Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1900: Vol. 56, Nov. 1899 to April, 1900Various
History
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1900: Vol. 56, Nov. 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
=Anglo-Saxon Superiority.=--The question of the superiority of the
Anglo-Saxon race is at present interesting economists of other stocks,
especially of the supposed Latin races. The fact of superiority
seems to be conceded. The problem is to account for it. A French
writer, M. Dumoulins, attributes it to the superiority of Anglo-Saxon
educational institutions. Signor G. Sergi, the distinguished Italian
anthropologist, thinks it is a result of the mixture of ethnic elements
of which the English people are made up, and he goes over the history
of the colonizations which have overtaken Britain, to show how upon
the first neolithic settlers of the Mediterranean stocks came a small
emigration of the Asiatic Aryan or Indo-European peoples. Cæsar's
conquest brought in a Roman infusion with some African elements, which
did not last long, but left their mark. Next the Anglo-Saxon tribes of
northern Germany made the principal contribution to the formation of
the English people. A portion of Scandinavian blood was added to the
composition, and on top of all came the Normans. These elements, none
of which were extremely discordant with the others, became thoroughly
mixed in the course of time, and matured into the English people as it
is. The English resemble the Romans in their methods of colonization,
political tact, practical sense, persistence, religious tolerance,
the magnitude of their works and the boldness of their undertakings,
and in their egotism working together with the principle of social
solidarity. Both readily established themselves in new colonies,
carrying there the civilization of the mother country and their systems
of administration. The great roads and wonderful bridges constructed by
the Romans are paralleled by the great Anglo-Saxon railway systems. As
the Latin language became almost universal, so the English language is
diffusing itself everywhere. But Signor Sergi fails to show why, if the
English have taken so much from the Romans, the Italians, their direct
descendants, have lost so much of what they once had. He reserves that
question, after raising it, for future consideration.
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