AFRICA AND THE AFRICANS. 



395 



tends, like the similar faculty in children, to accel- 

 erate the process of unconscious education." 1 



This view proceeds upon the assumption that 

 the two races are called to the same work, and 

 are alike in potentiality and ultimate development, 

 the negro only needing the element of time, under 

 certain circumstances, to become European. But 

 to our mind it is not a question between the two 

 races of inferiority or superiority. There is no 

 absolute or essential superiority on the one side, 

 nor absolute or essential inferiority on the other 

 side. It is a question of difference of endowment 

 and difference of destiny. No amount of training 

 or culture will make the negro a European ; on 

 the other hand, no lack of training or deficiency 

 of culture will make the European a negro. The 

 two races are not moving in the same groove, with 

 an immeasurable distance between them, but on 

 parallel lines. They will never meet in the plane 

 of their activities so as to coincide in capacity or 

 performance. They are not identical, as some 

 think, but unequal ; they are distinct, but equal ; 

 an idea that is in no way incompatible with the 

 Scriptural truth that God hath made of one blood 

 all nations of men. 



"All are architects of Fate, 



Working in these walls of Time ; 



Some with massive deeds aDd great, 



Some with ornaments of rhyme. 



" Nothing useless is, or low ; 



Each thing in its place is best ; 

 And what seems but idle show 

 Strengthens and supports the rest." 2 



The African at home needs to be surrounded 

 by influences from abroad, not that he may change 

 his nature, but that he may improve his capacity. 

 Hereditary qualities are fundamental, not to be 

 created or replaced by human agencies. Nature 

 determines the kind of tree, environments deter- 

 mine the quality and quantity of the fruit. We 

 want the negro's eye and ear to be trained by 

 culture that he may see more clearly what he 

 does see, and hear more distinctly what he does 

 hear. We want him to be surrounded by influ- 

 ences from abroad to promote the development 

 of his latent powers, bring the potentiality of his 

 being into practical or actual operation. He has 

 capacities and aptitudes which the world needs, 

 but which it will never enjoy until he is fairly 

 and normally trained. Each race is endowed 

 with peculiar talents, and watchful to the last 

 degree is the great Creator over the individuali- 

 ty, the freedom, and independence, of each. In 



1 Saturday Review, March 24, 1877. 



2 Longfellow. 



the music of the universe each shall give a differ- 

 ent sound, but necessary to the grand symphony. 

 There are several sounds not yet brought out, 

 and the feeblest of all is that hitherto produced 

 by the negro ; but only he can furnish it. And 

 when he does furnish it in its fullness and per- 

 fection, it will be welcomed with delight by the 

 world. 



When the African shall come forward with 

 his peculiar gifts, they will fill a place never be- 

 fore occupied. But he must have a fair oppor- 

 tunity for their development. Misunderstood and 

 often misrepresented even by his best friends, and 

 persecuted and maligned by his enemies, he is, 

 nevertheless, coming forward, gradually rising un- 

 der the influences of agencies seen and unseen. 



It is the fashion of some friends of the African 

 to deplore his past, or lack of a past, and to infer 

 from this fact an " inferior faculty of self-develop- 

 ment " in the race. 



But with the facts before us we cannot admit 

 the fairness of such an inference as these sym- 

 pathizing critics of the race are disposed to draw. 

 No one who has paid any attention to the subject 

 at all will aver that there is any possibility of de- 

 velopment without the interference of a higher 

 type of intelligence or energy, which must either 

 come from without or must be assisted by favor- 

 able conditions within, in order to become continu- 

 ous or general. Mr. Stanley, having become, on a 

 second journey through Africa, better acquainted 

 with the people, takes a far more accurate view 

 of them than he was disposed to do when he 

 passed through the country in his hasty and im- 

 patient search for Livingstone. 



In his address at Cape Town, above referred 

 to, he " endeavored to show the kinship in habits, 

 propensity, and feeling, between the black man 

 and the white man, illustrating this by several 

 comparisons- between Central Africa at present 

 and the Homeric age." ' And in his address in 

 London, before the Royal Geographical Society, 

 in February last, he remarked : " It has been 

 said that the African is unimprovable and irre- 

 deemable ; but that I wholly and utterly deny." 



It is a fact that a description of the condition 

 of things in portions of Central Africa truthfully 

 given would read like an account of the earlier 

 ages of Greece and Rome. We have ourselves 

 visited removed and sequestered districts about 

 the head -waters of the Niger, where we have 

 found negro Mohammedan students devothig 

 themselves to literature with an indifference to 

 the outside world which reminded us of the hab- 

 1 Times, November 30, 1877. 



