The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-06-08
ROOSEVELT GIVES
R0MANESLECTURE
Former President of United
States at Oxford

TVI IJIcI TTtSIutIlt OI Unite
i, States at Oxford
, LORD CURZ0N IN THE CHAI
sheIdonian Theater Crowded VII
Distinguished People When Amer.
, lean Talks on geological An.
; aIooles In History"
Oxford. England.-The Romano
lecture by Theodore Roosevelt, whic
was to have been delivered on May Il
but which was postponed on accoun
of the death Of King Edward, wa
given on June by the distinguish,
American. The Sheldonian theate
was filled to it's capacity by notable
persons and Oxford students and tn,
lecture, which was on Geological
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
present and the past. said Mr.. Roose.
welt, 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. It 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,
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.
AnaIogies In Human History.
Continuing. Mr.. Roosevelt said in
part:
Now, as to all of these phenomena in the
evolution of species, there are, If 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 tern
pCrary dominance, and death or trans
formation, of the groups of varying kind
which form races or nations.
AS In biology, so in human history,
new form may result from the specializa-
ton of long-existing and hitherto very
slowly-changing generalized or nom
specialized form; as, for instance. when
a barbaric race from a variety of causes
suddenly develops more complex cult
walton and civilization. That Is what oc-
CURED, for instance, in western Europe
during the centuries Of the Teutonic and
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
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 it was
here that the new kingdoms first took
shape Through 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
q q q mn Inf Yc{~ - ~
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
q slowly changing barbarism. The same
was true OF the Slavs and the Slavonized
rims OF eastern Europe, when an inf1l-
tration OF Scandinavian leaders from the
north and infiltration 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 "Youns" Nations.
Again. the new form may represent
merely splitting off from a long-estah-
lished, highly developed and specialized |
nation. In this case the nation is USUALLY |
spoken OF as a "young." and is correct1v |
spoken of as new" nation: but the
term should always be used with a clear
oeilSe VI lHe ulHeTenCe between what ia |
described in such case and what is de-
scribed by the same term in speaking of
a civilized nation just developed from a
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 as old in the
new city as in the old city. So. nowadays
Victoria or Manitoba is new communitv
compared with England or Scotland: hut
the ancestral type OF civilization and chi.
ture Is as old in one case as in the other.
OF course do not mean for moment
that great changes are not produced NV
the mere fact that the old civilized race
Is suddenly placed in surroundings where
It has again to 60 through the work Of
tanning the wilderness, work finished
many centuries before in the original
home of the race: I merely mean that
The ancestral history is the same In each
case. We can rightly use the phrase "a
aew people" in speaking Of Canadians
'r Australians. Americans or Afrikanders
But we use it in an entirely different
sense from that in which we use It when
peaking of such communities as those
ounded by the mortimer and their d.