Our Cinnamons. 65 



entertained for a moment by any one laying claim to 

 the title of a rational creature. 



Equally erroneous is the idea of climate or locality 

 having anything to do with the matter. As in the case 

 of the food, so it may be answered, all the varieties are 

 found in every climate and country, and not separately 

 in each. The yellow, the grey, and the chesnut, as well 

 as the green and the white, are found as often in Russia 

 as they are in Italy, or France, or England. Climate, 

 therefore, cannot have any influence in this respect 

 upon the bird, any more than it has upon man himself. 

 " Place an Anglo-Saxon," says a well-known writer on 

 the various races of men,* " with his flaxen hair and 

 blue eyes under the most burning sun, and no length 

 of time will change him or his offspring into a negro. 

 The Saxon of to-day is identical with the Saxon of the 

 most ancient times. They follow the law of hereditary 

 descent; climate exercises no influence over them. 

 Two hundred years of Java, three hundred years of 

 Southern Africa affect them not ; alter their health it 

 may, it does, withering up the frame, rendering the 

 body thin and juiceless, wasting the adipose cellular 

 tissue, relaxing the muscles and injuring the complexion 

 by altering the condition of the blood and secretions ; 

 all this may be admitted, but they produce no per- 

 manent results. The Saxon is fair, not because he 

 lives in a temperate or cold climate, but because he is a 

 Saxon. The Esquimaux are nearly black, yet they live 

 amidst eternal snows ; the Tasmanian is, if possible, 

 darker than the Negro, under a climate as mild as 

 * Dr. Knox. 



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