306 THE ACTION OF NATUEAL 



had each species created in pairs, while others require 

 nations to have at once sprung into existence, and 

 that there is no stability or consistency in any doctrine 

 but that of one primitive stock. 



The advocates of the original diversity of man, on 

 the other hand, have much to say for themselves. 

 They argue that proofs of change in man have never 

 been brought forward except to the most trifling 

 amount, while evidence of his permanence meets us 

 everywhere. The Portuguese and Spaniards, settled 

 for two or three centuries in South America, retain 

 their chief physical, mental, and moral characteristics ; 

 the Dutch boers at the Cape, and the descendants of 

 the early Dutch settlers in the Moluccas, have not lost 

 the features or the colour of the Germanic races ; the 

 Jews, scattered over the world in the most diverse 

 climates, retain the same characteristic lineaments 

 everywhere ; the Egyptian sculptures and paintings 

 show us that, for at least 4000 or 5000 years, the 

 strongly contrasted features of the Negro and the 

 Semitic races have remained altogether unchanged ; 

 while more recent discoveries prove, that the mound- 

 builders of the Mississippi valley, and the dwellers 

 on Brazilian mountains, had, even in the very in- 

 fancy of the human race, some traces of the same 

 peculiar and characteristic type of cranial formation 

 that now distinguishes them. 



If we endeavour to decide impartially on the merits 

 of this difficult controversy, judging solely by the evi- 

 dence that each party has brought forward, it certainly 



