IN THE HUMAN RACE. 13 



and constitute the chief discriminations of our kind, 

 Buffon, and after him, Goldsmith, have taken a more 

 luminous survey of mankind ; and have thrown them into 

 families strongly marked, and accurately defined. I shall 

 therefore follow them as the most satisfactory guides in 

 this respect, and present a miniature of their ampler de- 

 lineation. 



In taking an extensive view of our species, there do not 

 appear to be above six varieties sufficiently distinct to 

 constitute families : and even in them the distinctions are 

 more trivial than are frequently seen in the lower classes 

 of animals. In all climates, Man preserves the erect de- 

 portment, and the natural superiority of his form. There 

 is nothing in the shape or faculties that designates a dif- 

 ferent original ; and other causes, connected with the cli- 

 mate, soil, customs, and laws, sufficiently account for 

 the change which has been produced. 



The polar regions exhibit the FIRST distinct race of 

 men. The Laplanders, the Esquimaux Indians, the Sa- 

 moide Tartars, the inhabitants of Nova Zembla, the Bo- 

 randians, the Greenlanders, and the Kamtschadales, may 

 be considered as forming a race of people, all nearly 

 resembling each other in stature, complexion, habits, and 

 acquirements. Born under a rigorous climate, confined to 

 particular aliments, and subjected to numerous hardships, 

 it seems as if their bodies and their minds have not had 

 scope to expand. The extreme cold has produced nearly 

 the same effect on their complexion, as intense heat has 

 on the natives of tropical regions ; they are generally of a 

 deep brown, inclining to actual black. Diminutive and 

 ill-shaped, their aspect is as forbidding as their manners 

 are gross. Their visage is large and broad ; the nose flat 

 and short; the eyes brown, suffused with yellow ; the eye- 

 lids drawn towards the temples ; the cheek-bones high ; 

 the lips thick ; the voice effeminate ; the head large ; and 

 the hair black and straight. The tallest do not exceed 

 the height of five feet, and many are not more than four. 

 Among these nations, female beauty is almost unknown; 



