonplace and less personal.
The
religious beliefs, the ideas
made
art
periods
and the needs which
an essential element of
when
it
civilisation at the
had temples and palaces
for
its
sanctuaries having disappeared, art has
become an
accessory, an instrument of pleasure to
which
not possible to devote either
money.
much
time or
Being no longer a necessity,
it
and
At
artificial
escape being
imitative.
it
is
much
can scarcely
the present
day there are no longer peoples who possess a national

art, and each people, in architecture as in sculpture,
lives
on more or
less
happy copies of the work of
bygone epochs.
These modest copies doubtless represent needs or
caprices, but
it is
clear that
it is
impossible that they
should express our modern ideas.
works of our
artists of the
admire the
nai've
Middle Ages, as seen
their paintings of saints, of Christ, of Paradise
Hell, all of
in
and
which were of fundamental importance
and the principal concern of existence;

but when painters who no longer entertain these
at the time
74
beliefs
our walls with primitive legends or
cover
childish
symbols
another
of
technique
an attempt to return to the
in
they
age,
merely
wretched imitations without interest
and destined
The only
to arouse
contempt
in
produce
for the present
the future.
only arts which are the
real arts, the
expression of an epoch, are those in which the artist

represents
what he
what he
feels or
sees instead of
confining himself to the imitation of forms corre-
sponding to needs or
The only
beliefs
we have ceased
sincere painting of the present
to possess.
day
is
that
which reproduces the things by which we are surrounded, just as the only sincere architecture
is
that
of the five-storied house, the viaduct, and the railway
This
station.
utilitarian art
and ideas of our
corresponds to the needs
civilisation.
It is as characteristic
of the epoch as were formerly the Gothic church and
For the archaeologist of the future

the great modern caravansaries and the old Gothic
the feudal castle.
churches will be of equal interest because they will be

successive pages in those books of stone which each
century leaves behind

useless
it,
while he will disdain
as
documents the sorry counterfeit copies of so
many modern
Every
artists.
aesthetic
system represents the
ideal of
an
ITS
epoch and of a
and
race,
epochs and races are

stantly be varying.
view
all
75
for the sole reason
must con-
different, the ideal
From
that
the philosophic point of
ideals are of equal worth, for they constitute
more transitory symbols.
The
arts then, like all the
elements of a
civilisation,
are the exterior manifestation of the soul of the people
that has created
them
but
we ought
to recognise,
however, that they are far from constituting in the

case of
all
peoples the most exact manifestation of
their thought.
This demonstration was necessary.
For the im-
portance in the case of a given people of a given
element of
civilisation
is
a measure of the power of
transformation which that people brings to bear on

the element in question
foreign race.
when
it
borrows
it
from a
If its personality displays itself
especially in the arts, for example,
its
more
reproductions
of imported models are sure to be deeply marked by

its
own
imprint.
On
the contrary
it
will
transform
but very slightly the elements that are incapable of

serving to interpret
adopted
make
it
its
genius.
When
the architecture of Greece
the
Romans
they did not
the object of radical modifications, because
they did not put what was most characteristic of their

soul into their
monuments.
76
Still,
even
in the
case of such a people as the
Romans, who were without a personal architecture,

and who were constrained to go to the foreigner
for
and
models
their
their
artists,
art
is
obliged
of but few centuries to undergo the
in the course
influence of environment and to become, almost in

spite of
itself,
adopted
it.
and
the expression of the race that has
The
temples, palaces, triumphal arches,
Rome
of ancient
bas-reliefs
Greeks or of pupils of the Greeks

character
their
of
these
ornaments,
their
of
and yet the
their
monuments,
even
the work
are
destination,
dimensions,
do
not
arouse in us the delicate, poetic memories of the
Athenian genius, but rather the ideas of
force,
of
domination, and of military passion with which the
mighty soul of
Rome was
the field in which
it
imbued.
shows
itself
Thus, even
least
in
personal, a
race can accomplish nothing that does not bear some

trace of the fact that
it
was due
without revealing something of
to
its
its initiative,
and
mental constitution
and innermost thought.
The explanation
architect
or
poet,
is
that
the true
possesses
the
artist,
whether
magic faculty of
expressing in his syntheses the soul of an epoch and

of a race.
Very impressionable, very unconscious,
ITS
77
thinking more especially in images, and reasoning
but
artists
little,
the society in which they live
of
mirrors
works
are at certain epochs the faithful
the most
are
had with a view
recourse
can
vanished
civilisation.
be
They
to
their
to
which
evoking a
are too unconscious not
and too impressed by
to be sincere,
ings
exact documents
their surround-
not to give faithful expression to the ideas,
sentiments, needs and
ment.
are not free to create
They
and the
tendencies of their environ-
fact
what they choose,
constitutes their strength.
are
They
imprisoned in a network of traditions, ideas, and

beliefs,
the
sum
total of
which constitutes the soul of
a race and an epoch, the inheritance of sentiments,

thoughts, and
inspirations,
powerful over them because
whose
it
influence
is
all
governs the obscure
regions of the unconscious in which their works are

elaborated.
Were we without
we know nothing
is
related of
ficial
them
these works, and did
of the vanished centuries but what

in the
absurd narratives and
arti-
arrangements of the books of history, the real
past of each people would be almost as great an
enigma
to us as that of the mysterious Atlantiades
submerged, according to Plato, by the waters.
The
essential characteristic, then, of the
work of
78
art
to be the sincere expression of the needs
is
of
ideas
the age that gives
it
birth.
Of
all
and
the
various languages which relate the story of the past,
works of
art,
those of architecture in particular, are
More
the most intelligible.
sincere than books, less
than religions and languages, they express
artificial
both the sentiments and the needs of their period.
The
architect builds the dwelling-places of
those of the gods, and
it
men and
was always within the
precincts of the temple or those of the house that
were elaborated the
first
causes of the events which
constitute history.
We may
conclude from what precedes, that while
the various elements of which a civilisation
com-
is
posed are indeed the expression of the soul of the

people
that
created
them,
certain
of
these
though which of them varies with the
elements
races
has
and
same race
also with the epochs in the case of the
are a
more exact expression of the
soul
of a race than others.

Since, however, the nature of these elements varies
with the different peoples and the different epochs,

it
is
evident that
it
is
impossible to find a single
element capable of serving as a
whereby
to
common
standard
gauge the level of the different civilisations.
ITS
It is also
79
evident that a hierarchical classification
cannot be established
classification
among
these elements, for the
would vary from century
to century,
the importance of the elements considered varying

itself
with the periods.
If the value of the diverse
elements of a civilisation
were to be judged solely from the point of view of pure

utility, it
might be affirmed that the most important
elements of a civilisation are those which allow one

people to subject another, that
institutions.
But
if this
test
is
to say military
were adopted,
it
be necessary to rank the Greeks, a nation of

philosophers, and
their
writers,
after
cohorts, the
invincible
would
artists,
Romans
the
virtuous
and
with
learned
Egyptians after the semi-barbarian Persians, and the
Hindoos
the
after
Mongols who were
also
semi-
barbarians.
History
tinctions.
bows
is
is
but
little
The only
concerned with these subtle
superiority before which
military superiority, which
is
it
dis-
always
very rarely
accompanied by a corresponding superiority in the

other elements of civilisation, or at least does not
long allow the maintenance at

superiority.
cannot decline
Unfortunately
among
its
side of this latter
military
superiority
a people without that people
8o
being fated to disappear.
has always been
It
they had reached the apogee of

superior peoples have had to
much
when
civilisation, that the
retire before barbarians,
their inferiors as regards intelligence, but posses-
sing certain qualities of character and warlike aptitudes

to
which too refined

It
is
civilisations
have always been
necessary, in consequence,
saddening conclusion that
it
philosophically speaking, are
most important from the
is
to
fatal.
arrive at the
the elements which,
inferior,
social
that
are the
point of view.
the laws of the future are to be those of the past,
may
If
it
be said that to have attained to too high a
degree of intelligence and culture
harmful to a people.
qualities of character
is
most
which form the groundwork of
as soon as the civilisation

level.
what
Peoples perish as soon as the
their soul begin to decline,
reach a high
is
and these
qualities decline
and intelligence of a people
CHAPTER
HOW
The
II
AND LANGUAGES
ARE TRANSFORMED
INSTITUTIONS, RELIGIONS,
superior races are as powerless as the inferior races to transform

suddenly the elements of their civilisation Contradictions presented by the peoples which have changed their religions, lan-
guages, and arts The example of Japan In what respect these

changes are only apparent The profound transformations under-
gone by Buddhism, Brahmanism, Mahometanism and Christianity

according to the various races by which they have been adopted
The
variations
undergone by
to the race that adopts
and languages according

That the words which in different
institutions
them
languages are considered to correspond represent very dissimilar

ideas and modes of thought
Impossibility for this reason of
translating
languages Why, in books of history, the

people sometimes seems'... to have undergone proLimits of the reciprocal influence of different
certain
civilisation of a
found changes
civilisations.
"\ ~\
7 E have shown
in
a previous book that
the
superior races are wholly unable to induce
inferior races to accept their civilisation or to thrust
Taking one by one the most powerful

means of action at the disposal of Europeans
it
on them.
education, institutions, beliefs
absolute inefficacy as
we have proved
means of changing the

7
their
social
si
82
We have
state of the inferior peoples.
endeavoured
to establish, that since all the elements of a civili-
mental
sation correspond to a certain well-defined
constitution created
long past,
it
is
by heredity
in the course of
impossible to modify them without
changing the mental constitution of which they are

the outcome.
Such a task
conquerors, and can
only be accomplished by the
We
lapse of centuries.
beyond the power of
is
have also shown that
it
is
only by a series of successive stages, analogous to

those traversed by the barbarians
Greco-Roman
civilisation, that
the scale of civilisation.
If
it
who
destroyed the
a people can
education, to spare a people these stages,
done
is
to disorganise its morality
gence, and to reduce

that
it
it
in the
would have reached
The arguments we have

are
principles
it
end
if it
and
all
that
its
intelli-
ought
is
to a level inferior to
had been
left to itself.
applied to inferior races
equally applicable to superior races.
we have
rise in
be sought, by means of
set forth in this
work are
If
the
correct,
to be clear that the superior races are also
incapable of suddenly transforming their civilisation.
They,
too, require time,
cessive stages.
and need
to traverse suc-
If the superior peoples
seem
at times
to have adopted beliefs, institutions, languages
and
ITS
83
arts differing
from those of their ancestors, they have
done
reality
so
in
only after having slowly and
profoundly transformed them so as to bring them

into touch with their mental constitution.
History appears to contradict on every page the

preceding
offers
It
proposition.
us
frequent ex-
amples of peoples changing the elements of their

adopting new religions, new languages,
civilisation,
new
Some
institutions.
peoples abandon the beliefs
they have held for centuries and are converted to

Christianity,
transform
modify
their
their
seems that
Buddhism
it
language
institutions
rests
Mahometanism
or
;
and
yet
others
their
others
radically
It
arts.
even
with a conqueror or an apostle to
provoke such transformations, or even

result
that
they
from a mere caprice.
History, however,
in
offering
these accounts
of
sudden revolutions does no more than accomplish one

of
its
habitual missions
of enduring errors.
closely studied,
it is
names of things
the creation and propagation
When
these alleged changes are
soon perceived that
it is
only the
that easily vary, whereas the realities
hidden behind the words continue to exist and are

only transformed with exceeding slowness.
To
prove this assertion, and to show at the same
84
time
how
the
slow evolution of things goes on
behind denominations
remain
that
it
unchanged,
would be necessary to study the elements of each

civilisation in the case of the different peoples, that
to re-write their history.
is
have already essayed
this laborious task in several
volumes
asked, in consequence, that
should again attempt
here.
Leaving
which a
aside
civilisation
is
will
not be
numerous elements
the
composed,
one of them as an example
it
the
it
of
choose but
shall
arts.
Before approaching, however, in a special chapter,

the study of the evolution accomplished
in passing
from one people to another,
by the
shall
arts
make
few remarks respecting the changes undergone by

the other elements of civilisation, in order to
show
that the laws applicable to one of these elements are

perfectly applicable to
all
of them, and that
arts of the different peoples
if
the
correspond to a certain
mental constitution, as much

languages, institutions, beliefs,
is
to be said of their
etc.,
which
in
conse-
quence cannot change suddenly and pass indifferently

from one people to another. 1
1
it
It
I shall
not deal here with the case of Japan, having already treated
it on a future occasion.
elsewhere, while I shall certainly return to
would be impossible to study in a few pages a question on the

which eminent statesmen are the victims of delusions which
subject of
ITS
It is
more
especially in connection with religious
beliefs that this

it
yet
beliefs
is
theory
may
in
the
precisely
appear paradoxical, and

history
of
these
very
that the best examples are to be found in
proof that
as impossible for a people suddenly
is
it
change the elements of
to
85
individual
its
civilisation, as for
an
to alter his stature or the colour of his
eyes.
Nobody, doubtless,
religions,
ignorant that
is
Brahmanism, Buddhism,
all
the great
Christianity,
or
Mahometanism, have provoked conversions en masse

among entire races who have seemed to adopt them
on a sudden
however, when a closer study
of these conversions
the peoples have
name
itself,
and that
in
especially changed
reality the
adopted
the transformations
are shared unfortunately

the
more
soon observed that what

the
is
of their old religion and not their religion
undergone
The
is
it
made
is
by
beliefs
have
necessary to bring
certain philosophers wanting in insight.
prestige adhering to military triumphs, even though achieved at

expense of mere barbarians, still remains for many minds the
It is possible to drill an army

of negroes in accordance with European military principles and to
teach them to handle rifles and canon, but their mental inferiority and
criterion of the level of a civilisation.
the consequences
it
involves will not be modified on this account.
The
varnish of European civilisation boasted at present by Japan in nowise

It is a trumpery
corresponds to the mental condition of the race.
borrowed garment which
will
soon be rent by violent revolutions.
86
them
into
touch
with
the
replaced, and of which
in
old
they have
beliefs
reality they are a
mere
continuation.
The
transformations undergone by beliefs in pass-
ing from one people to another are often indeed so

considerable, that the
religion has
newly adopted
no
longer any visible relationship with that of which
The
has kept the n'ame.
best
example
is
it
offered us
by Buddhism, which, after having been transported

into China, has become so unrecognisable that the
learned took
it
at first to be an
independent religion
and were a long time before they recognised that

this religion was merely Buddhism transformed by
the race that had adopted
in
no
sort the
Buddhism of
Chinese Buddhism
it.
is
India, itself very different
Buddhism of Nepaul, which in turn is

sufficiently distinct from the Buddhism of Ceylon.
In India, Buddhism was a schism from Brahmanism
from
the
which preceded
it,
and from which
to no very great extent
differed
in
schism from earlier beliefs to which
The
rigorous proof that
Buddhism
is
manism.
The
varied,
it
is
was easy
to
of
China,
it is
it
bottom
was
it
also a
closely related.
possible in the case of
forthcoming as well
races
at
India
presume
in
that of Brah-
being
that,
extremely
under identical
ITS
87
names, they would have extremely different religious

Doubtless
beliefs.
all
Vishnou and Siva as
Vedas
as
the Brahmanic peoples regard
their principal divinities
their sacred
books
and the
but of these funda-
mental gods the religion has retained but the name,
and of the sacred books but the

central
Around
text.
these
and common features have grown up inumer-
able cults in which are found, according to the races,
the most
varied
beliefs
monotheism, polytheism,
of ancestors, of
the worship
fetichism, pantheism,
demons, of animals,
Were
etc.
India to be judged solely
by what
the
is
religions
of
found concern-
ing them in the Vedas, not the least idea would be
obtained of the gods and beliefs of the immense
The
peninsula.
rated
by
title
of the sacred books
is
vene-
the Brahmans, but there survives
all
general nothing of
the religion
taught
in
by these
books.
Islamism
itself,
in spite of the
monotheism, has not evaded
this
simplicity of
law
it
is
its
a far cry
from the Islamism of Persia to that of Arabia and

that of India.
The Hindoo,
essentially a polytheist,
has contrived to render polytheistic the most monotheistic of beliefs.
For the
fifty
Mahometans, Mahomet and the
millions of
Hindoo
saints of Islam are
88
scarcely
more than new gods added
others.
Islamism has ever been unable to establish
in
India that equality of
was one of the causes of
its
all
to thousands of
men which
elsewhere
The Mussulmans
success.
of India, like the other Hindoos, practise the system

of castes.
In
the
Deccan,
populations, Islamism has

that
it
become
so unrecognisable
can scarcely be distinguished from Brahmanism;
indeed
it
would not be distinguished from
but for the
name
of Mahomet, and for the
where the prophet, become a god,

It is
is
it
at all
mosque
worshipped.
not necessary to go as far as India to observe
by Islamism
the profound modifications undergone

in passing
from one race to another.
It suffices to
consider our great possession, Algeria.
two very
different races
of them Mussulmans.
far
Dravidian
the
among
It
contains
Arabs and Berbers, both
The Islamism
removed from that of the
latter
of the former
the
polygamy
Koran has become monogamy among the
Berbers, whose religion is scarcely more than a fusion
is
of the
between Islamism and the old paganism practised
by the
race since the distant ages of Carthaginian
rule.
The
Europe themselves are not excepted

from the common law which obliges beliefs to underreligions of
ITS
go a transformation
in
accordance with the soul of
As
the races by which they are adopted.

the
of the
letter
dogmas
remained invariable
89
but
in
India,
fixed
by the texts
these
dogmas
has
are vain
formulae of which each race interprets the meaning

after its
own
fashion.
Under the uniform denomina-
of Christians are found
tion
in
Europe
veritable
who worships idols

fetichists, such as the Spaniard who adores amulets
polytheists, such as the Italian who venerates as
pagans, such as the Bas-Breton
very different divinities the madonnas of each village.
Were
this
study to be prosecuted further,
it
would
be easy to show that the great religious schism of

the Reformation was the necessary consequence of
the interpretation of one and the
by
different races
same
religious
book
those of the North, wishing to
discuss their belief, regulate their
life
themselves, and
those of the South having remained far behind from

the point of view of independence and the philosophic
No example would be more convincing.

These are facts, however, the development of which
would lead us beyond our scope. We shall have to
spirit.
deal
still
more
elements of
because
it
briefly with the
two other fundamental
civilisation, institutions
would be necessary
and languages,
to enter into technical
90
details that
What
is
wholly surpass the limits of
true in the case of beliefs,
that of institutions
from
one
this
work.
equally true in
these latter cannot be transmitted
people to
transformation.
is
another without undergoing
Not wishing
to multiply examples,
I beg the reader merely to consider how

greatly, in
modern times, the same institutions, imposed by force
or persuasion on different races, have been transformed,
though retaining identical names.
demonstrate
shall
the fact in a forthcoming chapter in connection with

the different regions of America.
Institutions are the
on which the
will
have no action.
outcome
in reality
of necessities
of a single generation of
For each
and
race,
for
men can
each phase
of the evolution of that race, there are conditions of

existence, sentiments, thoughts, opinions, hereditary
influences which imply certain institutions
not imply others.

is
The
label a
of very slight importance.
and do
Government bears
It
has never been
accorded a people to choose the institutions which
appear to
it
to be the best.
Should some rare stroke
of chance allow a people to choose

will
be unable to keep them.
tions, the successive
its institutions, it
The numerous
revolu-
changes of constitution, affected
by the French during the
last
hundred years con-
ITS
91
an experience which should long since have
stitute
the opinion of statesmen on this
settled
believe, moreover, that
it
is
point.
scarcely elsewhere than
obtuse brain of the masses and the narrow
in the
minds of some few
fanatics that the idea can persist
that important social changes are to be brought about
The only useful
by
legislative acts.
is
to give legal sanction to
role of institutions
changes which manners
and public opinion have ended by accepting. Institutions are moulded by these changes, but they are
not
of
in
The
advance of them.
men
are not to be modified
character and thought
by
not by institutions that a people

or sceptical, or that
it
is
is
institutions.
It is
rendered religious
taught to conduct
its
own
affairs
without incessantly demanding of the State
that
shall forge
it
it
shall not dwell
a chain.
on the question of languages any
more than on that of
institutions,
and
myself to drawing attention to the

where a language is fixed by writing,
shall confine
fact
that even
it is
necessarily
transformed in passing from one people to another,

a truth that renders so absurd the idea of an universal
language.
Doubtless the Gauls, in spite of their
immense numerical
language
less
superiority,
had adopted the Latin
than two centuries after their conquest,
92
but they were quick to bring the newly adopted
tongue into harmony with their needs, and the logic

peculiar to their bent of mind.
Modern French
is
the final result of these transformations.

