74 HISTORY OF 



guise the natural animal, and to distort or to dis- 

 figure its shape. But the chief differences in man 

 are rather taken from the tincture of his skin than 

 the variety of his figure ; and in all climates he 

 preserves his erect deportment, and the marked 

 superiority of his form. If we look round the 

 world, there seems to be not above six distinct 

 varieties in the human species,* each of which is 

 strongly marked, and speaks the kind seldom to 

 have mixed with any other. But there is nothing 

 in the shape, nothing in the faculties, that shows 

 their coming from different originals ; and the 

 varieties of climate, of nourishment, and custom, 

 are sufficient to produce every change. 



The first distinct race of men is found round 

 the polar regions. The Laplanders, the Esqui- 

 maux Indians, the Samoeid Tartars, the inhabi- 

 tants of Nova Zembla, the Borandians, the Green- 

 landers, and the natives of Kamtschatka, may be 

 considered as one peculiar race of people, all 

 greatly resembling each other in their stature, 

 their complexion, their customs, and their igno- 

 rance. These nations being under a rigorous cli- 

 mate, where the productions of nature are but 

 few, and the provisions coarse and unwholesome, 

 their bodies have shrunk to the nature of their 

 food ; and their complexions have suffered from 

 cold almost a similar change to what heat is known 

 to produce, their colour being a deep brown, in 

 some places inclining to actual blackness. These, 

 therefore, in general, are found to be a race of 



* I have taken four of these varieties from Linna-us ; those of the Lap- 

 landers and Tartars from M. Buffon. 



