The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1910-06-10
ROMANES LECTURE GIVEN
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Event Postponed by Kings Death Attracts a
Large Audience at Oxford---Lord Curzon
Introduces the Distinguished American.

dents of Oxford university, Theodore
Roosevelt on June delivered the
Romanes lecture, his subject being
Biological Analogies in History" The
lecture had been scheduled for delivery
on May IS. but of course was post
poned on account of King Edwards
demise. 1t was given In the Sheldon
ian theater and Lord Cu-zon. as chan
cellor of the university, presided and
introduced the lecturer.
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. II is this study. he assert
ed, that has given science its present
day prominence, and the historian of
mankind must work in the scientific
science.
To illustrate, the lecturer took sew
ernl 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.
Analogles 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
homoogies, at least certain anologies, 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 long-existing and hitherto very
slowly-changing generalzed or nom
specialized form; as. for instance, when
a barbaric race from a variety Of causes
suddenly develops more complex Guilt
walton and civilization. That is what &C.
during the centuries of the Teutonic and
later the Scandinavian ethnic overflows
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 Ii 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
Firms of eastern Europe. when an inhl-
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.
q "New" and "Young" Nations.
Again. the new form may represent
merely a splitting off from a long-estab-
lished. highly developed and specialized
nation. In this case the nation is usually
spoken of as young, and is correctly
spoken of as new -ation; but the
term should always be used with a clear
sense Of the difference between what is
described I'm such case, and what is de-
scribed by the same term IN speaking Of
civilized nation Just developed from
barbarism. Carthage and Syracuse were
new cities compared with Tyre and Cor
inth; bit 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 a new community
compared with England or Scotland: but
the ancestral type OF civilization and Gull
ture is as old In one case as I'm the other
i OF course do not mean for n moment
that great changes are not produced by
the mere fact that the old civilized race
n suddenly placed In surroundings where
~ has again to go through the work OF
tanning the wilderness. work finished
many centuries before in the original
home of the race: / merely mean that
ease. We can rightly use the phrase "a
new People" In speaking of Canadians
or Australians, Americans or Afrikanders
But we use II in an entirely different
sense from that in which we use Il when
speaking of such communities as those
founded by tile mortimer and their de-
sscendants during that period of astonish-
ing growth which saw the descendants OF
the Morse sea-thleves conquer and trans
form Normandy, Sicily. and the British
islands; we use II In an entirely different
sense from that In which we use Il when
speaking of the new states that grew up
around Warsaw. I<ief. Novgorod, and
Moscow, as the wild savages OF the
steppes and the marshy forests struggled
.haltingly and stumblingly upward to
become builders OF cities and to form
stable governments. rhe kingdoms OF
Charlemagne and Alfred were new. I"
compared with the empire on the Bos-
phorus; they were also In every way DIFF
ferent; their lines OF ancestral descent had
nothing in common with those OF the
polyglot realm which paid tribute TO the
Caesars Of Byzantium; their social prob
lens and aftertime history were totally
different This IL not true OF those new
nations which spring direct from old ma
~.