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galton.org 201
Influence of Man upon Race
201
the earlier marriage of members of the superior race, through their greater
vitality under equal stress, through their better chances of getting a
livelihood, or through their prepotency in mixed marriages. That the
members of an inferior class should dislike being elbowed out of the way
is another matter; but it may be somewhat brutally argued that whenever
two individuals struggle for a single place, one must yield, and that there
will be no more unhappiness on the whole, if the inferior yield to the
superior than conversely, whereas the world will be permanently enriched
by the success of the superior. The conditions of happiness are, however,
too complex to be disposed of by à priori argument; it is safest to appeal
to observation. I think it could be easily shown that when the differences
between the races is not so great as to divide them into obviously different
classes, and where their language, education, and general interests are the
same, the substitution may take place gradually without any unhappiness.
Thus the movements of commerce have introduced fresh and vigorous
blood into various parts of England: the new-corners have intermarried
with the residents, and their characteristics have been prepotent in the
descendants of the mixed marriages. I have referred in the earlier part of
the book to the changes of type in the English nature that have occurred
during the last few hundred years. These have been effected so silently
that we only know of them by the results.
One of the most misleading of words is that of “aborigines.” Its use
dates from the time when the cosmogony was thought to be young and life
to be of very recent appearance. Its usual meaning seems to be derived
from the supposition that nations disseminated themselves like colonists
from a common centre about four thousand years, say 120 generations
ago, and thenceforward occupied their lands undisturbed until the very
recent historic period with which the narrator deals, when some invading
host drove out the “aborigines.” This idyllic view of the march of events
is contradicted by ancient sepulchral remains, by language, and by the
habits of those modern barbarians whose history we know. There are
probably hardly any spots on the earth that have not, within the last few
thousand years, been tenanted by very
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