This does not, of course, mean that the English were a superior race
dealing with an inferior one. Indeed, there is, in my view, no sharp
division of race at all. In the veins of the inhabitants of these
Islands runs more than one strain of blood. The English are not simply
Teutonic--still less are the Irish Celtic. We must conceive the
pre-historic inhabitants both of Britain and of Ireland as subject to
repeated waves of invasion from the wandering peoples of the Continent.
The Celt preceded the Teuton; and in certain regions his language still
survives. The Teuton followed him in (as I suppose) far greater numbers,
and his language has become that of a large fraction of the civilised
world. But in no part of the United Kingdom is the Teutonic strain free
from either the Celtic or pre-Celtic strain; nor do I believe that the
Celtic strain has anywhere a predominance such as that which, speaking
very roughly, the Teutonic strain possesses in the East of these
Islands, or the pre-Celtic strain in the West.
There is, therefore, no race frontier to be considered, still less is
there any question of inferiority or superiority.
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