372 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



of mankind has produced examples of free and po- 

 pular institutions, and his physical characteristics have 

 maintained them in social life. By means of his logical 

 intellect, he has arrived at ideas requisite for the 

 acquisition of abstract truths ; resorting to actual ex- 

 periment, he fixed bases whereon to build demon- 

 strable inferences, when the positive facts are not other- 

 wise shown : he invented simple arbitrary characters to 

 represent words and musical sounds ; and a few signs, 

 which, nevertheless, denote in their relative positions, 

 all the possible combinations of numbers and quantity : 

 he has measured time and distance, making the sideral 

 bodies unerring guides to mark locality and give nauti- 

 cal direction : he has ascended to the skies, descended 

 into the deep, and mastered the powers of lightning. 

 By mechanical researches, the bearded man has as- 

 suaged human toil, multiplied the results of industry, 

 and created a velocity of locomotion superior to the 

 flight of birds : by his chemical discoveries, he has 

 modified bodily pain, and produced numberless dis- 

 coveries useful in medicine, in arts and manufactures. 

 He has found a sound and connected system of the 

 sciences in general, and acquired a critical literature ; 

 while, for more than three thousand years, he has been 

 the principal possessor of all human knowledge and the 

 assertor of fixed laws. He has instituted all the great 

 religious systems in the world, and to his stock has 

 been vouchsafed the glory and the conditions of reve- 

 lation. 



The Caucasian type alone continues in rapid devel- 



