Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/627

Rh than one occasion, with a few exceptions in favor of certain distinguished officials.

The mestizo is the most flourishing branch of the population. The mixture from which he springs, with its European blood and dashes of African fire, favors rapid development. It is perhaps too rapid, too forced, to allow of a sound maturity. Hence a lack of depth and earnestness which is revealed to the world in the inconsistencies of the government, with its additional traits of conceit, bombast, and irresolution — all tending toward those weak and half-way measures that have promoted anarchy. The Mexican — the mestizo being now dominant and representative — has remained in a state of adolescence, as indicated by his capricious, thoughtless, and even puerile traits. While tenderly susceptible, he can be ferociously cruel; treachery and fidelity go hand in hand; his generosity degenerates into prodigality; lofty desires sink for want of patience and determination; in short, he lacks reflecting prudence and sustained purpose, and yields more than the Indian to passions and prejudices.

The assumption that the half-breed of Mexico inherits the worst traits of their progenitors is hardly correct. If these characteristics appear conspicuous, with a stronger stamp of the inferior race, it is due rather to his equivocal position which places obstacles, especially of a social nature, against his efforts for higher models. Like the mediocre parvenu he lacks certain essential elements, above all sound principles; and failing to reach the higher level, a blind race pride urges him to grasp tenaciously for the lower, with its many objectionable features. A sense of inferiority,