On the other hand, what is most attractive in the life of the German strain of the Teutonic branch is what is most German. It is one of the most striking peculiarities of German cul ture that it delights in the pedantic substitution of what is vaguely cosmopolitan for what is native and of the soil. Yet the supremely cul tivated man is not the man of pedantic encylo pedic knowledge, but the man who possesses the key to distinction of style, which is the finely culled result of scientific detachment and dispositional reposefulness.
Definite knowledge of Scandinavia's racial origin is lacking. The Neanderthal man of the paleolithic or diluvial period may be the foun dation type of Scandinavian races as of other European strains. At any rate it is believed that two race strains, the Cro-Magnon or dolicho cephalic and the Dissentis or brachycephalic types, have existed in Scandinavia for a very long time. During the Bronze and Iron ages there were men in Scandinavia who ploughed and tilled the soil. The waves of civilization which no doubt swept over Europe touched the northern countries as well and brought changes in industry and language. At the dawn of history two races were known to be existing in and till to-day there are two dis tinct strains to be observed in the population. History, however, has emphasized one type to the exclusion of the other, and the tall, fair, blue-eyed type has received the preponderance of attention.
That these fair-haired, blue-eyed Northmen were indeed quite similar to their kindred of the other Teuton districts is proved by the fact that great similarity characterized the tongues of the respective countries in the earliest of Saxon times. Not only could an Icelandic bard be understood in Norway, Denmark and Sweden but also by Frisians in England, for the root dialect of English as well as Norwegian, Dan ish and Swedish belongs to the Teutonic branch of the Indo-European stem, according to. Prof. Max Muller. The Frisians in coming to Britain brought their Low German dialect with them. The Scandinavians, using another but related dialect, gradually built up their separate philological system, as the English eventually did theirs. Dialect precedes language, as tribes, clans and families precede the state. A lan
guage grows by stages, there is the composi tion of roots, the gradual discernments of mean ings and the systematic elaboration of gram matical forms. In the old Eddas of Iceland and the Beowulf of Britain great resemblances of speech are to be found. Nevertheless, with the passage of time differentiation sets in and new forms are evolved. The Norman tongue, which was the Norse dialect Latinized, came to Eng land to mix with the old Frisian Low German, and a new language eventually to be called English sprang into existence.
Thus, the ruddy, fair-haired Englishman is akin to the tall, blond Swede, and the short, dark Welshman is akin to the broad-headed Dane in the respect that in the beginning all have had a common ancestry and ethnological breeding. That one can go farther and say that from these similarities other similarities result is doubtful. True as it is that Scan dinavians agree in reproducing Teutonic type identically with the English in some respects, in the Protestant form of religion, in the nature of their government and in their common quali ties of love of independence, self-reliance, com mon sense and in their allegiance to the prin ciples of logic, nevertheless in many other respects these two representatives of the one type do differ strikingly.
Anthropologically distinct from the Teu tonic type is the Slavic, Celtic or Alpine type. Differing not only in stature and coloring but markedly in head index, this second type has, in contradistinction to the Teutonic, its own location and geographical setting. It is the Eurasian race mentioned by Sergi, or the Al pine by Ripley, and in ethnological terms it is called the Celtic race. Its habitat is, broadly speaking, northwestern Asia and central Europe. Its representatives arc in the Slav nations, Russia and South Slavic states, Serbia, Rumania, Montenegro, etc., also Switzerland, France and Belgium. Anthropo logically distinguished, the type is broad headed, with eyes of blue or gray. Unlike as are the nations included in this type, neverthe less, distinguished from the other extremes, the tall, fair and long-headed Teutons and the short, dark, swarthy Mediterra;ieans, they are easily recognized to belong to an intermediate type.