New-York tribune., 1896-10-04


According TO Professor Ratzel the kind OF
migration which may be inferred between the
western coast of America and the islands OF the
sea was such as is still going on within the ISL
and realm itself. Its effect was 10 people the
whole Pacific basin with men who were yer!
much alike In important characterstcs nov"
ever much they might differ In detail The proc
ess has its counterpart in the Atlanuc oasii
at the present day. where the civilized states
of the West have been populated from Europe
and are now slowly giving back growing per-
ccntage of the idle and well-to-do classes lh's
shifting may 60 OH for ages till an equilibrium
Is reached On the Pacific. also 1t IS no longer
the uncivilized races who move freely Bu'
there was a time when they did all the tme
what they do now occasionally. when they mi
grated in fleets and hardly missed an island IN
regions where the early European navigators
with compass and sextant went astray Tor
generations. only making discoveries by acci-
dent II the ancient Americans found the ISL
ands By the same process the islanders FOUND
the continent much the easier task of the two
and there is no telling how often this discovery
and rediscovery may have taken place For un-
civilized man has no history; he has only tradl-
ton The memory of past achievement fades
into legend. and no fact is left to link old things
with new. He cannot hoard his experiences ana
transmit them to men who are to live after him.
In this defect alone lies the difference between
civilized man and his less fortunate contem-
porary. the savage Of to-day
Professor Ratzel (and here the translator. who
shows unusual freedom of dissent when occasion
serves appears to agree dismisses with word
the theory that men differ in origin. He is no.;
opposed to this because 1T runs counter to a
certain tradition which some hold sacred He
dismisses it simply because 1t has been exploded
bv the study OF facts Haeckels "speechless
man." he intimates died before Haeckei did.
and he instances the natural races as quickest
of all in learning languages. He condemns the
notion that the uncivilized man is any nearer
the brute than the civilized man, and he makes
n cynical remark or two about the brutalism OF
certain Europeans. On the other hand. he Is
lust as positive on the point that civilization Is
not decay The mental capacity Of the civilized
man ha. not been gained at the cost Of the body.
The average German IS stronger and more
shapeiy than the normal savage OF any race.
But this Is not a matter of evolution. 1t Is the
result Of a life less subject to prvation in one
case than in the other In short, Professor
Ratyei is no less opposed TO those Actions which
Rousseau occasoned by his proposed return To
nature than to the more recent fancies which
Grade man all the way up from the ape-with
an interval yet to- be filled-and then cause him
10 disappear 10y process Of degeneracy at the
topmost height OF civilization. For him the
civilized man Is superior simply because ne is
thu heir Of ages. For this favored son COM
parativey few things have to be reinvented OF
discovered. The most ignorant and inefficient
person in a civilized community enjoys benefits
icl, no
though they are as artificial the coat on his
back He drinks at street fountain as he
might at spring in the woods. but between the
spring and the fountain there Is a history OF
thousands of years filled with costly errors as
vel, as great achievements. Left to him this
history would all disappear and with 1t al
mower to construct waterworks more compli-
Gated than an open trough a hollow reed
The uncivilized races exemplify this. Under
the influence Of civilized men they forget thei,
own arts because the weapons and tools of the
white men are better and cheaper than theirs
They cease to do even those things which they
can do better THAI anybody else The wonder
full fabrics upon which they once prided them
selves are disappearing and they have learned
nothing to take the place Of their ancient skill
in weaving or pleating embroidery pot
tery decoration. They are forced to become the
pensioners Of a civilization which they did not
help to create.
Yet these men Of the Pacific coasts and islands
have displayed brilliant endOwments. Long ag,
they divided the sky Of night into constellation
TO which they gave names. They studied th'
winds and the currents Of their sea realm ant
observed with minute accuracy the angle
which they had to encounter the flow OF the ocea'
or the wind in making a given island. mer
loa~ ~vanAtI