It is interesting to note in connection with the more primitive physique of the female, that in the spiritual sphere also women retain the ancient and intuitive knowledge that the great mass of mankind is not free and equal but bond and unequal.
The color of the skin is a character of importance but one that is exceedingly hard to measure as the range of variation in Europe between skins of extreme fairness and those that are exceedingly swarthy is almost complete. The Nordic race in its purity has an absolutely fair skin and is consequently the white man par excellence.
Many members of the Nordic race otherwise apparently pure have skins, as well as hair, more or less dark, so that the determinative value of this character is uncertain. There can be no doubt that the quality of the skin and the extreme range of its variation in color from black, brown, red, yellow to ivory-white are excellent measures of the specific or subgeneric distinctions between the larger groups of mankind but in dealing with European populations it is sometimes difficult to correlate the shades of fairness with other physical characters.
In general, hair color and skin color are linked together, but it often happens that an individual with all other Nordic characters in great purity has a skin of an olive or dark tint. Even more frequently we find individuals with absolutely pure brunet traits in possession of a skin of almost ivory whiteness and of great clarity. This last combination is very frequent among the brunets of the British Isles. That these are, to some extent, disharmonic combinations we may be certain but beyond that our knowledge does not lead. Women, however, of fair skin have always been the objects of keen envy by those of the sex whose skins are black, yellow or red.
Stature is another character of greater value than skin color and, perhaps, than hair color and is one of much importance in European classification for on that continent we have the most extreme variations of human height.
Exceedingly adverse economic conditions may inhibit a race from attaining the full measure of its growth and to this extent environment plays its part in determining stature but fundamentally it is race, always race, that sets the limit. The tall Scot and the dwarfed Sardinian owe their respective sizes to race and not to oatmeal or olive oil. It is probable, however, that the fact that the stature of the Irish is, on the average, shorter than that of the Scotch is due partly to economic conditions and partly to the depressive effect of a considerable population of primitive short stock.
The Mediterranean race is everywhere marked by a relatively short stature, sometimes greatly depressed, as in south Italy and in Sardinia, and also by a comparatively light bony framework and feeble muscular development.
The Alpine race is taller than the Mediterranean, although shorter than the Nordic, and is characterized by a stocky and sturdy build. The Alpines rarely, if ever, show the long necks and graceful figures so often found in the other two races.
The Nordic race is nearly everywhere distinguished by great stature. Almost the tallest stature in the world is found among the pure Nordic populations of the Scottish and English borders while the native British of Pre-Nordic brunet blood are for the most part relatively short. No one can question the race value of stature who observes on the streets of London the contrast between the Piccadilly gentleman of Nordic race and the cockney costermonger of the old Neolithic type.
In some cases where these three European races have become mixed stature seems to be one of the first Nordic characters to vanish, but wherever in Europe we find great stature in a population otherwise lacking in Nordic characters we may suspect a Nordic crossing, as in the case of a large proportion of the inhabitants of Burgundy, of the Tyrol and of the Dalmatian Alps south to Albania.