56 



CHAPTER VII. 



DISTRIBUTION OF MAN BLACK AND WHITE RACES. 



The races of man as defined in most of our works on Ethnology are six, — the Caucasian, the 

 MongoKan, the American, the Ethiopian, the Mahayan, and the Australasian. To these many 

 add a seventh, the Papuan or Oceanic. 



Although this division maintains its place, it does so more from the difficulty of finding a 

 satisfactory substitute, than from any general assent to its proj)ositions. 



It appears to be unsupported by any argument or consideration beyond this, that in each 

 of the countries allotted to these seven sections, certain difierent tribes or races of mankind are 

 foimd ; but that they are all of equal value, or that no other varieties can be pointed to showing 

 as marked distinctions between them as some of the above, no one who has thought on the subject 

 will afiirm. For example, is there no more difference between a Mongolian and an Englishman 

 than there is between an Englishman and a Negro ? Most people would say that the Mongolian 

 was half-way between the European and the Negro. I shall, I think, presently show that he 

 iij greatly less than half-way towards the Negro ; but assimiing for the nonce that he is half-way, 

 what kin d of system of arrangement is that, which places the race which stands half-way between 

 two others on the same footing and equality as those which are separated the whole way ? Or 

 if races showing lesser degrees of difference are to be associated with, and placed on the same 

 platform as those more widely separated, why are not all minor sections to be taken into account 

 too ? It seems plain that the present usual scheme of classification is erroneous, both in principle 

 and in application. 



The opinion which I have formed is, that there are no more than two great di-s'isions of man- 

 kind, equal in value and marked by characteristics of equal importance, each of which again is 

 divisible into an indefinite multitude of smaller sections. Speaking roughly, these two great races 

 may be distinguished as the Blacks and the Whites. Map 6 will show the territory which I think 

 is occupied by each, and the following is the line of reasoning by which I have arrived at 

 this conclusion. 



If wo begin our survey at the North Pole, we find one race of men (the Esquimaux) inhabiting 

 the first habitable land all aroimd it. The Esquimaux in Greenland, the Esquimaux at Baffin's 

 Bay, the Esquimaux at Bhering's Straits, and the Esquimaux in the North of Asia, are one and 

 the same. In this respect, the facts with regard to man correspond with those of other 

 organized beings. The faunas and floras* of all the countries around the Pole are nearly the 

 same. 



* The words Fauna and Flora are now naturalized common use, especially names of plants ; and I take the 



English, and being so it would be a mistake to speak of opportunity, once for all, to claim the right to treat all 



them in the plural as Faunae and Flors. The same re- such words as English, and to give them English plural 



mark applies to a multitude of other scientific words in terminations when speiking of them in that number. 