It is
impossible for different races to speak the
same language
for
of conquest, the interests of

less
its
commerce may doubt-
bring a people to adopt another language in the
place of
its
mother tongue, but
after the lapse of a
few generations the language adopted

entirely
the
The chances
any length of time.
The
transformed.
more thorough
in
will
transformation will be
proportion as the race from
which the language has been borrowed

different
have been
from that which has borrowed
is
the
more
it.
Dissimilar languages are always certain to be
with in countries inhabited by different races.
met
India
example in point. The great

peninsula being inhabited by numerous different races,
it is not astonishing that two hundred and forty
affords an excellent
languages should, according to the linguistic authorities,
be spoken
in
it,
some of them
differing
from each other than do French and Greek.
more
These
two hundred and forty languages do not include some

three hundred dialects
these languages
is
The
widest spread
quite modern, since
it
among
has only
ITS
existed

three
for
centuries
it
is
93
Hindustanee, a
language formed by a combination of the Persian
and Arabian spoken by the Mussulman conquerors

and Hindi, one of the principal tongues of the invaded
Conquerors and conquered soon forgot their
regions.
primitive language, exchanging
it
for a
new language
adapted to the needs of the new race produced by

the interbreeding of the various peoples
brought
together.
I
cannot dwell longer on the matter,
obliged to
mental
and am
confine myself to indicating the funda-
ideas.
Were
able to enter into the necessary
would go further and would say that

where peoples are different, the words considered
among them as corresponding represent modes of
developments,
thinking and feeling so far apart, that in reality their
languages have no synonyms, and real translation
from one language into the other

wholly
this is the case will
is
impossible.
How
be understood by observing
same country, and among the same race,

the same word corresponds in the course of centuries
how
in the
to quite dissimilar ideas.
Old words represent the ideas of the men of the

Words which at their origin were the signs of
past.
real things
soon have their meaning altered
in conse-
94
quence of changes
Recourse
is
still
would be too
in ideas,
had
manners, and customs.
to these
difficult to
timeworn
signs, for
change them, but there
it
is
no correspondence between what they represented

at a given moment, and what they signify at the
In the case of peoples at a great
present day.
distance from us, and whose civilisations were without
analogy with our own, translations can only give
words absolutely deprived of

words, that
no
is,
evoking ideas
to
relation
phenomenon
is
their real primitive sense,

in
our mind which have
those they formerly evoked.
This
specially striking in connection with
the ancient languages of India.
The
ideas of the
Indian people are indistinct, their logic has no relationship with our own, and their words have never
had that precise and definite meaning which the

lapse of centuries and the turn of our minds has
ended by giving words
the Vedas
though
it
for
in
Europe.
There are books,
example, the translation of which,
has been vainly attempted,
It is difficult
enough
to penetrate the
is
impossible.
thought of the
1
Talking of the numerous attempts to translate the Vedas, an
eminent Indian scholar, Mr. Earth, remarks: "All these various and
at times so contradictory investigations have one result ; they demon-
how impossible it is for us to

sense of the word, of the Vedas."
strate
make a
translation, in the true
ITS
whom we
individuals with
are separated
education
whom
but from
whom we
certain differences of age, sex,
and
penetrate the thought of races
on
by
to
live,
95
the dust of centuries has accumulated
is
task no scholar will ever succeed in accomplishing.
All the learning

to
possible to acquire merely serves
it is
show the complete uselessness of attempts of the
kind.
Brief and slightly developed though the preceding
examples
be,
show how profound are
suffice to
they
the transformations peoples effect in the elements of

civilisation
The importance
they borrow.
of the
elements borrowed often appears to be considerable,
because the change
importance
in
is
in
names
is
in fact
reality very slight.
sudden
this
In the course
of centuries, thanks to the slow labours of generations
and
in
consequence
of
successive
additions,
the
borrowed element ends by differing greatly from the

element of which
tory,
originally took the place.
it
His-
which takes note more especially of appearances,
pays but
little
and when
it
attention to these successive variations,

tells
adopted a new
to ourselves
is
us,
for
religion,
not at
the religion such as
all
example, that a people
what we
at
once represent
the beliefs really adopted, but
we know
it
at the present day.
96
It is
necessary to study these slow adaptations with
the utmost closeness, in order to understand their

genesis,
and
words from
The
to detect the differences that separate
realities.
history of civilisations
is
thus composed of slow
adaptations, of slight successive transformations.
If
these latter appear to us to be sudden and considerable,
it
is
we
because, as in geology,
suppress the
intermediate phases and only consider the extreme

phases.
In reality, however intelligent and gifted a people
be supposed to
element of
be, its capacity for
civilisation
is
absorbing a new
The
always very restricted.
brain cells do not assimilate in a
taken centuries to create, and what
day what
is
it
has
adapted to the
sentiments and needs of organisms that differ from
Only slow hereditary accumulations

allow of such assimilations. Further on, when we
one another.
come
to study the evolutions of the arts
most
intelligent
Greeks,
we
of
the peoples
shall see that
many
of
among
antiquity,
the
the
centuries were neces-
sary before the rude copies of Assyrian and Egyptian
models were
left
behind, and, after long successive
stages, those masterpieces were produced which are

still
the admiration of humanity
ITS
It
must also be observed that
have succeeded one another
all
in
97
the peoples which
with the
history
exception of a few primitive peoples such as the
have had
Egyptians and Chaldeans

late
beyond the elements of
civilisation
tute the inheritance of the past
transformed
tution.
in
little
to assimi-
which consti-
elements they have
accordance with their mental consti-
The development
would have been
of the world's civilisations
infinitely slower,
and the history of
the various peoples would have been one eternal

recommencement, if they had been unable to profit
by the materials elaborated before their time. The

civilisations created some seven or eight thousand
years ago, by the inhabitants of
Egypt and Chaldaea,
have served as a store of materials to which

nations have had recourse in
Greece owe
turn.
The
arts
their origin to the arts created
banks of the Tigris and the

gave birth to the
Roman
Nile.
all
the
of
on the
The Grecian
style
style which, under the action
of Oriental influences, has given birth to the Byzantine,
Roman, and Gothic
styles, styles
which vary accord-
ing to the genius and age of the peoples
whom
they flourished, but styles that have a
among
common
origin.
What we have
just said in connection with the arts

8
98
is
applicable to
all
the elements of a civilisation
institutions, languages,
and
beliefs.
The European
languages are derived from a mother-tongue which
was spoken in the past on the central plateau of

French law is an offshoot of Roman law,
Asia.
itself
the offshoot of earlier codes of law.
religion proceeds directly
The Jewish
from the Chaldaean
Associated with Aryan beliefs
it
beliefs.
has become the
great religion which for nearly two thousand years
has exerted
its
Our
sway over the Western peoples.
sciences themselves would not be what they are were

it
not for the slow labour of centuries.
The
great
founders of modern astronomy, Copernicus, Kepler,
and Newton, are the
lineal
whose books retained

fifteenth century, while
the
descendants of Ptolemy,
their influence
down
to
the
Ptolemy descends, through
Alexandrian school, from the astronomers of
Egypt and
Chaldsea.
spite of the formidable
We
thus get a glimpse, in
gaps of which history
is
full,
of a slow evolution of our knowlege which takes us
back through the successive ages and empires to the
dawn
of those ancient civilisations, which
science
is
attempting to link with the primitive times
when humanity had no

common,
modern
history.
the transformations
But
if
the source
is
progressive or regres-
ITS
sive
which each people
mental constitution,
very varied
and
it is
effects,
to
according
the elements
in
99
it
its
borrows are
the history of these transforma-
tions that constitutes the history of civilisation.
We have just
seen that the fundamental elements
of which a civilisation
is
composed are
each people, that they are the

of
its
peculiar to
result, the expression
mental structure, and that
in
consequence they
cannot pass from one race to another without under-
We
going the most profound changes.
seen that the extent of these changes
is
have also
marked on
the one hand by linguistic necessities which oblige
employ the same words to designate very

different things, and on the other hand by historical
us
to
which lead us to take into account only

the extreme forms of a civilisation, and to neglect
necessities
the intermediary forms
When
are connected.
studying, in the next chapter, the general laws
of the evolution of the
with
by which they
still
greater
arts,
precision
changes which take place

of a civilisation
another.
we
shall
be able to show
the succession
in the
of the
fundamental elements
when they pass from one people
to
CHAPTER
III
HOW THE ARTS ARE TRANSFORMED

Application of the principles already set forth to the study of the evolution of the arts among the Oriental peoples
Egypt The religious
ideas from which
its arts
Developments that await
are derived
when they
its
are transplanted amid different races

Ethiopians,
Greeks, and Persians Primitive inferiority of Grecian art Slow-
arts
ness of
its
Adoption and evolution in Persia of Grecian

and Assyrian art The transformations underdepend on the race and not on religious beliefs
evolution
Egyptian
art,
gone by the
art,
arts
Examples supplied by the great transformations undergone by

Arabian art according to the races which have adopted Islamism
Application
of our principles to the investigation of the origin
and evolution of the arts in India India and Greece went to the
same sources, but in consequence of the diversity of the races they
developed arts having no relationship Immense transformations
undergone by architecture in India among the
different races in
spite of the similarity of their beliefs.
examining the
INconstitution
beliefs,
and
its
of
relations
people,
language,
myself to brief indications.

jects, it
would be necessary
In the case of the
arts,
between the mental

its
institutions,
have had
To
to
its
confine
elucidate such sub-
to pile
a clear
up volumes.
and precise
state-

ment
matters whose definition

tion
The
obscure.
is
and
beliefs are
whose
interpreta-
Institutions
infinitely easier.
is
is
doubtful,
reality,
101
which changes with
every epoch, has to be searched for in the ancient

texts in which
it
lies
concealed, and laborious argu-
mentation and criticism must be resorted to
in order
to arrive at conclusions which, at the finish, are

to discussion.
Works
of
art,
and
in particular
open
monu-
and easy of interpreThe books of stone are the most luminous of
ments, are very definite objects,

tation.
books, the only books that never
reason that
in
my
East.
works on the history of the

I
and
it is
for this
have given them a preponderant place
have always held
utmost suspicion.
rarely instruct.
is
lie,
civilisations of the
literary
documents
are often deceptive
They
The monument
always instructive.
in the
and they
rarely deceives
The monument
is
and
the best
guardian of the thought of vanished peoples, and the
mental blindness
is
to be pitied of the specialists
who
concern themselves solely with the inscriptions
may
it
bear.
Let us now proceed to study
in
what respect
arts
are the expression of the mental constitution of a
people, and
go
in
what are the transformations they underpassing from one civilisation to another.
102
In this inquiry,
arts.
The
European
genesis and the transformation of the

arts
have been subjected to identical laws
but to follow their evolution

it
only the Eastern
shall consider
would be necessary
among
to enter into details
be beyond the very restricted scope of
Let us take, to begin with, the
the various races
which would
this
arts of
work.
Egypt, and
examine the destiny that awaited them among three

different races
transplanted
and the
Of
all
among which they were
Persians.
the civilisations that have flourished on the
globe, that of
Egypt has found the most complete
expression in the
arts.
It is
expressed therein with
such force and clearness that the
saw the
successively
the negroes of Ethiopia, the Greeks,
light
artistic
types that
on the banks of the Nile could only be
suitable to the Egyptians,
and were not adopted by
other peoples until they had been considerably trans-
formed.
The Egyptian
tian
and more especially the Egypwere the outcome of an ideal,
arts,
architecture,
peculiar to the race, which for fifty centuries
was the
constant pre-occupation of an entire people.
dream of the Egyptians was
to create for
The
man an
imperishable dwelling in contrast with his ephemeral
ITS
This race, unlike,
existence.
races, despised
rested
it
mummy
life,
in this respect, to all other
its
What
and courted death.
more than anything

which,
103
else
inte-
was the motionless
eyes of enamel incrusted in
its
golden mask, gazed eternally, from the depths of
its
gloomy resting place, on mysterious hieroglyphics.

Guarded in its sepulchral dwelling, vast as a palace,
against all profanation, the mummy was surrounded
on the
corridors
and
painted
by
had charmed
that
all
sculptured walls
it
of endless
during
its
brief
terrestial existence.
Egyptian architecture
and
is
religious architecture,
object the
mummy
more
especially a funereal
having more or
less for its
For them
and the Gods.
it
is
that the subterranean vaults were excavated, that the

obelisks, the pylones,
and
for
them
and the pyramids were
that the
pensive giants
raised,
reclined
their thrones of stone in a pose so majestic
on
and so
harmonious.
Everything about
massive because
it
this
architecture
aimed at being
Egyptians were the only people
which we were
that art
is
acquainted,
it
ot
is
stable
eternal.
and
If the
antiquity with
could indeed be said
the most faithful expression of the soul
of the race of which
it is
the creation.
104
Peoples differing widely from one another

Ethiopians, an ^inferior race
Persians, superior
either from
Let us see
It
is
history
have borrowed their arts
races
Egypt alone, or from Egypt and Assyria.

what they became in their hands.
deal, to begin with, with the inferior people
Let us
we have
the
the Greeks and the
just
mentioned
known
(that
peoples of
with the Ethiopians.
that at a late period
of
the
the
in
Egyptian
dynasty), the
twenty-fourth
Soudan, taking advantage of the
anarchy and decadence of Egypt, seized some of

its
provinces and founded a
kingdom which, having
Napata and Meroe successively

tained
by the
its
independence
civilisation
for its capital,
for several centuries.
of the vanquished
endeavoured to copy
their
these copies, of which
we
never to shake off their barbarism
ancient or
modern
it off.
arts
but
possess specimens, are for
These negroes
were barbarians, condemned by their mental
they never did shake
Dazzled
people, they
monuments and
the most part but very rude efforts.
civilising influence of the
main-
and
Egyptians,
There
is
inferiority
in spite
it is
of the
a fact that
no example
in
history of a negro people having
and on every
occasion when a superior civilisation, by one of
reached a certain level of civilisation
ITS
105
those accidents which in ancient times occurred in
modern times
Ethiopia, and in
into the
hands of the negro
in
Haiti, has fallen

civilisation
race, this
has speedily reverted to wretchedly inferior forms.
Under a very
different latitude, another race, also
barbarian at the time, but a white race, that of the

Greeks, borrowed from
models of
arts
its
making crude
these
and confined
copies.
two great
Egypt and Assyria the
The
artistic
civilisations
at
itself
were
first
first
to
productions of
furnished
the
Greeks by the Phoenicians, who were masters of the

sea routes that connect the shores of the Mediterranean, and
by the peoples of Asia Minor, the masters

of the land routes that lead to Nineveh and Babylon.
Everbody
aware how immeasurably the Greeks
is
surpassed their models in the end.
The
discoveries
of modern archaeology have shown, however,
rude were their
first
how
attempts, and that they required
centuries before they
came
to produce the master-
immortal.
The Greeks
devoted some seven hundred years to
this difficult
pieces which have
made them
task of converting a foreign art into a personal and

superior art
last
century
during
all
but the progress realised during the
is
more considerable than that
the preceding ages.
It is
effected
not the superior
106
stages of civilisation, but the inferior stages that a
The
people finds the most difficulty in surmounting.
most ancient productions of Greek

at
Mycenae and belonging
our
era,
those discovered
point to entirely barbarian efforts, and are
rude copies of Oriental objects
Greek
art,
to the twelfth century before
art
is
still
very Oriental
six centuries later
the Apollo of
Tenea
and the Apollo of Orchomenes bear a singular resemblance to the Egyptian statues
but the progress
now
becomes very rapid, and, a century later, we reach

Phidias and the marvellous statues of the Parthenon
that
is
to say,
an
art that
of the East, while
which
it
it is
has thrown off the influence
very superior to the models to
had gone so long
for inspiration.
Architecture followed a like evolution, though

successive steps are less easily established.
We
its
are
ignorant of what the palaces of the Homeric poems,
belonging to about the ninth century before our
may
have been
pinnacles brilliant
and
us,
silver
make
like
but
the
era,
bronze walls, the
with colour, the animals
in
guarding the doors, of which the poet
gold
tells
us think at once of the Assyrian palaces
covered with plates of bronze and enamelled bricks,
and guarded by sculptured bulls. In any case, we

know that the type of the most ancient Greek Doric
ITS
107
columns, which seem to date from the seventh century,

is
met with
in
Karnak and Beni- Hassan
at
Egypt
that several of the details of the Ionic
borrowed from Assyria
first,
to
we
know
also
that these
some extent superimposed
to
foreign elements,
but
column are
at
then blended, and finally transformed, gave rise
new columns very
different
from their primitive
models.
At another extremity
will offer us the
of the ancient world, Persia
example of an analogous adoption
and evolution, though of an evolution that remained

incomplete, because
was suddenly interrupted by

not have seven cen-
Persia did
foreign conquest.
turies, as
it
Greece did, but only two hundred years,
which to create an
So
art.
far
in
only one people, the
Arabs, has been successful in giving birth to a personal

art in so short a time.
The
history of Persian civilisation scarcely begins
before Cyrus and his successors,

centuries
before
our
era,
Babylon and Egypt, that

civilisation,
The
in
Persian
The
their
of the two great cities of
Greeks,
turn,
succeeded, five
taking possession of
in
whose glory illumined
Eastern world.
supremacy
is
who
at the time
who were
did
not
the
to wield the
count
empire became the centre of
as
yet.
civilisa-
io8
tion until, three centuries before our era,
thrown
by
Alexander,
whose
Without an
art of their
and
artists
conquered countries.
Their
once
at
civilisation
of
own, the Persians,
when they had possessed themselves

Babylon, borrowed
was over-
conquest
removed elsewhere the centre of the

the world.
it
of
Egypt and
models
empire
from
the
having lasted
but two centuries, they did not have time to modify

these arts profoundly, but at the
moment
of their
overthrow they had already begun to transform them.
The
ruins
of Persepolis, which are
still
standing,
acquaint us with the genesis of these transformations.
We
doubtless meet in
them with the
fusion, or rather
with the superposition, of the arts of Egypt and

Assyria,
new
mingled with some Greek elements
but
elements, notably the lofty Persepolitan column
with
its
bicephalous capitals, are already present, and
authorise the belief that
if
the Persians had disposed
of a longer interval of time, this superior race would
have created an art as personal,
if
not as
lofty, as that
of the Greeks.
This supposition
the
monuments
centuries later.
is
supported by an examination of
of Persia dating from a period ten
To
the dynasty of the Achaemenides,
overthrown by Alexander, succeeded
that
of
the
ITS
the Arsacides, and finally
Seleucides, then that of
Sassanides, overthrown in the seventh
the
that of
With the advent of
the Arabs.
century by
latter conquerors, Persia acquires a
and when
109
these
architecture,
monuments they
again raises
it
new
offer
an
incontestable imprint of originality, the result of a
combination of Arabian art with the ancient architecture of the Achsemenides, modified
with
bination
the
somewhat
by
Grecian
its
com-
of
art
the
Arsacides (gigantic doorways taking in the entire

of
height
arcades,
the
It
etc.).
enamelled
fagade,
was
this
new
bricks,
art that the
ogival
Mongols
were to transport into India and to modify
in their
turn.
In
the
preceding examples
we
see the varying
degrees of transformation which a people can effect

in the arts of
another people, according to the race
and to the time
it
has been able to devote to this
transformation.
In the case of an inferior race, the /Ethiopians,
although
it
had centuries
at its disposal,
seen that the borrowed art was

inferior form, the race being
brain capacity.
made
we have
to return to an
endowed with
insufficient
In the case of a race both superior
and with centuries
in
which to operate, we have
no
observed a complete transformation of the ancient

art into a
new and very
art.
superior
In the case of
another race, the Persians, not ranking so high as
who were
the Greeks, and
of
time,
limited in
we have merely encountered
the matter
great skill
of adaptation and the beginnings of a transformation.
Apart, however, from the examples, most of them

distant,
which we have just
cited, there
are
many
more modern, of which the specimens are still

standing, and which show the magnitude of the transothers
formations a race
borrows.
is
compelled to
effect in the arts
These examples are the more
it
typical, in
by peoples professing the same
that they are furnished
religion but of different origin.
refer to the
Mussul-
mans.
When
the
Arabs
themselves
possessed
of
the
greater part of the old world in the seventh century
of our era, and founded the gigantic empire which
soon stretched from Spain to the centre of Asia and

included the north of Africa, they found themselves
in
presence of a clearly defined architecture
Byzantine architecture.
it
At
first
for the edification of their
Egypt, and Syria.
the
they simply adopted
mosques both
The mosque
of
Omar
in Spain,
at Jeru-
ITS
Amrou
salem, that of
and other monuments
at Cairo,
standing show us this adoption.
still
in
However,
it
did not last long, and in the various countries the
monuments
are seen to be transformed from century
to century.
We
have shown the genesis of these
"
History of the Civilisation of the
changes in our
Arabs."
They
are so considerable, that there
of resemblance between a
trace
monument
early years of the conquest, such as the
Amrou
at Cairo (742),
and one of the
great Arabian period, such as the
Bey
We have shown
(1468).
is
no
of the
mosque of
close of the
mosque of Kait-
our explanations and
in
diagrams
that, in the different countries subjected to
the
of
rule
India
the
Islam
Spain,
monuments
siderable that
it
is
Africa,
present
Persia,
Syria,
differences so con-
really impossible to class
them
under the same denomination, as can be done,

example,
in the case of the
for
Gothic monuments which,
in spite of their varieties, offer evident analogies.
These
the
radical
Mussulman
differences
countries
in
the architecture of
cannot be the result of
diversity of beliefs, since the religion

is
is
the
same
it
the result of racial divergencies whose influence
on the evolution of the

the destinies of empires.
arts
is
as profound as
it is
on
ii2
If this assertion
find very dissimilar
we ought to expect to
monuments in a country inhabited
is
exact,
by different races, even in the face of identical beliefs

and unity of political domination. This is precisely
the
phenomenon
India that
it
that
is
observed
easiest to find
is
in
India.
examples
in
It is in
support
of the general principles set forth in this work, and

is
for this reason that
am
it
always referring to the
great peninsular, which constitutes the most suggestive
and the most philosophic of books of

the present day
by
it is
travelling from
history.
At
the only country in which, merely
one spot to another,
it is
possible
go from age to age and to gaze on the still existing

series of successive stages which humanity has had
to
to traverse to reach the higher levels of civilisation.
All the forms of evolution are met with in India: the
stone age has
its
representatives there, and so too has
the age of electricity and steam.
Nowhere can a
better view be obtained of those great factors which
preside over the genesis and
evolution of civilisa-
tions.
by applying the principles developed in the

present work that I have attempted to solve a
It is
problem to which the key has long been sought

the origin of the arts of India,
The
subject being
ITS
very
known and
little
constituting
113
an interesting
application of our ideas on the psychology of races,
we
sum up
shall here
As
regards the
appearance
its
arts,
most
essential lines. 1
India
history until very late.
in
monuments, such
as
When
than two centuries
back
they were
Its
its
oldest
the columns of Asoka, the
temples of Karli, Bharhut, Sanchi,

further
make
does not
constructed the
etc.,
scarcely date
before
our
era.
majority of the
old civilisations of the ancient world, those of Egypt,
and Assyria, even that of Greece itself, had

terminated their cycle and entered the night of
Persia,
decadence.
replaced
all
Rome, had
The world knew but one
single civilisation, that of
the others.
master.
which emerged so tardily from the shadows

of history, was in a position then to borrow much
India,
from anterior
however,
country
in
had
originality of
1
For technical
The profound
civilisations.
which
it
always
its
was
lived,
isolation,
formerly admitted the
and
the
astonishing
monuments, which possess no
visible
which cannot even be touched on here I shall

