90 HISTORY OF 



the most beautiful to the eye, but the most advan- 

 tageous. The fair complexion seems, if I may so 

 express it, as a transparent covering to the soul ; 

 all the variations of the passions, 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 Euro- 

 pean face is the most exact index, and often 

 teaches us to prevent those disorders that we do 

 not as yet perceive : not but that the African 

 black, and the Asiatic olive complexions, admit 

 of their alterations also ; but these are neither so 

 distinct, nor so visible, 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 naturally 

 white ; since the same causes that darken the 

 complexion in infants, may have originally ope- 

 rated, in slower degrees, in blackening whole na- 

 tions. 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 



