MAN, PHYSICALLY CONSIDERED. 465 



that divide them. Neither does the color, which belongs 

 to any particular race, prevail so universally in all the 

 individuals of that race, as to constitute an invariable 

 character, as we should expect if it rose from a cause so 

 uniform as aa original specific difference. Its varieties 

 on the contrary, point out the action of other circum- 

 stances.' 



.It is impossible fully to explain the causes of the great 

 diversity now to be seen. Climate, soil, manners and 

 customs have a great influence, but we cannot see pre- 

 cisely how they operate in producing given effects. 

 There is however precisely the same difficulty in account- 

 ing for the different features of members of the same 

 family, that there is in accounting for the varieties of the 

 human race. Why do the same parents have one child 

 with a light complexion, and light hair; and another with 

 a dark complexion, and dark hair] No one can tell. 

 We know that children of different appearance are born 

 of the same parents, why then may not the Caucasian, 

 the Ethiopian, the Mongolian, the American, and the 

 Malay be traced back to the same common parents, Ad- 

 am and Eve ? Most evidently they may. True we can- 

 not account in full for the causes of this difference ; nei- 

 ther is it to be expected, for we cannot account for the 

 causes of the difference in the children who encircle the 

 same tire-side. 



Various modes have been suggested by which these 

 rarieties might have been naturally produced. It is said 

 that ' the heat of the climate is the chief cause of black- 

 ness among the human species. When this heat is ex- 

 cessive, as in Senegal and Guinea, the men are perfect- 

 ly black; when it is a little less violent the blackness is 

 not so deep ; when it becomes somewhat temperate, as 

 in Barbary, Mongolia, Arabia, &c, mankind are only 

 brown ; and lastly when it is altogether temperate, as in 

 Europe and Asia, men are white. Some varieties, in- 

 deed, are produced by the mode of living. All the Tar- 

 tars for example, are tawny ; while the Europeans who 

 live under the same latitude are white. This difference 

 may safely be ascribed to the Tartars being always ex- 

 posed to the air ; to their having no cities or fixed habi- 



VOL. i. NO. xix. 41* 



