Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1910-06-10
ROOSEVELT GIVES
R0MANES LECTURE
Former President of United
States at Oxford
LORD CURzoN IN THE CHAIR
Sheldonian Theater Crowded With
, Distinguished People When Amer
lean Talks on geological An
aIogies In History"

Oxford, England.-The Romanes
lecture by Theodore Roosevelt, which
was to have been delivered on May IS,
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 we'll 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
Npresent and the past. said Mr.. Roose-
velt, we see strange analogies 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 OF
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
given change occurred.
Analoeies in Human History.
Continuing, Mr.. Roosevelt said in
part:
Now, as to all of these Phenomena in the
evolution of species, there are, IL not
homologies, at least certain analogies. in
the history of human societies, In the
history of the rise to prominence. OF the
development and change, of the tenn
porary 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 specializa-
ton of a long-existing and hitherto very
slowly-changing generalized or nom
specialized form; as, for instance, when
\ barbaric race from a variety of causes
suddenly develops a more complex culti-
VuCOn ana ClNlnZaIOu. lIldl Is WIdl OC-
CURED, for instance, In western Europe
during the centuries of the Teutonic and
later the Scandinavian ethnic overfows
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 theii
influence then extended back into the colo
forests from which the invaders had come
and Germany and Scandinavia witnessed
the Use of communities with essentially
the same civilization as their southern
neighbors; though In those communities
unlike the southern communities ther,
was no infusion of new blood, and in eacl
case the new civilized nation which gradu
ally developed was composed entirely o
members of the same race which in th
same region had for ages lived the life o
a slowly changing barbarism. The sam
was true of the Slavs and the Slavonize,
Firms of eastern Europe, when an infil
tration OF Scandinavian leaders from TIL
north and infiltration of Byzantin
culture from the south Joined to produc
the changes which have gradually, out o
the little Slav communities of the fores
and the steppe. formed the mighty Russian
empire of today.
"New" and "Young" Nations.
Again. the new form may represen
merely a splitting off from long -estah
Iished, highly developed and specialize
nation. In this case the nation is usual
spoken of as young" and is correctl
spoken of as new" nation; but tn
term should always be used with clea
sense of the difference between what
described in such case, and what is de
ecribed by the same term in speaking c
a civilized nation just developed from
barbarism. Carthage and Syracuse wer
new cities compared with Tyre and Coz
inth; but the Greek or Phoenician race wa
in every sense of the word as old in th
new city as in the old city. So nowaday,
Victoria or Manitoba is a new communit
compared with England or Scotland; bl
the ancestral type of civilization and Gu
ture Is as old in one case as in the othe
of course do not mean for a momer
that great changes are not produced b
the mere fact that the old civilized rae
is suddenly placed in surroundings whei
II has again to go through the work {
tanning the wilderness, work finishe
many centuries before in the origins
home OF the race. / merely mean thu
the ancestral history is the same in eac
case. We can rightly use the phrase =
new people" in speaking of Canadian
or Australians. Americans or Afrikander
But we use 1t in an entirely differei
sense from that in which we use 1t whe
speaking of such communities as tho.
founded by the northmen and their d.
scendants during that period OF astonisl
ing growth which saw the descendants
the Morse sea-thieves conquer and tran
form Normandy. Sicily. and the Britis
fqlan1g. IL In n enfiraIv
sense from that in which we use II whe
speaking of the new states that grew l
around Warsaw. Kief. Novgorod ar
Moscow. as the wild savages of Il
steppes and the marshy forests struggle
haltingly and stumblingly upward
become builders OF cities and to for
stable governments. The kingdoms
Charlemagne and Alfred were new
compared with the empire on the Bo
phorus they were also in every way di