304 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



His reflecting power is very small, and his animal 

 propensities alone become developed to maturity. 

 A civilised negro is a phenomenon unknown. He 

 may be tamed, domesticated, and taught to imitate ; 

 but here the progress stops, his intellect is too 

 obtuse for further development. Notwithstanding 

 that thousands of negroes have had every advantage 

 that education and example can give, the most 

 common-place invention was never yet conceived 

 or originated by the brain contained in a woolly 

 head. A negro rarely improves by contact wdth 

 Europeans. He readily acquires all the vices of 

 the white man that are not already innate, and 

 never by any chance picks up a virtue. Naturally, 

 they are destitute of any moral principle, and, un- 

 like the Red Indian, have no sense of honour. 

 From such, a regard for truth cannot be expected ; 

 but they are also perfidious, hypocritical, and 

 treacherous, off'ering the hand at the time they are 

 meditating assassination. As masters they are 

 vain, insolent, and cruel ; as servants cringing, 

 fawning, dishonest, garrulous, and lazy. From 

 the highest to the lowest, they are drunkards, 



