The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1910-06-09
ROMANES LECTURE GIVEN
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Event Postponed by Kings Death Attracts a
Large Audience at Oxford---Lord Curzon
Introduces the Distinguished American.

| enCe Ol ulStiuBuiSueu men anu St'
dents OF Oxford university, Theodore
Roosevelt on June z delivered the
! Romanes lecture, his subject being
Biological Analogies in History" The
lecture had been scheduled for delivery
on May 18, but of course was post
poned on account of King Edwards
| demise. 1t was given In the Sheldon
ian theater and Lord Curzon, 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. 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 guess as to why q
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, II not
| homologies, at lenst 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-
tion OF long-existing and hitherto very
| slowly-changing generalized or nom
| specialized form; as, for instance. when
| q barbarlc race from a variety of causes
suddenly develops a more complex cuti-
| walton and civilization. That Is what oc-
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
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 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 now 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-lad for ages lived the life OF
| slowly changing barbarism. The same
was true of the Slavs and the Slavonzed
Firms of eastern Europe when an infil-
tration of Scandinavian leaders from the
north and iniltration 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 "Young" Nations.
Again, the new form may represent
merely 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 clea,
sense of the difference between what Is
described in such case. and what is de.
scrbed by the same term in speaking o,
a civilized nation just developed from 3
barbarism. Carthage and Syracuse were
new cities compared with Tyre and Cor.
inth; 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. NOWADAYS
Victoria or Manitoba Is a new communit,
compared with England or Scotland; bu
the ancestral type of civilization and cul
ture is as old in one case as in the other
| of course do not mean for momen
that great changes are not produced b,
the mere fact that ,he old civilized rae,
is suddenly placed in surroundings wher,
II has again TO go through the work O.
tanning the wilderness, a work finished
many centuries before in the origina
home of the race: ] merely mean tha
the ancestral history is the same I'm eacl
case. We can rightly use the phrase q,
new people" in speaking OF Canadian,
or Australians. Americans or Afrikanders
But we use 1t in an entirely differen
sense from that in which we use II whe,
speaking of such communities as thos
founded by tile northmen and their de
scendants during that period of astonish
Ing growth which saw the descendants o
the Morse sea-thieves conquer and trans
form Normandy, Sicily. and the Britisl
islands, we use it in an entirely dlffcren
sense from that in which we use IL whel
speaking of the new states that grew M
around Warsaw, Kef. Novgorod. an,
Moscow as the wild savages OF tn
steppes and the marshy forests struggle,
haltngly and stumbHngly upward I,
become builders of cities and to form
stable governments. The Kingdoms n
Charlemagne and Alfred were "new
compared with the empire on the Bos
phorus; they We're also in every way diff
ferent; their lines OF ancestral descent ba,
nothing in common with those of IL
poyglot realm which paid tribute to tn
Caesars of Byzantium; their social prob
lens and aftertime history were total,
| different This q moi tr,1a nf tb.,. .a,..,..,