308 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



while the present forms of man are distinguished only 

 as races. On this subject, we shall not lavish many 

 words, since, examined in the light, it is an affair of words 

 only. In the order of Primates, man constitutes a single 

 family, and represents it by a single genus. Whether 

 Negroes, Caucasians, Papuans, American-Indians, &c., 

 be called species or races, matters little. The facility of 

 intercrossing the different nations would favour their 

 characterization as races ; but as the crossing of species 

 does not differ in principle from the crossing of races, 

 and as to the bodily varieties displayed in colour, 

 hair, skull, limbs, and other characters are added the 

 profound differences of language, the division of the 

 genus homo into species, diverging into many races, 

 seems after all more natural. But ultimately, as in the 

 question of species in general, the individual feeling of 

 each person proves decisive. Whether it was a lucky 

 hit to found the division of mankind on the position 

 of the hairs, in tufts or equally distributed upon the 

 scalp, and furthermore on the section of the hair, 

 whether it be more flat and oval or circular in form, 

 and finally on the inclination to curl or to lie stiff and 

 smooth, the future must decide. 



The twelve races cited in the table given above, may 

 be characterized by the aid of natural history ; and as 

 v/ithin the limits of the best known races, languages 

 and families of languages m.ay be found, which preclude 

 any common origin, it follows that the formation of 

 language began only after the still speechless primordial 

 man had diverged into races. In geological periods and 

 primordial history, all chronology is extremely decep- 

 tive : we may, nevertheless, acquiesce in an estimate 



