The record-union., 1893-03-06
after the venom had got too far throu gh
the system for local sucking, or even the
stomach pump, to be of any avail.
GENIUS.
Its Ancestry-The Iutermingling of Un-
like Races and the Result.

It's AnceSCry-Ih9 lutermtngling of IN
like Races and the Result.
Havelock Ellis, in his paper on 1.-The
Ancestry of Genuis," in the atlantic,
argues that mixed races produce the finest
imaginative genius.
broadly, and emitting minor variations,
1t may be said that two vigorous but
somewhat widely divergent races tor
groups OF races now occupy Europe and
the lands that have been peopled from
Europe. The one race is tall. fair and
usually long-headed; the other short,
dark and usually road-headed. Since
the dawn of European history, at least,
and with special vigor about a thousand
years ago, the tail, fair, energetic race has
been shed as seminal principle from the
northeast OF Europe over a great part OF
the continent held by a darker and per-
haps more civilized race. The physical
characteristics OF Europe have been very
favorable TO the spread and fusion OF
these tine races, and the outcome has
been the strongest and most variously
gifted breed OF men that the world has
seen. W hereNer the races have remained
comparatively pure we seldom find any
high or energetic civilization, and never
any line towering of genius. Sweden,
where the tall, fair, long-headed race eX-
lists in its purest form, has produced no
r u
the dark, broad-headed race may be
found in great purity, has, in like man.
ner, produced vigorous but an undis-
| tlngued breed of men. Corsica and the
Pyrenees- -Orientales, where a fairly un-
mixed race of dark, long-headed men
live, have, unlike Sicily or Gard, pro-
duced no poets.
Wherever, on the other hand, we find a
land where two unlike races, each of fine
quality, have become intermingled and
are in process of fusion, there we tindsa
breed of men who have left their mark
on the world, and have given birth to
great poets and artists. Such are the men
OF Sicily, race compounded OF the most
various clements from east and south and
north, which has produced, and is to-day
producing, so large ( share OF the genius
of the Italian Peninsula. Such are the
fair and tall but broad-headed men OF
Lorraine, a cross between Celt and Teu-
ton. Such are the Lowland Scotch, on
the border-land between Gael and Saxon.
Such well-tempered breeds have been
yielded by Normandy and Tuscany and
Swabia. We know little of the physical
anthropology of the ancient Greek, but il
is certain that one OF his most character
istic types was the tall, fair man we know
IN the north; and the geographical and
geological characteristics of Greece pre-
sent in perfection the conditions which
enable varying races to settle and develop
in the closest proximity to one another.
Great Britain and Ireland were placed,
by happy chance, broadside on to the
invasion of the fair race. The elongated
Islands thus presented the maximum OF
opportunity for intercourse between the
! two races. Even at the present time the
process of fusion is still going on. The
comparatively fair race extends along the
! east coasts of both islands, and the com
paratively dark race along the west
coasts. The islands form, therefore, a
well-arranged pair of compact electric
batteries for explosive fusion Of the two
elements. Both races are necessary for
the production of imaginative genius, al
all events, for it is a mistake to suppose
that high imaginative genius is charac-
teristic of the unmiXed dark races. In
DR.. Beddoe's map of the British Isles
showing what he terms the index OF
nigrescence, one solitary islet of the dark
race only may be seen in England, east o1
the Welsh border, and apparently at one
time joined to it. This islet is in War
wickshire; that is, in the county Of
Shakespeare. Milton's family belonged
to neigh boring county, and Milton him.
self, we know, had Welsh blood in his
veins. Out of the play of these two races
has come all that is finest in English i'm
imaginative genius.