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Show 1.32 1-33 50115, 11 maybe fancy. but it seems to me that, at i go about in Switzerland. 1 can distinguish by the character of the men who remain those cantons who sent forth mercenary trumps from [1,050 who kept their own for their own upbuilding. l'erhaps for other reasons than this laicerne is weaker than (iraubiinden. and ['nter- walden less virile than little Appetizell. In any event, this is abso- lutely certain: just in proportion to its extent and thoroughness is military selection a cau-e of national decline," Spain died of empire centuries ago. It was only her ghost which walked at Manila and Santiago. ‘quuw ln‘mmlll am." In 1030 the Augustinian friar La ,l‘uente thus wrote of the late of Spain: "against the credit for redeemed souls I set the cost of armadas and the sacri- fices of soldiers and friars sent to the Philippines. i\11d this I count the chief loss; for mines give silver. and forests give tim- ber, but only Spain gives Spaniards. and she may give so many that she may be left desolate. and constraint-«l to bring up stran~ gers‘ children instead of her own." "Thin is tiastile." said a Spanish knight: "she makes men and \iastes them." "This sub- lime and terrible phrase," says Captain Carlos tiilman (‘alkina from whom I have received both these tpiotations, "sums up Spanish history." The warlike nation of today is the decadent nation of tomon row. it has ever been so. and in the nattire of thing-i it must ever be. In his charming studies of ".l'eutlal and Modern Japan," Mr. Arthur Knapp, of Yokohama. returns again and again to the great marvel of Japairs military pruwess after more than two hundred years of peace. This was shown in the ('hinese war. It has been more Conclusively shown on the fields of \lanchuria since Mr, Knapp's book was written. it is astonishing to him that. after more than six generations in which physical courage has not been demanded, these virile virtues should he found unim- paired. \‘e can r'adily see that this is just what we should expect. in times of peace there is no slaughter oi the strong. no sacrifice of the courageous. in the peaceful struggle for exist- ence there is a premium placed on these virtues: The virile and the brave survive. The idle, weak and dissipated go to the wall. * "Lors de la gum-re de Paraguay la population virile tlispfll‘nt presque completenieia, et il ire rt-sta one its malailes (It lrgs infirines." (L'. Iteralus.) "What won the battles on the Yalu, in Korea or Manchuria," says the Japanese Knobe, "was the ghosts of our fathers guiding our hands and beating in our hearts. They are not dead, these ghosts, those spirits of our warlike ancestors. Scratch a Japa- nese, even one of the most advanced ideas. and you will find :1 Samurai." If we translate this from the language of Shintoism to that of science we find it a testimony to the strength of race heredity, the survival of the ways of the strong in the lives of the selfrrelianti If after two hundred years of incessant battle Japan still remained virile and warlike, that would indeed be the marvel. lint that marvel no nation has ever seen. It is doubtless true that warlike traditions are most persistent with nations most fre« quently engaged in war. But the traditions of war and the physi- cal strength to gain victories are very different things. Other things being equal, the nation which has known least of war is the one most likely to develop the "strong battalions" with whom victory must rest. As Americans we are more deer ly interested in the fate of our mother Country than in that of the other nations of liurope. \Vhat shall we say of linn'land and of her relation to the reversed selection of war? Statistics we have none and no evi~ dcnce of tangible decline that linglishmen will not indignanlly repudiate. When the London press in the vacation season tills~ its columns with editorials on English degeneration, it is to some- thing else to which these journalists refer. Their problem is that of the London slums, of sweatshops and child labor, of wasting overworl' and of lack of nutrition, of premature old age and of sodden drunkenness-miluences which bring about the degenera- tion of the individual, the inefficiency of the social group. but which for the most part leave no trace in heredity and are there- fore no factor in the decline of the race. Such decline is at once cause, effect and symptomia sign of racial inadequacy. a cause of further enfeeblement and an effect of unjust. and injurious social, political and industrial conditions in the past. But the problem before us is not the problem of the slums. "'hat mark has been left on lingland by her great struggles for freedom and by the thousand petty struggles to lllllfllst‘ on the |