2"* S. VI. 146., Oct. 16. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



307 



Again : — 



" Had he lived but two j-ears longer, until the mighty- 

 discoveries of Lepsius were unfolded to the world, he 

 ■would have found that the honourable occupation of his 

 long life had been only to accumulate facts which, pro- 

 perly interpreted, shatter everything he had built upon 

 them. In the preface to vol. iii. he says : — 'If it should 

 be found that, within the period of time to which histori- 

 cal testimony extends, the distinguishing characters of 

 human races have been constant and undeviating, it 

 would become a matter of great difficulty to reconcile this 

 conclusion [the unity of all mankind] with the inferences 

 already obtained from other considerations.' In other 

 words, if hypotheses and deductions drawn from analo- 

 gies among the lower animals, should be refuted by well- 

 ascertained facts, demonstrative of the absolute indepen- 

 dence of the primitive types of mankind of all existing 

 moral and physical causes, during several thousand years, 

 Prichard himself concedes that every argument hereto- 

 fore adduced in support of a common origin for human 

 families must be abandoned." (Nott, Types, 56.) 



Now, we possess the correct copy of an ancient 

 Egyptian drawing, of the fifteenth century b.c, 

 representing an ethnographic division of mankind 

 into four distinct types which it is impossible to 

 mistake — the Red, the Yellow, the White, the Black 

 — clearly proving the recognition of four races 

 strikingly distinct, 3300 years ago. Belzoni, 

 Champollion, Rossellini, and Lepsius and others 

 reproduce the painting, which is also copied in 

 the 7^1/pes of Mankind, p. 85., where it is ex- 

 plained, giving occasion for the remark that " the 

 ancient Egyptians had attempted a systematic an- 

 thropology at least 3500 years ago, and that their 

 ethnographers were puzzled with the same di- 

 versity of types then, which, after this lapse of 

 time, we encounter in the same localities now." 



Moreover, the four propositions as to the dura- 

 tion of life — the periods of life — hybridity — and 

 the diseases of men — which Dr. Prichard unfolds at 

 the beginning of his first volume, respecting the com- 

 mon origin of all men, are not what lie conceives to 

 be proofs positive, but merely the enunciation of 

 facts — such as he states them — which are not incom- 

 patible with the questioned unity of species (Re- 

 searches, i. B. ii. c. 1.). Assuredly, in a question of 

 such immense import socially, politically, religiously, 

 we require a firmer basis to stand on — if we are to 

 decide it by Vbte — independently of dogmatic in- 

 culcation. Science and its interpretation had 

 better be thrown overboard entirely if we cannot 

 reconcile this opposing inculcation — a proposition 

 which, I submit, is hasty, and uncalled for. When 

 the French philosopher said that " only the blind 

 could doubt that the White Man, the Negro, the 

 Hottentot, the Laplander, the Chinese, the Ameri- 

 can Indians, are totally different races of men," — 

 he merely said what everybody thinks and must 

 think — apart from the other considerations to 

 which I allude — at the sight of these various 

 specimens of humanity standing together. And 

 the prophet Jeremiah asks if " the Ethiopian can 

 change his skin" — actually assimilating this cha- 



racteristic with the spots of the leopard (c. xiii. 

 23.). Nobody believes that the spots of the leo- 

 pard have resulted from climate, manner of living, 

 or the other causes to which the prodigious dif- 

 ferences of human races have been attributed — 

 causes which have never, in the memory of man, 

 been thus effective in his endless transmigrations. 

 Wherever Man can live, he has ever been ethno- 

 logically the same — if unmixed — whether lied, 

 Yellow, Black, or White. Nay, even human hy- 

 bridity itself seems to prove the existence of 

 separated "species" — since the hybrid is not in- 

 differently black or white, yellow or red — but 

 positively and accurately intermediate between 

 the uniting races. The prolific union of all human 

 races — even if established — would seem to prove 

 anything but the unity of species, because the re- 

 sulting hybrids are not indifferently similar to 

 either parent in their nature — because they are 

 always intermediate in their characteristics ; — and 

 prolific hybridity may prove the proximity, but 

 not the unity, of species. 



It is easy to cut the Gordian knot — but the dif- 

 ficulty will still remain — and it is indeed worthy 

 of religious as well as scientific disentanglement. 

 Science can never be antagonistic to true Religion 

 — for both are the gifts of God to Humanity ; and 

 if there be an incontestable fact it is, that Science 

 cannot continue to exist unless it be true — Opi- 

 nionum commenta delet dies ; Natures judicia con- 

 firmat (Cic. Nat. Deor. 1. ii. c. 2.*). 



Andkew Steinmetz. 



A SUGGESTION. 



Your valuable periodical is, as stated on the 

 cover, a medium of inter-communication between 

 Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, 

 &c., and a most excellent paper it is in every re- 

 spect ; but I believe it is capable of being made 

 yet more useful to the latter class, and at the 

 same time to widely increase its already great cir- 

 culation ; so as to be, not only as it is now, of the 

 greatest possible aid and assistance, but utterly 

 indispensable. 



Will you allow me to suggest the means ? 



We all know how much of late genealogy has 

 become a general study, and consequently what 

 numbers are interested in it. We know that 

 inquirers novir nO longer are satisfied with the 

 pedigrees of exorbitant price compiled from evi- • 

 dences in the College of Arms, and without re- 

 ferences to accessible proofs, but wish to satisfy 



* Amongst the numerous works on the subject be- 

 sides those quoted, see Bory de St. Vincent, jL'jHojnme; 

 Omalius d'llalloy, des liaces Humaines ; Dr. Knox, The 

 Races of Men ; G. I'ouchct, De In I'luratite dcs Races 

 Humaines, recently published : — the last is an able di- 

 gest of the subject up to the present time. 



