PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF RACES. 541 



but it cannot even be regarded as one of the elements of life, or be 

 compared, for instance, with nerve-force. In fact, the experiments of 

 Helmholz have proved conclusively that such a comparison contra- 

 dicts the truth. What is the peculiar sign of the vital forces and of 

 vital unity, or the definite expression of their simultaneous action in 

 one organism, is, precisely, organization. But electricity has no causal 

 relation with organization proper. That is the work of some higher 

 activity. That power in action, whatever it be, takes to itself all the 

 forces of Nature, but it links them, coordinates them, and, fixing them 

 into special conditions, compels their service to the purposes of life. 

 Gravitation, heat, light, electricity, all these forces are maintained 

 within living beings only they are there disguised under a new phe- 

 nomenal unity, just as the oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and 

 phosphorus, that make up a nerve-cell, vanish in it into a new unity of 

 substance, without ceasing to exist in it as distinct chemical elements. 

 The inorganic powers of Nature are as essential to life as lines and 

 colors are in the composition of the painter's picture. What would 

 the picture be without the painter's soul and labor? The picture is 

 his peculiar work : the physico-chemical forces are the lines and colors 

 of that homogeneous and harmonious composition, which is life. In 

 it they would want meaning or power, if they did not in it, by the 

 operation of a mysterious artist, undergo a transformation which 

 raises them to a dignity not theirs before, and assigns their place in 

 the supreme harmony. Thus, in the infinite solidarity of things, there 

 is, as Leibnitz dreamed, a constant uprising of the lower toward the 

 higher, a steady progress toward the best, a ceaseless aspiration toward 

 a fuller and more conscious existence, an immortal growth toward 

 perfection. Revue des Deux Mondes. 



*-- 



PHYSICAL CHAEACTEES OF THE HUMAN EACES. 



By Prof. A. DE QUATKEFAGES. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY ELIZA A. YOUMANS. 



f^\ ENTLEMEN : I have already given you three lectures on the 

 V3T history of man. They have all been devoted to the examination 

 of general questions, the solution of which can alone throw light on 

 the study of the human races, and guide us in the midst of thousands 

 of facts of detail involved in it. 



These three lectures constitute the first part of the collection of 

 facts and ideas that I have undertaken to expound to you. In these 

 lectures, you know, I considered man in his relation to the universe 

 and to the earth he inhabits. We found that there exists only one 



