470 MAN, PHYSICALLY CONSIDERED. 



of ages has produced physical peculiarities, which are 

 now fixed. The flattened head, the thick lip, the 

 diminutive, or the gigantic stature, the red, or black, 

 or copper colored skin, have become indelible marks of 

 the various divisions of the human family. In the same 

 manner, the gayety of the Frenchman, the gravity of the 

 Spaniard, the mildness of the Hindoo, and the general 

 intellectual superiority, or inferiority of the Mongolian or 

 Caucasian, or negro race, may have become fixed char- 

 acteristics, which circumstances now can but slowly 

 change. 



That there should be thus, in the course of ages, a 

 marked and permanent difference among the races of 

 men, springing originally from the same stock, is ren- 

 dered not improbable from another circumstance, viz. 

 the difference which exists between different fam Hies of 

 the same nation. In this case, the origin is confessedly 

 the same, and yet how great a difference in intellectual 

 or physical power is sometimes observed. One family 

 will be distinguished in all its members for uncommon 

 acuteness of intellectual powers. Another will be noted 

 for the reverse, so that with the best advantages they will 

 scarcely rise above mediocrity ; and these peculiarities 

 will sometimes remain from generation to generation, 

 until they are gradually lost. In the same manner the 

 great divisions of the whole human family may come to 

 differ in intellectual power, so that equal advantages will 

 not bring equal rank, and many generations may be ne- 

 cessary to restore the equilibrium. 

 4, The question then of the intellectual equality of the 

 various races of mankind, we mean the equality in 

 respect to the native powers of the individuals, as 

 they now successively come upon the stage, is to be 

 settled by an appeal to facts. Do these various races 

 under the same circumstances, attain to the same suc- 

 cessful cultivation of the arts of life ? When circum- 

 stances are favorable, do they make equal progress ? 

 and when war, or pestilence, or famine, or any other 

 great calamity, involves them in ruin, and throws them 

 back to the state of nature, do they, with equal rapidity, 

 and certainty, recover from the shock and rise to refine- 



