Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1910-06-09
ROOSEVELT GIVES
R0MANES LECTURE
Former President of United
States at Oxford
LORD cURzcN IN THE CHAIR
sheIdonian Theater Crowded With
Distinguished People When Amer.
lean Talks on theological An.
aIogles In History"

Oxford, England-The Romanes
lecture by Theodore Roosevelt, which
was to have been delivered on Nav 10
but which was postponed on account
of the death of King Edward, was
given on June 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
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
4 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 treasurehouses 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.
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 tenn
porary dominance, and death or trans
formation, of tbs groups of varying kind
which form races or nations.
AS in biology, so in human history, a
new form may result from the specialza-
ton Of long-e existing and hitherto very
!, slowly-changing generalized or non
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 &C.
CURED. FOR instance, in western Europe
during the centuries of the Teutonc 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
mat 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
oulk or the Inhabitants already in the land
under the Roman empire; and it was
mere 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,
ana 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 nattnn which gradu-
any developed was composed entirely of
members OF the same race which in the
same region had for ages lived the life of
slowly changing barbarism. The same
va was true OF the Slavs and the Slavonized
rims of eastern Europe, when an infil-
.ratlon OF Scandinavian leaders from the
north and infiltration of Byzantine
culture from the south Joined to produce
IN me changes which have gradually out of
ire little Slav communities of the forest
and the steppe, formed the mighty Russian
empire of today.
New" and "Young" Nations.
Again, the new form may represent
mere, merely splitting off from ong-estab-
llsned, highly developed and specialized
liauon In this case the nation is usually
spoken OF as young and is correctly
spoken of as a new" nation but the
.erm should always be used with clear
sense Of the difference between what is
described in such case, and what is de-
seriped by the same term in speaking Of
q civilized nation just developed from a
oarnarism. Carthage and Syracuse were
n ,N1 cities compared with Tyre and Cor
,lth' but the Greek or Phoenician race
N every sense of the word as old in the
t Wv city as In the old city. So. nowadays
victoria or Manitoba is a new community
..suiipared with England or Scotland; but
~. ae ancestral type of civilization and cul-
.,ure IS as old in one case as in the other
=. " course do not mean for moment
ana. ...at great changes are not produced by
q Ae1Cl tildl Tie Ola civilized race
80 20 suddenly placed in surroundings where
ia mas again to go through the work of
lining the wilderness. a work finished
h any centuries before in the original
t tiolhe OF the race: I merely mean that
oa .e ancestral history is the same in each
~. We can rightly use the phrase "a
~ People" ir speaking of Canadians
p D. australians, Americans or Afrikanders.
s s,ut we use It in an entirely different
1 -. from that in which we use it when
Speakang Of such communities as those
soala by the mortimer and their de-
~ enaants during that period of astonsh-
+h s growth which saw the descendants of
To- ,r Morse sea-thieves conquer and trans
is, .,n y aormandy, Sicily, and the British
sana' we use 1t in an entirely different |
s ssrase from that in which we use it when /
y lsp peg Of the new states that grew up
NTos uhu Warsaw. Kief, Novgorod and |
atars as the wild savages of the
ha I ppes and the. marshy forests struggled
Theaa.s.s's.. anu STUN plingly upward TO /
33stal oine builders of cities and to form
sc,,aa Che governments The kingdoms of
cn,a u agne and Alfred We're new,
nsal' red with the empire on the Bos-