1344- 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



great towns, and yet cherish the belief that, 

 so far from being irreclaimable, they may at 

 least be brought up to the standard from 

 which they have degenerated ; on the other 

 hand, we cannot well doubt the operation of 

 the same causes on the outcasts of the Hot- 

 tentot races, or refuse to believe that even 

 the wretched Bushmen might be brought back 

 at least to the original condition of the people 

 from among whom they have been driven 

 forth.* 



It may be freely admitted that the different 

 races of mankind exhibit very different degrees 

 of capacity for intellectual, moral, and social 

 improvement ; but this difference is not 

 greater than that which exists amongst indi- 

 viduals of the most favoured races, and cannot 



* This parallel, suggested by the writer of this 

 article some time since (Edinburgh Eeview, Oct. 

 1848), has been recently followed up by the author 

 of " London Labour and the London Poor ; " who has 

 shown that a remarkable correspondence exists in 

 mental habitudes and mode of life, between the 

 sonquas or paupers of the Hottentot race, and the 

 wandering outcasts of our own, who possess nothing 

 but what they acquire by depredation from the in- 

 dustrious, provident, and civilised portion of the com- 

 munity. The latter, like the former, have a secret or 

 " slang " language of their own, adapted for the con- 

 cealment of their designs ; and, as already mentioned, 

 they are generally characterised by the great de- 

 velopment of the facial in proportion to that of the 

 cranial part of the skull. The one tribe of 

 " nomads," like the other, " is distinguished from 

 civilised man, by his repugnance to regular and 

 continuous labour; by his want of providence in 

 laying up a store for the future ; by his inability to 

 perceive consequences ever so slightly removed 

 from immediate apprehension; by his passion for 

 stupifying herbs and roots, and, when possible, for 

 intoxicating fermented liquors ; by his extraordinary 

 powers of enduring pain ; by an immoderate love of 

 gaming, frequently risking his own personal liberty 

 upon a single cast ; by his love of libidinous dances ; 

 by the pleasure he experiences in witnessing the 

 suffering of sentient creatures ; by his delight in 

 warfare and all perilous sports ; by his desire for 

 vengeance; by the looseness of his notions as to 

 property; by the absence of chastity among his 

 women, and his disregard of female honour ; and 

 lastly, by his vague sense of religion, his rude idea 

 of a Creator, and utter absence of all appreciation of 

 the mercy of the Divine Spirit." It is further re- 

 markable that the nomadic tribes seem to possess 

 (sometimes hereditarily, sometimes as an acquired 

 habit) such a constitutional adaptation to a wan- 

 dering life, that, despite its privations, its dangers, 

 and its hardships, they can rarely be induced to 

 abandon it. It is well known that among the many 

 instances in which the aborigines of Australia or of 

 North America have been brought up and educated 

 from an early age amongst Europeans, there are 

 few, if any, in which they have been satisfied to 

 to remain and to adopt the habits of civilised life. 

 On approaching manhood, they become restless, and 

 take the first opportunity of absconding to join 

 their brethren in " the bush." So, again, there are 

 numerous examples of white men adopting, by 

 their own choice, all the usages of the Indian 

 hunter or Australian bushman ; and these, having 

 once imbibed a fondness for the nomadic life, are as 

 irreclaimable as those who have grown up in it. 

 The same is the case, according to Mr. Mayhew, 

 Avith a large proportion of the " street-folk " of 

 London ; who will give up situations affording com- 

 forts and advantages of a far superior order, to 

 return to the indulgence of their wandering pro- 

 pensity. 



for a moment be assumed as the basis for 

 specific distinctions between them. If the 

 Negro, for example, is at present far behind 

 the European standard, yet, under favourable 

 circumstances, the intellect and moral charac- 

 ter of individual Negroes have been elevated 

 to it; while, on the other hand, we have too 

 frequent proof that the intellect and moral 

 character of the European are capable, not 

 merely in individuals, but in families and 

 groups of people, of sinking even below the 

 average African standard. It is the observa- 

 tion of all who have had experience in the 

 education of the children of races reputed to 

 be inferior, such as Negroes, Hottentots, and 

 Australians, that their capacity is at least 

 equal to that of the lowest class of our own 

 youthful town population, and that their do- 

 cility is, if anything, greater. That this mental 

 development is generally checked at an early 

 age, and that the adults of these races too 

 frequently remain through life in the condition 

 of " children of a larger growth," may be freely 

 conceded. But observation of the difference 

 in developmental power, between the mind of 

 the descendant of an educated ancestry, and 

 that of the descendant of an ignorant and 

 uncultivated peasantry, shows that within the 

 limits of the same race the same difference 

 may exist ; and nothing is more likely to main- 

 tain it, than the absence of any encourage- 

 ment to advancement, and the persistence, on 

 the part of society at large, in the doctrine 

 that the Negro never can be admitted within 

 the pale of white civilisation. 



Looking to the fact already mentioned 

 (p. 1 341.), as to the]absence of that tendency 

 to extinction in the African races, by sexual 

 contamination from Europeans, which shows 

 itself so remarkably among other aborigines, 

 it is not a little interesting to observe, that 

 there are elements in the Negro character, 

 which have been deemed, by competent ob- 

 servers, capable of working a considerable 

 improvement in even Anglo-Saxon civilisa- 

 tion. Many intelligent thinkers have come to 

 the conclusion, that the boasted superiority of 

 the latter is, after all, more intellectual than 

 moral ; and that in purity and disinterested- 

 ness of the affections, in childlike simplicity 

 and gentleness of demeanour, in fact, in all 

 the milder graces of the Christian temper, we 

 may have even much to learn of the despised 

 Negro. " I should expect," says Channing, 

 "from the African race, if civilised, less 

 energy, less courage, less intellectual ori- 

 ginality than in ours ; but more amiableness, 

 tranquillity, gentleness, and content. They 

 might not rise to an equality in outward con- 

 dition, but would probably be a much happier 

 race." And it is to be remembered that these 

 and similar remarks have been made respect- 

 ing the Negroes of the Guinea coast, or their 

 descendants, who are, as we shall presently 

 see, the most degraded of all the African 

 races, except those of the neighbourhood of 

 the Cape, whose degradation has been in great 

 measure the result of European oppression, 

 and the introduction of European vices. It 



