History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised EditionDraper, John William
History
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised Edition
Draper, John William
Europe -- Civilization
In the same manner that the individual is liable to changes through the
action of external agencies, and offers no resistance thereto, nor any
indication of the possession of a physiological inertia, but submits at
once to any impression, so likewise it is with aggregates of men
constituting nations. A national type pursues its way physically and
intellectually through changes and developments answering to those of
the individual, and being represented by Infancy, Childhood, Youth,
Manhood, Old Age, and Death respectively.
[Sidenote: Disturbance through emigration.]
But this orderly process may be disturbed exteriorly or interiorly. If
from its original seats a whole nation were transposed to some new
abode, in which the climate, the seasons, the aspect of nature were
altogether different, it would appear spontaneously in all its parts to
commence a movement to come into harmony with the new conditions--a
movement of a secular nature, and implying the consumption of many
generations for its accomplishment. During such a period of
transmutation there would, of course, be an increased waste of life, a
risk, indeed, of total disappearance or national death; but the change
once completed, the requisite correspondence once attained, things would
go forward again in an orderly manner on the basis of the new
modification that had been assumed. When the change to be accomplished
is very profound, involving extensive anatomical alterations not merely
in the appearance of the skin, but even in the structure of the skull,
long periods of time are undoubtedly required, and many generations of
individuals are consumed.
[Sidenote: And through blood admixture.]
Or, by interior disturbance, particularly by blood admixture, with more
rapidity may a national type be affected, the result plainly depending
on the extent to which admixture has taken place. This is a disturbance
capable of mathematical computation. If the blood admixture be only of
limited amount, and transient in its application, its effect will
sensibly disappear in no very great period of time, though never,
perhaps, in absolute reality. This accords with the observation of
philosophical historians, who agree in the conclusion that a small tribe
intermingling with a larger one will only disturb it in a temporary
manner, and, after the course of a few years, the effect will cease to
be perceptible. Nevertheless, the influence must really continue much
longer than is outwardly apparent; and the result is the same as when,
in a liquid, a drop of some other kind is placed, and additional
quantities of the first liquid then successively added. Though it might
have been possible at first to detect the adulteration without trouble,
it becomes every moment less and less possible to do so, and before long
it cannot be done at all. But the drop is as much present at last as it
was at first: it is merely masked; its properties overpowered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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