nor China counted for very much.  There were illusions on both sides of the North Sea, which had to be paid for in blood.  In both countries imperialism was a sentiment curiously compounded of idealism and bombast, and supported by very doubtful science.  In the case of Germany the distortion of facts was deliberate and monstrous.  Not only was every schoolboy brought up on cooked population statistics and falsified geography, but the thick-set, brachycephalous Central European persuaded himself that he belonged to the pure Nordic race, the great blond beasts of Nietzsche, which, as he was taught, had already produced nearly all the great men in history, and was now about to claim its proper place as master of the world.  Political anthropology is no genuine science.  Race and nationality are catchwords for which rulers find that their subjects are willing to fight, as they fought for what they called religion four hundred years ago.  In reality, if we want to find a pure race, we must visit the Esquimaux, or the Fuegians, or the Pygmies; we shall certainly not find one in Europe.  Our own imperialists had their illusions too, and we are not rid of them yet, because we do not realise that the fate of races is decided, not in the council-chamber or on the battle-field, but by the same laws of nature which determine the distribution of the various plants and animals of the world.  It may be that by approaching our subject from this side we shall arrive at a more scientific, if a more chastened, anticipation of our national future than was acceptable to the enthusiasts of expansion in the last twenty years of Queen Victoria’s reign.

The history of the world shows us that there have been three great human reservoirs which from time to time have burst their banks and flooded neighbouring countries.  These are the Arabian peninsula, the steppes of Central Asia, and the lands round the Baltic, the original home of the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples.  The invaders in each case were pastoral folk, who were driven from their homes by over-population, or drought and famine, or the pressure of enemies behind them.  It is easy for nomads to ‘trek,’ even for great distances; and till the discovery of gunpowder they were the most formidable of foes.  The Arabs and Northern Europeans have founded great civilisations; the Mongol hordes have been an unmitigated curse to humanity.  The invaders never kept their blood pure.  The famous Jewish nose is probably Hittite, and certainly not Bedouin.  There are no pure Turks in Europe, and the Hungarians have lost all resemblance to Mongols.  The modern Germans seem to belong mainly to the round-headed Alpine race, which migrated into Europe in early times from the Asiatic highlands.  In England there is a larger proportion of Nordic blood, because the Anglo-Saxons partially exterminated the natives; but the old Mediterranean race, which had made its way up the warm western coasts, still holds its own in Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, and