Lower coast gazette., 1910-06-11
ROOSEVELT GIVES
ROMANESL LECTURE
Former President of United
States at Oxford
LORD CURZON IN THE CHAIR
sheIdonian Tkeater Crowded WIN
Distinguished People When Amer
lean Talks on biological An
aIogies In History"

lecture by Theodore Roosevelt, WHICH
yas 10 have been delivered on May 49,
but which was postponed on account
of the death OF King Edward, was
given on June 7 by the distinguished
American. The SheldOnian theater
was filed to It's capacity by notable
persons and Oxford students and the
lecture, which was on "Biologlcai
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 inc
present and the past. said Mr.. Roose-
welt. we see strange analogleS III the
phenomena of life and death, of birth
growth and change. between those
physical groups Of animal life when
We designate as species, FORMS races
and the highly complex and composite
entities which rise before our minds
when we speak Of nations n cl'i
,izations. 1t Is this study. he assert
Cd that has given science It's present
dav promInenCe, and the historian OF
mankind must work in the scientlhc
spirit and use the treasure-houses OF
science.
To illustrate, the lecturer took sew
eral instances of the development Oh
new species and the extinction OF spe-
cies In the history Of mammalian llle'
showing that in some cases the causes
can he traced with considerable accu-
racy, and in other cases we cannot SO
much as hazard a guess as to why a
given change occurred.
Analoaies 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
bomoIogies. at least certain analogles, III
tho history OF human societies., IN the
history Of the rise TO prominence, OF '"e
development and a OF the tenn
porary dominance, and death or trans,
formation, OF the groups OF varying hihu
which form races or nations.
As in biology. so in human history, a
now form NAV result from the speclallza-
ZION of n long-existlng and hitherto very
slowly-changing ge~neraized OF non
specIalized form; as, for instance "heh
a barbaric race from a variety Oh causes
suddenly develops a more complex cuiti-
walton and civilization. That IS what oc-
Cured. for instance, In western EUROPE
dur,ng the centuries Of the Teutonic and
G.-l;,o ,tnp nfhnir 0NerIOWS
from the north. All the modern countries
-, 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 mart 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
hulk of the inhabitants already In the land
under the Roman empire: and 1t was
here that the new Kingdoms hrst TOOK
shane. Through O reflex action thelf
influence then EXTENDED back Into the colo
forests from which the invaders had come
and Germany and Scandinavia witnessed
the rise of communities with essentially
the same civilization as their southern
~neIshbors 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 th'
same region had for ages lived the HE o
a slowly changing barbarism. The same
was true of the Slavs and the SlavonizeC
Firms of eastern Europe. when an inhl
tration of Scandinavian leaders from TIT
north and infltration of Byzantin'
culture from the south Joined TO produc'
the changes which nave 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 q splitting off from a long-estab
lished, highly developed and specialize
nation. In this case the nation Is usuali
spoken OF as a young" and Is c%orrectl
spoken of as a new" nation: but tn
term should always be used with a clea
sense Of the difference between what
described in such case. and what Is de
scribed by the same term In speaking c
a civilized nation just developed from
%barbarism. Carthage and Syracuse wer
new CltleS COIllldItu ~ lslV oiiu WI
NTH; but the Greek or Phoenician race wa
IN every sense Of the word as old In tn
new city as in the old city. So, nowaday'
Victoria or Manitoba is a new communit
compared with England or Scotland; br
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
IN suddenly placed In surroundings whel
Il has again to go through the work
tanning the wilderness, a work fnishe
many centuries before in the origins
home Of the race: I merely mean thi
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 It in an entirely diferel
sense from that in which We use 1t whs
speaking OF such communities as tho
founded by the northmen and their d
scendants during that period Of astonisI
ing growth which saw the descendants
the Morse sea-thieves conquer and tran
form Normandy, Sicily, and the Briti'
islands; we use 1t in an entirely differe
sense from tina in which we use 1t VIII
speaking of the new states that grew
around Warsaw, Kief, Novgorod, a.
Moscow, as the wild savages of 4
steppes and the marshy forests struggl
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 Be
phorus; they were also In every way d
ferent; their lines Of ancestral descent h
nothing in common with those Of I
polyglot realm which paid tribute to t
Caesars Of ~Byzantium: their social pro
lens and aftertime history were totaI
different. This is not true of those "ney
nations which spring direct from old n
tons. Brazil, the Argentine, the Unit