THE HUMAN SPECIES. 179 



northern nations, by their own ambitious free will, not 

 crossed upon the older migratory movement that came 

 from east to west, such civilization as Egypt, Greece, 

 and Rome had conferred, notwithstanding that marine 

 influences had greatly aided in the development, must 

 have continued stationary, then decayed, until they 

 fell to ruin* A want of such concurrence, as already 

 observed, may be the sole cause why China has remain- 

 ed stationary ; for even the slight shock lately given 

 to that empire by Great Britain, has already had an 

 effect, disproving the common opinion, that the Mon- 

 golic mind cannot advance beyond a certain point. No 

 people of the typical stocks could arrive at a progres- 

 sive social existence, without intermixture of one or 

 more branches of the homogeneous nations of the beard- 

 ed and beardless forms ; and through these, such rudi- 

 ments of advancement as can be traced among the 

 woolly haired, were likewise engendered. 



While nations pushed each other forward, and con- 

 tested the possession of desirable territories, sudden 

 extermination of the vanquished people generally lent 

 but trifling aid to intellectual advancement ; there was 

 scarcely a desire to make slaves, where food was often 

 insufficiently abundant for the victors ; but when the 

 great roads of colonization had been trodden by many 

 nations to the verge of oceans, the result was different, 



* The power of habit, of educational prejudices, is for- 

 cibly seen, in Christian Rome continuing wild beast and 

 gladiatorial exhibitions, though both had been repeatedly 

 scenes of martyrdom, until they were stopped by a Pagan, 

 held to be a barbarian, because he was a Goth. 



