Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines

homogeneity, one must answer in the negative, for no one can dispute that the current population of Europe was formed by a mixture of elements belonging to very diverse races, and that there are quite marked ethnic differences, not only from one country to another, but even within each national grouping. However, it is nonetheless true that European peoples present enough common characters for them to be clearly distinguished from all others; their unity, even if it is acquired rather than primitive, is sufficient for us to speak, as we do, of a European race.

However, this race is naturally less fixed and less stable than a "pure race"; the European elements, when mixing with other races, will be more easily absorbed, and their ethnic characters will disappear rapidly; but this applies only to cases where there is mixing, and, when there is only juxtaposition, it happens on the contrary that the mental characteristics—which are those that interest us most—appear in a way with more relief. These mental characteristics are, moreover, those for which European unity is the clearest: whatever the original differences might have been in this regard as in others, a common mentality has gradually formed among all the peoples of Europe in the course of history. This is not to say that there is not a special mentality for each of these peoples; but the peculiarities that distinguish them are only secondary in relation to a common background upon which they seem to be superimposed: they are, in short, like species of the same genus The author uses a biological metaphor here to suggest that while nations (species) differ, they all belong to the same broader category (genus) of European civilization.. No one, even among those who doubt that one can speak of a European race, will hesitate to admit the existence of a European civilization; and a civilization is nothing other than the product and the expression of a certain mentality.

We will not seek to specify the distinctive traits of the European mentality right now, for they will emerge sufficiently from the rest of this study; we will simply indicate that several influences have contributed to its formation: the one that played the preponderant role is undeniably the Greek influence, or, if you will, the Greco-Roman influence. The Greek influence is almost exclusive regarding the philosophical and scientific points of view, despite the appearance of certain special and properly modern tendencies, which we will speak of later. As for the Roman influence, it is less intellectual than social, and it asserts itself especially in the conceptions of the State, of law original: "droit", and institutions; moreover, intellectually, the Romans had borrowed almost everything from the Greeks, so that, through them, it is not...