ANIMALS. 247 



cnaracters mentioned above. On the contrary, in those places where 

 trade has long flourished, or where enemies have made many incur- 

 sions, the races are usually found blended, and properly fall beneatt 

 no one character. Thus, in the islands of the Indian ocean, where a 

 trade has been carried on for time immemorial, the inhabitants appear 

 to be a mixture of all the nations upon the earth ; white, olive, brown, 

 and black men, are all seen living together in the same city, and pro- 

 pagate a mixed breed, that can be referred to none of the classes into 

 which naturalists have thought proper to divide mankind. 



Of all the colours by which mankind is diversified, it is easy to 

 perceive that ours is not only the most beautiful to the eye, but the 

 most advantageous. The fair complexion seems, if I may so express 

 it, as a transparent covering to the soul ; all the variations of the pas- 

 sions, every expression of joy or sorrow, flows to the cheek, and, with- 

 out language, marks the mind. In the slightest change of health also, 

 the colour of the European face is the most exact index, and often 

 teaches us to prevent those disorders that we do not as yet perceive : 

 not but the African black, and the Asiatic olive complexions, admit 

 of their alterations also ; but these are neither so distinct, nor so visi- 

 ble as with us : and, in some countries, the colour of the visage is never 

 found to change ; but the face continues in the same settled shade in 

 shame and in sickness, in anger and despair. 



The colour, therefore, most natural to man, ought to be that which 

 is most becoming ; and it is found that in all regions, the children are 

 born fair, or at least red, and that they grow more black or tawny, as 

 they advance in age. It should seem, consequently, that man is natu- 

 rally white, since the same causes that darken the complexion in in- 

 fants, may have originally operated, in slower degrees, in blackening 

 whole nations. We could, therefore readily account for the blackness 

 of different nations, did we not see the Americans, who live under 

 the line, as well as the natives of Negroland, of a red colour, and but 

 a very small shade darker than the natives of the northern latitudes, 

 in the same continent. For this reason some have sought for other 

 causes of blackness than the climate ; and have endeavoured to prove 

 that the blacks are a race of people, bred from one man, who was 

 marked with accidental blackness. This, however, is but mere un- 

 grounded conjecture : and, although the Americans are not so dark as 

 the negroes, yet we must still continue in the ancient opinion, that the 

 deepness of the colour proceeds from the excessive heat of the climate. 

 For, if we compare the heats of Africa with those of America, we 

 shall find they bear no proportion to each other. In America, all that 

 part of the continent which lies under the line, is cool and pleasant, 

 either shaded by mountains, or refreshed by breezes from the sc-a. 

 But in Africa, the wide tract of country that lies under the line is very 

 extensive, and the soil sandy ; the reflection of the sun, therefore, from 

 so large a surface of earth, is almost intolerable ; and it is not to b'e 

 wondered* at, that the inhabitants should bear, in their looks, the 

 marks of the inhospitable climate. In America, the country is but 

 thinly inhabited ; and the more torrid tracts are generally left desert 

 by the inhabitants ; for which reason they are not so deeply tinged by 

 the beams of the sun. But in Africa the whole face of the 'country is 