Les Monuments de flnde^ one vol. in folio,
illustrated by four hundred plates from my own photographs,
plans, and
drawings (Didot). Many of these plates are given on a reduced scale
in my work Les Civilisations dans F Inde, 4to, 800 pages.
refer the reader to
details
my work,
n4

any of those that had preceded
relationship with
from abroad being
hypothesis of borrowings
in the
them, long resulted
set aside.
Side by side with their indisputable originality, the

early
Indian
monuments
display a superiority of
execution which they were not destined to surpass
Works
in the lapse of centuries.
of so high a degree
of perfection had doubtless been preceded by long

anterior tentative efforts
and
yet, in spite of the
most minute researches, no monument of an

order revealed the trace of these
The
efforts.
recent discovery, in certain isolated regions
of the north-west
statues
inferior
of the peninsular,
monuments
and
of
debris
revealing
clearly
of
Greek
had ended by inducing Indian antiquarians

believe that India had borrowed its arts from
influences,
to
Greece.
The
application of the principles set forth above
and the most
monuments
careful study of the majority of the
still
existing
in
quite a different conclusion.
India have led us to

India, in our opinion, in
spite of its accidental contact with
borrowed none of
its
arts
borrow any of them from

between the two
Greek
civilisation,
from Greece and could not
this source.
The
differences
races were too great, their thought
ITS
was too
unlike, their artistic geniuses
patible for
The
them
to
115
were too incom-
have influenced one another.
examination
of
the
monuments
ancient
scattered over India shows, moreover, immediately

that there
is
no relationship between
those of Greece.
are
its
Whereas our European monuments
of elements borrowed from Grecian
full
and
arts
art,
the
monuments of India present absolutely no such

elements. The most superficial study proves that we
are in presence of extremely different races,
geniuses more unlike
and that
would even say more
anti-
have never perhaps existed than the Greek
pathetic
genius and the Hindu genius.
This general notion
is
merely accentuated when a
more thorough and penetrating study is made of the

of India and of the inner psychology of
monuments
the peoples that created them.

that the
Hindu genius
influence
foreign
is
at
It is
soon observed
too personal for
it
variance with
its
to undergo
thought
Doubtless such a foreign influence can be imposed
by
force
last, it
It
but however long
it
may
be supposed to
remains exceedingly superficial and transitory.
would seem as
if
between the mental constitution
of the peoples of India and that of other peoples,

there
were
barriers
as
great
as
the
formidable
n6
obstacles
created
peninsula and
nature
by
other
the
The Hindu genius
is
between
countries
of
the
great
the globe.
so specific that, whatever be the

it
object necessity obliges
to imitate, the object
Even
immediately transformed and becomes Hindu.

in
where
architecture,
it
is
is
nevertheless difficult to
conceal borrowings, the personality of this strange

genius, this faculty of rapid modification
reveal
itself.
Hindu
It
architect
is
possible,
no doubt,
Even
now
to
quick to
make
copy a Greek column, but he will
not be prevented from transforming
column which
is
it
rapidly into a
at first sight will be said to be Hindu.
at the present day,
though European influence
is
so powerful in India, such transformations are
daily observable.
European model
form, but
he
If
Hindu
artist
to copy, he will
will
exaggerate
multiply and disfigure
the
be given any
adopt
certain
ornamental
its
general
parts,
and
details,
so
that the second or third copy will have dropped
all
the Western
characteristics
and
will
have become
exclusively Hindu.
The fundamental
tecture
ture,
of
Hindu
archi-
a characteristic also found in
Hindu
litera-
for this reason is closely allied to
Hindu
which
architecture
is
an
characteristic
overflowing
exaggeration,
an
ITS
infinite richness
of detail, a complexity which
117
is
the
very antipodes of the correct and severe simplicity of

Grecian
of India that
plastic
the
is
it
those
studying the arts
in
understood to what an extent the
works of a race are often
constitution,
for
more especially
It is
art.
and constitute the
who know how
to
allied to its
mental
clearest of languages
interpret them.
If
Hindus, like the Assyrians, had entirely dis-
appeared
from
the
history,
temples, their statues, their

to reveal to us their past.
in particular
is
bas-reliefs
of
monuments would
What
that the clear
they would
their
suffice
tell
us
and methodic genius of
the Greeks had never been able to exercise the slightest

influence on the overflowing
nation of the Hindus.
understand
never
be
why
other
and unmethodical imagi-
They would
Grecian influence in
than
transitory
limited to the region in which
imposed by
it
make
us
India could
and was always

was momentarily
force.
The study from an archaeological

the monuments of India has enabled
precise documents what
is
point of view of
us to confirm
by
revealed immediately
by
a general knowledge of India and the

It
also
Hindu
genius.
has enabled us to establish the curious fact that,
on several occasions, notably during the
first
two cen-
n8
Hindu sovereigns
turies of our era, the
in
communi-
cation with the Arsacides dynasty of Persia,

civilisation
whose
bore a strong Grecian impress, desired to
introduce Grecian art into India, but never succeeded

in
making
take root.
it
This borrowed and wholly
no
official art,
relation to the thought of the people
which bore
among whom
had been introduced, always disappeared with the

Morepolitical influences that had given birth to it.
it
over
it
was too antipathetic
to the
Hindu genius
have exerted any influence on the national

during the period during which
No
it
art
to
even
was imposed by
Greek influence are found
in the
contemporary or posterior Hindu monuments,
in the
force.
traces of
subterranean temples for example.
they would be
far too easily discerned for
them
possible to pass
aspect which
On the other hand,
is
over.
it
to be
Apart from the general
always characteristic, there are tech-
nical details, the treatment of the draperies in particular,
which
at
once reveal the hand of a Greek
artist.
The disappearance
sudden as
its
apparition,
shows how entirely

imposed
of Greek art in India was as
it
and
this
very suddenness
was an imported
art, officially
but without affinity with the people that
ITS
had been obliged to accept
119
Arts never disappear
it.
way from amongst a people they transform

themselves, and the new art always borrows some-
in this
thing from
that
of which
it
After suddenly appearing in
has taken the place.

India,
Greek
art
as
suddenly disappeared without exerting any influence

whatever, exactly as has been the case with the
European monuments erected in the country by the

English during the past two centuries.
The
fact that at the present
exert no influence in India
day the European
may
arts
be compared with
the exceeding slightness of the influence of the Greek

there eighteen
arts
denied that
of
aesthetic
centuries
we have
ago.
cannot
It
sentiments,
the
for
Mussulman
although quite as foreign to India as the

arts,
Even
in those parts of the
European
country where the Musit is
rare to
across a temple that does not contain
traces of
Arabian ornamentation.
the distant times of

at the present day,
attracted
selves
arts,
have been imitated throughout the peninsula.
sulmans have never exercised any power,
come
be
here a case of incompatibility
some
Doubtless, as in
King Kanishka, we
see rajahs
such as the Rajah of Gwalior,
by the might of the
European palaces
in
foreigners, build
them-
Greco-Latin
style,
the
120
again as in the time of Kanishka
but
art, superposed on the indigenous

without influence on the latter.
Greek and Hindu

side, like
by
present
So
and Hindu
without
but
far as the
ever
monuments
so called are concerned, there
of which
general
it
can be said that
aspect
whatever,
or
art,
is
totally
then, formerly existed side

art
European
day,
another.
art,
this official
is
it
art at the
one
influencing
of India properly
not one of them
offers,
either in
its
any resemblance
remote, with a Greek monu-
in
however
its
details,
ment.
This powerlessness of Grecian art to implant

in India
is
striking,
the incompatibility
soul of the
two
and
it
we have pointed
races,
and not to a
out between the
sort of incapacity
native to India to assimilate a foreign
country has shown
itself perfectly
and transform the
itself
must needs be attributed to
arts
that
art,
for the
able to assimilate
corresponded to
its
mental constitution.
The
archaeological
able to collect
show
which
derived
India
documents that we have been
that Persia
its
arts
was the source from

;
not
the
slightly
Hellenised Persia of the time of the Arsacides, but

the
Persia that had inherited the old civilisations
ITS
of
Egypt and Assyria.
It
known
is
Alexander overthrew the dynasty

menides, 330
B.C.,
of
121
when
that
the
Achae-
the Persians had already been in
possession for two centuries of a brilliant civilisation.
Doubtless they had not discovered the formula of

a
new
art,
but the mixture of the arts of Egypt and
Assyria which they had inherited
remarkable works.
We
had
produced
can judge them by the
show us by
existing ruins of Persepolis, which
Egyptian pylones, their Assyrian winged

even some Grecian elements, that
great anterior
civilisations
had
all
still
their
and
bulls,
the arts of the
mingled
their
in-
fluences in this limited region of Asia.

India, then,
borrowed
borrowed them
Persia itself
its
in reality
arts
from Persia, but
it
from the sources to which
had gone, from Chaldaea and Egypt.
The study
of the
monuments of India
reveals the
borrowings on which they lived originally, but to

establish these borrowings the
ments must be examined,
most ancient monu-
for the
Hindu genius
is
so specific, that the borrowed elements, in order to
adapt themselves to
that they soon
Why
is
incapable
it
of
it,
undergo such transformations
become unrecognisable.
that India, which has shown
borrowing
anything
itself
whatever
so
from
122
Greece, has
to
shown
borrow from Persia
that
the
structure,
Persian
on the contrary, so disposed
itself,
?
The
reason evidently
corresponded to
arts
is
mental
its
whereas there was no such correspondence
The simple forms
in the case of the arts of Greece.
and the sparely ornamented surfaces of the Grecian
monuments could not appeal
to the
Hindu
genius,
which was attracted, on the contrary, by the complicated
forms, the exuberant
decoration,
and the
wealth of ornament of the Persian monuments.
Moreover,
it
is
not solely at this distant epoch,
anterior to our era, that Persia, representing
Egypt
and Assyria, exerted an influence on India by its
arts.
When, many centuries later, the Mussulmans
appeared
its
in
the peninsula, their civilisation, during
passage through Persia, had been deeply imbued
with Persian elements

reality a Persian art
still
and
it
brought to India
in
bearing traces of those old
Assyrian traditions which had been continued by

the dynasty of Achsemenides.
The
gigantic door-
ways of the mosques, and especially the enamelled

bricks with which the
are vestiges
mosques are
lined externally,
of the Chaldseo-Assyrian civilisation.
India was able to assimilate these
arts
so
well,
because they were in accordance with the genius of
ITS
race
its
whereas Greek art in the past and European
art at the present day,
mode
123
being utterly opposed to
its
of thinking and feeling, have always remained
without influence on the national productions.

It is not, then,
with Greece, as the archaeologists
still
maintain, but with
the
medium
of Persia
Egypt and Assyria

that India
through
India
linked.
is
has borrowed nothing from Greece, but both have
gone to the same sources, to that

the foundation of
in the course
and
all
of centuries by the peoples of Egypt
The borrowings of Greece were

through the medium of the Phoenicians and
of the peoples of Asia Minor
medium
of Persia.
and India hark back

source
in
The
in
those of India through

civilisations of
this
to a
way
the two countries
If,
common
speedily took
very different
harmony with the genius of either

however, as we have asserted, the art of a
in close
tion,
Greece
but the currents that issued from this source
directions, in
is
treasure,
civilisations, brought into being
Chaldaea.
effected
the
common
and
correspondence with
if for this
its
race.
race
mental constitu-
reason the same art borrowed by
dissimilar races at once
assumes very different forms,
we should expect
find
to
that
India,
inhabited by a great variety of races,
is
a country
in
posses-
124
sion of very
different
and of
arts,
styles of archi-
tecture that bear no resemblance to one another,
in
spite of the identity of beliefs.
An
examination of the monuments of the different
regions of India shows
how
entirely this
is
the case.
monuments
Indeed, the differences between the
so profound, that the only classification of the
ments we
that
on
is
have been able to
make
racial distinctions,
and
is
is
are
monu-
based on regions,
quite independent
of the religion to which the peoples
who have
con-
them have belonged. There is no analogy

between the monuments of the north of India and
structed
those of the south, constructed though they were at the
same period by peoples professing a similar religion.

Even during the Mussulman domination, at a period,
that
is,
when the
political unity of India
was most
complete, and the influence of the central authority

at its
maximum,
the purely
Mussulman monuments
present profound differences according to the region

in
which they are found.
The mosques
of
Ahmeda-
bad, Lahore, Agra, or Bijapour, although devoted

to the
same
much
cult, offer
but a very slight relationship,
slighter relationship than that
monument
which connects
of the Renaissance with those of the
Gothic period.
ITS
It is
125
not architecture only that varies in India
according to the race
the statuary also varies with
the different regions, not merely as regards the types

represented, but especially in respect to the
or
If the bas-reliefs
which they are treated.
way
in
the
statues of Sanchi be compared with those of Bharhut,
with which they are nevertheless contemporary, the

difference
is
already manifest.
It is
plainer
still
when
the statues and bas-reliefs of the province of Orissa

are
compared with those of Bundelkund,
or,
again,
the statues of Mysore with those of the great pagodas
The
of the South of India.
everywhere apparent.
most
is
It
of race
influence
is
seen, moreover, in the
is
trifling artistic productions,
which, as everybody
aware, differ immensely in India from one region
to another.
distinguish
It is
not necessary to be very expert to
between a
coffer
carved
in
wood
of
Mysore workmanship and a coffer that hails from

the Guzrat district, or between a jewel from the
province of Orissa and a jewel from that of Bombay.
Doubtless
Oriental
the
architecture,
however great
in
the
architecture
principally
religious influence
East, the
considerable.
is
of
influence
India,
religious
may
of race
like
is
all
but
be, especially
much more
126
This soul of the
race,
which guides the destinies of
peoples, determines as well their beliefs, institutions,
and
arts
whatever be the element of
under consideration,
It
is
its
action
is
always perceptible.
the only force against which
can prevail.
thousands
thought.
It
represents
of generations,
the
civilisation
no other force
dead
weight
the synthesis
of
of
their
BOOK
III

BOOK
III

CHAPTER
HOW THE SOUL
OF PEOPLES IS RESPONSIBLE FOR

THEIR INSTITUTIONS
The history of a people
is
always determined by
its
mental constitution
How
the political institutions of France are

the outcome of the soul of the race Their real invariability beneath
Various examples
Our most different political parties

their apparent variability
pursue identical political ends under different names Their ideal
is always centralisation and the destruction of individual initiative
to the profit of the State
How
the French Revolution merely

Contrast between
executed the programme of the old monarchy

the ideal of the Anglo-Saxon race and the
The
Latin ideal
initiative of the citizen substituted for the initiative of the State
Peoples' institutions are always the outcome of their character.
in its
main
HISTORY
the mere statement
by the psychological
determined by
lines
may
be regarded as
of the results engendered
constitution
of races.
It
is
this constitution, just as the respira-
10
129
30
tory organs of fish are determined

life.
their aquatic
In the absence of a preliminary knowledge of
the mental constitution of a people,
a chaos of events governed
when we
contrary,
a people,
its life is
all
by
its
history appears
On
hazard.
the
are acquainted with the soul of
seen to be the regular and inevit-
able consequence of
In
by
its
psychological characteristics.
the manifestations of the
life
of a people,
we
always find the unchangeable soul of the race weaving
own
itself its
It is
more
destiny.
especially in political institutions that
the sovereign power of the soul of the race manifests

itself
the most visibly.
prove
this
Let
It
will
be easy for us to
statement by a few examples.
us, to
start with, take France, that
one of
is
the countries of the world which has been subjected
most profound upheavals, a country

a few years the political institutions seem
to the
in
in
which
to have
changed most radically, in which the parties seem

If we consider from the psychothe most divergent.
logical point of
opinions,
these
view these apparently so dissimilar

perpetually struggling
parties,
we
note that they possess in reality a perfectly identical
common
substratum
ideal of our race.
which exactly represents the
Intransigeants, Radicals, Monarch-
ITS
Socialists, in a
ists,
word
all
131
the champions of the
most diverse doctrines, pursue, though they give

themselves different names, an absolutely identical
end
the absorption of the individual
What
they
all
by the
State.
of them desire with a like ardour
the old centralised and Caesarian
is
regime, the State
directing everything, ordaining everything, absorbing
everything, regulating the smallest details of the
the citizens, and
of
thus
freeing
necessity of displaying the least
and
initiative.
from the
glimmer of
reflection
Whether the authority placed
head of the State

etc., is
them
is
at the
called king, emperor, president,
of no importance
be, will perforce
life
this authority,
have the same
ideal,
whatever
and
it
this ideal
same expression of the sentiments of the soul

of the race. 1
And the race would tolerate no other.
the
is
While, then, our extreme excitability, the extreme

ease with which
we become discontented with our
surroundings, the idea that a
render our
lot happier, lead
new Government
will
us to be always changing
our institutions, the mighty voice of the dead which

1
"
Such," writes a highly judicious observer, Dupont White, "is the

the character of the people precludes its
singular genius of France
succeeding in certain matters, either essential or desirable, which bear
:
on the ornamental or fundamental side of

sustained or stimulated in the enterprise by
its
civilisation,
unless
Government."
it
be
132
and
guides us condemns us to change but words

appearances.
our race
is
illusion of
The unconscious power of the soul of

such that we do not even perceive the
which we are the victims.
Nothing assuredly,
sidered,
is
more
different
the regime created

reality,
archical
no
did
tradition,
previously.
from the old regime than
the
Great Revolution.
Revolution, though
In
doubtless
more than continue the monby
completing
the
work
of
by the
monarchy centuries
Were Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. to
centralisation
rise
by
however, the
unawares,
only appearances be con-
if
begun
from their tombs to judge the work of the
Revolution, they would doubtless blame

acts of violence
which accompanied
but they would consider
it
formity with their tradition
its
some of the
realisation,
to be in rigorous con-
and
their
programme,
and they would allow that a minister entrusted with
the execution
carried
it
of this
programme could not have
out more successfully.
that the least revolutionary
known was
They would
declare
government France has
precisely that of the Revolution.
They
would further note that none of the various regimes

that have succeeded one another in France for a
century past
has
attempted to tamper with
this
ITS
work, so entirely
is
the fruit of a regular evolu-
it
continuation of the monarchical ideal and
tion, the
the expression of the genius of the race.

these
133
illustrious
phantoms,
in
great experience, would offer
Doubtless
consequence of their
some
criticisms,
would
perhaps remark, for example, that the substitution

of an administrative caste for the aristocratic govern-
ing caste has
power
that
is
nobility, since
touched by
created
it
in
more
is
the
State an impersonal
than
redoubtable
political
changes,
sponsible and perpetual

to
its
is
in
possession of
this objection, for
fact that the
it
is irre-
conditions which necessarily
becoming the
they would not dwell,
on
old
the sole power which, being un-
traditions and of an esprit de corps^ while
lead
the
sole
fancy, to
master.
However,
any great extent
they would be mindful of the
Latin peoples care very
little for liberty,
but a great deal for equality, and put up with
all
despotisms without difficulty provided they be impersonal.
Perhaps, too, they would consider excessive
and very tyrannical the innumerable regulations, the

thousand and one obligations which surround at the
present day the most insignificant acts of existence,
and they would perhaps observe that when the State

has absorbed everything, regulated everything, and
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PEOPL
134
despoiled the citizens of

ourselves
all
we
initiative,
and without
spontaneously,
revolution, involved in out
shall find
any
fresh
and out Socialism.
But
at this stage of their reflection, die divine perspicacity
that enlightens kings, or, in
absence, the mathe-
its
matical principle that effects increase in geometrical
when
progression
their
causes subsist, win
them to perceive that Socialism
is
allow
nothing else than
the ultimate expression of the monarchial idea, of
which die Revolution was merely an accelerati ve phase.
Thus
it is
a people
that, in the institutions of
meet both with those accidental circumstances referred

to in the beginning of this work, and those permanent
laws which
we have attempted
to determine.
accidental circumstances give rise to the
appearances.
The fundamental
The
names and
and the most
laws
fundamental of them arise from the character of

peoples
create the destiny of nations.
With the preceding example, we may

of another race, the English
logical constitution
Merely
in
is
race,
contrast that
whose psycho-
very different from our own.
consequence of
this
lonstitutions
are radically distinct from ours.
Whether the English have
at their head a
as in England, or a president as in the Unite
mom
ITS
their
government
always present the same funda-
will
mental characteristics
be reduced to
the action of the State will
minimum and
individuals carried to a
which
is
ments,
canals,
etc., will
private
a state of things
maximum,
railways,
of
that
the precise contrary of the
Harbours,
135
Latin
educational
ideal.
establish-
always be created and kept up by
the initiative of private individuals and never
by that
There are no revolutions, constitutions,
of the State. 1
or despots that can give to a people which does not
possess
a people which
them, or take from
does
possess them, the qualities of character of which

institutions are the outcome.
It
has often been said
that peoples have the governments they deserve.

