230 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



versity among capable judges whether he should be classed 

 as a single species or race, or as two (Virey), as three (Jac- 

 quinot), as four (Kant), five (Blumenbach), six (Buffon), 

 seven (Hunter), eight (Agassiz), eleven (Pickering), fif- 

 teen (Bory St. Vincent), sixteen (Desmoulins), twenty-two 

 (Morton), sixty (Crawfurd), or as sixty-three, according 

 to Burke. This diversity of judgment does not prove 

 that the races ought not to be ranked as species, but it 

 shows that they graduate into each other, and that it is 

 hardly possible to discover clear, distinctive characters be- 

 tween them. 



Every naturalist who has had the misfortune to under- 

 take the description of a group of highly-varying organ- 

 isms, has encountered cases (I speak after experience) 

 precisely like that of man ; and, if of a cautious disposi- 

 tion, he will end by uniting all the forms which graduate 

 into each other under a single species ; for he will say to 

 himself that he has no right to give names to objects 

 which he can not define. Cases of this kind occur in the 

 order which includes man, namely, in certain genera of 

 monkeys ; while in other genera, as in Cercopitliecus, 

 most of the species can be determined with certainty. In 

 the American genus Cebus, the various forms are ranked 

 by some naturalists as species, by others as mere geo- 

 graphical races. Now, if numerous specimens of Cebus 

 were collected from all parts of South America, and those 

 forms which at present appear to be specifically distinct 

 were found to graduate into each other by close steps, 

 they would usually be ranked as mere varieties or races ; 

 and this course has been followed by most naturalists 

 with respect to the races of man. 



