New-York tribune., 1917-01-13
LITERARY CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
A Racial Interpretation or History with an
Application to the Future More
Lectures by Lafcadio Fearn

vcluminous bibliography for the name
one most expects to find there--that OF
NietzSche. But Houston Stewart Cham
berlain's foundations OF the Nine
teenth Century" is among his authori-
ties. Indeed, he agrees with this Anglo
German son-in-law of Richard Wagner
that Dante. Raphael Titan, Michelan-
gelo and Leonardo were all OF Nordic
blood: and he. too, refers TO the signlii-
cance OF the tradition of Christian art
which gives blue eyes and blond hair
to Christ: "Such ouasi-authcntlc tradi-
tions as we have of Our Lord indicate
his Nordic. possibly Greek. physical and
moral attributes" But-echo of Metz
sehe--"early ascetic Christianity was
the religion OF the slave, the meek. the
lcwly. and tended then, as it does now,
TO break down class and race distinc-
tions absolutely essential 10 the nam
tenance of race purity" And the mix
ing Of races leads to the performance
Of the lower type. SO much for the
melting pot:
The survival Of the Attest means
the survival Of the type best adapt
ed to existing conditions OF envir-
onment. to-day the tenement and
factory. rs in colonial times they
were the clearing of forests, fight.
ing Indians, farming the fields and
sailing the Seven Seas. From the
point of view of race il were better
described as the survival OF the
unfit"
That this Nordic super-race has
spent the energies not employed IN con
ouering the world in internecine strlle
is one of the paradoXes of its history
The Thirty Years War all but eXter-
minated it in Germany. The religious
prosecutions in France, the author
holds. permanently weakened that
country by driving its Huguenots'
largely northern, or Nordic, frencn-
men, back to the countries OF their
racial origin; and to-day the whole
race, at the dawn Of its final conquest
of the world, has chosen TO fall to eX-
terminating itself in war from whose
consequences IL cannot, in the most
favorable circumstances, recover IN a
hundred wears. And thus the author
returns in the end to his point of de-
parture, his plea for the preservation,
the strengthening and the consolida-
tion Of the Nordic element in the New
World.
In its large outlines this is an in
tensely interesting book-for Nordlcs'
That IL will provoke heated replies
from Alpines and Mediterranean ana
others---is far from unlikely. That MT
Grant is a Nordic himself is perhaps
best proved by the enthusiasm with
which he makes war upon some OF his
racial relatives-the Irish. for instance
and the present-day Germans, the very
people who have for nearly fifty years
done exactly what he would have the
American Nordics do--cultivated their
racial consciousness. He disapproyes
of democracy and its faith in the av-
erage man; in fact, his ideal is Nor
Gic aristocracy in this country which
/ shall rule its undesirable immigrant ions
/ even unto the control Of their birth
\ rates.
A frank book, a courageous book and
a tensely readable one. Written IN. a
popular style for the average Nordlc
reader. it has. on its scientific side
( the weighty approval Of Henry Fair
field Osborn, the author Of "Men OF
the Old Stone Age"