it
conceivable that
We
shall
Is
should be otherwise ?
it
soon show by other examples that a
people does not escape
the
mental constitution
influence
for a brief
it
its
is
only
or
that
swept up by a storm seems
consequences
if
it
moment,
for
rebellious to the laws of attraction.
of
its
throws off this

as the sand
an instant to be
It is
a childish
chimera to believe that governments and constitu1

This preponderance of individual initiative should more especially
be observed in America. It has singularly decreased in the last twentyfive years in England, where the encroachments of the State are
becoming more and more marked.
136
tions count for anything in the destinies of a people.
The
destiny of a people
exterior circumstances.
in
lies
itself,
and not
in
All that can be asked of a
government is that it shall be the expression of the

sentiments and ideas of the people it is called on to
by the mere fact

the image of the people. There
govern, and
or constitutions of which
that
it
exists,
it
is
are no governments
can be said that they
it
good or absolutely bad. The government of the King of Dahomey was probably an
are absolutely
excellent government for the people he was called
on to
rule over,
and the most ingenious European
constitution
would have been
This truth
is
who imagine
inferior for his people.
unfortunately ignored by statesmen

that a
mode
of government can be
exported, and that colonies can be governed with

the institutions of a metropolis.
futile to
wish to persuade
It
fish to live in
the pretext that aerial respiration
is
would be as
the
air,
practised
under
by
all
the superior animals.
By
the mere fact of the diversity of their mental
constitution, different peoples cannot long exist under
The
and the English, the

Slav and the Hungarian, the Arab and the French-
an identical regime.
Irish
man, are only maintained with the utmost
difficulty
ITS
137
under the same laws and at the cost of incessant

revolutions. Great empires,
have
When
existence.
condemned
been
always
embracing diverse peoples,

to
an
ephemeral
they have endured for some length
of time, as the Mongolian Empire did, or as that of

the English in India has done,
is
it
on the one hand
because the races in contact were so numerous, so
and
different,
in
consequence
by such
separated
was impossible that they should unite

against the foreigner and it was on the other hand
rivalries that
it
because these foreign masters have had a sufficiently

sure political instinct to respect the customs of the
conquered peoples and to allow them to

their
own
Many
live
under
laws.
books would have to be
history
would have
to
sidered
from quite
desired to
show
all
be entirely recast and con-
new
standpoint,
it
were
close study of this
constitution ought to be the basis

It
if
the consequences of the psycho-
logical constitution of peoples.
education.
written, indeed
of politics and
might even be said that
this
study
would avert many errors and many upheavals,

peoples could escape the
fatalities
of their race,
voice of reason were not always extinguished
imperious voice of the dead.
if
if
the
by the
CHAPTER
II
APPLICATION OF THE PRECEDING PRINCIPLES TO
THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EVOLUTION

OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND
OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS
The English
character
How
the American soul has been formed
Severity of the selection resulting from the conditions of existence

Forced disappearance of the inferior elements The negroes
and the Chinese Reasons of the prosperity of the United States

and of the decadence of the Spanish-American republics in spite of
Inevitable anarchy of the Spanishidentical political institutions
American republics as a consequence of the inferiority of the
characteristics of the race.
HE
which precede show
that the institutions of a people are the expres-
sion of
to
brief considerations
its soul,
change
their
their essence.
precise
and that while

form
We
it is
are
it is
easy for a people
impossible for
now going
to
it
to
change
show by very
examples to what a degree the soul of a

138

people determines
is
the role played

I
shall
go
by
for these
there exist side
ment but
its
by
destiny,
insignificant
institutions in this destiny. 1
to a country in
examples
which
under conditions of environ-
side,
slightly
and how
139
two
different,
European races
equally civilised and intelligent, and only differing as
regards their character

continent
is
unlike.
is
The
refer to
formed by two
by an isthmus.
tinents
distinct continents united
superficies of each of these con-
very nearly equal, and their
One of them
soil
since the republics of
The
not at
all
has been conquered and peopled
by the English, the other by the Spanish

two races live under similar republican
modelled
This
America.
race.
These
institutions,
South America have always

on those of the United
their institutions
English sociologist, Herbert Spencer, had neglected

works the influence of the character of peoples on their
destinies, and his admirable theoretical syntheses had led him at first to
Having decided as he became older to
very optimistic conclusions.
illustrious
in his great
take into consideration the fundamental role of character, he has had to
modify entirely his

substitute for
earlier conclusions,
them extremely
and has
finally
pessimistic conclusions.
been brought to
We
find
them
expressed in a recently published discourse on Tyndall, reprinted in

Here are some extracts
the Revue des Revues.
:
"... My
faith in free institutions, so strong to
We
begin with, has con-
are going back to the

by the bureaucratic despotism of
a socialist organisation, and then by the military despotism which will
succeed it, supposing this latter not to be realised suddenly as the out"
come of some acute social crisis.
siderably diminished of late years.
regime of the iron hand represented
140
States.
In
consequence, to explain the
destinies of these peoples
but racial differences.
different
we have nothing
go on
to
Let us consider the
results
these differences have produced.
To
begin with,
characteristics
let
us summarise in a few words the
of the Anglo-Saxon race which has
peopled the United States. There

in
the world which
mental constitution
is
is
no
race, perhaps,
so homogeneous, and whose

so easy to define in
it is
its
main
lines.
The dominant
features of this mental constitution
from the point of view of character are

will
a degree of
power which very few peoples, with the exception
perhaps of the Romans, have possessed, an indomitable
energy,
very
great
control, a sentiment of
initiative,
absolute
self-
independence carried to the
pitch of excessive unsociability,

lively religious sentiments, a
immense
activity,
very
very stable morality, and
a very clear idea of duty.
From
the intellectual point of view,
to give special characteristics, that
is
it is
impossible
to say to point
out special elements, not to be found in the other

civilised nations.
There
is
little
to note
beyond a
sureness of judgment which allows of the grasping of
the practical and positive side of things and keeps
ITS
those
who
chimerical researches
but
little
from
it
possess
losing
their
141
way
in
a strong liking for facts and
taste for general ideas, a certain narrowness
mind which prevents the recognition of the weak

sides of religious beliefs, and in consequence ensures
of
those beliefs escaping discussion.
To
these general characteristics must be added a
complete optimism with regard to the path the individual has traced himself in
life,
which leads him
never even to suppose that he could possibly have
chosen a better.
He
demanded of him by
This optimism
whatever
tempt
is
is
is
always aware of what
his country, his family, his
for the foreigner
and
his
Con-
customs certainly
surpasses in England that formerly professed
So great
Gods.
carried to the pitch of regarding
foreign as extremely contemptible.
Romans and
is
by the
Barbarians at the time of their greatness.
is it,
that as regards the foreigner every rule
of morality ceases to hold good.
English statesmen
who does not
There
is
not an
consider as perfectly
legitimate, in his conduct towards other peoples, acts
which would provoke the deepest and the most unani-
mous indignation
if
they were practised where his
countrymen were concerned.

foreigner
is
This contempt
for the
doubtless a sentiment of a very inferior
142
order from the philosophic point of view
but from
the point of view of the prosperity of a people
extremely
useful.
As Lord Wolseley,
the well-known
English general, has rightly remarked,

sentiments that
make
in
It
has
connection with their refusal
very judicious refusal be
their
one of the
it is
the strength of England.
been said with reason,
it is
it
remarked
to
allow the construction of a tunnel under the Channel,
which would
facilitate
communications with the Conti-
much
nent, that the English take as
trouble as the
Chinese to prevent the penetration into their country

of
all
foreign influence.
All the characteristics which have just been enu-
merated are met with
in the various social
grades
it
would be impossible to light on any element of

English civilisation on which they have not left their
mark.
The
a few days,
foreigner
is
at
who
visits
England,
once struck by
note the desire for an independent
only for
if
He
this fact.
life in
will
the cottage
of the most humble employe, a confined dwelling, no

doubt, but in which the householder is exposed to no
restraint
and
is
isolated from his neighbours
busiest railway stations in which the public

circulate at all hours, not being
penned
in the
is
free to
in, like
a flock
of docile sheep, behind a barrier guarded by an
ITS
employe, as
if it
143
were necessary to assure by force
the security of people, incapable themselves of the
amount of
keep them from
attention necessary to
being run over.
He
will recognise the
race in the laboriousness of the
of the schoolboy,
left
to
energy of the
workman, or
himself while
in that
still
quite
young, and learning to look after himself without

assistance,
he being already well aware that
course of
his existence
with his fate

tively
little
nobody
will
in the schoolmasters,
store
in
the
be concerned
who
set
compara-
on learning but attach great import-
ance to character, which they hold to be one of the

1
great motive forces of the world.
the public
life
When
he studies
of the citizen, he will see that
it is
not
to the State but to private initiative that appeal
always made, whether
it
is
is
a case of repairing a
fountain or of constructing a harbour or a railway.
Pursuing his inquiry, he
will
soon recognise that
this
Entrusted by the Queen of England with deciding the conditions

on which the annual prize given by her to Wellington College should
be awarded, Prince Albert ordered that it should be granted not to the
who had done best in his studies, but to the boy of best character.
scholar
In the case of a Latin nation, the prize would certainly have been given
to the pupil who repeated best what he had learned from his books. All
our education, including what "we term higher education, consists in
making our youth recite lessons. The scholars retain the habit to such
a degree that they continue to recite them during the rest of their
existence.
144
people, in spite of defects which
make
it
the most
insufferable of peoples in the eyes of foreigners,
only really free people, because

which, having learned to govern
minimum
to leave only a
If its history
be studied,
it
the only people
is
itself,
of action to
has been able
its
seen that
it is
the
is
it
government.
was the
first
people to free itself from every kind of domination,
from that of the Church as well as from that of kings.
As
early as the fifteenth century the legist Fortescue

"
contrasted
Roman
the
law, the inheritance of the
Latin peoples, with the English law
work of absolute
sacrifice
sovereigns,
the individual
will of the
the one the
and wholly inclined
the other the
to
work of the
community, and ever ready to protect the
individual."
To whatever
may
emigrate,
quarter of the globe such a people
it
will at
once acquire the preponder-
and found powerful empires. If the race it

invades, as in the case of the Redskins of America,
ance,
for
example,
utilisable,
it
is
will
sufficiently
weak, and insufficiently
be methodically exterminated.
If
the race invaded, as in the case of the population of

India,
is
too numerous to be destroyed, and
moreover of doing productive work,
it
will
is
capable
simply be
reduced to a very oppressive state of vassalage, and
ITS
145
obliged to labour for the almost exclusive advantage
of
its
masters.
It is
more
especially, however, in
new country
such as America, that the astonishing progress due to

the mental constitution of the English race should
be studied.
Transported into uncultivated regions,
sparsely inhabited
what
by some few savages,
destiny has been.
its
it is
notorious
Scarcely a century has
been necessary to raise the country to the front rank
among
the great powers of the world, and to-day
there are few powers that would be a

I
advise those
who
sum
The
it.
of initiative and indi-
expended by the
Republic to read the books of

Bourget.
for
are desirous of appreciating for
themselves the enormous

vidual energy
match
citizens of the great
MM. Rousier
and Paul
aptitude of the Americans to govern
themselves, to unite together to found great enterprises, to

etc.,
create towns,
schools, harbours, railways,
has arrived at such a pitch, and the action of the
State has been reduced to such a
might almost be said that
Apart from
filling police duties
matic representation,
it
minimum,
that
no public authorities
is
even
it
exist.
and those of diplodifficult to see
what
purpose they could serve.

It
is
impossible, moreover, for
an individual to
146
prosper in the United States except on the condition

that he possesses the qualities of character
and
described,
this
why
is
have just
the foreign immigrations
are powerless to modify the general trend of
The
the race.
the individuals
condemned
conditions of existence are such that
who do
not possess these qualities are
to disappear at
Anglo-Saxon can
an early date.
live in this
The
situations.
The great Republic

it
is
is
assuredly the land
assuredly the land of liberty
neither of equality nor of
of progress do not recognise.
globe has natural selection

felt.
because
tributed
There
is
it
to
It
is
ignores
form
no room
incapable on the
mere
fact that
In no country on the
made
unpitying
pity
that
its
but
iron
arm more
it
is
precisely
the race
it
has con-
and
retains
its
for the
weak, the mediocre, the
soil
power
of the United States.
they are
energy.
By
the
inferior, isolated individuals
or entire races are destined to perish.

Indians,
two Latin chimeras which the laws
fraternity, those
rudely
Italian dies of
and the Irishman and the negro vegetate
most humble
in the
Only the
atmosphere saturated
with independence and energy.

starvation,
mind of
The Redskin
because useless, have been shot down, or
condemned
to die of hunger.
The Chinese workmen,
JTS INFLUENCE ON THEIR EVOLUTION
147
whose labour constitutes a vexatious source of comsoon undergo a similar
petition, will
The law
fate.
decreeing their total expulsion has not been carried

out because of the enormous expenses
would
entail.
destruction, already
districts.
voted,
forbidding
American
pauper
As
territory.
in several
recently
to
emigrants
to the negroes
War
the
as the pretext for
begun
have
Other laws
mining
application
doubtless soon be taken
Its place will
by a methodical
its
land
who
of Succession
between those who possessed
slaves,
been
on
served
a war
and those who,
being unable to possess them, did not wish to allow

others to
own them
because they
fill
none
which no American
almost
tolerated
subordinate
positions
would consent
to accept.
they
but
citizen
Theoretically they have rights
are
practically they are
treated like semi- useful animals,
who
as soon as they
become dangerous.
proceedings of
Lynch-law
nised
to
meet
their
are
case.
At
are got rid of
The summary
universally
their
of any gravity they are shot or hanged.
first
recog-
crime
Statistics,
The Fifty-third Congress only adjourned the execution of the Geary

law (Chinese Exclusion Act) because it found that to convey a hundred
thousand Chinamen back to their country would involve an expenditure
1
sum voted for the expulsion

workmen was only one hundred thousand francs,
of thirty millions of francs, whereas the

the Chinese
of
148
which
tions,
over a
give
include
only
of
portion
thousand
for
execu-
these
the
seven
last
years.
These are doubtless the gloomy

It is brilliant
enough
sides of the picture.
to support them.
If
were
it
required to define in a word the difference between
Continental Europe and the United States,

represents the
be said that the
first
can result from
official
initiative
effected
by
it
maximum
maximum
of what can be
individual initiative entirely freed from
These fundamental
soil
of the rude
It is
not
Republic that European
Socialism has a chance of implanting
itself.
ultimate expression of State tyranny,
it
among
all
differences are
exclusively the consequences of character.
prosper
what
regulation replacing individual
the second, the
official regulation.
on the
might
of
The
can only
old races, subjected for centuries to a
regime which has deprived them of
all
capacity for
self-government.
We
1
have just seen what has been accomplished
The America
to-day, but
it
have just described
recent invasion by an
elements, by a gigantic
division
into
the America of yesterday and

shall see in
doubtless will not be that of to-morrow.
a forthcoming chapter that the country

its
is
several
immense
civil
We
threatened, in consequence of
number of inferior and unassimilable
is
war, which
may be
independent States, always
themselves as are those of Europe.
in
followed by
fighting
its
amongst
ITS
149
one portion of America by a race possessing a mental
dominant features are per-
constitution of which the
and strength of will. It remains

show what has become of an almost similar
severance, energy,
for us to
country
in
the hands of another race, which, though
highly intelligent, possesses none of the qualities of

character whose effects
have just noted.
South America, as regards

is
its
natural productions,
one of the richest countries of the globe.
large as Europe,
and ten times
no lack of land which
so to speak, at the disposition
The dominant
of everybody.
Spanish
is,
origin, is
Twice as
less inhabited, there is
population, which
is
of
divided into numerous republics
the republics of Argentina, Brazil, Chili, Peru, etc.
them have adopted the

the United States, and live
All of
political constitution of
in
consequence under
identical laws.
And
race
and lacks the fundamental
is
different
yet,
by the mere
fact that the
qualities
possessed by the people of the United States,
all
these
republics, without a single exception, are perpetually
a prey to the most sanguinary anarchy, and in spite

of the astonishing richness of their
soil
they are
victims one after the other of every sort of political
and economic
To
disaster, of
bankruptcy and despotism.
appreciate the lengths reached by the decadence
150
of the Spanish-American republics, the remarkable
and impartial work on the subject of Th. Child

must be read. The causes of this decadence lie
entirely in the mental constitution of a race possessing
The
neither energy, strength of will, nor morality.
absence of morality, in particular, surpasses
know
that
is
all
we
Citing one of the
worst in Europe.
most important towns, Buenos Ayres, the author

declares
it
to
be uninhabitable by anybody of any
delicacy of conscience or morality.
one
of
the
least
degraded
In reference to
of the republics, the
Argentine Republic, the same writer adds
"
:
If this
republic
be studied from the commercial point of
view, one
dumbfounded by the blatant immorality

be met with in every direction."
that
is
As
to
is
to the institutions, there
how wholly they
is
no better example of
are the offspring of the race, and
of the impossibility of transplanting
was of great
them from one
know
people to another.
It
what would happen
to the very liberal institutions of
interest to
the United States after their introduction

inferior race.
us
"
These
countries,"
among an
M. Child informs
of the various Spanish-American republics,
under
the
ferule
autocracy not
of
Presidents
less absolute
who
exercise
"
are
an
than that of the Tzar of
ITS
all
the Russias
to
nothing
more
are
creatures
is
Republic
the
and the
The Government
censure.
from
their
amongst
the citizens vote as they choose, but
The Argentine
paid to their votes.
is
a republic in
an oligarchy
importunities
recruited
solely
no account
absolute, indeed, for they have
from
fear
of European
influence
officials
151
name only
in reality
it is
hands of persons who make a
in the
commerce of politics."
Only one country,
escaped
had
Brazil,
decadence, thanks
this
to
to
some extent
a monarchical
regime which kept the central authority from being
This constitution,
the object of individual rivalries.
too liberal for races without energy and without
has ended by succumbing.
country
is
The
result
a prey to utter anarchy.
is
will,
that the
In the lapse of a
few years, the dilapidation of the public finances by

those in power has been such that the taxes have
had
to be increased
Naturally,
decadence
it
is
by over sixty per
cent.
not
only
in
South America
is
peopled, but
elements of civilisation as
these
hapless
barbarism.
politics
the
that
manifest of the Latin race by which
is
well.
republicans
in
all
the other
Left to themselves,
would
All their industry and
revert
to
commerce
pure
is
in
152
the hands of foreigners, of Englishmen, Americans, and
Germans.
Valparaiso has become an English city;
and nothing would remain of

element
were
to
It
disappear.
foreigner that these countries
varnish of civilisation that
Chili
still
still
is
if
the foreign
thanks to the
retain that external
deceives Europe.
The
Argentine Republic counts four millions of whites of

Spanish origin
doubt whether a single white man,
apart from foreigners, could be cited at the head of an
important industry.
This terrible decadence of the Latin
race, left to
compared with the prosperity of the English

race in a neighbouring country, is one of the most
itself,
sombre, the saddest, and, at the same time, the most

instructive experiences that can be cited in support of
the psychological laws that
have enunciated.
CHAPTER
HOW THE
III
MODIFICATION OF THE SOUL OF RACES
AFFECTS THE
OF
EVOLUTION
HISTORICAL
PEOPLES
The
influence of foreign elements at once transforms the soul of a race,

in consequence its civilisation
Example of the Romans
and
Roman
civilisation was not destroyed by military invasions, but

by the pacific invasions of the Barbarians The Barbarians never
formed the project of destroying the Empire Their invasions were
not of the nature of conquests The early Frank chiefs always con-
sidered themselves to be functionaries of the
Roman Empire
They
always respected Roman civilisation, and their aim was to continue

it
It was only from the seventh century onwards that the Gallic
barbarian chiefs ceased to consider the
The complete
transformation of
Emperor
Roman
as their superior
was not the
civilisation
consequence of a work of destruction, but of the adoption of an

ancient civilisation by a new race The modern invasions of the
United States
The
civil strife
and the breaking up of the United
States into independent and rival States to which these invasions

will lead
The invasion of France by foreigners and their con-
sequences.
THE
examples we have
cited
show
that the
history of a people does not depend
institutions,
but on
its
character
153
that
is
to say,
on
on
its
its
154
We
race.
further saw,
when studying
the formation
of historical races, that their dissolution
is
the result
of cross-breeding, and that the peoples which have

preserved their unity and
example,
the
force
India in the past, and in modern times
in
the English in their various colonies
have always
carefully
The
foreigners.
foreigners, even
avoided
who
intermarrying with
small numbers,
it
causes
history,
and
is
to lose
it
defending the characteristics of

its
are those
presence in the midst of a people of

in
affect its soul, since
ments of
Aryans, for
the
capacity for
race, the
its
to
sufficient
its
achievements
monuof
its
ancestors.
This conclusion arises out of
all
of what precedes.
elements of a civilisation are to be
If the various
regarded as the exterior manifestation of the soul of

a people,
it
is
evident that as soon as the soul of the
people changes,
The
its civilisation
should change as well.
history of the past supplies us with incon-
trovertible proof that this
is
what indeed
the history of the future will furnish
occurs,
many
and
other such
proofs.
The
tion
is
progressive transformation of
Roman
one of the most striking examples
to invoke.
it is
civilisa-
possible
Historians usually picture this event as
ITS
155
the result of the destructive invasions of the Bar-
barians
but a more attentive study of the facts
shows, on the one hand, that
it
was
warlike invasions which brought about the
Empire
sation,
of the
fall
and, on the other hand, that the Barbarians,
Roman
from having wished to overthrow
far
and not
pacific
devoted
all
their efforts
civili-
towards adopting and
continuing institutions of which they were the respectful admirers.
language, the
Down
They essayed
to appropriate the
and the
institutions
of
arts
Rome.
to the time of the last of the Merovingians,
they endeavoured to continue the great civilisation

of which they were the heirs.
is
reflected
in
This guiding intention

of the great
the acts
all
Emperor
Charlemagne.
We
know, however, that such a task has always
The Barbarians needed
been impossible.
centuries before they could form,
and
by repeated
several
crosses
identical conditions of existence, a race in
way homogeneous
possessed, merely
and when
in virtue of the fact of its creation,
new language and new

sequence a new civilisation.
a
Rome
left
civilisation,
their
but
any
was formed it
this race
impress
the
institutions,
The mighty
deeply
various
and
in con-
traditions of
marked on
efforts
to
revive
this
the
156
civilisation
of
Rome
have always been vain.
itself
The Renaissance endeavoured

arts,
and the Revolution
to bring
The Barbarians who

Empire from the
first
the end absorbed
it,
in vain to revive its
back
its institutions.
invaded
successively
the
century onwards, and who
in
never proposed to destroy but,
on the contrary, to continue
its
civilisation.
Had
they never waged war on Rome, had they confined

themselves
to
mixing with the Romans
in
ever
increasing numbers, the course of history would not
have been changed
they would not have destroyed
the Empire, but their mere mingling with the
people would have sufficed to destroy
may
be
said, then, that
the
Roman
Roman
soul.
It
civilisation
has
its
never been overthrown, but has simply been continued, transforming itself in the course of ages
the mere fact of
its
having
fallen into the
by
hands of
different races.
A
is
glance at the history of the barbarian invasions
what precedes.
The labours of modern scholars, and particularly
amply
sufficient to justify
those of Fustel de Coulanges, have clearly shown

that
it
was
the
pacific
invasions of the Barbarians
and
not
the
aggressive
the aggressive invasions
were easily repulsed by Barbarians
in the
pay of the
ITS
empire

brought about
that
dis-
progressive
As
Rome.
appearance of the might of

times of the
the
157
early as the
emperors the custom had been
first
introduced of employing Barbarians in the army.
gained ground
richer
proportion as the
in
Romans became
and more refractory to military
service,
after the lapse of several centuries, there
but foreigners in the

