ANIMALS. 



183 



nature of the food, and the quantity of the 

 supply. Not but that the severity of heat or 

 cold, may, in some measure, diminish the 

 growth, and produce adwarfishness of make. 

 But, in general, the food is the great agent in 

 producing this effect ; where that is supplied 

 in large quantities, and where its quality is 

 wholesome and nutrimental, the inhabitants 

 are generally seen above the ordinary stature. 

 On the contrary, where it is afforded in a 

 sparing quantity, or very coarse, and void of 

 nourishment in its kind, the inhabitants de- 

 generate, and sink below the ordinary size of 

 mankind. In this respect they resemble other 

 animals, whose bodies, by proper feeding, 

 may be greatly augmented. An ox, on the 

 fertile plains of India, grows to a size four 

 times as large as the diminutive animal of the 

 same kind bred in the Alps. The horses bred 

 in the plains are larger than those of the 

 mountain. So it is with man ; the inhabitants 

 of the valley are usually found taller than 

 those of the hill; the natives of the Highlands 

 of Scotland, for instance, are short, broad, and 

 hardy ; those of the Lowlands are tall and 

 shapely. The inhabitants of Greenland, who 

 live upon dried fish and seals, are less than 

 those of Gambia, or Senegal, where Nature 

 supplies them with vegetable and animal 

 abundance. 



The form of the face seems rather to be 

 the result of custom. Nations who have long 

 considered some artificial deformity as beau- 

 tiful, who have industriously lessened the feet, 

 or flattened the nose, by degrees begin to re- 

 ceive the impression they are taught to as- 

 sume ; and Nature, in a course of ages, shapes 

 itself to the constraint, and assumes heredita- 

 ry deformity. We find nothing more com- 

 mon in births, than for children to inherit 

 sometimes even the accidental deformities of 

 their parents. We have many instances of 

 squinting in thefather,which he received from 

 fright or habit, communicated to the offspring; 

 and I myself have seen a child distinctly mark- 

 ed with a scar, similar to one the father had 

 received in battle. In this manner, acciden- 

 tal deformities may become natural ones ; and 

 by assiduity may be continued, and even in- 

 creased, through successivegenerations. From 

 this, therefore, may have arisen the small eyes 

 and long ears of the Tartar and Chinese na- 



tions. From hence originally may have come 

 the flat noses of the blacks, and the flat heads 

 of the American Indians. 



In this slight survey, therefore, I think we 

 may see that all the variations in the human 

 figure, as far as they differ from our own, are 

 produced either by the rigour ol the climate, 

 the bad quality or the scantiness of the pro- 

 visions, or by the savage customs of the coun- 

 try. They are actual marks of the degenera- 

 cy in the human form ; and we may consider 

 the European figure and colour as standards 

 to which to refer all other varieties, and with 

 which to compare them. In proportion as the 

 Tartar or American approaches nearer to Eu- 

 ropean beauty, we consider the race as less 

 degenerated ; in proportion as he differs more 

 widely, he has made greater deviations from 

 his original form. 



That we have all sprung from one common 

 j parent we are taught, both by reason and re- 

 ! ligion, to believe ; and we have good reason 

 also to think that the Europeans resemble him 

 more than any of the rest of his children. 

 However, it must not be concealed that the 

 olive-coloured Asiatic, and even the jet-black 

 negro, claim this honour of hereditary resem- 

 blance ; and assert, that white men are mere 

 deviations from original perfection. Odd as 

 this opinion may seem, they have Linnaeus, 

 the celebrated naturalist, on their side ; who 

 supposes man a native of the tropicnl climates, 

 and only a sojourner more to the north. But, 

 not to enter into a controversy upon a matter 

 of a very remote speculation, I think one ar- 

 gument alone will suffice to prove the contra- 

 ry, and show that the white man is the origi- 

 nal source from whence the other varieties 

 have sprung. We have frequently seen white 

 children produced from black parents, but 

 have never seen a black offspring the produc- 

 tion of two whites. From hence we may con- 

 clude, that whiteness is the colour to which 

 mankind naturally tends : for, as in the tulip, 

 the parent stock is known by all the artificial 

 varieties breaking into it ; so in man, that co- 

 lour must be original which never alters, and 

 to which all the rest are accidentally seen to 

 change. I have seen in London, at different 

 times, two white negroes, the issue of black 

 parents, that served to convince me of the 

 truth of this theory. I had before been taught 



