n _art_, and
again as a _result_. He makes the term "denationalization" coextensive
with our "assimilation," and says that the ensemble of measures which a
government takes for inducing a population to abandon one type of
culture for another is denationalization. Denationalization by the
authority of the state carries with it a certain amount of coercion; it
is always accompanied by a measure of violence. In the next sentence,
however, we are told that the word "denationalization" may also be used
for the non-coercive _process_ by which one nationality is assimilated
with another. M. Novicow further speaks of the _art_ of assimilation,
and he tells us that the _result_ of the intellectual struggle between
races living under the same government, whether free or forced, is in
every case assimilation. Burgess also takes a narrow view of the
subject, restricting the operation of assimilating forces to the present
and considering assimilation a result of modern political union. He
says: "In modern times the political union of different races under the
leadership of the dominant race results in assimilation."

From one point of view assimilation is a process with its active and
passive elements; from another it is a result. In this discussion,
however, assimilation is considered as a process due to prolonged
contact. It may, perhaps, be defined as that process of adjustment or
accommodation which occurs between the members of two different races,
if their contact is prolonged and if the necessary psychic conditions
are present. The result is group homogeneity to a greater or less
degree. Figuratively speaking, it is the process by which the
aggregation of peoples is changed from a mere mechanical mixture into a
chemical compound.

The process of assimilation is of a psychological rather than of a
biological nature, and refers to the growing alike in character,
thoughts, and institutions, rather than to the blood-mingling brought
about by intermarriage. The intellectual results of the process of
assimilation are far more lasting than the physiological. Thus in France
today, though nineteen-twentieths of the blood is that of the aboriginal
races, the language is directly derived from that imposed by the Romans
in their conquest of Gaul. Intermarriage, the inevitable result to a
greater or less extent of race contact, plays its part in the process of
assimilation, but mere mixture of races will not cause assimilation.
Moreover