This is also true of the black race of Africa. The powerful monarchies which at times have been erected in that continent over the dead bodies of myriads of victims have lasted but a generation or two. The natural limitations of the racial mind prevented it.
Many other examples could be cited. Indeed, the law of “thus far shalt thou go and no farther” tells the story of most of the failures of races and peoples. They fell through mental inability to succeed. They had reached the natural limit of their activities.
But there is in this no occasion to deduce a conclusion of fatalism. These limitations have been operative in great measure because they have been unrecognised, and no effort has been made to escape them. Though they may not be remedied, their evil effects may be avoided by enlightened prevision. They act like other natural laws, and all such laws can be turned to man’s advantage, if he sets about it wisely.
Modes and Rates of Ethnic Variation.—Both progressive and regressive mental variations are formed of constructive, synthetic evolution; both are necessary to general advancement; both have their place in the scheme of national health and growth. They belong among what the physiologist calls “anabolic” processes—those whose tendency is to preserve and develop the species.
There has, however, been frequent misunderstanding of the modes of action of these processes and the rate of their movement. This misconception exists widely to-day. Many writers have mistaken actual advance for degeneration, or claimed that some nation or stage of culture was superior to another from some single real or imagined feature. Thus Rousseau and his school, enamoured of the supposed personal freedom of the savage, lauded the existence of man “in a state of nature”; and their followers still assail modern civilisation as a failure.
It becomes important, therefore, to examine the modes of healthy progress so that we may understand its sometimes strange aspects.
These modes are three in number:
1. In lines, either parallel (homoplastic) or divergent (heteroplastic).
2. In circles, or curved forms (spirals).
3. In waves, rhythmic undulatory forms.