Chap. VII.] THE RACES OF MAN. 227 



dispute between the monogenists and the polygenists will 

 die a silent and unobserved death. 



One other question ought not to be passed over with- 

 out notice, namely, whether, as is sometimes assumed, each 

 sub-species or race of man has sprung from a single pair 

 of progenitors. With our domestic animals a new race 

 can readily be formed from a single pair possessing some 

 new character, or even from a single individual thus - char- 

 acterized, by carefully matching the varying offspring; 

 but most of our races have been formed* not intentionally 

 from a selected pair, but unconsciously by the preservation 

 of many individuals which have varied, however slightly, 

 in some useful or desired manner. If in one country 

 stronger and heavier horses, and in another country light- 

 er and fleeter horses, were habitually preferred, we may 

 feel sure that two distinct sub-breeds would, in the course 

 of time, be produced, without any particular pairs or indi- 

 viduals having been separated and bred from in either 

 country. Many races have been thus formed, and their 

 manner of formation is closely analogous with that of natu- 

 ral species. We know, also, that the horses which have 

 been brought to the Falkland Islands have become, during 

 successive generations, smaller and weaker, while those 

 which have run wild on the Pampas have acquired larger 

 and coarser heads ; and such changes are manifestly due, 

 not to any one pair, but to all the individuals having been 

 subjected to the same conditions, aided, perhaps, by the 

 principle of reversion. The new sub-breeds in none of 

 these cases are descended from any single pair, but from 

 many individuals which have varied in different degrees, 

 but in the same general manner ; and we may conclude 

 that the races of man have been similarly produced, the 

 modifications being either the direct result of exposure to 

 different conditions, or the indirect result of some form of 



