VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



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provement is manifested in the species at 

 large. One of the most important aids in the 

 use and development of the human mind, is 

 the capacity for articulate speech; of which, 

 so far as we know, man is the only animal in 

 possession. There is no doubt that many 

 other species have certain powers of com- 

 munication between individuals; but these 

 are probably very limited, and of a kind more 

 allied to the " language of signs," than to a 

 proper verbal language. In fact it is obvious 

 that the use of a language composed of a cer- 

 certain number of distinct sounds, combined 

 into words in a multitude of different modes, 

 requires a certain degree of that power of 

 abstraction and generalisation, in which (as 

 elsewhere remarked*) it appears that the 

 lower animals are altogether deficient. The 

 correspondence between the psychical endow- 

 ments of the Chimpanzee and those of the 

 Human infant before it begins to speak, is 

 extremely close ; and those who have perused 

 the interesting narrative given by Dr. Howe, 

 of his successful training of Laura Bridgeman, 

 will remember how marked was the improve- 

 ment in her mental condition, from the time 

 when she first apprehended the idea that she 

 could give such expression to her thoughts, 

 feelings and desires, as should secure their 

 being comprehended by others. 



Now, this capacity for progress is con- 

 nected with another element in Man's nature, 

 which it is difficult to isolate and define, but 

 which interpenetrates and blends with his 

 whole psychical character. " The soul,'' it 

 has been remarked, " is that side of our nature 

 which is in relation with the infinite ;" and it 

 is the existence of this relation, in whatever 

 way we may describe it, which seems to con- 

 stitute the most distinctive peculiarity of man. 

 It is in the desire for an improvement in his 

 condition, occasioned by an aspiration after 

 something nobler and purer, that the main- 

 spring of human progress may be said to lie; 

 among the lowest races of mankind, the capa- 

 city exists, but the desire seems dormant. 

 When once thoroughly awakened, however, 

 it seems to " grow by what it feeds on ; " and 

 the advance once commenced, little external 

 stimulus is needed; for the desire increases 

 at least as fast as the capacity. In the higher 

 grades of mental development, there is a con- 

 tinual looking upwards, not (as in the lower) 

 towards a more elevated human standard, but 

 at once to something beyond and above man 

 and material nature. This seems the chief 

 source of the tendency to believe in some 

 unseen existence ; which may take various 

 forms, but seems never entirely absent from 

 any race or nation, although, like other innate 

 tendencies, it may be deficient in individuals. 

 Attempts have been made by some travellers 

 to prove that particular nations are destitute 

 of it ; but such assertions have been based 

 only upon a limited acquaintance with their 

 habits of thought, and with their outward 

 observances ; for there are probably none 



* See Art. INSTIXCT, vol. iii. p. 2. 



who do not possess the idea of some invisible 

 power, external to themselves, whose favour 

 they seek, and whose anger they deprecate, 

 by sacrifice and other ceremonials. It re- 

 quires a higher mental cultivation than is 

 commonly met with, to conceive of this 

 power as having a spiritual existence ; but 

 wherever the idea of spirituality can be de- 

 fined, it seems connected with it. The vulgar 

 readiness to believe in demons, ghosts, &c. is 

 only an irregular or depraved manifestation 

 of the same tendency. Closely connected 

 with it, is the desire to participate in this 

 spiritual existence, which has been implanted 

 in the mind of man, and which, developed as 

 it is by the mental cultivation that is almost 

 necessary for the formation of the idea, has 

 been regarded by philosophers in all ages as 

 one of the chief natural arguments for the 

 immortality of the soul. By this immortal 

 soul, Man is connected with that higher order 

 of being, in which Intelligence exists, un- 

 restrained in its exercise by the imperfections 

 of that corporeal mechanism through which it 

 here operates; and to this state, a state of 

 more intimate communion of mind with mind, 

 and of creatures with their Creator, he is 

 encouraged to aspire, as the reward of his 

 improvement of the talents here committed to 

 his charge. 



II. OF SPECIES AND VARIETIES, ZOOLOGI- 

 CALLY CONSIDERED. 



The meaning which the scientific Na- 

 turalist attaches to the term Species, is not 

 always defined in the same manner, although 

 the notions which the various definitions are 

 intended to convey, are for the most part 

 essentially similar. Thus a species has been 

 described as " a race of animals or of plants, 

 marked by any peculiar character which has 

 always been constant and undeviating ; " it 

 being obvious, from this definition, which 

 carries us backwards from the present to the 

 past, that the first parents or " protoplasts " of 

 such a race must have been distinguished by 

 the same characters as those by which their 

 descendants are now recognised. But, again, 

 this community of parentage is made by 

 Cuvier to constitute the leading idea con- 

 veyed by the term ; for he defines a species 

 to be " the collection of all the beings de- 

 scended the one from the other, or from com- 

 mon parents ; and of those which bear as close 

 a resemblance to these, as they bear to each 

 other." " We are under the necessit}'," he 

 elsewhere remarks, " of admitting the exist- 

 ence of certain forms, which have perpetuated 

 themselves from the beginning of the world, 

 without exceeding the limits first prescribed ; 

 all the individuals belonging to one of these 

 forms, constitute what is termed a species." 

 And M. De Candolle, in like manner, ob- 

 serves that " we unite, under the designation 

 of a species, all those individuals which mu- 

 tually bear to each other so close a resem- 

 blance, as to allow of our supposing that they 

 may have proceeded originally from a single 



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