170 PERFECTIBILITY OP MAN. 



ties, reached a certain maturity, and then been arrested 

 or quenched. Such at least has been the history of the 

 rise and fall of many of those ancient empires and cities 

 which have left deepest impress upon posterity. The 

 term, moreover, is used for what differs in kind as well 

 as in degree. It is one of those conventional phrases 

 which, while serving in some sort to embody the loose 

 and floating elements of human thought, do yet often 

 tend to obscure them. 



To meet the question proposed in the title above it 

 is needful to recur to the past history of man for inter- 

 pretation of the probable future. Though I can give 

 but a faint outline to a subject fitted for volumes, some 

 part of this interpretation must be sought for even in 

 the origin of our species, and its relation to the other 

 forms of life on the earth. The question, for instance, 

 first arises, are we to regard the different races of 

 mankind as all primitively derived from a single stock ? 

 or are certain diversities of race such that we must 

 look to a plural origin, to different primitive stems, in 

 explanation of them ? Much may be said, and much 

 has been said, on both sides. I incline myself to the 

 belief of unity of origin, and have in one of my essays 

 urged the main arguments for this view, such as the 

 fertile interbreeding of all races, the continuous grada- 

 tions by which those farthest separate in aspect are 

 linked together in all the physical and moral qualities 

 of humanity, and those relations of language which, 

 though obscure in part, have led some of our most 

 eminent philologists to conclude that there is nothing 

 in the elements or diverse forms of speech incompatible 



