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348
Hereditary Genius
sions, which carries them through the continued repetition of toilsome
labour, 'steady as time.'“ It is curious to remark how unimportant to
modern civilization has become the once famous and thoroughbred
looking Norman. The type of his features, which is, probably, in some
degree correlated with his peculiar form of adventurous disposition, is
no longer characteristic of our rulers, and is rarely found among
celebrities of the present day; it is more often met with among the
undistinguished members of highly-born families, and especially
among the less conspicuous officers of the army. Modern leading
men in all paths of eminence, as may easily be seen in a collection of
photographs, are of a coarser and more robust breed; less excitable
and dashing, but endowed with far more ruggedness and real vigour.
Such also is the case, as regards the German portion of the Austrian
nation; they are far more high-caste in appearance than the
Prussians, who are so plain that it is disagreeable to travel northwards
from Vienna, and watch the change; yet the Prussians appear
possessed of the greater moral and physical stamina.
Much more alien to the genius of an enlightened civilization than the
nomadic habit, is the impulsive and uncontrolled nature of the savage.
A civilized man must bear and forbear, he must keep before his mind
the claims of the morrow as clearly as those of the passing minute; of
the absent, as well as of the present. This is the most trying of the
new conditions imposed on man by civilization, and the one that
makes it hopeless for any but exceptional natures among savages, to
live under them. The instinct of a savage is admirably consonant with
the needs of savage life; every day he is in danger through transient
causes; he lives from hand to mouth, in the hour and for the hour,
without care for the past or forethought for the future: but such an
instinct is utterly at fault in
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