ther than race, and practical politics are thus conditioned, not by
what men really are, but by what they think they are.

The late war is a striking case in point. That war is very generally
regarded as having been one of "race." The idea certainly lent to the
struggle much of its bitterness and uncompromising fury. And yet, from
the genuine racial standpoint, it was nothing of the kind. Ethnologists
have proved conclusively that, apart from certain palaeolithic survivals
and a few historically recent Asiatic intruders, Europe is inhabited by
only three stocks: (1) The blond, long-headed "Nordic" race, (2) the
medium-complexioned, round-headed "Alpine" race, (3) the _brunet_,
long-headed "Mediterranean" race. These races are so dispersed and
intermingled that every European nation is built of at least two of
these stocks, while most are compounded of all three. Strictly speaking,
therefore, the European War was not a race-war at all, but a domestic
struggle between closely knit blood-relatives.

Now all this was known to most well-educated Europeans long before 1914.
And yet it did not make the slightest difference. The reason is that, in
spite of everything, the vast majority of Europeans still believe that
they fit into an entirely different race-category. They think they
belong to the "Teutonic" race, the "Latin" race, the "Slav" race, or the
"Anglo-Saxon" race. The fact that these so-called "races" simply do not
exist but are really historical differentiations, based on language and
culture, which cut sublimely across genuine race-lines--all that is
quite beside the point. Your European may apprehend this intellectually,
but so long as it remains an intellectual novelty it will have no
appreciable effect upon his conduct. In his heart of hearts he will
still believe himself a Latin, a Teuton, an Anglo-Saxon, or a Slav. For
his blood-race he will not stir; for his thought-race he will die. For
the glory of the dolichocephalic "Nordic" or the brachycephalic "Alpine"
he will not prick his finger or wager a groat; for the triumph of the
"Teuton" or the "Slav" he will give his last farthing and shed his
heart's blood. In other words: Not what men really are, but what they
think they are.

At first it may seem strange that in contemporary Europe thought-race
should be all-powerful while blood-race is impotent. Yet there are very
good reasons. Not only has modern Europe's great dynamic been nationalism,
but also nationa