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xxiv
Hereditary Genius
the proportions of those who belong to the old and veil established types.
The Negro now born in the United States has much the same natural
faculties as his distant cousin who is born in Africa; the effect of his
transplantation being ineffective in changing his nature, but very effective in
increasing his numbers, in enlarging the range of his distribution, and in
destroying native American races. There are now some 8,000,000 of
Negroes in lands where not one of them existed twelve generations ago,
and probably not one representative of the race which they displaced
remains there; on the other hand, there has been no corresponding
diminution of numbers in the parent home of the Negro. Precisely the same
may be said of the European races who have during the same period
swarmed over the temperate regions of the globe, forming the nuclei of
many future nations.
It is impossible, even in the, vaguest way, in a brief space, to give a just
idea of the magnitude and variety of changes produced in the human stock
by the political events of the last few generations, and it would be difficult
to do so in such a way as not to seriously wound the patriotic susceptibilities
of many readers. The natural temperaments and moral ideals of different
races are various, and praise or blame cannot be applied at the discretion of
one person without exciting remonstrance from others who take different
views with perhaps equal justice. The birds and beasts assembled in
conclave may try to pass a unanimous resolution in favour of the natural
duty of the mother to nurture and protect her offspring, but the cuckoo
would musically protest. The Irish Celt may desire the extension of his race
and the increase of its influence in the representative governments of
England and America, but the wishes of his Anglo-Saxon or Teuton fellow-
sub-
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