NEGATIVE NEGROPONT. 



169 



NEGATIVE (from the Latin negare, to deny; 

 hence a negative answer is a denying answer). In 

 philosophy, every thing is called negative which, 

 without determining any thing itself, only excludes 

 something else (the positive). Thus, for instance, 

 man, black, wise, are positive ideas ; they mean some- 

 thing direct, and it is not necessary to arrive at their 

 meaning by the intermediate process of excluding 

 something else. While, if we say a thing is not a 

 man, not black, not wise, nothing is determined. A 

 thing which is ''not a man" may be a book, air, 

 water. Hence we see that the negative notion always 

 requires something positive, which it excludes, or 

 negatives. It is necessary, however, to remark here, 

 that in all languages, certain words which expressed, 

 originally, negative notions, having received a posi 

 live meaning, as no one thinks of them any longer 

 as merely excluding ideas of a positive character. 

 For instance, innocent, illegible, fearless these words 

 are, in their meaning, as positive as the terms pure- 

 hearted, badly-written, brave. Every term may be 

 considered as negative, in reference to notions other 

 than those which it conveys, since it excludes them. 



Negative and positive quantities, in mathematics, 

 are such as are, respectively, greater or less than 

 nothing. Thus, if we call a man's debts, when they 

 much exceed his property, positive, we must call his 

 property negative ; or, if we call the former negative, 

 we call the latter positive. If we suppose one of the 

 legs of an angle movable round the vertex, we may 

 represent all possible angles, and on both sides of the 

 immovable leg ; those on one side arc positive, those 

 on the other negative. The same relation exists, in 

 mechanics, between power and weight ; in statics, 

 between pressure and resistance, &c. The higher 

 arithmetic extends the application of the fundamental 

 rules to the negative and positive quantities ; which 

 application forms the basis of algebra. Negative 

 quantities are designated by , and positive ones 

 by +, so that 4 + 4=0. 



NEGATIVE PREGNANT, in law, is a negative 

 which implies, or brings forth, an affirmative. 



NEGRO (Latin niger, black) ; a race or variety of 

 the human species deriving their name from one of 

 their most striking characteristics, their black colour ; 

 called, also, the Ethiopic race. (See Man.) Their 

 native region seems to be the central portion of 

 Africa, though some tribes of the negro variety have 

 been found in America and the South Sea islands. 

 The negro formation prevails in Western Africa in 

 the region of the Gambia and Senegal ; extending 

 southwards, it is most strongly marked in Guinea, and 

 passes gradually over into the Caft're and Hottentot 

 formation. In Eastern Africa, it commences to the 

 south of Abyssinia ; prevails in Zanguebar and Mono- 

 motapa, though not in general pure. Of the tribes 

 in the more central part of Africa little is known. 

 (See Nigritia.) The heat of the climate, in all these 

 regions may have some effect upon the tint of the skin, 

 but is by no means the only or the principal cause of 

 the black colour, since, under the same climates of 

 the torrid zone, there are found all shades of com- 

 plexion. White men in Africa only become some- 

 what swarthier, but never black, even in a succession 

 of generations, unless they intermingle with the 

 negroes ; and blacks, in other regions find climates, 

 are not found to lose their native hue. The seat of 

 the black colour is the rete mucosum, and the exter- 

 nal surface of the true skin (cutis) ; and when the 

 rete mucosum is destroyed, as by disease, &c. (see 

 Albinos), the colour is lost : so, in parts of the body 

 where the epidermis is unusually thick (the palms of 

 the hand and the soles of the feet), it is of a lighter 

 shade. Negroes are also distinguished from the other 

 races by other external, and by some anatomical pecu- 



liarities, particularly in the conformation of the 

 cranium. The projection of the whole visage in 

 advance of the forehead ; the prolongation of the 

 upper and lower jaws ; the small facial angle (see 

 Face) ; the flatness of the forehead, and of the hinder 

 part of the head (occiput), and the compression in the 

 direction of the temples, allowing less space for the 

 brain than in some other varieties ; the woolly, friz- 

 zled hair ; the short, broad, and flat nose ; the thick, 

 projecting lips, with many other peculiarities of forma- 

 tion, constitute some of the characteristics of the 

 negro or Ethiopic race. The African tribes of this 

 variety have, in general, elevated themselves so far 

 above the simple state of nature, as to have reduced 

 the lower animals to subjection, constructed settled 

 habitations, practised a rude agriculture, and manu- 

 factured some articles of clothing or ornament. In 

 political institutions they have made no advance, 

 their governments being simple despotisms, without 

 any regular organization. Their religion is merely the 

 instinctive expression of the religious feeling, in its 

 lowest form of fetichism. (See Fetich.) Their lan- 

 guages are described as extremely rude and imperfect ; 

 almost destitute of construction, and incapable of 

 expressing abstractions. They have no art of convey- 

 ing thoughts or events by writing, not even by the 

 simplest symbolical characters. The negro charac- 

 ter, if inferior in intellectual vigour, is marked by a 

 warmth of social affections, and a kindness and ten- 

 derness of feeling, which even the atrocities of foreign 

 oppression have not been able to stifle. All travellers 

 concur in describing the negro as mild, amiable, sim- 

 ple, hospitable, unsuspecting, and faithful. They are 

 passionately fond of music, and they express their 

 hopes and fears in extemporary effusions of song. 

 The opinion formerly maintained, that they were of 

 an inferior variety of animals, would not now find an 

 advocate, or a convert, even in the ignorance or the 

 worst passions of the whites. Whether they are 

 capable of reaching to the same height of intellectual 

 cultivation as the Europeans, is a question which we 

 need more facts to decide. (See Civilization.) The 

 most eloquent defender of the negroes is the abbe 

 Gregoire, in his work De la Litterature des Negrcs, 

 ou Recherches sur letirs Facultes intellectuelles, 

 leurs Qualites morales, &c. See the articles Africa, 

 Physiology, Philology, Slavery, &c. 



NKGROPONT, or EGRIPO (the ancient Eubcea); 

 an island in the Archipelago, separated from the conti- 

 nent by the narrow strait formerly called Euripus, 

 over which there is a bridge 200 feet long. The 

 modern name seems to be a corruption of Egripos, 

 the name of the capital (the ancient Chalcis), which 

 is probably derived from that of the strait on which 

 it lies. The superficial area is 1610 square miles ; 

 the population, previous to the Greek revolution, 

 amounted to 60,000, among whom were 40,000 

 Greeks. Its soil is fertile, yielding corn and various 

 fruits in abundance ; wine, oil, honey, and silk are 

 also produced. The mountains in the interior are 

 lofty, and their summits are covered with snow dur- 

 ing six months in the year. The capital is Egripos, 

 or Negropont. The castle of Carysto, on the southern 

 extremity of the island, over against Athens, by its 

 position at the entrance of the straits, commands the 

 whole island, and also the province of Attica. In 

 1821, Euboea raised the standard of revolt, at the call 

 of the beautiful Modena Maurogenia, a young lady 

 descended from a princely family of the island, and 

 whose father had been strangled by the Porte. She 

 fitted out two ships from Myconi, with a supply 

 of arms for the inhabitants of the island, and offered 

 her hand, as the reward, to any free Greek who 

 should conquer the Turks. Seventy-two villages 

 were soon in arms, upon which the Turks retired 



