of races, and he who ignores or seeks to override the race idea
in human history ignores and overrides the central thought of
all history. What, then, is a race? It is a vast family of human
beings, generally of common blood and language, always of common
history, traditions and impulses, who are both voluntarily and
involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of
certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life.

Turning to real history, there can be no doubt, first, as
to the widespread, nay, universal, prevalence of the race idea,
the race spirit, the race ideal, and as to its efficiency as the
vastest and most ingenious invention of human progress. We, who
have been reared and trained under the individualistic
philosophy of the Declaration of Independence and the laisser-
faire philosophy of Adam Smith, are loath to see and loath to
acknowledge this patent fact of human history. We see the
Pharaohs, Caesars, Toussaints and Napoleons of history and
forget the vast races of which they were but epitomized
expressions. We are apt to think in our American impatience,
that while it may have been true in the past that closed race
groups made history, that here in conglomerate America NOUS
AVONS CHANGER TOUT CELA–we have changed all that, and have no
need of this ancient instrument of progress. This assumption of
which the Negro people are especially fond, can not be
established by a careful consideration of history.

We find upon the world's stage today eight distinctly
differentiated races, in the sense in which History tells us the
word must be used. They are, the Slavs of eastern Europe, the
Teutons of middle Europe, the English of Great Britain and