are perpetuated, might prevent the Anglo-Saxon of the present century from dealing with them. In an address on "Modern Scientific Credulity," at St. George's Hall, Mr. G. B. Shaw said: "The people of to-day belong to different centuries. Those who are acquainted with the foremost thought in Art and Science are few in number. The great majority of people in that respect belonged to the last century. He himself was born in a small Irish township in the seventeenth century. If they went to certain agricultural parts of the country they would find people who had the same habits, beliefs and conversation as they had in the days of Julius Cæsar, and long before them."1 It is those who represent the older centuries in whom the Latin spirit is strongest, and the first question with which the AngloSaxon has to deal is how to bring these backward people up to the present age, and that country which establishes the most efficient system of education will be the first to solve this problem and to prepare the way for the solution of other great problems with which the Anglo-Saxon is at present too childish to cope. When we know ourselves we shall be in a position to understand other races, and when we are able to govern ourselves in accordance with our racial spirit, we may perhaps be in a position to govern the older races without oppressing them, and to teach them to live out their lives in conformity with the laws of the Creator, and thus increase the general happiness of the world.

1 Daily News, March 12th, 1890.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SCIENCE OF OUR RACE

INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON DEVELOPMENT

MAN is naturally conservative, and therefore clings tenaciously to what he is, and has been, accustomed to. As a consequence the Anglo-Saxon has resisted the advance of the science of his race because it tends to break up his old beliefs, to prove that what he has been taught to regard as true is no longer true. Hence, while he accepts the lighter branches of his new science, as embodied in his sports, in music, the drama, and the arts generally, he strenuously fights against the more solid and more important discoveries of his philosophers so far as they appear to be opposed to his old-established institutions. The science of political economy, for instance, tends towards the elimination of class privileges, and is directly opposed to the Latin system. Therefore the Anglo-Saxon brings to bear on it all the subtlety, all the ingenious false reasoning of the Latin in opposition to the new ideas. Curiously enough, the Englishman, who is regarded by Americans and Australians as the most conservative of his family, has accepted this branch of his science more fully than other branches of the Anglo-Saxon family, but has carefully weeded out of it all that appeared to threaten his class system. The Anglo-Saxon has not yet learned that his science forms a complete whole, and that it must be either accepted or rejected entirely. In his charming satire "Erewhon" Samuel Butler could only see hope for

the future by abolishing all modern mechanical inventions and returning to that state of life which existed when only simple tools were in use. But mechanical invention has developed enormously even since he wrote. It is impossible to say now the effect on home life which the invention of the sewing machine has had, but it must be apparent, I think, that the invention of the bicycle has completely abolished much of our old belief. There was a time when it was held to be indelicate for a lady to swing her arm when walking; now she not only swings her arms but her legs also. Every invention and discovery has had its due influence on the evolution of the Anglo-Saxon, and has tended to develop his character; and as invention and discovery has proceeded so rapidly during the past century, it is almost impossible for an Anglo-Saxon of the present day to estimate the change which has taken place within him. Thus the present Anglo-Saxon is as unlike his father in his methods, his thoughts, and his beliefs as it is possible for a man to conceive, and hence every attempt hitherto made to represent life as it was even a century ago is more or less of a failure. In attempting it we simply describe the men and women of the present day and dress them in ancient

costumes.

SCIENCE ENABLES US TO UNDERSTAND

OURSELVES AND OTHERS

But if we cannot reproduce the English man or woman of a bygone time, our failures in representing life in ancient Greece or Rome must be still more pronounced. We cannot even judge of the ancient Greek or Roman by their modern representatives, although the racial characteristics change but very slightly after the race has reached its maturity. Both Greeks and Romans have accepted a portion of our science, and this has influenced even the

characters of these people. The modern Latin has reached a higher civilisation and refinement through the development of our science than he could possibly have attained to by means of his own science. His religion is the last tie which binds him to the past, and when he leaves his Church it is because he is becoming either by heredity or education more Teutonic than Latin. Perhaps, when the racial characteristics are better understood and the course of their development has been traced out, sketches of life in England in mediæval times, of life in Athens, Rome, Alexandria, Babylon and other ancient cities may be drawn more faithfully than is possible at present. Until we understand more fully than we do now the evolutionary stages through which man has passed, we merely reproduce ourselves in attempting to describe the men and women of other times or other races. Thus we fail to realise that it is utterly impossible to make the savage or the barbarian or even the semi-civilised races comprehend our idea of the Creator, for instance; and therefore in attempting to force on them a civilisation beyond their capacity to understand, we break down their own racial morality, and substitute a false morality, which, instead of elevating, degrades them.

THE NECESSITY FOR ACCEPTING SCIENCE

What must be realised sooner or later is, I think, that our race has, in accordance with the laws of the Creator, evolved a higher science than any of the older races, and we cannot escape from its influence even if we would. Science is based on demonstrable evidence, and is therefore true. In opposing science, therefore, we are not merely opposing God's laws, but also the truth. There is nothing to fear in science that we should regard it as an evil, as too many among us by their attitude towards it appear to do. It is by its aid that we have abolished or minimised some of

the evils by which our race has been afflicted, and it is by its means that we can cleanse our social and political system of those evils which still exist. If it is of God, resistance to it is wicked, impious. When the truth of this begins to be realised, the opposition of the Anglo-Saxon to the science of his race due to his Latin training must sooner or later cease, and the child will be taught the rudiments of his own science instead of having his mind crammed with the science of an ancient and decaying race. When this time comes, the Anglo-Saxon will be a very different creature from what he is to-day. We need not, like Bulwer Lytton, seek for the "Coming Race" underground. We may see it developing among us in Great Britain, in America, in Australia, and elsewhere. If this is true, there should be no stronger incentive required to induce the Anglo-Saxon to strive to understand the science of his race, and to realise that the study of the science of the older races should not be an end in itself, but merely a subsidiary study tending to enable him to trace out the evolution of his own science.

COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTER OF SCIENCE

It may appear strange, and yet it seems to be true, that not one of the older races has succeeded in perfecting any one branch of science. Mathematics has been more or less studied by the Hindoo, the Arab, the Greek and Latin, and probably by other races, but it remained for the Teuton to formulate it into an exact science. Early in the nineteenth century it was popularly said that mathemetics was the only exact science, but that astronomy was tending to become exact. Since then geology, philology, and many other sciences, have, by the aid of the evolutionary theory, become more and more exact. In each case one branch of science is supported by, and supports in its turn, all other branches of