Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/183

questions in the New World is the concourse of races and nationalities greatly removed from each other. This concourse has been abrupt. There was no preparation for mutual adaptation. The greater part of the world has been appropriated by a few nationalities of Europe. By this appropriation some highly civilized populations came into contact with barbarous peoples and with people whose civilization has been entirely different. Again, as the Chinese and the Japanese began to migrate they came in contact with white people differing from them in many ways. The differences between the people who thus come in contact have been so great that their mixing with each other has been greatly prevented.

Side by side with this concourse of the diverse racial elements there has been some change in the institutions, ideas and capabilities of the peoples.

First of all, man has become much more liberal. People of to-day do not demand so much similarity of life and belief as the people of former times. Savages and Hindus [the latter are in fact little different from the former] refuse to contract alliances on very small grounds. The European peoples of to-day do not refuse to inter-marry unless the physical and cultural differences are great and marked.

As time and civilization have progressed the assimilative power of the people also has progressed. I think there is no country on earth where the people have shown greater power of assimilation than the United States. How the Americans have succeeded in converting foreigners of various races into Americans is almost incredible to a person who has not visited that country. The Americans themselves trust their assimilative power so much that they allow their