"
The
army
It
till,
were none
as in the administration
Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Franks were
federate soldiers in the service of the
When Rome came

its service,
to
and when
barbarian chiefs,
it
its
Roman
Empire."
have none but Barbarians
in
provinces were governed by
was evident that these
chiefs
would render themselves progressively more and
more independent.
in this effort,
it
They
were,
successful
indeed,
but such was the prestige of Rome, that
never occurred to any of them to overthrow the
empire, even
When
when Rome
one of these
fell
into
their
power.
chiefs, Odoacre, king of the
Heruti, in the pay of the empire, possessed himself
of
Rome
in 476,
whose residence
he hastened to ask the emperor,
at this time
his authorisation to
Patrician.
ently.
It
None
was Constantinople,
govern Italy with the
title
for
of
of the other chiefs behaved differ-
was always
in the
name
of
Rome
that they
158
governed their provinces.

to dispose of the
never occurred to them
It
or to tamper with the institutions.
soil
Clovis regarded himself as a
Roman
functionary,
was very proud when he obtained the

from the emperor.
successors
still
title
and
of consul
Thirty years after his death, his
accepted the laws promulgated by the
emperors, and considered themselves bound to see

that
they were
The beginning of
observed.
the
seventh century must be reached before the barbarian

chiefs of
Gaul are found to venture on issuing money
bearing their
own
Until then their coins had
effigy.
always borne the effigy of the emperors.
from
this period
onwards that
it
It is
only
can be said that the
Gallic population ceased to regard the
emperor as
make
the history
In
their chief.
fact,
the historians
of France begin two hundred years too soon and
accord us some ten kings too many.
Nothing
less
resembles a conquest than the bar-
barian invasions, since the populations retained their

lands, their language,
and
their laws,
which
is
never
the case in connection with true conquests, such as

that, for
It
is
example, of England by the Normans.

probable
authority of
unperceived
that
Rome was
by
the
the
disappearance
so gradual, that
people
of
the
it
of
the
took place
period.
The
ITS
159
provinces had been accustomed for centuries to be

in
acting
came
on
to govern
their
own
consequence was changed.
in
name
the
of the
Very gradually and very slowly
emperors.
chiefs
chiefs
by
governed
continued under
ingian period.
The only
account.
Nothing
The same regime
new masters throughout
the Merov-
real change,
and
it
ended by becoming a
very profound change, was the formation of a

historic race, involving as a necessary
we have
according to the laws

a
new
their
new
consequence
the birth of
set forth
civilisation.
In virtue of that eternal repetition of the
same
phenomena, which seems the most fixed of the laws
we
of history,
are probably destined to witness in

pacific invasions
contemporary history
those which
Roman
sion of
brought
civilisation.
modern
analogous to
about the transformation of
In view of the general exten-
civilisation,
it
may seem
that nowa-
days there are no longer any barbarians, or at any

rate that these barbarians, relegated to the depths of
Asia and Africa, are too
far
from us to be very
"
The Merovingian government," declares M. Fustel de Coulanges,

" was in the main a continuation of that which the Roman
Empire had
1
There was nothing feudal about the government of

given Gaul.
the Merovingians,"
.
160
redoubtable.
Assuredly we have not to fear being
invaded by them
only be, as
will
because the time
and
if
they are to be dreaded
have shown
may come when
economic rivalry with Europe.

in
another work,
in
they will enter into

not with them
It is
consequence that we are concerned
though the Barbarians may seem

they are in reality very close,
time of the
exist
in
Roman
to
but
than at the
far closer
The
bosom of
civilised
fact
consequence of the complication
here,
be very distant,
emperors.
the very
it
of
that they
is
nations.
our
In
modern
and of that progressive differentiation of

individuals to which I have referred, each people
civilisation,
contains an
immense number of
inferior
incapable of adapting themselves to

that
is
too superior for them.
elements
a civilisation
There
results
an
enormous waste population, and the peoples who

come to be invaded by it will have reason to dread
the experience.
At
the present day
it is
of America that these

steps with a
common
towards the United States
new
accord, and
civilisation of this great nation
So long
scale,
barbarians direct their
is
it is
seriously threatened.
as the foreign immigration
and composed
in
by them that the
was on a small
the main of English elements,
ITS
its
absorption was easy and useful.
It
161
has brought
The
about the astonishing greatness of America.
United States are now exposed to a gigantic invasion

of inferior elements which they neither wish nor are
Between 1880 and 1890 they
able to assimilate.
received
six
nearly
millions
exclusively composed of
of every nationality.
almost
of emigrants,
workmen
of a low class and
To-day of the 1,100,000
in-
habitants of Chicago not a quarter are Americans.
The population
Irish,
includes 400,000 Germans, 220,000
50,000 Poles, 55,000 Czechs,
fusion between these immigrants
etc.
There
is
no
and the Americans.
They do not even take the trouble to learn the

language of their new country, in which they form
mere colonies engaged in badly paid occupations.
They are discontented and in consequence dangerous.
During the recent railway strike Chicago narrowly
escaped being burned down by them, and it was
necessary to
among
that
fire
on them
pitilessly.
It
is
solely
their ranks that are recruited the adepts of
barbarous
and
levelling
socialism,
which
perhaps realisable in decadent Europe, but
is
is
quite
antipathetic to the character of true Americans.
The
conflicts
soil
which socialism
is
about to engender on the
of the great Republic will be, in reality, conflicts

12
162
between races which have reached different
levels of
evolution.
seems evident that
It
in
the
civil
war that
is
preparing between the America of the Americans
and the America of the
foreigners, the
not rest with the barbarians.

will doubtless
immense
end
in
triumph
This gigantic struggle
a hecatomb reproducing on an
the complete extermination
scale
will
of the
Cimbrians
If the struggle is at all

by Marius.
delayed and the invasion continues, it will become
impossible that the solution should be total destruction.
will
In that case the destiny of the United States
probably be that of the
say, the breaking
Roman Empire
that
is
to
up of the existing provinces of the
republic into independent states, as divided
and as
frequently at war as those of Europe or as those of
Spanish America.
America
these
is
not the only country threatened by
invasions.
France, which
is
There
is
menaced
one
in the
State
in
same way.
Europe,
It is
rich country, whose population does not increase,

surrounded by poor countries whose population is
constantly increasing.
neighbours
is
inevitable,
The immigration
of these
and the more so as
it
is
rendered necessary by the growing exigencies of our
ITS
working
classes,
163
taken in connection with the needs
The advantages
of agriculture and industry.
immigrants find on our
soil
are evident.
these
They
are
freed from the obligation of military service, being
nomads they have few or no taxes

and the work is easier and better paid than
foreign
native territory.
to pay,
in their
Further, they invade our country,
not merely because of
its
riches,
but because the
majority of other countries are always passing laws

forbidding their entrance.
This invasion of foreigners

in
that
it
is
naturally the
is
the more redoubtable,
most
inferior
elements,
those that cannot succeed in making a livelihood in

their
own
country, that emigrate.
principles
condemn
foreign invasion.
us to undergo an ever increasing
Forty years ago there were only
400,000 such foreign immigrants

over
1,200,000,
number of
to-day they number
and they are always flocking
in increasing hordes.
the
Our humanitarian
Considered merely
Italians
it
be called an Italian colony.
in
in respect to
contains, Marseilles
might
Italy does not possess a
single colony that contains a like
number of
If the present conditions do not change,
if,
Italians.
that
is
to
say, these invasions do not stop, but a very short
time
will
have to elapse before a third of the popula-
164
become German and a
of France has
tion
Italian.
What
can become of the unity, or even of

people under such conditions?
the existence of a
The worst
infinitely less
third
on the
disasters
battlefield
grave than such invasions.
would be
It
was a
very sure instinct that taught the ancient peoples to
dread foreigners
tion of a country
they were well aware that the situais
judged not by the number of
inhabitants, but by that of
Once more we
and
historical
racial
1
problem.
These
find
social
It
its
its citizens.
that
at
questions
dominates
all
the bottom
lies
the
of
all
inevitable
the others.
invasions
being the consequence of certain economical

impossible to control, they cannot be prevented.
Still,
certain measures might be taken which would at least check them
phenomena it
is
obligatory military service in the Foreign Legion for all foreigners less
than twenty-five years of age and counting two years' residence ; military
tax on the older immigrants

almost entire suppression of naturalisation ; tax amounting to a quarter of the income or salary on all
The Deputy
foreigners established in France for less than fifty years.
;
who
should cause such a law to be voted would be worthy of a statue
erected by his grateful country.
BOOK
HOW
IV
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

OF RACES ARE MODIFIED
BOOK
HOW THE
IV
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF RACES ARE MODIFIED
CHAPTER
THE ROLE OF IDEAS
The
IN
THE LIFE OF PEOPLES
leading ideas of each civilisation are always very few in number

Extreme slowness of their birth and disappearance Ideas do not
influence conduct until they have been transformed into sentiments
They then form part of the character It is thanks to the slowness of the evolution of ideas that civilisations possess a certain
fixity
ever
How
The
enthusiasts
ideas take root
and
The
reason has no influence what-
and prestige The role of

Deformation undergone by ideas as
apostles
the masses
universally admitted idea soon
influence
of
affirmation
they penetrate
influences all the elements of civilisation
community of ideas
that the
men
It is
thanks to their
of each age have a
average conceptions which makes them very
much
sum
total of
alike in their
thoughts and actions The yoke of custom and opinion It is not

relaxed until the critical ages of history when the old ideas are
losing their influence and have not as yet been replaced This
critical age is the only age in which the discussion of opinions can
be tolerated Dogmas only hold their own on the condition that
they are not discussed Peoples cannot change their ideas and
dogmas without being at once obliged to change their civilisation.
having shown
that
the
psychological
AFTER
characteristics of races possess great
that the history of peoples
167
is
fixity,
and
the consequence of
168
these characteristics,
the
for
we added
psychological
that
elements,
as
it
was possible
it
the
for
is
anatomical elements of species, to be transformed
in
The
the long run by slow hereditary accumulations.
evolution of civilisations depends in a large measure
on these transformations.
Various factors are capable of provoking psychochanges.
logical
Wants, the struggle
for
life,
the
action of certain surroundings, the progress of the

sciences
many
and
of
industry,
other factors exert an
already devoted a volume
them.
here.
education,
It is
We
influence.
beliefs,
We
and
have
to the study of each of
impossible to treat the matter in detail
merely return to
it
with a view to show-
by the choice of a few essential factors, the

mechanism of their action. It is to this study that
ing,
be devoted the present and following chapters.
will
The study
of the various civilisations that have
succeeded one another since the origin of the world

proves that they have always been guided in their
development by a very small number of fundamental

If the history of peoples were confined to
ideas.
that of their ideas
it
would never be very long.
When
a civilisation has succeeded in creating in a century

1
Ilhomme
et les socictes.
Leurs origines
et leur histoire, vol.
ii.
ITS
one or two fundamental ideas

arts,
in the
domain of the
the sciences, literature or philosophy,
considered that
Ideas can
peoples
until,
it
has been exceptionally
have no
real
169
it
may
be
brilliant.
action on the soul of
the consequence of a very slow
as
from the mobile
elaboration, they have descended
regions of thought to that stable and unconscious
region of the sentiments in which the motives of our
They then become elements
actions are elaborated.
of character and
formed
is
in
may
influence conduct.
Character
part of a stratification of unconscious
ideas.
When
their
ideas have undergone this slow elaboration
power
is
considerable, because reason ceases to
have any hold on them.
dominated by an
idea,
accessible to reasoning,
be.
he
-All
will
he
not
will
make
The
enthusiast
religious
however
or other,
intelligent
who
in-
is
he
is
may
be able to attempt, and most often

the effort, will be to try,
by
artifices
of thought and deformations often very great, to
bring any idea that seems to contradict the conceptions which dominate
him, into
agreement with them.

If ideas can only exert an action
after
some
sort
of
having slowly
descended from the regions of the conscious to those
170
of the unconscious,
it is
understandable that they will
be very slowly transformed, and that the leading ideas

of a civilisation should be very few in number, and
require so long a period
ought
case
to
ourselves
congratulate
were
not so
it
civilisations
new
the long run, for
that
such
the
is
would be impossible that
it
should have any
fortunate that
We
for their evolution.
fixity.
It
is
equally
ideas can implant themselves in

if
the old ideas were absolutely
unchangeable, civilisations would be unable to realise
any
progress.
transformations
Thanks
many
to the slowness of our mental
generations of
to secure the triumph of
new
ideas,
men
are needed
and many other
generations to bring about their disappearance.
most
civilised peoples are those
The
whose leading ideas
have been able to maintain an equal distance between

variability
debris
and
fixity.
of the peoples
History
is
strewn with the
who have been unable
to
maintain this equilibrium.

It is easy, in
consequence, to understand
how
it
is
most striking when the history of the

various peoples is studied, is not the wealth and novelty
that
what
is
of their ideas, but, on the contrary, the extreme poverty

of these ideas, the slowness of their transformations,
and the power they
exert.
Civilisations
are the
ITS
result
of some
171
few fundamental ideas, and when
these ideas change, the civilisations are at once com-
The Middle Ages
pelled to change as well.
on two principal ideas

feudal idea.
Its
conception of
life
existed
the religious idea and the
and
arts, its literature,
its
entire
At
are derived from these ideas.
the time of the Renaissance these ideas undergo
some modification
the rediscovered ideal of the old
Greco-Latin world implants
once the conception of
life,
begin to be transformed.
tradition
is
itself in
Europe, and at
the arts and literature
Then
the authority of
shaken, scientific truths substitute them-
selves gradually for revealed truth,
At
once against transformed.

old religious ideas
seem
and
civilisation is
the present day the
definitely to
have
lost the
greater part of their empire, and owing to this fact
the social institutions that were based on
all
them are
threatened with destruction.
The
history of the genesis of ideas, of their domi-
nation, of their transformations,
and of their disappear-
ance, can only be written on the principle of citing
numerous examples in illustration. Could we enter

into details, we would show that each element of
civilisation
is
philosophy, beliefs,
subject to a very small
arts, literature, etc.
number of leading
ideas
172
whose evolution
The
exceedingly slow.
is
modern physics
derived
is
indestructibility of force, the
sciences
The whole
themselves do not escape this law.
from the
idea
of
of
the
whole of biology from
the idea of evolution, the whole of medicine from the

idea of the action of the infinitely small; and
history of
these
persons called
upon
century in
rapidity,
that,
to appreciate
the most enlightened
themselves
shows
ideas
the
the
although
them belong
to
they only establish
classes,
by little and with difficulty. In a

which everything proceeds with such
little
and
in
a field of investigation
passions and interests have
little
which
in
play, the implanting
of a fundamental scientific idea requires not less than
The
twenty-five years.
easily demonstrable, those
clearest ideas, those
most
which should have aroused
the least controversy, were just as long in finding
acceptance.
Whatever the nature of the

scientific,
artistic,
mechanism
It
of
apostles,
propagation
intensity
it
be a
first
of
is
always
a small
by
whose
faith
identical.
number of
and
the
names give great prestige. They

much more by suggestion than by demon-
authority of whose
then act
whether
philosophic, or religious idea, the
its
has to be adopted at
the
idea,
ITS
The
stration.
essential elements of the
173
mechanism
of persuasion must not be sought for in the value of

Ideas can be enforced either by the
a demonstration.
prestige of the promulgator or

passions, but no influence
person
When
them-
by demonstrations, but merely by
on
solely
who
let
and the authority of "these affirmations
affirmations,
depends
to the
exerted by appealing
The masses never
solely to the reason.

selves be persuaded
is
by an appeal
the
exerted
prestige
by the
enunciates them.
these apostles have succeeded in convincing
a small circle of adepts and have thus formed

apostles, the
new
discussion.
It
because
and
it
idea begins to enter the
arouses at
The
naturally excited
by
domain of
universal opposition,
first
necessarily clashes with
established.
new
apostles
much
that
who defend
is
old
it
are
opposition, which merely
this
convinces them of their superiority over the rest of
mankind, and they defend the new idea energetically,

not because
about
its
it is
most often they know nothing
truth or falsehood
have adopted
discussejd
true
it.
that
is
The new
but simply because they
idea
is
now more and more
to say, in reality it
is
entirely accepted
by the one side, and entirely rejected by the other side.

Affirmations and negations but very few arguments,
174
are exchanged, the sole motives for the acceptance or
an idea being inevitably,
rejection of
for the
immense
majority of brains, mere sentimental motives, in which
reasoning cannot have any part.
Thanks
to these always impassioned debates, the
idea progresses slowly.

find
it
controverted tend to adopt
For
controverted.
is
it
The new
eager
be
to
received
young
generations
it
ideas
is
the
most
merely because
always
persons,
independent, wholesale
who
opposition
to
form
of
accessible
originality.
The
idea continues then to gain ground, and before
has no longer any need of support.
It will
long
it
now
spread everywhere by the mere effect of imita-
tion, acting as
are
a contagion, a faculty with which
generally endowed
big anthropoid apes, which

to
men
men
high a degree as are the
in as
modern science
assigns
as their forefathers.
As soon
as the
mechanism of contagion
intervenes,
the idea enters on the phase which necessarily means

success.
It is
soon accepted by opinion.
It
then
acquires a penetrating and subtle force which spreads

it
progressively
among
all
intellects, creating simul-
taneously a sort of special atmosphere, a general
manner of
thinking.
Like the
fine dust of the high-
ITS
way which
into
penetrates everywhere,
the conceptions and
all
The
epoch.
idea and
its
all
it
175
finds its
way
the productions of an
consequences then form part
of that compact stock of hereditary commonplaces
imposed on us by education. The idea has triumphed

and has entered the domain of sentiment where for
long
it
Of
have nothing to
will
fear.
the various ideas which guide a civilisation,
some, those relating to the arts or philosophy for
example,
nation
rest confined
to the upper grades of the
others, particularly those relating to religious
conceptions and
go deep down
politics,
some
in
among the crowd. They arrive there in

much deformed, but when they arrive there
instances
general
the power they exert over primitive minds incapable
of reasoning
is
The
immense.
idea under these con-
ditions represents something that

its
are propagated
efforts
torrent that has overflown
easy to find
men ready
among
is
invincible,
and
with the violence of a

its
banks.
It
is
always
a people a hundred thousand
to risk their lives to defend
soon as this idea has subjugated them.
an idea as
Then
it
is
that supervene those great events which revolutionise

history,
plishing.
and which only crowds are capable of accomIt
is
not
men
of letters, artists, or philo-
176
sophers
who
established
the religions
which have
the world, or the vast empires which have
ruled
one hemisphere to another, or who
stretched from
and
have been the causes of the great religious
political revolutions which have changed the face of
These achievements have been the work of
Europe.
the illiterate sufficiently dominated
by an idea to
propagation. With nothing
sacrifice their lives to its
on but
else to rely
this theoretically
though practically very
very insignificant
effective outfit, the
nomads of
the deserts of Arabia conquered a portion of the old
Greco-Roman world and founded one of

giganic empires
known
similar moral outfit
that the heroic
to history.
It
the domination
soldiers
of
the most
was with a
of an
Convention
the
idea
were
against the onslaughts of Europe up in
victorious
arms.
strong conviction
conviction
resisting
enemy
it
faith
of
is
so irresistible that only a
has
equal strength
victoriously.
has to
fear.
Faith
is
any chance
the only serious
It is sure to
the material force opposed to
it
weak sentiments and enfeebled
is
of
triumph where
in the service of
beliefs.
If,
however,
by a faith of equal intensity,

becomes
the struggle
very severe, and success under
it
finds itself confronted
ITS
these conditions
stances,
is
177
determined by accessory circum-
most often of a moral
order,
by the
discipline or the better organisation.
spirit of
close study
of the history of the Arabs, just referred
shows
to,
that on the occasion of their earlier conquests
and
these conquests are always the most difficult and the
most important
they encountered adversaries
who
were morally weak, although their military organisation
was
good.
fairly
Syria was the
armies composed of mercenaries, but

to
sacrifice
themselves
for
Animated by an intense
strength
tenfold,
country
met there was Byzantine
All they
they invaded.
first
faith
little
disposed
any cause whatever.

which increased their
they dispersed these troops
lacked an ideal as easily as
who
before their time
handful of Greeks, sustained by love of their
city,
had dispersed the innumerable soldiers of Xerxes.

