RACES OP MANKIND 1671 



tain range which stretches between the Black and 

 Caspain Seas, and is justified by the fact that the 

 finest specimens of man physically considered- 

 have in all ages been found in proximity to that re- 

 gion. The perfect forms and external beauty of the 

 Circassian and Georgian people male and female 

 alike are well known. The finest types of the 

 white race (mere physical beauty alone being con- 

 sidered) are to be found within the elevated region of 

 the Caucasian isthmus ; and it has even been sought 

 to show that the human form degenerates in propor- 

 tion as its distance thence, in whatsoever direction, is 

 increased. To the westward of the Caucasus (what- 

 ever may be the case in other directions), the grace 

 which attends on moral and intellectual dignity is, 

 however, added to that of merely personal beauty. 



Considered in reference to color, the Caucasian is 

 the white variety of the human family; but the latter 

 epithet must be considered as applicable only in a 

 general sense, for numerous shades of color inter- 

 vene between the swarthy complexions of the sub- 

 tropical regions that border on the Mediterranean 

 and the fair skins of the people of Northern and 

 Northwestern Europe. These differences are doubt- 

 less in some measure dependent on climate. Yet 

 there must be a well-grounded difference due to 

 other causes, since families of whites dwell dur- 

 ing several successive generations within the tropics 

 without acquiring the hue of the Negro, or settle 

 within the western continent without gaining any 

 external resemblance to the copper-colored native of 

 the New World. 



