542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



species of man ; that this species, much more ancient than was for- 

 merly believed, was the contemporary of the elephant and rhinoceros 

 on the soil of France. Although spread everywhere at present, the 

 human species, like other organic and living beings, had its special 

 centre of creation. It must have appeared at first on a particular and 

 circumscribed part of the globe, situated probably in the centre of 

 Asia. Our earth then was peopled by way of migration. In the va- 

 ried journeyings performed to reach all points of his domain, man has 

 encountered thousands of conditions of existence. He has accommo- 

 dated himself to them all in other words, he has become acclimated 

 everywhere. 



There is another question we had to meet, because it was seriously 

 put to us, but, to answer which, we had to confess the insufficiency of 

 present knowledge : it is the question of the first origin of man. Our 

 answer to this question was founded on science alone. I have made 

 this declaration many times ; I repeat it every time I speak before a 

 new audience. For the most part, the problems we have considered 

 are treated by theologians and philosophers. Neither here, nor at the 

 museum, am I, nor do I wish to be, either a theologian or a philosopher. 

 I am simply a man of science, and it is in the name of comparative 

 physiology, of botanical and zoological geography, of geology and 

 paleontology, in the name of the laws which govern man as well as 

 animals and plants, that I have always spoken. 



To-day, however, I shall not need to recur, as much as in preceding 

 lectures, to these terms of comparison. We have to commence the 

 study of man considered in himself ; and, in the first place, to account 

 in a general way for the modifications presented by the human type. 



These modifications constitute the characters which serve to dis- 

 tinguish divers groups of men the different human races. Before 

 studying these races in detail, we must fix somewhat the extent and 

 the meaning of these modifications of character. 



To give order even to the brief study of the characters of the hu- 

 man race, it is necessary to separate them into a certain number of 

 groups. This division is easily made, because of the multiple nature 

 of man, w T hich at the same time connects him with the rest of creation, 

 and gives him a position apart. 



Like all organic and living beings, man has a body. This body 

 will furnish a first class of characters the physical characters. Like 

 animals, man is endowed with instinct and intelligence. Though in- 

 finitely more developed in him, these characters are not changed in 

 their fundamental nature. They appear in the different human groups 

 in phenomena, sometimes very different, as for instance the different 

 languages. The differences of manifestation of this intelligence will 

 constitute the second class of characters the intellectual characters. 



Finally, it is established that man has two grand faculties, of which 

 we find not even a trace among animals. He alone has the moral sen- 



