Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/61

 plained, however, by an easy hypothesis, namely, that although the onset of the impetuous southerns proved at first irresistible, they ultimately coalesced with the tribes they had conquered, and in the end the principle of natural selection replaced the vanquished on their proper plane of eminence. But this distinction, it must be observed, is one of outward form rather than of moral attributes. Neither history nor observation furnishes any reason for asserting that the so-called "aristocratic," or Mongoloid, cast of features accompanies a fuller endowment of either physical or mental qualities than the vulgar, or Malayan, cast. Numerically the patrician type constitutes only a small fraction of the nation, and seems to have been lacking in a majority of the country's past leaders, as it is certainly lacking in a majority of her present publicists, and even in the very crême de la creme of society. The male of the upper classes is not generally an attractive product of nature. He has neither commanding stature, refinement of features, nor weight of muscle. On the other hand, among the labouring populations, and especially among the seaside folk, numbers of men are found who, though below the average Anglo-Saxon or Teuton in bulk, are cast in a perfectly symmetrical mould and suggest great possibilities of muscular effort and endurance. In short, though the aristocratic type has survived, and though its superior beauty is universally recognised, it has not impressed