THE HUMAN SPECIES. 195 



mixture of qualities, wherein the good predominates, till 

 the European, not misguided by personal interests or 

 prejudices, cannot refrain from feelings of affection for 

 them. They all believe in some kind of future state, 

 though religious sensations are with them superstitious 

 and childish mummeries, too often connected with 

 fetiche necromancy, which deals in the crimes of poison- 

 ing and murder. Thought is habitually dormant, and, 

 when roused, it is manifested by loud soliloquy and 

 gesticulations, regardless of circumstances. War is a 

 passion that excites in them a brutal disregard of 

 human feelings ; it entails the deliberate murder of 

 prisoners ; and victims are slain to serve the manes of 

 departed chiefs. Even cannibalism is frequent among 

 the tribes of the interior. But these habits were once 

 not unknown to the highest endowed Caucasians ; 

 human sacrifices belonged to the heroic age of Greece ; 

 to the historical of India, Phoenicia, Carthage, Egypt, 

 and Celtica ; to nations who must have known better, 

 and were not, like the African savage, in mental nonage, 

 without neighbours to teach a better doctrine or more 

 humane example ; for, wherever higher moral duties 

 have been promulgated to Negroes, they have been 

 quickly accepted, Notwithstanding the listless torpi- 

 dity caused by excessive heat, the perceptive faculties 

 of the children are far from contemptible. They have a 

 quick apprehension of the ridiculous ; often surpassing 

 the intelligence of the white, and only drop behind 

 them about the twelfth year, when the reflective 

 powers begin to have the ascendancy. 



