Page:The processes of history (IA processesofhisto01tegg).pdf/20

  those that are energetic, brave, and progressive— while the latter press forward, the former die out or stagnate in lazy passivity. A slightly different turn is given to the explanation by those who maintain that the present savage races are those which have been left impoverished and stationary as a result of the migration of their more vigorous or stronger elements; the younger and more alert in each generation, it is thought, go out to seek new homes, and leave the older and more conservative to perpetuate the original group.

While the explanation in terms of race has been supported, in recent discussions, by an appeal to biology, there can be little doubt that its principal foundation lies in that inevitable human propensity to classify all those who are in any way unlike ourselves, or who merely lie outside our own group, as 'fiends,' 'aliens,' and 'barbarians.' The Hebrews, though perhaps the best-known example, have not been the only group to regard themselves a 'chosen people'; and while we may point to Dante's opinion that the Romans of his time were ordained to command, and to the moderm German equivalent of the same doctrine, it must be admitted that the passionate assertion of