The upshot of their enterprise would have been quite
they had come
different
if
centuries
earlier
with
the
into
Roman
collision
cohorts.
few
It
is
evident that when equally powerful moral forces are

pitted
against
side that
is
one another, victory
best organised.
The
rests
with the
faith of the
Vendeans
was assuredly most ardent, they were most energetically convinced
but the convictions of the soldiers

13
178
of the Convention were also very strong, and as their
was the
military organisation
better,
they gained the
day.
In religion, as in politics, success always goes to
who
those
and
if
future
believe, never to those
at the present
belongs
to
day
the
it
who
are sceptical,
would seem as
in
Socialists,
spite
if
of
the
the
dangerous absurdity of their dogmas, the reason

that they
now
are
The modern governing
convictions.
is
the only party possessing real
lost faith in everything.
They no
classes
have
longer believe in
anything, not even in the possibility of defending
themselves against the threatening flood of barbarians,
by which they
When
an
are surrounded on
all sides.
idea, after a longer or shorter period of
tentative existence, modifications, deformations, dis-
cussion and propaganda, has acquired
its
definite
form
and penetrated the soul of the masses, it constitutes a

dogma, that is one of those absolute truths which are
no longer discussed. It then forms part of those
general beliefs on which the existence of peoples is
based.
Its
universal character
preponderating
role.
The
allows
it
to play a
great epochs of history,
the century of Augustus or that of Louis XIV., have
been those
in
which
ideas, leaving their
tentative
ITS
period and getting beyond
179
discussion, have taken
become the sovereign masters of the

thought of men. They then become brilliant beacons,
fixed shape and
and everything they illumine assumes a similar hue.
As soon
mark on
least
full
as a
all
idea has triumphed,
it
but in order that
is
necessary that
heights on which
it
came
it
shall
it
shape
that
into being,
and modifications
which
it
to secure
is
its
is
its
produce
its
the intellectual
descends from
it
grade to grade, undergoing on the
in
leaves
should have pene-
From
trated the soul of the masses.
alterations
it
the elements of civilisation, including the
important
effect
new
until
way
it
incessant
has taken a
accessible to the popular soul
triumph.
met with concentrated
in a
At
this
point
it
is
very few words, some-
times in a single word, but this word evokes powerful

images, either seductive or terrible, but always on
this
account impressive.
Examples
are the words
Paradise and Hell in the Middle Ages, brief syllables
which have the magic power of corresponding with

everything, and for simple souls of explaining everything.
The word
working
Socialism represents for the modern
man one
of those magical and synthetic
formulae capable of exerting an empire over souls.

It
evokes images which vary with the masses which
it
i8o
penetrates, but
which are powerful
in
spite of their
rudimentary forms.
For the French theoretician the word Socialism

evokes the image of a sort of Paradise, in which men,
become
equal, will
enjoy ideal
incessant direction of the State.
working
man
serve
will
For the German
the image evoked presents
the guise of a
smoky tavern
gratuitously
itself
under
which the Government
in
to
under the
felicity
every
comer
gigantic
pyramids of sausages and sauerkraut and unlimited
None among
pots of beer.
those
who dream
either
of sauerkraut or of equality have ever of course been
sum
at pains to find out the

to be divided or the
share
kind
this
raises
its
little
all
it
is
are there to
an idea of
assumes an absolute shape that
objection.
come
assured for
by reasoning
new
whose place
decline
it
is
to transform itself
little
and has become a dogma,

a long time, and all attempts
into a sentiment,
the end the

idea
number of those who
the idea has
triumph
to shake
what there
essential characteristic of
that
is
above
it
When
by
The
it.
total of
will
be vain.
Doubtless in
idea will undergo the fate of the

it
but before
has taken.
it
is
It will
grow old and
completely used up
have to undergo an entire
it
will
series of retrograde trans-
ITS
181
formations, of deformations of every kind, which will
demand
several generations for their accomplishment.
Before dying out entirely,
it
but which
though
it
we
we
nevertheless respect.
In
style prejudices,
An
old idea, even
become a mere word, a sound, a
has
mirage, possesses a magical power

still
long form part of
will for
those old hereditary ideas which
by which we are
subjugated.
this
way
is
kept up that old inheritance of
antiquated ideas, opinions, and conventions which
accept without demur, though they would

little
resistance to an effort of the reason,
if
consent for an instant to discuss them. But
men
are capable of
discussing their
offer
we
but
we would
how many
own
opinions,
and how many of these opinions would hold water

after the most superficial examination ?
It
is
better
of our undertaking
a higher faculty that

of imitation
is
Happily there
The
it.
is
examination
redoubtable
that the
should not be attempted.
little risk
critical spirit constituting
very
a faculty very
is
rare,
whereas the
commonly
spirit
possessed, the
immense majority of minds accept without discussion

the ready-made ideas furnished them by opinion and
transmitted them by education.
It
thus happens that by means of heredity, educa-
82
surroundings, contagion and opinion, the
tion,
men
of
each age and of each race possess a sum of average

conceptions which render them singularly like one
another, alike indeed to such a degree that,
the proper perspective,

philosophical,
which they
and
we
recognise
it
the
their artistic,
by
literary productions the
Doubtless
lived.
when
them from
lapse of centuries allows us to consider
epoch at
could not be said that
they copied one another absolutely, but as they had

in
common
modes of
identical
and thinking,
feeling
they were necessarily led to produce very kindred

work.
We
thus
must congratulate ourselves that matters are

arranged,
common
for
traditions,
modes of thinking
We
it
precisely this network
is
ideas,
sentiments,
beliefs,
of
and
that form the soul of a people.
have seen that the vigour of the soul of a people

proportion to the strength of this network.
is
in
is
this
network
nations alive,
and
in
reality,
it is
and
it
alone, that keeps
impossible that
it
should break
up without the nations crumbling away.

tutes at once their true force
and
It
It consti-
their true master.
Asiatic sovereigns are sometimes represented as kinds
of despots whose fantasy

fantasies,
is
their only guide.
These
on the contrary, have singularly narrow
ITS
The network
limits.
in
powerful
the
of traditions
East.
more
is
183
especially
Religious traditions, so en-
feebled
amongst ourselves, retain all their empire in

the East, and the most whimsical despot would never
run counter to two sovereigns he knows are infinitely
more powerful than he is tradition and opinion.

The modern civilised man finds himself in one of
:
those rare critical periods of history in which the old

ideas, whence his civilisation
empire, and the

discussion
new
ideas not being formed as yet,
tolerated.
is
derived, having lost their
is
He must
go back
to the
periods of the civilisations of antiquity, or merely
two or three centuries back,

nature in those ages of
opinion,
and
the
to get
an idea of the
yoke of custom and
risks run
to learn the
by innovators
sufficiently bold to attack these two powers.
Greeks,
been so
whom
free,
ignorant rhetoricians
were
strictly
of opinion and custom.
of absolutely inviolable beliefs
thought of discussing received
unacquainted with religious

of private
life,
The
affirm to have
subjected to the yoke
Each
accepted without demur.
some
citizen
;
had a number
none would have

ideas,
which were
The Grecian world was

liberty,
or with liberties of
Athenian law did not even allow the
with the liberty
any
kind.
citizen to
The
keep
'
184
aloof from
the assemblies, or not to celebrate re-
The
ligiously a national fete.
alleged liberty of the
ancient world was nothing but the unconscious and,
form of the entire subjection
in consequence, absolute
of the citizen to the yoke of the ideas of his
city.
In
the state of general war in which societies then lived,
whose members should
society
liberty of thought
single day.
tions,
have possessed
and action would not have lasted a
The age
of decadence for gods, institu-
and dogmas has always begun
as soon as they
have been exposed to discussion.

In modern civilisations, the old ideas which form
the basis of custom and opinion having been almost
destroyed, their empire over souls has
They have
weak.
in
entered on that worn-out phase
which old ideas are
As long
judices.
idea,
thanks
to
in process of
becoming pre-
as they are not replaced
anarchy reigns
this
become very
in
men's
minds.
that
anarchy
by a new
It
discussion
is
can
only
be
Writers, thinkers, and philosopher sought

to bless the present age and hasten to take advantage
tolerated.
of
it,
for
they
will
not see
its
an age of decadence, but
moments
in
like again.
it
is
It is
perhaps
one of those rare
the history of the world during which
expression of thought
is
free.
It is
impossible that
ITS
it
should
185
Given the present conditions of
last.
civili-
European peoples are tending towards

state which will tolerate neither discussion
sation, the
a social
nor
liberty.
The new dogmas
that are about to
come
into being cannot establish themselves, except on the
condition that they accept no discussions of any kind,
and that they be as intolerant as the dogmas that

have preceded them.
The man
of the present day
is
still
searching for
the ideas that shall serve as the basis of the future

social
state,
What
is
and therein
the danger he runs.
lies
important in the history of peoples, and
what has a far-reaching influence on their destiny,

is
neither
quickly effaced
ideas.
nor
revolutions
wars
their
ruins
are
but the changes in their fundamental
They cannot be accomplished without
all
the
elements of a civilisation undergoing of necessity
The
a simultaneous transformation.
real revolutions,
the only revolutions that endanger the existence of a

people, are those which affect
It is
not so
dangerous
much
for
a people,
as
ideas in succession to which

finds the idea
its
thought.
the adoption of
on which
sufficiently solidly the
it
new
new
ideas that
is
the trying of various
it is
will
condemned before
it
be able to build up
social edifice that
is
to
186
replace the old.

is
not assuredly because an idea
It is
erroneous that
it is
the religious ideas
dangerous
on which we have existed up to now were most

but
erroneous
it
is
because long repeated experi-
ments are necessary to make
it
certain that the
new
ideas can be adapted to the needs of the societies
that adopt them.

their
appreciate
experience.
The masses unhappily can only

of
degree
Without doubt, there
is
dint
by
utility
no need
of
to be a
great psychologist or a great economist to predict
the application of existing, socialist ideas will
that
lead the peoples
who adopt them
to a state of abject
decadence and shameful despotism

people
the
it
New
how
but
are the
charms to be prevented from accepting
Gospel that
is
preached to them
History contains frequent examples of the cost of

essaying ideas that are inacceptable for an epoch, but
it
is
not to history
Charlemagne endeavoured
Roman
man
that
goes
for
in vain to re-establish the
Empire, but the idea of unity
realisable at the time,
and
his
Napoleon was destined
later
Philip
II.
in
an
not
to perish at a
uselessly wasted his genius,
and the strength of Spain

at the time
was
work perished with
him, as that of
period.
lessons.
effort to
the predominant country
combat the
spirit
of free
ITS
187
inquiry which was spreading through Europe under

the
name
new
idea merely resulted in reducing Spain to a state
and decadence from which
of ruin
In our
recovered.
This opposition to the
of Protestantism.
crowned
own
has
it
never
time, the chimerical ideas of
visionary,
inspired
by the incurable
international sentimentalism of his race, have brought
about the unity of Italy and Germany, and have cost

us two provinces, while endangering the peace of
for a
Europe
long time to come.
The
utterly false
idea that numbers constitute the strength of armies
has covered Europe with a sort of armed national

guard, and
The
is
leading up to
socialist ideas
its
inevitable bankruptcy.
with regard to labour, capital, the
transformation of private property into State property,

etc.,
prove the destruction of the peoples that
will
permanent armies and bankruptcy
The
shall
have spared.
principle of nationalities, formerly so dear to
statesmen that they based their entire policy on
may
further be cited
dangerous
among
influence has
it,
the leading ideas, whose
had
to be undergone.
Its
Europe in the most disastrous

from one end to the other, and will
realisation has involved
war, has
land
all
anarchy.
armed
it
modern
states
in
succession
The only apparent motive
in
ruin
and
that could be
i88
invoked
in
defence of this principle was that the
and most populous countries are the strongest,

and run the fewest risks. It was secretly reflected
largest
embark on conquest.
that they were the best fitted to

It is found,
however, to-day, that
and
smallest
least
Switzerland,
Greece,
Balkan
that have the
The
precisely the
Portugal,
the
Sweden,
Belgium,
from their neighbours.
it is
is
countries
populous
principalities
completely ruined
it
petty
to
least
fear
idea of unity has so
formerly so prosperous, that
Italy,
on the eve of a revolution and of bankruptcy.
The annual budgetary expenditure
of
the Italian
all
States, which before the
realisation of Italian unity
amounted
now
It is
to 550 millions
reaches two milliards.
men
not given, however, to
to stop the
of ideas
when they have penetrated the
masses.
When
they have done
must be accomplished, and

are defended
It is
by those who
it
march
soul of the
this, their
evolution
often happens that they
will
be their
first
victims.
not sheep merely that docilely follow their guide
to the
slaughter-house.
strength of an
either
against
When
idea.
certain period of
its
We
must bow before the

it
has attained to a
evolution, there are
no longer
arguments or demonstrations that can

it.
For peoples
to
be able to
free
avail
themselves
ITS
from the yoke of an

revolutions
are
189
idea, either centuries or violent
necessary
sometimes
the
two.
Innumerable are the chimeras humanity has forged

for itself
victim.
and of which
in succession
it
has been the
CHAPTER
II
THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
IN
THE
EVOLUTION OF CIVILISATIONS
influence
Preponderating
of
religious
ideas
They have
always
constituted the most important element of the life of peoples

Religious ideas responsible for the majority of historical events and
social
and
new
ideal
on
Its
political institutions
into existence with a
influence
new
religious idea
character
It
civilisation
always comes
Power of
directs
all
the religious
the faculties
towards the same end The political, artistic, and literary history
of peoples is the offspring of their beliefs The slightest change in
the state of a people's belief results in an entire series of
transformations in its existence Various examples.
by which the peoples

have been guided, the ideas which are the
the various ideas
AMONG
beacons of history, the poles of

ideas
have
played
fundamental a part
too
civilisation, religious
preponderating
for us not
and
too
to devote a special
chapter to them.
Religious beliefs have always constituted the most
important element of
the
consequence of their history.

190
life
of peoples, and in
The most
considerable

historical
is
have been the birth and death of
With a new
gods.
the most
those which have had
events,
colossal influence,
191
religious idea a
born into the world.
At
all
new
civilisation
the ages of humanity,
in ancient
times as in modern times, the fundamental
questions
have always been religious questions.
humanity could allow
all its
gods to
die, it
said of such an event that, as regards
its
If
might be
consequences,
would be the most important event that had taken

place on the surface of our planet since the birth of
it
the
first civilisations.
must not be forgotten that, since the dawn

of historical times, all political and social institutions
For
it
have been founded on religious
gods have always played the

stage.
but
Apart from
personal
religious
and
beliefs
love,
which
transitory
that
are
character in a rapid manner.
beliefs,
first
role
itself
is
religion,
capable
and that the
on the world's
of
a powerful
it
is
only
influencing
The conquests
of the
Arabs, the Crusades, Spain under the Inquisition,
England during the Puritan period, France with its

St. Bartholomew, and the wars of the revolution
show what becomes of a people rendered fanatic by

its chimeras.
These chimeras exercise a sort of
permanent hypnotic
effect
which
is
so intense that
it
IQ2
profoundly transforms the entire mental constitution.

Doubtless
it
having created
created the gods, but after
them he promptly became
are not the offspring of
They
their slave.
as
fear,
Lucretius
but of hope, and for this reason their influence
affirms,
will
man who
is
be eternal.
The
gift
of the gods to man, and
it is
a gift which
they alone have been able to endow him with up to
now,
No
a state of mind which allows of happiness.
is
philosophy has ever been able as yet to realise
such an achievement.
The consequence,
of
all
philosophies,
if
not the aim, of
of
certain states of mind.
some
imply
all
But of these
happiness, while
Happiness depends very

stances,
of
and
spirit.
much
religions
little
is
rubbed with garlic

millionaire
The
who
is
may
engender
states of
the others
at the stake
do not
were probably
The
care, eats his crust of
be
mind
on our disposition
happier than their executioners.
sweeper who, devoid of
to
on exterior circum-
to a very great extent
The martyrs
all civilisations,
infinitely
street-
bread
happier than the
a prey to manifold anxieties.
evolution of civilisation has unhappily created
modern man a multitude of wants, without

giving him the means of satisfying them, and in this
for the
ITS
way has promoted
general discontent.
the mother
doubtless
of
193
Civilisation
but
progress,
it
is
is
the
mother as well of Socialism and Anarchism, those

redoubtable expressions of the despair of the masses
that are no longer sustained
by any
belief.
Compare
the restless, feverish European, discontented with his

lot,
with the
In
destiny.
what do they
state of their soul
when
mode
its
with his
satisfied
always
Oriental,
differ, if
not as regards the
people has been transformed
of conceiving and, in consequence, of
thinking and acting has been transformed.
Under penalty of being unable

primary duty of a society
to
is
to last for long, the
endeavour to find the
means of creating a
state of
man
the societies founded
All
happy.
mind which
shall render
up
to the
present have had as their basis an ideal capable of
men's
subjugating
and
souls,
they
have
disappeared as soon as this ideal has
always
ceased
to
subjugate them.
One
of the great errors of
belief that
soul
only in exterior things that the
can find happiness.
created
by
ourselves.
ages,
it is
we
modern times
ourselves,
Happiness
and
scarcely
is
is
the
human
within us,
ever
outside
After having destroyed the ideals of past

are
now
finding that
14
it
is
not possible to
194
live
without them, and that the secret of replacing
them must be
discovered,
if
we would
continue to
humanity,
those
exist.
The
benefactors of
true
who
merit colossal statues in gold raised in their honour
by
grateful peoples, are those powerful magicians, the
creators
of
whom
ideals,
produces, but
whom
it
sometimes
humanity
produces so rarely.
Above
the torrent of vain appearances, standing forth the
only
realities
man can ever know, above the inexorable,
the glacial mechanism of the world, they have evoked

powerful and pacifying chimeras, which hide from
man
the sombre sides of his destiny, and create for
him enchanted refuges of dreams and hope.
From
the exclusively political standpoint, too,
found that the influence of religious
What makes
constitute the
their
irresistible
factor
only
beliefs
force
is
is
it is
immense.
that
they
which can momentarily
procure a people absolute community of interests,

sentiments, and thoughts.
spirit
replaces
In this
one stroke the
at
way
the religious
slow hereditary
accumulation necessary to form the soul of a nation,
The people
that
doubtless change
faculties
are
is
subjugated by a belief does not
its
mental constitution, but
directed
all
towards the same end
its
the
ITS
triumph of
its
its
belief
and solely
in virtue
strength becomes formidable.
It is
at
195
of this fact
epochs of
ardent faith that peoples, momentarily transformed,
accomplish
those
efforts,
prodigious
found
those
empires which are the astonishment of history.
was thus that a few Arab
tribes,
thought of Mahomet, conquered
who
in a
unified
It
by the
few years nations
ignored their very names, and founded their
immense empire.
It is
not the quality of the beliefs that must be
taken into consideration, but the
sway they exert
Whether the god invoked be

some other yet more barbarous divinity,
over men's souls.
Moloch, or
is
of no importance.
of the divinity that
It is
it
Gods too
barbarous.
for the prestige
should be wholly intolerant and

tolerant or too mild lend their
worshippers no strength.
Mahomet
even well
The
sectaries of the stern
ruled for long over a great portion of the
world, and
are
still
redoubtable
those of pacific
Buddha have never founded anything

are already forgotten
The
religious spirit
role of capital
because
it
by
durable, and
history.
then has
played a political
importance in the existence of peoples,
was always the only
factor capable of
influencing their character in a short space of time.
196
The
no
gods,
religious
doubt,
century ago
may
It
awakes as soon
it
created.
eternal.
is
spirit
while, but
it
immortal, but the
not
are
as a
all
divinity
is
Europe up
Once more the world has had the
religion that
resist
in arms.
spectacle of
be accomplished by the religious
was indeed a new
for
enabled France to
victoriously the onslaughts of
may
slumber
new
spirit,
was founded
what
for
it
at the
period in question, and that inspired an entire people.
The
divinities that
too fragile to
last,
blossomed forth were, doubtless,

but so long as they lasted they
exerted absolute sway.
The power
religions
is,
of transforming souls possessed
however, somewhat ephemeral.
rare for beliefs to retain for
It
by
is
any length of time that
degree of intensity which entirely transforms character.
The dream ends by growing more shadowy,
the hypnotised people awakes in a measure, and the

old substratum of character again comes to the front.
Even
in cases
where the
beliefs are all powerful
the national character
is
manner
beliefs are
in
which these
always recognisable in the
manifestations they provoke.

