think that any one who has studied or observed the processes of ordinary
school training, must have been sometimes convinced that he has in hand
a boy whose ability to be further advanced has come to an end. Sometimes
we find a boy who will come forward with the greatest promise; but,
at a certain point, although goodwill is not lacking, the growth seems
to be arrested. The biologist will explain this as due to the physical
character of the brain. The Buddhist affirms, that when that human soul
last came from the oblivion which closes the Devachanic state, it chose
unconsciously, but by natural affinity, out of all the possible
conditions and circumstances of mortal life, that embryonic human body,
for which its spiritual condition rendered it fit.

Some years ago, in conversation with a missionary who had spent many
years in China, I asked him, having this subject in my mind, whether he
thought that his converts were capable of receiving Christianity in the
sense in which he himself held the faith. His answer, which he
illustrated by instances, was that the heathen conceptions and
propensities could not be entirely eradicated; and that, under
unfavorable circumstances, the most trusted converts would sometimes
relapse into a condition as bad as ever they had known.

It is also a matter of common assertion that our American Indians, after
years of training in the society of civilized life, are generally ready
to fall back at once to their old ways. What we call civilization is to
them but an easy-fitting garment.

I do not know what is the belief of scholars regarding the comparative
age of the different minor divisions--sub-branches, as Sinnett calls
them--of the Aryan race. I imagine, however, that of the European
sub-branches, the Celtic is practically the oldest. The Italic or