It may be pertinent before leaving this subject to point out that, as a whole, “Germans,” “French,” and “English,” as certain populations are now called, are but little more entitled to be considered the direct descendants, or even the exclusive modern representatives, of the ancient Germans, Franks or Anglo-Saxons, than are the living Italians or Greeks to be regarded as the offspring of the Romans of the days of the Republic or the Hellenes of the classic period. There are, of course, many individuals and groups, perhaps even classes, in each of these nations, who do accurately represent the race from which the national name was derived. The Scandinavians, on the other hand, are racially what they were two thousand years ago, though diminished somewhat in race vigor by the loss through the emigration of some of their more enterprising members. Meanwhile, at the other end of Europe, the modern Spaniard probably more closely represents the Iberians before the arrival of the Gauls than did the Spaniard of five hundred years ago. VI RACE AND LANGUAGE When a country is invaded and conquered by a race speaking a foreign language, one of several things may happen: replacement of both population and language, as in the case of eastern England when conquered by the Saxons or adoption of the language of the victors by the natives, as happened in Roman Gaul, where the invaders imposed their Latin tongue throughout the land without substantially altering the race. The Romans probably modified the race in Gaul by killing a much larger proportion of the Nordic fighting classes than of the more submissive Alpines and Mediterraneans. This is confirmed by the fact that when the prolonged and brilliant resistance to Cæsar’s legions was finally broken, no serious attempt was ever again made to throw off the Roman yoke and a few centuries later the Teutonic invaders encountered no determined opposition from the inhabitants when they entered and occupied the land. In England and Scotland later conquerors, Norsemen, Danes and Normans, failed to change radically the Saxon speech of the country and in Gaul the Teutonic tongues of the Franks, Burgundians and Northmen could not displace the language of Rome. Autochthonous inhabitants frequently impose upon their invaders their own language and customs. In Normandy the conquering Norse pirates accepted the language, religion and customs of the natives and in a century they vanish from history as Scandinavian heathen and appear as the foremost representatives of the speech and religion of Rome.