lies not, I think, in a lack of inherent capacity but in a lack of
opportunity, the meaning of which now comes to be considered.


ACHIEVEMENT.

We have now come to the point where an answer must be given to the
question: If the African Natives are on the whole endowed with a mental
capacity equal to that possessed by the Europeans why have they never
achieved any civilisation at all comparable with those cultures which
have been successively set up by the people of Europe, Asia and Ancient
America?

If we take it for granted that the Africans have never achieved a
civilisation similar to those that date back beyond the limits of
history, a premiss by no means assured seeing that there are signs of
cycles of civilisations coming before those of which we have written or
monumental records and of whose ethnic origin there is no certain
knowledge, then the question may appear to have no other answer than
the assumed lack of inherent capacity in the black race, but let us
consider the matter closely.

The question asked depends upon the proposition that achievement is the
sole test of capacity or, in other words, that achievement must
necessarily follow capacity, and this is a proposition by no means free
from doubt. It is plain that a desire to achieve is a condition
precedent to achievement but it is equally plain that there may well be
ability without ambition. The question why civilisation has not followed
apparent capacity may with equal propriety be asked about races whose
mental abilities have never been doubted. Consider, for instance, two