RELIGION AND CHARACTER 7

What if these peoples had not been the subjects

of faiUngs as great as their inherent powers ? What if principles of humanity, progress, and

development, had gained sway in place of the

cramping influences of a religion, or perhaps, to

be strictly just, the interpretation of it, which warps

while it yet binds together, permits a fatalism which

enervates in one direction while it gives force in

another, and an egotism which runs riot between

an extreme of literal observance of religious formulae

on one hand and the slavery and destruction of

fellow-man for selfish ends on the other ? Had

enlightened ideals found a favourable ground on

the basis of strength and of intellect, a rule of

great power over vast areas of Africa would have

been created, almost unassailable in its position.

It is the "kismet" on the part of the vast

majority, the lack of inherent as distinguished from prescribed morality on the part of vast

numbers, the inappreciation of the value of time,

and, except under extraordinary stimulus, the lack

of cohesion, which limit the expansive power of

this remarkable race.

The people of the Sudan, mixed in blood as many are, nevertheless are sharply divided into

three classes—the Arabs or pseudo-Arabs of the

north (for these show many divergencies from the

original Asiatic type) ; the negroids of the south, many of whom were doubtless pushed up-river by

the invading ancient Egyptians and subsequent Arab irruptions ; and certain tribes, including the