are between the
Spain, or France,
same
adopted and
What
in the
differences there
belief as found in England,
Would
the Reformation ever have
ITS
been possible
in Spain, or
would England ever have
consented to submit to the terrible

Inquisition
reformed faith
the
the peoples
Among
is
197
yoke of the
who have adopted
not easy to
it
the
perceive
fundamental characteristics of races which,
in spite of
the hypnotising action of their beliefs, have preserved
the special features of their mental constitution
in-
dependence, energy, the habit of reasoning, and of not
obeying servilely the law of a master
The
is
political, artistic,
and
literary history of peoples
the offspring of their beliefs
but these
latter,
while
they modify the character, are also profoundly modified
by
it.
The
character of a people and
are the keys of

its
its
destiny.
fundamental elements,
cisely because
it
The
is
may
slightest
vary,
and
many
change
its
existence.
is
pre-
it is
beliefs,
on
because they vary
upheavals.
an entire
men
people's
series of trans-
of the eighteenth
very different from
seventeenth century.
The
We remarked in a previous
chapter that in France the
century seemed
it
the state of a
in
beliefs necessarily results in
formations in
and
invariable,
does not vary that the history of a
that history records so
The
beliefs
former, as regards
people always retains a certain unity.

the other hand,
its
those of
the
Doubtless, but what was the
198
origin of this difference
Solely the fact that in the
lapse of a century theology had given
way
to science,
reason had taken the place of tradition, and observed

truth that of revealed truth.
By
this
of conceptions the aspect of a century
and were we
to follow
its
simple change
is
transformed,
we should
effects
find that
our great Revolution, together with the events that
have since occurred and are

the
in
still
progress, are
mere consequence of an evolution of
religious
ideas.
on
totters
its
foundations and finds
profoundly shaken, the reason
and more the
civilisation,
take
its
is
on which
all its
that
it is
institutions
losing
lost
founded on a new
faith, will necessarily
beliefs
it
place.
shall
have
it
History shows us that peoples do not
long survive the disappearance of their gods.

civilisations that are
them.
more
had existed up till

them entirely, a new
When
now.
day our old society
at the present
if
Moreover,
There
of dead gods.
is
The
born with them also die with
nothing so destructive as the dust
CHAPTER
THE ROLE OF GREAT MEN
III
IN
THE HISTORY OF
PEOPLES
The
great advances made by each civilisation have always been

Nature of their role
realised by a small elite of superior minds
They synthesise all the efforts of a race Examples supplied by

Political role of great men
They embody the
great discoveries
dominant ideal of their race Influence of the great hallucinated
Inventors of genius transform a civilisation
the hallucinated make history.
WHEN
The
fanatics
studying the hierarchy and the
we saw
entiation of races,
that
and
differ-
what most
Europeans from Orientals is that only

Let us
the former possess an elite of superior men.
differentiates
now endeavour
to trace in a few lines the limits of the
role of this Mite.
The
small phalanx of eminent
civilised
in
people
a phalanx
it
men
would
possessed by a
suffice to suppress
each generation to lower considerably the
tual level of that people
intellec-
constitutes the true incarna199
200
To
tion of the forces of a race.

realised in the sciences, the
word, in
we owe
profit
by
due the progress
arts, in
industry, in a
the branches of civilisation.
all
History shows that

that
it is
all
it is
to this circumscribed elite
the advances made.
Although they
these advances, the masses do not like being
surpassed, and the greatest thinkers
And
have often been their martyrs.

generations,
all
and inventors
all
yet
the
the past of a race, blossom forth in
splendid geniuses which are the marvellous
these
flowers of a race.
nation,
humble,
They are the true glory of a

each member of which, down to the most
is
entitled to be
They do
proud of them.
not appear by chance or by a miracle, but represent

the crowning point of a long past.
They
synthesise
the greatness of their time and of their race.
favour their production and development
is
To
to favour
the achievement of those advances of which humanity

will
reap the benefit.
much
If
we
allow ourselves to be too
blinded by our dreams of universal equality
shall be the
first
victims of our attitude.
carries inferiority in its
dream of vulgar
wake
mediocrities.
realised in barbarous epochs.

in the world,
it
it is
we
Equality
the dull, oppressive

It
has only been
For equality
would be necessary
to reign
to bring
down,
ITS
little
by
little,
whatever makes the value of a race to
the level of what
But while the
ment of a
least elevated in the race.
is
men
role of superior
civilisation
what
ever, quite
201
it
considerable,
in the develop-
is
it
is
generally said to be.
is
how-
not,
Their
action consists, I repeat, in synthesising all the efforts
of a race
always the result of a
their discoveries are
long series of anterior discoveries
have
with the stones which others
who
Historians,
in general are
have always thought

a
man
it
they build an edifice

slowly hewn.
very simple-minded,
right to connect the
with each invention
and
name
of
yet, of the great
inventions which have transformed the world, such as

printing,
there
is
created
gunpowder, steam, or the
not one of which
by a
it
single brain.
electric telegraph,
can be said that
When
coveries of this kind are studied,
it
was
the genesis of dis-
it is
always found that
they are the outcome of a long series of preparatory

efforts
stroke.
the
invention
final
crowning
Galileo's observation of the isochronism of
the oscillations of a suspended

for the invention of
sailors
only the
is
to
certainty.
trace
lamp paved the way
chronometers, which were to enable
their
route across the ocean with
Gunpowder
formations of Grecian
resulted
fire.
from
slow
The steam engine
trans-
repre-
202
sents the
sum
of a series of inventions, each of which
demanded immense
labour.
Greek, had he had a
hundred times as much genius as Archimedes, would

have been unable to discover the locomotive engine.
Could he have discovered
it,
would have been of no use
moreover, the discovery
to him, as, to fabricate his
engine, he would have had to wait until mechanics
had
realised advances
which
it
took two thousand
years of efforts to achieve.
The
political role of great statesmen, while
apparently more independent of the past,

theless, scarcely less
role of great
is,
dependent thereon than
it
is
neveris
the
Blinded by the dazzling
inventors.
brilliancy of the powerful leaders of
men who have
transformed the political existence of peoples, such

writers as Hegel, Cousin, Carlyle, &c., have wished to
make
of
them demi-gods, whose unaided genius has
modified the destiny of peoples.
can
evolution of a society, but
affect the
given to them to change
Cromwell or a Napoleon
a task.
museum
structive
its
is
course.
The
it
is
not
genius of a
powerless to achieve such
Great conquerors can destroy towns, men,
and empires by
to a
Beyond doubt they
fire
filled
and sword as a
child can set fire
with art treasures
power must not deceive us as
but this de-
to the nature
ITS
of their
The
role.
only durable
203
influence of great politicians
when, as
in
the
case of
is
Caesar or
Richelieu, they contrive to give their efforts a direc-
harmony with the needs of the moment
tion in
true cause of their success

to themselves.
is
generally
Had he made
much
anterior
the attempt two or
three centuries earlier, Caesar would not have
the great
Roman
the
made
Republic accept the law of a master,
and under the same conditions Richelieu would have

been
unable to realise the unity of
politics the really great
men
In
France.
are those
who have
presentiment of the needs that are about to
arise,
a
of
the events for which the past has paved the way, and
who show
their fellows the direction that has got to
be taken.
This
nobody, but the
engage
therein
momentarily
They,
too,
direction,
fatalities
the
in the
like
perhaps, was
clear
to
of evolution were soon to
peoples whose
destinies
were
hands of these powerful geniuses.
the great inventors, synthesise the
results of a long anterior evolution.
These analogies between the different categories of

great men must not be carried too far. The inventors
play an important part in the future evolution of a
civilisation,
but no immediate role in the political his-
tory of peoples.
The
superior
men
to
whom
are due
204
the important discoveries, from the plough to the
which
telegraph,
common patrimony
the
are
humanity, have never
the
possessed
qualities
of
of
character requisite for the founding of a religion or

the conquest of an empire,
change visibly the face of
that
necessary,
history.
The
is,
thinker
to
is
too alive to the complexity of problems ever to have
very strong convictions, and too few political ends
seem
him worthy of his
to
efforts for
any one of them.
to realise
a civilisation
in the
him
Inventors
long run
it is
only
to attempt
may modify
fanatics, men
of narrow intelligence, but energetic character and
powerful
religions
passions,
who
and empires.
the Hermit millions of

the East
such as
Mahomet
like
echo
men
hurled themselves against
Greco-Roman world
Luther bathed Europe
among
Newton
in
an obscure
blood.
will never
The
the masses.
and the hallucinated create

of what
composed,
if
is
The
have the
inventors
genius hasten the march of civilisation.
For
founding
the bidding of a Peter
created a force capable of triumph-
voice of a Galileo or a
least
At
of
capable
the words of an hallucinated enthusiast
ing over the old
monk
are
of
The
fanatics
in
books,
history.
history,
as
written
not of the long narrative of man's
ITS
struggles

create
to
then to destroy
an
it ?
to
ideal,
And,
worship
in the
205
and
it,
eyes of science,
have such ideals more value than the vain mirages
by the action of
created
light
on the moving sands
of the desert?
Still
it
is
the hallucinated, the creators or propa-
gators of these mirages,
who have
effected the
far-reaching transformations in the world.
depth of their tombs they

their thoughts
still
on the soul of
must not be overlooked
From
the
the yoke of
and influence the
races,
character and destiny of peoples.

their role
inflict
most
The importance
;
but, at the
of
same
must not be forgotten that the task they

accomplished was successfully accomplished because
time,
it
they unconsciously embodied and expressed the ideal

of their race and their epoch.
by those who embody

for the
its
Jews the desire
dreams.
people
is
only led
Moses represented
for deliverance over
which
they had brooded during the years that they were

slaves
lacerated
Buddha and
by the whips of the Egyptians.
Jesus were alive to the infinite miseries
of their time, and gave a religious shape to the need

for
charity and
pity,
universal suffering, were
world.
which, at
these
periods
of
coming into existence in the

Mahomet realised by means of unity of belief
206
the political unity of a people divided into thousands
That
of rival tribes.
embodied the
soldier of genius,
Napoleon,
and
ideal of military glory, of vanity,
of revolutionary propaganda, which at the time were

the characteristics
Europe during
of
fifteen
the people
years
in
he led
pursuit
all
over
of
wild
adventures.
At bottom, then, it is ideas, and in consequence

those who embody and propagate them that rule the
Their triumph
world.
assured
is
when they
are
defended by the hallucinated and by enthusiasts.

It is
of slight importance whether they be true or
false.
History ever teaches us that
chimerical
ideas that have
it
is
the most
had the most
fanatical
It is
following and played the most important role.
in the name of the most illusory chimeras that the
world has been hitherto thrown into confusion, that

civilisations
which seemed
imperishable have been
destroyed, and that others have been founded.

is
not,
as
the
Gospel assures
us,
the
It
kingdom of
heaven, but of the earth, that belongs to the poor

in spirit,
only provided they possess the faith that
moves mountains.
Philosophers,
who
often have to
devote centuries to destroying what enthusiasts have

created in a day, ought to
bow
before those
who
are
ITS
capable of such
The
feats.
207
enthusiasts form part of
the mysterious forces that shape the world.
They
have determined the most important of the events of
which history records the course.

Doubtless they have only propagated
it is
on these
and
vain, that
illusions,
doubtless will
mere
humanity has hitherto existed, and

continue to exist. These illusions are
but
shadows,
Thanks
respected.
but
illusions,
at once redoubtable, seductive,
what hope was, and
must
they
them our
to
be
nevertheless
forefathers
in their heroic
knew
and wild pursuit
of these shadows they raised us from our primitive
we have reached
state of barbarism to the point
day.
Of
the
all
factors
civilisations, illusions are

It
was an
development of
the
in
to-
perhaps the most powerful.
illusion that built
up the pyramids, and
covered Egypt for five thousand years with colossal

stone monuments.
was an
It
Middle Ages, raised
illusion that, in the
our gigantic
cathedrals,
and
induced the Western world to dispute the possession

of a
tomb with
the East.
that has founded
sway over
destroyed
the
half
of
the vastest
It is
the pursuit of illusions
religions
which
exert their
humanity, and founded or

empires.
It
is
not in the
pursuit of truth but in that of error that
humanity
208
has expended the most
efforts.
the chimerical goals
had
trying to attain
it
them
it
that
it
in
It
could not attain
view
but
it
was
in
realised all the progress
had no thought of achieving.
BOOK V
THE DISSOCIATION OF THE CHARACTER OF
RACES AND THEIR DECADENCE
209
BOOK V
THE DISSOCIATION OF THE CHARACTER OF RACES
AND THEIR DECADENCE
CHAPTER
HOW
CIVILISATIONS FADE
Dissolution
of
psychological
species
which had required centuries
AWAY AND
How
DIE OUT
hereditary
for their formation
dispositions
may
be rapidly
very long time is always necessary for a people to raise

itself to a high level of civilisation, and in some cases a very
The principal factor in
short time for it to descend therefrom
lost
the decadence of a people is the lowering of its character The

mechanism of the dissolution of civilisations has hitherto been
the same for all peoples Symptoms of decadence presented by

some Latin peoples Development of egoism Diminution of
initiative and will power
Lowering of character and morality
The youth
Its
that undergo
The
peoples
it
How
it will cause the civilisations

strength
to return to wholly barbarous forms of evolution
its
among whom
it
T)SYCHOLOGICAL
A
will
be able to triumph.
species are not eternal
more than are anatomical
ditions of
their
Probable influence of Socialism
of the present day
dangers and
species.
environment which maintain the
characteristics
do not
last
for ever.
The
any
con-
fixity of
If the
2J2
environment
modified, the elements of the mental
is
constitution which
has determined end by under-
it
going retrograde transformations which lead up to

their
accordance
In
disappearance.
with
physio-
logical laws, as applicable to the cells of the brain
as to those of the body,
and observed
in all beings,
the organs take infinitely less time to disappear than
was required
does not
fulfil
for their formation.

its
fulfil
The
it.
Every organ that
function soon ceases to be able to
eyes of
fish that live in
the lakes of
caverns lose the power of sight after a time, and this
ends by
infirmity
even
if
individual,
for
its
of the
formation by slow
adaptations and hereditary accumulations,

stricken with atrophy
The mental
when
ceases
dispositions
it
is
rapidly
ceases to be used.
constitution of beings cannot escape
these physiological laws.
promptly
life
an organ that has, perhaps, demanded
thousands of centuries
utilised
Indeed,
becoming hereditary.
observation be confined to the brief
to
it
lost.
fulfil
took
The
its
functions,
centuries
Courage,
brain cell that
to
initiative,
is
not
and mental
form
may
be
energy, the spirit
of enterprise, and various qualities of character that
were a long time
in
enough when they
being acquired disappear quickly

cease to be exercised.
This fact
ITS
how
explains
it
is
that a people always requires a
very long time to raise
and
some
in
213
itself to
a high level of culture,
cases a very short time to descend into
the abyss of decadence.
When
causes are examined that led to the
the
various peoples with which
successive ruin of the

is
history
concerned, whether the people in question
be the Persians, the Romans, or any other nation,

the fundamental factor in their
to be a
in their
change
fall
is
always found
mental constitution resulting
from the deterioration of their character.

call to
mind a
all
cannot
single people that has disappeared in
consequence of the deterioration of
For
its
intelligence.
the civilisations of the past the
mechanism
of dissolution has been identical, so identical, indeed,

that
it
may
be asked with the poet, whether history,
which has so
When
power
books, has but a single page.
many
a people reaches that degree of civilisation and

at
exposed
which
it
is
assured that
it
no longer
is
to the attacks of its neighbours,
it
begins to
enjoy the benefits of peace and material well-being

procured by wealth.
At
this juncture
the military
virtues decline, the excess of civilisation creates
needs,
and
beyond the
egoism
hasty
increases.
Having
no
new
ideal
enjoyment of rapidly acquired
2i 4
advantages, the citizens
abandon
to the
care of public affairs, and soon lose

that
had made
all
Then
their greatness.
State the
the qualities
barbarian, or
semi-barbarian neighbours, whose needs are few, but
who
are strongly attached to an ideal, invade the too
and proceed
civilised people,
to form a
new
civilisation
with the debris of that which they have overthrown.

It
was
in this
way
of
organisations
that, in spite of the formidable
Romans
the
and
the
Persians,
barbarians destroyed the Empire of the former and

the
Arabs that of the
qualities appertaining
was not
It
latter.
to
in the
the intelligence that the
invaded peoples were lacking.
From
this point of
view no comparison was possible between the conquerors and
the
already bore within
decadence that
men
it
of culture,
learning.
it
the germs of
counted
artists,
Almost
all
men
lost that
approaching
number of
letters,
and men of
the works that have
greatness date from this period of
Rome had
its
the greatest
of
Rome
was when
It
conquered.
its
made
history.
its
But
fundamental element which no
1
development of the intelligence can replace character.
:
lu The evil from which Roman

society was then suffering,"
M. Fustel de Coulanges, "was not the corruption of its morals
;
the weakening of
character."
its
will
writes
it
was
power, and, so to speak, the enervation of
its
ITS
The
old-time
strong ideal.
Romans had very few wants and

This ideal
absolutely dominated
ready to
sacrifice to
the greatness of
their souls,
it
and each
the
universe, the richest city of the world,
by
foreigners hailing from
admitted
in the
all
countries,
end to rights of
they demanded was
to
The
great city
be
still
alive,
but
his
of the
was invaded
and
whom
to
As
it
all
enjoy the
concern for
little
its
then became an immense
caravansary, but was no longer

to
was
and
citizenship.
be allowed
luxury of Rome, they had but

glory.
citizen
pole
it
a very
Rome
his family, his fortune,
When Rome had become
life.
215
its
Rome.
soul
had
It
seemed
long
been
dead.
Analogous causes of decadence threaten our hyperrefined civilisations,
well
in
which are menaced, however, as
by other causes due to the evolution produced

by modern scientific discoveries.
men's minds
Science has renewed our ideas, and deprived our
and
religious
It
has shown
universe,
is
conceptions
of
all
authority.
the trifling place he occupies in the
utter indifference of
Nature towards
has perceived that what he used to term
was merely ignorance of the causes of which

the slave, and that in view of the inexorable
liberty
he
man
and the
He
him.
social
216
slaves
He
is
which they are the puppets, to be
of
necessities
the natural condition of
all
living beings.
has learned that nature ignores what
pity,
and
that
all
has been due to a
the
pitiless
has
it
progress
we term
realised
process of selection that
involves the perpetual crushing of the
weak by the
strong.
All these harsh and glacial conceptions, so contrary

to the teachings of the old beliefs that enchanted our
forefathers,
men's
have given birth to ominous
conflicts in
In vulgar brains they have engendered
souls.
that state of anarchy as regards his ideas which seems

characteristic of the
young generation of
same conflicts have
difference
that
incapacity to
is
modern man.
artists
In the case of the
and men of
letters,
these
resulted in a sort of sullen into
fatal
embrace
the
will,
cause
any
in
an utter
whatever with
enthusiasm, and in an exclusive cult of immediate
and personal
interests.
Commenting upon a very just

writer to the effect that the
dominates
Public
contemporary
Instruction
"
reflection of a
modern
sense of the relative
thought,"
a Minister of
proclaimed with evident
satis-
faction in a recent speech that "the substitution of

relative ideas for abstract notions in every field of
ITS
217
human knowledge is the greatest conquest of science."

