Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/183

Rh apt to be finely molded, thin, and straight. In the early British it is heavier, broad at the nostrils, and inclined to irregularity in profile. Facial peculiarities are, however, so open to modification by artificial selection that they are quite untrustworthy for purposes of racial identification by themselves alone. Only when combined with the more fundamental traits which we have already examined may we place confidence in their testimony.

A by no means negligible factor in the discussion as to the ethnic origin of the most primitive stratum of the populations of the British Isles is temperament. To treat of disposition thus as a racial characteristic is indeed to trench upon dangerous ground. Nevertheless, remembering how potent environment, social or material, may readily become in such matters; even the most superficial observer can not fail to notice the profound contrast which exists between the temperament of the Celtic-speaking and the Teutonic strains in these islands. These present almost the extremes of human development in such matters. They come to expression in every phase of religion or politics; they can no more mix than water and oil. The Irish and Welsh are as different from the stolid Englishman as indeed the Italian differs from the Swede. Far be it from us to



beg the question by implying necessarily any identity of origin by this comparison; yet we can not fail to call attention to these facts. There is some deep-founded reason for the utter irreconcilability of the Teutons and the so-called Celts. Our most staid and respectable commentators, the authors of the Crania Britannica, never weary of calling attention to it. Imagine an Englishman—