I'll VS 10 LOGICAL II ESE ARGUES. 93 



found favor with the principal American writers who have subsequently treated of 

 the same or kindred subjects. It was severely criticized by Dr. Caldwell, in the 

 American Review of July, 1811, soon after a second edition of the Essay was printed; 

 and more at length in the Portfolio, Vol. IV, 1814, by the same writer, who endea- 

 vored to show that we are acquainted with no cause, short of the power that first 

 created man, capable of producing " that striking difference which exists between 

 the African and the European, the American Indian and the Hindoo, the Patago- 

 nian and the Laplander." 



Following up the subject in after years, Dr. Caldwell published a small volume, 

 in which he took more decided ground in favor of a distinct origin for different 

 races; regarding our Indians as fitted and intended to inhabit uncultivated forests, 

 and wild prairies, and destined to disappear, as these are converted into fruitful 

 fields, on the same principle of adaptation that called them into existence. 1 



Kinmont, — who resorted to the hypothesis of an innate tendency in man to give 

 rise, in the progress of generations, to several distinct races, which, separating 

 under Providential influences, were led to distinct quarters of the earth, — remarks 

 in his lectures: "To say that all mankind originally perfectly resembled each 

 other, and that the several natural varieties which now exist have arisen out of 

 local circumstances — the action of external causes — is to adopt a gratuitous expla- 

 nation, which cannot be shown to have any foundation in fact. To say that the 

 different races have sprung out of separate original pairs, is equally absurd and 

 unsupported." 2 



With similar positiveness it is declared by Van Amringe, that "the differences 

 in the races of men cannot be accounted for by climate, mode of living, or any 

 natural causes now in operation, or which have been in operation within the period 

 of history." He is equally confident that they cannot be explained by the supposi- 

 tion of accidental or congenital varieties springing up in the human family. This 

 American author has sought to establish a new system of human history and phi- 

 losophy. He regards the zoological classification of man by his animal properties, 

 excluding his psycliieal attributes, as unphilosophical, on the ground that there is 

 no analogy between man and animals which can assist us to classify man, or to 

 understand his history. He assumes that there are at least four distinct species of 

 men, proved by their physical and psychical properties and powers, but a single 

 original centre of distribution, or creation of man, in the neighborhood of the Eu- 

 phrates; while of animals and vegetables there were several centres of distribution 

 or creation. He considers that specific differences among the races of men are 

 established by the principles of Zoology, and by Anatomy, Physiology, Psycho- 

 logy, and the natural law of sexual love; and proposes a new classification and 



of body, whether produced by art or accident, end with the life of the individual in whom they are 

 produced." — Ibid., quoting Prichard , s Disp. Inaug. 



1 Thoughts on the Original Unity of the Human Race. By Charles Caldwell, M.D. Phila,, 1831 ; 

 second edition, with additions. Cincinnati, 1852. 



a Twelve Lectures on the Natural History of Man, &c. By Alexander Kinmont. Cincinnati, 1839. 



