nt centuries. We know, for example, that the so-called Mexicans of
to-day are a people produced by a fusion of Spanish conquerors and Indian
aborigines the Mexican is neither Spaniard nor Indian, though he may
resemble both in certain respects; he is a product of natural evolution,
accomplished in this case by an amalgamation of two contrasted types. When
we speak of the American people, we must realize that it too has come into
existence as such, and even, indeed, that it is in the actual process of
evolution at the present time. The various foreign elements that have been
added during the last few decades by the hundreds of thousands are
becoming merged with the people who preceded them, just as the Dutch and
the French and the English coalesced during the days of early settlement
to form the young American nation. Perhaps most of us call ourselves
Anglo-Saxon, but we are in reality somewhat different even in physical
respects from the Englishmen of Queen Elizabeth's time, who alone deserved
the name Anglo-Saxon. This very term indicates an evolution of a type that
differs from both the Angles and the early Saxons of King Alfred's age.
These are simple examples which illustrate many features of the universal
history of human races wherever they are to be found. Even in the
comparatively peaceful times of our modern era the history of any race is
a veritable turmoil of constant changes; conquerors impress their
characters upon the vanquished, while the victors often adopt some of the
features of the conquered. Colonies split off from the mother nation to
follow out their destinies under other conditions. Nowhere does the
naturalist find evidence of long-established permanence, or an unentwined
course of an uninterrupted and unmodified line of racial descent.

It is the task of the student of human evolution to unravel the tangled
threads of human histories. The task is relatively simple when it is
concerned with recent times where the aid of written history may be
summoned but when the events of remote and prehistoric ages are to be
placed in order, the difficulties seem well-nigh insuperable. All is not
known, nor can it ever be known; but wherever facts can be established,
science can deal with them. By a study of the present races of mankind,
much of their earlier history can be worked out, for their genetic
relations may be determined by employing the principle that likeness means
consanguinity. Let us suppose an ali