spirit of liberality and enlightenment, and he is perhaps entitled to a place among the small band of progressive rulers that the East has produced. Unhappily one swallow does not make a spring, nor has one man, king and despot though he be, power to effect the regeneration of a whole people. Their salvation must come from themselves and not from outside, and whether the Siamese are capable of rising to the occasion and working out their own future is a question which depends for its answer on far deeper considerations than the character of an isolated individual.

CHAPTER IV

CHARACTER AND CIVILISATION

THE Siamese, like all other tropical peoples, differ widely both in civilisation and character from those of temperate regions. The influence of climate on a nation's character is no less marked perhaps than on its physical features. It requires, however, countless generations before its work begins to be felt, and it is therefore impossible for us with the scanty historical records or other means at our disposal to trace the different stages of evolution of the national character of such a people as the Siamese, and to determine what traits in it are due to the effects of physical surroundings or to other causes. To do so even in the case of European peoples would require a historical perspective infinitely longer than we can command, and in dealing with Asiatic and tropical nations, of whom our knowledge is particularly limited and scanty, we must for the most part accept the facts as we find them, and can only hope to account for them in the most

general way.

Certain broad differences distinguish the races living in the tropics from those that inhabit temperate regions, differences so marked as to justify us in forming without hesitation the generalisation that they are largely due to the effect of climate operating through many generations, and not to be obliterated in a day by the introduction from outside of new and artificial institutions. But we cannot go much further, nor can we hope to find any clue to the less vital but still marked differences that distinguish many races living in close juxtaposition, as for example those of India.

We must rest satisfied that the chief changes and developments in national character and civilisation are due to the slow and gradual operation of natural laws. No one would deny this as regards the past. If, however, the past is to serve in any way as a guide to the future, then we must accept the conclusion that a national character or civilisation that has been evolved through countless generations cannot be suddenly altered in a day. We may be told that the rate of progress is now so enormous that the past serves as no useful criterion for our calculations, that fifty years of the modern world are fraught with more for good or evil than a cycle of the ancient. The wonderful material advance made by England and other European countries not only in the last four hundred years, but even