The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1910-06-10
ROOSEVELT GIVES
ROMANESLECTURE
Former President of United
States at Oxford
LORD CURZON IN THE CHAIR
S%heIdonlan Theater Crowded with
Distinguished People When Amer
lean Talks on theological An
aIoqies In History"

Oxford, E~ngland.-The Romanes
lecture by Theodore Roosevelt, which
was to have been delivered on May IL,
but which was postponed on account
Of the death of King Edward. was
given on June z by the distinguished
American. The Sheldonian theater
was filled to its capacity by notable
persons and Oxford students and the
lecture, which was on Biological
Analogies in History" was well re-
ceived. Lord Curzon, chancellor of the
university, presided.
In seeking to penetrate the causes
of the mysteries that surround not
only mankind but all life, both In the
present and the past, said Mr.. Roose-
welt, we see strange a%nalogies IN the
phenomena of life and death. OF birth
growth and change, between those
physical groups of animal life which
We designate as species. forms, races
and the highly complex and composite
entities which rise before our minds
when we speak Of nations and civil
~lizations. 1t is this study, he assert
ed, that has given science Its present
day prominence, and the historian or
mankind must work in the scientific
spirit and use the treasure-houseS OF
science.
To illustrate. the lecturer took sew
eral instances Of the development OF
new species and the extinction OF spe-
cies in the history Of mammalian life.
showing that in some cases the causes
can be traced with considerable accu-
racy, and in other cases we cannot SO
much as hazard a guess as to why a
given change occurred.
Analoqies In Human History.
Continuing, Mr.. Roosevelt said IN
part:
Now. as to all Of these phenomena In the
evolution of species. there are. II not
homologies, at least certain analogles, IN
the history Of human societies. In the
history of the rise to prominence. or the
development and change, of the tenn
norary dominance, and death or trans
formation, Of the groups of varying kind
which form races or nations.
AS in biology, so in human history. a
new form may result from the speclallza-
ton of a l~ong-existing and hitherto very
slowly-changing generahzed or nom
| SDcCldlZeu lOIlI, do, AOA
a barbarlc race from a variety or causes
suddenly develops a more complex cultl-
walton and civilization. That Is what oc-
Cured, for instance. in western Europe
during the centuries Of the Teutonic ana
later the scandinavian ethnic overf1ows
from the north. All the modern countries
Of western Europe are descended from the
states created by these northern invaders.
When first created they could be called
new" or young" states in the sense
that part or all Of the people composing
them were descended from races that
hitherto had not been civilized at all, and
that therefore for the first time entered
on the career Of civilized communities.
In the southern part Of western Europe
the new states thus formed consisted In
bulk of the inhabitants already In the land
under the Roman empire: and 1t was
here that the new kingdoms first took
shape. Through a reflex action their
influence then extended back into the cold
forests from which the invaders had come,
and Germany and Scandinavia witnessed
the rise Of communities with essentially
the same civilization as their southern
neighbors; though In those communities
unlike the southern communities. there
was no infusion Of new blood, and in each
case the new civilized nation which gradu-
ally developed was composed entirely OF
members Of the same race which In the
same region had for ages lived the life OF
a slowly changing barbarism. The same
was true Of the Slavs and the Slavonized
Films of eastern Europe, when an infl-
tration Of scandinavian leaders from the
north and infltration Of Byzantine
culture from the south Joined to produce
the changes which have gradually. out OF
the little Slav communities Of the forest
and the steppe. formed the mighty Russian
empire of today.
"New" and "Young" Nations.
49, >-.1-.
merely a splitting off from a long-estab'
lished, highly developed and specialized
nation. In this case the nation is usually
spoken of as a young" and Is correctly
spoken Of as a new" nation; but the
term should always be used with a cleal
sense Of the difference between what Il
described in such case, and what Is de-
scribed by the same term in speaking Of
a civilized nation just developed from 6
barbarism. Carthage and Syracuse were
new cities compared with Tyre and Cor
NTH; but the Greek or Phoenician race was
in every sense Of the word az old in thu
new city as in the old city. So, nowadays
Victoria or Manitoba Is a new community
compared with England or Scotland; blu
the ancestral type Of civilization and cul
ture Is as old in one case as in the other
/. Of course do not mean for a momen
that great changes are not produced by
the mere fact that the old civilized race
IL suddenly placed In surroundings Wner'
1t has again to go through the work o.
aiming the wilderness. a work finished
many centuries before in the origina
home of the race: / merely mean tina
the ancestral history is the same in eacl
case. We can rightly use the phrase q
new people" In speaking of Canadian
or Australians, Americans or A~frfkanders
But we use 1t in an entirely differen
sense from that In which we use 1t whel
speaking Of such communities as thos'
founded by the mortimer and their de
scendants during that period Of astonish
ing growth which saw the descendants o
the Morse sea-thieves conquer and trans
form Normandy, Sicily. and the British
islands: we use 1t in an entirely differen
sense from that in which we use 1t whel
speaking Of the new states that grew III
around Warsaw, Kief. Novgorod, ant
Moscow, as the wild savages of thu
steppes and the marshy forests struggled
h~altingly and stumblingly upward t
become builders of cities and to form
stable governments. The Kingdoms o
Charlemagne and Alfred were new.
compared with the empire on the Bos
phorus; they were also in every way diff
ferent: their lines of ancestral descent ha.
nothing in common with those of thu
polyglot realm which paid tribute to thu
Caoeara of Rv1o rff,,pn. fbofr Socip1 proh