The conquest declared to be new is in reality very
was achieved many centuries ago by the
philosophers of India. Let us not be too ready to
old.
It
congratulate ourselves that
day
to
it is
The
gain ground.
tending at the present
real
danger to modern
men have
societies lies precisely in the fact that
lost
confidence in the worth of the principles that serve as

their foundations.
be possible to
greatly doubt whether
it
would
cite in all history a single civilisation,
a single institution, a single belief that has succeeded

in holding
its
own by
its
taking
stand on principles
esteemed to have only a relative value.
Moreover,
if
the future seems to belong to those socialist doctrines
which reason condemns,
it
is
because they are the
whose upholders speak
only doctrines
truths they declare to be absolute.
always turn towards those
it is
all
name
The masses
who speak
absolute truths, and will slight
statesman,
in the
to
others.
of
will
them of
To be
necessary to be able to penetrate the
understand
soul
of
the
its
dreams,
and
to
renounce philosophic abstractions.
Things
in
multitude, to
themselves change but
that are formed of
on these ideas that
little.
It is
them that change

it
is
needful to
only the ideas

greatly.
know how
It is
to act.
218
Doubtless our knowledge

limited to appearances, to
of which the value
we adopt
is
of the
mere
is
states of conscience
But when
evidently relative.
the social standpoint,
world
real
we can say
that for a
given age and a given society there are conditions of

existence, moral laws,
and
institutions
which have an
absolute value, since the society in question could not
As soon
subsist without them.

in question, or
is
condemned
The
as this value
is
called
doubt enters men's minds, the society

to an early death.
truths
without
fear,
science
can contest.
for
may be inculcated
among those which no
enunciated
just
they are
Contrary language can only
The
bring about the most disastrous consequences.
day
weak
induces
minds,
among
philosophic Nihilism, propagated
authorised
by
them
our
voices
once
to believe at
social
system
at the present
and
in the absolute injustice of

in
the
monarchies, inspires them with a hatred of

exists,
and leads
anarchism.
them
directly
Modern statesmen
to
are
And
all
all
that
socialism
and
too persuaded
of the influence of institutions and too

influence of ideas.
of
absurdity
little
yet science shows
the former are always the offspring of the
of the
them that
latter,
and
have never been able to subsist without leaning on
ITS
them
Ideas represent the invisible
as a foundation.
springs
of
things.
219
When
they have disappeared
the underlying supports of constitutions and civilisations
are
moment
destroyed.
for
a people
It
was always a redoubtable
when
its
where the dead
the sombre necropolis
into
old ideas descended
gods
repose.
Going on from the causes
to study the effects,
it
has to be admitted that visible decadence seriously

threatens the vitality of the majority of the great
and especially of those known as

the Latin nations, and really Latin nations, if not as
European
nations,
regards their blood, at least as regards their traditions
and education.
initiative, their
to
The
act.
material
The
Every day they are losing their

energy, their will, and their capacity
satisfaction
of
perpetually growing
wants tends to become
family
is
their
sole
ideal.
breaking up, the social springs are
strained.
Discontent and unrest are spreading to
all classes,
from the richest to the poorest.
ship that has lost
and the winds
its
direct,
Like the
compass, and strays as chance

the modern
man wanders
at
haphazard through the spaces formerly peopled by

the gods and rendered a desert by science.
He has
lost
his faith,
and with
it
his hopes.
The
masses,
220
grown excessively impressionable and changeable,

and no longer kept in check by any barrier, seem
fated to oscillate without intermission
between the
wildest anarchy and the most oppressive despotism.
Words
will turn their heads,
day are soon
but their divinities of a
In appearance they seem
their victims.
ardently to desire liberty; in reality they will
none of
State to
have
it, and they are incessantly appealing to the

forge them chains. They yield blind obedi-
ence to the obscurest sectaries, to the most narrow-
minded despots.
lead
the
The
masses, but
who imagine they
rhetoricians
who most
often follow them,
confound the impatience and nervousness that find

vent in an incessant desire for a change of master
with the true
spirit
of independence that girds against
any master whatever.

nominal regime,
parties turn.
is
It is
The
State,
whatever be the
the divinity towards which

the State that
is
all
appealed to for
and protection, every day more oppresthat surround the most trivial acts of existence
regulations
sive,
with the most Byzantine and tyrannical formalities.
The younger
generations are more and more disposed
to renounce careers demanding judgment,
initiative,
The
slightest
energy, personal
efforts,
and
reponsibility alarms them.
will.
They
are
content with
ITS
them by State-paid
the mediocre prospects offered
The commercial
employment.
colonies,
classes
ignore
empty personal
terribly
case of the masses
of letters
states-
discussions, in the
by passing enthusiasms or
men
the case of
in
the
which are solely peopled by functionaries. 1
Energy and action have been replaced among
men by
221
by a
hatreds,
sort of tearful,
vague, and unfruitful sentimentalism, and by colourless
dissertations
boundless egoism
individual
is
coming
developing on
to be
all
sides.
The
solely preoccupied with
Consciences are capitulating, and morality
himself.
is
on the miseries of existence.
In a speech pronounced in the Chamber 01 Deputies on November

by M. Etienne, at the time Under Secretary for the Colonies,
27, 1890,
I note the following very characteristic passage, which I borrow from

the newspaper Le Siecle :
" Cochin China has
1,800,000 inhabitants ; of this number 1,600 are
Frenchmen, 1,200 of
whom
are functionaries.
The country
is
adminis-
tered by a colonial council elected by these 1,200 functionaries.

It has
a Deputy. And you are surprised that anarchy reigns in the country
(Exclamations and laughter on a great number of benches. )
!
"...
Are you aware what is the outcome of such a system? Its

phenomenon, that nine millions out of a budget reduced
twenty-two millions is absorbed by the expenses in connection with
outcome
to
is this
the functionaries.
"Yes,
in
1877,
tried to reduce the
number of
functionaries.
reduced the expenses by 3,500,000 francs out of a total of nine

I took this measure in the month of October.
millions.
In De-
cember the Cabinet of which

and in the following March the
reinstated."
was a member was overthrown,

had suppressed were
functionaries I
222
is
and
deteriorating
individual
is
losing
out. 1
gradually dying
all
empire over himself.
can no longer govern himself, and the
The
He
man who
cannot govern himself must inevitably come before

long to be governed by others.
1
This lowering of morality is serious when observed in professions

such as the magistracy and the profession of notary, in which honesty
used to be as general as courage among soldiers.
As regards the
The
notaries morality has at present descended to a very low level.
official statisticians affirm "that
is a proportion of
there
notaries
among
43 accused persons out of 10,000 individuals, whereas the average for
the whole population of France is one accused person for the same
number of
In a report addressed to the President of the
individuals."
Republic by the Minister of Justice and published in the Journal
Officiel,
"The disasters which

the following passage
as early as 1840 had begun to inspire the public with uneasiness
increased progressively to such a degree that in 1876 one of my
predecessors had to call the special attention of the magistrates to the
January 31, 1890,
situation
I find
The
of the notaries.
dismissal
of
notaries
and
notarial
catastrophes were occurring with unaccustomed frequency and under

circumstances of great gravity.
The number of disasters rose successively from 31 in 1882 to 41 in 1883, to 54 in 1884, to 71 in 1886, and
the total embezzlements committed by notaries amounted to 62,000,000
francs for the period
between 1880 and 1886.
Finally, in 1889, 103
notaries were dismissed or obliged to give up their practice." If we connect with these facts the successive ruin of our most important financial
enterprises (the Comtoir d'Escompte, the
Panama,
etc.),
it
Depots et Comptes Courants,

can only be admitted that the invectives of the
the morality of the leading classes are not without
Socialists against
foundation. The same
to be observed
among
symptoms of demoralisation are unfortunately

all
the Latin peoples.
The
scandal of the
which robbery was practised on an immense

scale by politicians of the foremost rank, the bankruptcy of Portugal,
the wretched financial situation of Spain and Italy, the profound
Italian State banks, in
decadence of the Latin republics of America, prove that the character

certain peoples have sustained incurable injury, and
and morality of
that their role in the world
is
nearly at an end.
ITS
To change
all this
would be a hard
be necessary to change
Latin education.
It is
energy that heredity
first
of
fatal
to
all
task.
It
would
our lamentable
any
may have
223
initiative
and
It extin-
spared.
guishes every gleam of intellectual independence
giving
as
young people
sole
their
examinations, which, as they only
ideal
demand
by
hateful
efforts
of
memory, place in the front rank of our professions

intelligences whose servile aptitude for imitation is the
the
negation of
"
all
individuality
and
all
try to pour iron into the soul of
personal
my
efforts.
pupils," said
an English schoolmaster to Guizot, when he was

visiting the schools of Great Britain.
Where among
the Latin nations are the schoolmasters or the pro-
grammes capable of realising such an ambition ?

The military regime will perhaps realise it. In any
case
it is
One
it.
for
the sole educator that
is
capable of realising
of the principal conditions of improvement
decadent peoples
is
the organisation of a very
severe universal military service
and the permanent
menace of disastrous wars.

It is to this
general lowering of character, to the
powerlessness of the citizens to govern themselves
and
to this egoistic indifference, that
cially
due the
difficulty
is
more espe-
experienced by the majority
224
of the Latin peoples in living under liberal laws as

far
removed from despotism as from anarchy.
It is
easily understandable that such laws should be little
to the liking of the masses, for Caesarism holds out to
them the promise

not set
much
if
not of liberty, on which they do
store, at
measure of equality
any
rate of a very considerable
On
in servitude.
the other hand,
would be incomprehensible that republican institutions should encounter most opposition from the
it
enlightened classes, but for the necessity of taking

into account the weight of ancestral influences.
not with such institutions that
and
intellectual superiority in
all
Is
it
forms of superiority,
have most
particular,
chance of being able to display themselves
It
might
even be said that the only real objection to such
from the point of view of those who
institutions,
stand out for equality at any price,
is
the fact that
they favour the formation of powerful

aristocracies.
The most
intellectual
oppressive of regimes, on
the contrary, both for character and for the

gence,
is
Caesarism in
can be said
for
it
is
its
that
degradation and humility
adapted to the
and that
is
why
inferior
various
forms.
it
facilitates
in
servitude.
intelli-
All
that
equality in
It
is
well
minds of decadent peoples,
they always revert to
it
as soon as
ITS
The plume of the first

comes along will be made the excuse for
they are able.
When
a people has reached this pass
struck, its destiny
At
is
225
general that
its
its
adoption.
hour has
accomplished.
the present hour this old-time Caesarism, which
history has always seen appear at the earliest
dawn
of civilisations and at their extreme decadence,
To-day we are
undergoing a manifest evolution.

nessing
its
name
resurrection under the
because,
being
grievous
impersonal,
it
wit-
of Socialism.
This new expression of State absolutism

suredly be the most
is
will
as-
form of Caesarism,
will
escape
all
the
motives of fear that keep the worst tyrants under

restraint.
Socialism appears to-day to be the gravest of the
dangers that threaten the European peoples.

doubtless
complete a decadence
causes are paving the way, and
it
It will
for
which many
will
perhaps mark
the end of Western civilisation.
To
appreciate
the teachings
it
its
dangers and
its
strength,
it is
not
spreads abroad that must be con-
sidered, but the devotion
it
inspires.
Socialism will
soon constitute the new faith of the suffering masses
whose existence
is
often
and inevitably rendered
far
from enviable by the economic conditions of con16
226
temporary
civilisation.
that will
human
by
empty
For
heavens.
the
all
who cannot support misery un-
creatures
relieved
be the new religion
It will
people the
illusion
this
religion
will
the
replace
luminous paradise of which the painted windows of

the churches spoke to
religious entity of
faithful increase
martyrs, and
This great
in the past.
to-morrow sees the crowd of
will
then
which
stir
will
It
every day.
it
religious creeds
them
soon have
up
and whose
peoples,
of degrading slavery which will destroy

all
empire
gists
independence
is
its
become one of those
power over souls is absolute.

That the dogmas of Socialism lead
and
its
in the souls
to a regime
all
initiative
bowed beneath
its
doubtless evident, but only for psycholo-
acquainted with the condition of man's existence.
Such
foresight
They
require arguments of a different order to per-
is
beyond the reach of the masses.
suade them, and these arguments have never been

furnished
by reason.
That the new dogmas we
see
coming
into being
also evident.
most elementary good sense is

But were not the religious dogmas that
have
men
are contrary to the
guided
during so
many
centuries
also
contrary to good sense, and has the fact hindered
ITS
227
them from subjecting the most luminous geniuses

to their laws
man
In the matter of his beliefs
only
hearkens to the unconscious voice of his sentiments.
They form an obscure domain" from which reason has

always been excluded.
by the mere fact of the mental

created them by a long past, the peoples
In consequence and
constitution
of Europe will be obliged to undergo the redoubtable
phase of Socialism.
It will
be the signal
their
for
entry on one of the last stages of decadence.
causing
civilisation to revert to
of evolution,
it
by which we
are threatened.
wholly
inferior
By
forms
will facilitate the destructive invasions
Outside Russia, whose population from the psychological
point of view
European,
is
much more
English would seem
the
Asiatic
to
than
be almost
the only race in

stable
Europe possessing sufficient energy,

enough beliefs, and a sufficiently independent
character to avoid succumbing to the

birth
of
which we
Germany,
in
spite
the
of
prosperity, will doubtless
are
witnessing.
deceptive
be
new
its
first
religion
Modern
appearances
of
victim, judging
from the success of the various sects that abound

within
its
its
frontiers.
The
Socialism that will prove
ruin will doubtless be couched in strictly scientific
228
formulae, of value at the best for an ideal society such
humanity will never produce, but this latest child of

pure reason will be more intolerant and more redoubtas
able than
as
all its elders.
Germany
No
to accept
its
people
yoke.
is
so well prepared
No
present age has more entirely lost
people of the
its
initiative, its
1
independence, and the habit of self-government.
As
to Russia,
it
has evolved too recently from the
regime of the "mir," that
Communism,
is
to say, from primitive
the most perfect form of Socialism, to
return to this inferior stage of evolution.

destinies.
It is
It
has other
doubtless Russia that will one day
furnish the irresistible flood of barbarians destined to
destroy the old civilisations of the West, whose end

will
have been led up to by economic struggles and
Socialism.
This hour, however, has not struck as

1
yet.
To
The most eminent German
writers are perfectly agreed on this

In his recent book on the Social Question, Herr T. Ziegler,
professor at the University of Strasbourg, expresses himself as follows
point.
"While
'Self-help' is the dominant tendency in England, recourse

to the State is the characteristic of Germany.
are a people that
We
for centuries has
been accustomed
to
be under a guardian.
Moreover,
twenty years, the strong arm of Bismarck, by assuring

us security, has caused us to lose the sentiment of responsibility and
initiative.
It is for this reason that in difficult and even in easy cases
during the
we appeal
last
for the aid
to its initiative."
and protection of the
State,
and abandon ourselves
ITS
reach
it
we have
to
still
traverse
certain
Socialism will be too oppressive a regime to

will
make people
how
asks
the
phases.
last.
It
the age of Tiberius and
regret
One some-
Caligula and will bring back that age.
times
229
Romans
of the
time of the
emperors so easily supported the wild ferocity of

certain despots.
The
reason
traversed social struggles,
civil
is
that they too
had
wars, and proscriptions,
and the experience had cost them their character.

They had come to consider these tyrants as the
ultimate instruments of their salvation.
They put
up with everything from them, because they did not
know how
to replace them.
be replaced.
After
The
them came the
brought about by the barbarians.

turns in the
same
circle.
is
they cannot
final
catastrophe
truth
History always
CHAPTER
II
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
^ TE
**
have already remarked,
was merely a short

of synthesis of the volumes we have
to this work, that
summary, a
sort
devoted to the history of

chapters composing
clusion arrived at
very
difficult in
in the Introduction
it
by
it
civilisations.
Each of
the
should be regarded as the conanterior investigations.
consequence to
ideas so condensed already.

ever, for the benefit of readers
still
I
It is
further condense
shall
attempt, how-
whose time
is
precious,
to present in the guise of very brief propositions the
fundamental principles which represent the philosophy

of this work.
race
possesses
almost as fixed as
the
its
psychological
characteristics
physical characteristics.
Like
anatomic species, the psychological species

230
is
231
only transformed as the result of the accumulations

of ages.
To
the
and
fixed
characteristics,
hereditary
psychological
whose association forms the mental
constitution of a race, are adjoined, as in the case
of
all
anatomic species, accessory elements created
by diverse modifications of the environment. Being

incessantly renewed they endow a race with a certain
measure of apparent
The mental
variability.
constitution of a race represents not
only the synthesis of the living beings which compose

it,
but more particularly that of
have contributed to
living but the
its
its
the ancestors
formation.
It
is
who
not the
dead who play the preponderating role
in the existence of a people.
of
all
They
are the creators
morality and the unconscious sources of
its
conduct.
The very
great anatomic
tinguish the various
human
differences
races are
which
dis-
accompanied by
not less considerable psychological differences.
When
only the average representatives of each race are compared, the mental differences often appear
slight.
parison
They become immense

is
instituted
elements of each race.
between
It is
somewhat
as soon as the
the
most
com-
elevated
then found that what
232
more
especially differentiates superior from inferior
races
is
the fact that the former possess a certain
number of highly developed minds, whereas the
latter
possess no such minds.
The
individuals of which inferior races are
posed
display
manifest
between
equality
comone
In proportion as races rise in the scale
another.
of civilisation, their
members tend
and more
differentiated.
civilisation
is
The
become more
to
inevitable
to differentiate individuals
effect
and
of
races.
In consequence peoples are not progressing towards

equality but towards a growing inequality.
The
of
life
of a people and
the manifestations
all
are merely the reflection of
its civilisation
of something invisible
the visible signs
its soul,
but
very
Exterior events are only the apparent surface
real.
of the hidden framework by which they are deter-
mined.
It
and
is
neither
still
less
chance nor exterior circumstances,

political
fundamental role
more
especially the
fashions
The
its
institutions,
that
play the
in the history of a people.
character
of
It is
people
that
destiny.
various
elements of
the
civilisation
people being only the outward signs of
its
of a
mental
ITS
constitution,
the expression
and
feeling
thinking
of
modes of
certain
to
peculiar
233
a people, these
elements cannot be transmitted unchanged to peoples

of a different mental constitution
transmitted
is
all
that can be
the exterior, superficial, and unimpor-
tant forms.
The profound
existing between
differences
the
mental constitutions of the various peoples result
in
these peoples viewing the world in very dissimilar
The consequence
lights.
and
is
that
act in very different ways,
find,
when they come
disagreement on
all
in
they
feel,
reason
and they therefore
contact, that they are in
questions.
Most of the wars that
take up so large a portion of history are the outcome

of these dissentiments.
religion,
Wars
of conquest, wars of
wars of dynasties, have always
in
reality
been wars of races.
An
agglomeration of
men
of different origin do
not form a race, do not possess, that
is,
a collective
soul, until, as the result of interbreeding
continued
during centuries, and of a similar existence under

identical conditions, the agglomeration has acquired
common
sentiments,
common
interests,
and common
beliefs.
Among
civilised
peoples there are scarcely any
234
natural
but only
races,
created
races
artificial
by
historical conditions.
Changes
environment
of
foundly new
races, that
whose ancestral
sociated
by
cross
is,
pro-
mixtures of old races
characteristics
breeding.
influence
only
become
have
Heredity
is
dis-
the only
force powerful
enough to struggle against heredity.

Changes of environment have only a destructive
action on races the fixity of whose characteristics has
not been affected by cross breeding.
An
ancient
race perishes rather than undergo the transformations

requisite
enable
to
it
to
adapt
itself
to
new
environment.
The
soul
The
of
acquisition of a solidly constituted collective
marks the apogee of the greatness of a people.

dissociation of this soul always marks the hour
its
decadence.
The
intervention of foreign ele-
ments constitutes one of the surest means of
this
dissociation being compassed.
Like anatomic
species,
psychological species are
subject to the action of time.
grow old and

ormed,
it is
die out.
possible for
appear rapidly.
They
too are fated to
Always very slow in being

them on the contrary to dis-
It suffices to trouble
profoundly the
functioning of their organs to cause them to under-
ITS
235
go retrograde transformations whose consequence

often their
long
prompt
destruction.
in acquiring a certain
is
Peoples are centuries
mental constitution, which
they sometimes lose in a very short space of time.
The ascending path which

of civilisation
is
them
leads
to a high level
always very long, while the decline
which leads them to decadence
is
most often very
rapid.
with
Together
character,
counted one of the principal factors

of a civilisation.
until, after
They do not
be
should
ideas
ac-
in the evolution
exert an
influence
a very slow evolution, they have been
transformed into sentiments and have come in con-
sequence to form part of the character.
They
are
then unaffected by argument, and take a very long
time to disappear.
of a small
mental
Each
number of
civilisation
is
the outcome
universally accepted
funda-
ideas.
Religious
ideas
are
among
the
most important
of the guiding ideas of a civilisation.
The majority
of historical events have been due indirectly to the

variation of religious beliefs.
The
history of
has always run parallel to that of
its
gods.
humanity
Such
is
the power of these children of our dreams that even

this name cannot be changed without the whole
mis
236
world being thrown at once into confusion.

birth of
new
new gods has always marked

civilisation,
always marked
its
and
their
the
dawn
disappearance
decline.
UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM
PRESS,
The
WOKING AND LONDON.
of
has
14 DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
EDUCATION-PSYCHOLOGY
TEL.
This book
due on (fit fan <1||| ihiit^i il below, or

on the date to which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.
is
DEC 24
DEC
REC'D
APR 4
APR 4
1971
-i
1974
REC'D
-7PM
JUL 29
AUG
PI
6 1987
LD 21A-15m-l,'71
(P2357slO)476 A-32
General Library
University of California
Berkeley
re 45
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A. P.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PEOPLES

[All rights reserved.]

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RACES

THE SOUL OF RACES

the naturalists classify species

LIMITS OF THE VARIABILITY OF

variability of the character of races, and not its fixity,

Invariability of the fundamental characteristics

circumstances, and education that influence the accessory

What they became at different periods

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HIERARCHY OF RACES

assiPsychological classification is based, as are anatomical

human races The

impossible for an inferior people to adopt a superior civilisation.

THE PROGRESSIVE DIFFERENTIATION OF

VIDUALS AND RACES

inequality between the

quences of this differentiation The psychological reasons

FORMATION OF THE HISTORICAL RACES

HO IV THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF A

CIVILISATION CONSIDERED AS AN EXTERIOR MANIFESTATION

of which a civilisation is composed are the

superior races are as powerless as the inferior races to

How THE ARTS ARE TRANSFORMED

Application of the principles already set forth to the study of

THE HISTORY OF PEOPLES CONSIDERED AS A

history of a people is always determined by its mental

invariability beneath their apparent variability

APPLICATION OF PRECEDING PRINCIPLES TO THE

MODIFICATION OF THE SOUL OF RACES

influence of foreign elements at once transforms the soul

was not destroyed by military

by the pacific invasions of the Barbarians The

chiefs ceased to consider the

complete transformation of Roman civilisation was not the

an ancient civilisation by a new race The modern invasions

RACES ARE MODIFIED.

IDEAS IN THE LIFE OF PEOPLES

leading ideas of each civilisation are always very few in

obliged to change their civilisation.

THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

Preponderating influence of religious ideas They have always

always comes into existence with a

of the religious ideal Its influence on character It directs

great advances made by each civilisation have always

supplied by great discoveries Political role of great men

How CIVILISATIONS FADE AWAY AND DIE OUT

and whether they have not

institutions, arts, creeds, etc. ,

come very slowly

its institutions, its

and they are

after their erroneous nature

has become clear to cultivated minds, they remain

exert their influence on the rank and

to obtain recognition for a

less difficult to discredit

an idea that has

long been generally accepted.

Humanity has always

been exceedingly loth to abandon