A Feexca writer on evolution a few years ago made some very suggestive remarks upon the fature of the Yellow races, in the course of which he laid stress upon the theory of cycles in which Lumanity appears to move. He reprobated as unphilosophical the view that the Chinese were only a people condemned to vegetate in an eternal infuuoy, reminded us that we were apt to be misled by the exceeding slowness of their national development, om. phasised the fact that they possessed three of the greatest factors in civilisatiou long before they were known in Barope, and pointed out that the Chi mau was fact proving himeel£ to be the best colonist in the world. It is probable, be said, that to become our equals the only thing these peuple want is the Elements of Euclid, When the first pages of that book appeared, the atic who uow march in the van of civilisation were still wandering about in a savage state in the primeval forests of Europe, "A long series of ge: tious was necessary for those nations to quit the awaddling clothes and lispings of infancy, and to be uble to read the sublime pages issued from the schools of Lonia, Athens, and Alexandria some 2,000 y before, whilst the Hellenic which was the great initiator of moveweut, hes for a long time been only an historical remiuiscon Why should there not be produced in the future ages of our species a similar displacement in the scale of races, to the advantage of some of the Mongol tribes? The day will come when the men of the West, exhausted by the great expenditure of force which the work of civilisation entails, will become extinct, a8 soon as it accomplished the normal cycle of its evolution; if, then, the Mongols still preserve their present vigour, it is allowable to sup. pose that, with the knowledge acquired through contact with us, they will in turn take our place, and be culled upon to gather the Leritage of the earth."
Now there is much suggestion for thought im these opinions, and the writer shows considerable shrewdness in jadgiug of the national character iv selecting the Elements of Euclid as ove of the chief things necessary to complete it, The vagueness and auoircumstantiaity of thought which characterises the Chinese is national defect, and cannot Lut be Lindrauce ty their future deves lopment, Anything that will impart greater accuracy and exactitude to their meittal processes, and give the syllogieu a deeper and more prominent position in their minds, mast toud to strengthen them, as a nation, toa material extent, ly Bat it difficult to accept the writer theory with regard to the wearing-out of the white races, In the firat place, the " work of civilisation " does not, as far as we oau see, involve the expen diture of active force: it rather tends to render active force unnecessary—to supersede it by laying science under contribution with a view to acquiring the greatest possible resulte ut the amalleat possible expenditure. In the second place, statistics are against him, A somewhat remarkable article in a recent number of the Spectator collates foots which point in a precisely oppo. site direction, and go to prove that whatever msy be the contest between the races of the earth the white man occupies an almost impregnable position, The actual figures ure indeed quite startling, for they prove that the increase of while men in the world is rapid to an extent undreamt-of by those who have never looked into the matter, It is barely two centuries, cays the writer, since the white races, though even then the most energetic of mankind, formed but a small fraction in the total of humanity—probably 10 per cout. of the whole—aud were by no means certain that they could de-feud themselves against the remainder, And what is their proportion to-day Lue white races Lave, since 1688, in oreased three-fold, and to-day number no less than 420,000,000 souls, Ihe dark races are receding from before thor, and the "heritage of the earth" in such places, eay, as Egypt, Borneo, Southern Asin, the two Amerions, and the Islands of the South Pavifio, is being steadily gathered in by the whites, Of that one great fact there can be no question, The dark races are not increasing in vombe they are being gradually dominated and "crowded back" by the white men, whose numerical strength is growing rapidly year by year. The only non-white race which Lolds its ground is the Mongol. The Chinese, in spite of rebellious, famines, and floods, still claim to be considered very nearly one-third of the human race; they, too, are showing signs of spreading themselves hither and thither, and the Chinese colonist, by dint of sheer adaptability to cir. cumstances, patience, good humour, and frugality, often thrives while the European starves, The world may be the heritage of the white man, but it is a heritage that is not entailed, and a compromise will Lave to be come to when these two great forces find them. selves in collision, And, finally, the yellow populations are more bomogenerous, and have therefore more solidarity, than the white. Teuton, and Celtic, and Slay are we; and for the white wan to maintain his supremacy there wust be uy falling out
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.