_Race._--We have seen that in Italy the Greek and the Etruscan racial
elements combine with the temperate and mountainous climate to produce
men of genius; the influence of race calling forth genius even where the
climate is not happy. We cannot otherwise explain the genius produced at
Modena, Mantua, and Lucca, which possess the Etruscan origin, although
not the delicious climate, of Florence. The Jews, again, offer us an
eloquent example.
I have elsewhere shown (_Uomo Bianco e l’Uomo di Colore_ and _Pensiero e
Meteore_) how, owing to the bloody selection of mediæval persecutions,
and owing also to the influence of temperate climate, the Jews of Europe
have risen above those of Africa and the East, and have often surpassed
the Aryans. It is not only a difference in general culture, but we find
more precocious and extended mental work applied to different sciences.
It is certainly thus in music, the drama, satirical and humorous
literature, journalism, and in various branches of science. This has
been statistically proved by various writers, as by Jacobs in a very
careful study on the ability of the Jews in Western Europe and of Jews
in general.[247]
In 100,000 celebrities--
-------------------+------------+-----------
| Europeans. | Jews.
-------------------+------------+-----------
Actors | 21 | 34
Agriculture | 2 | --
Antiquaries | 23 | 26
Architects | 6 | 6
Artists | 40 | 34
Authors | 316 | 223
Divines | 130 | 105
Engineers | 13 | 9
Engravers | 3 | --
Lawyers | 44 | 40
Medicals | 31 | 49
Merchants | 12 | 43
Military | 56 | 6
Miscellaneous | 4 | 3
Metaphysics | 2 | 18
Musicians | 11 | 71
Natural Science | 22 | 25
Naval | 12 | --
Philologists | 13 | 123
Poets | 20 | 36
Political Economy | 20 | 26
Science | 51 | 52
Sculptors | 10 | 12
Sovereigns | 21 | --
Statesmen | 125 | 83
Travellers | 25 | 12
-------------------+------------+-----------
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