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There are two strongly marked methods of assimilation: first, the coercive method, in which attack is made by force, and which marks the early stages of social growth; and second, the attractive method, in which attack is made by influence, and which occurs at a period of later social development. The action of the first is direct; of the second, indirect. The response in the first is caused through fear—a realization of differences; in the second it is caused by ambition—an intense realization of likenesses. The coercive method is suited to the stage of nation-forming; the attractive, to the stage of nation-perfecting. The coercive method implies persecution; the attractive method, toleration. In the early days of civilization coercion was the method of appeal most potent with the great majority whose low intellectual development disposed them to yield readily through fear or awe. But as society progressed, and intelligence spread more and more throughout the group, this method became less and less effective, and resort must needs be had to other means. Hence the success of the coercive method through persecution depends largely upon the culture stage of the people upon whom the attack is made. This determines the character of their response, which is also influenced by their intensity of race-consciousness. The higher the culture, the more intense the race-consciousness of the passive element, the greater will be the difficulty of assimilation through this method.

A case in point is offered by the recent attempt of Germany to assimilate the Danes of North Schleswig. The Danes have a culture equal to that of the Germans, and cling tenaciously to their own language and traditions. They are the founders of the modern sciences of archaeology and geology. In literature and art they have produced an Andersen and a Thorwaldsen; in agriculture and dairy farming Denmark leads the world. The fact that out of a population of two million in Denmark eighty thousand names appear on the subscription list of the Frem ("Forward"), a magazine devoted to popular science, shows how widely diffused culture is. North Schleswig fell into the hands of Prussia by the terms of the Treaty of Prague in 1866,