72 



IMPHOVKMENT OF THE BREEbS. 



animals. There vivid tints, and an almost metallic 

 lustre, pervade animated beings, from the coral in ita 

 Bubmarine abode, to the gallinaceous birds, the cox- 

 combs of the forest. In this, as in every other depart- 

 ment of nature, the most beautiful harmony, or, in 

 other words, a union of what is pleasing to the eye, 

 and suited for the comfort of the creature, every where 

 prevails. The colour of an animal envelope is never at 

 variance with the tints of surrounding objects. A 

 painter, for example, would not place a flower or ani- 

 mal of brilliant hue amidst the monotonous aspect of 

 an arctic landscape ; neither would he picture the 

 faintly-tinted beings of a polar latitude, as surrounded 

 by the warm and flashy colouring characteristic of an 

 oriental climate. As temperature, then, determines 

 in a marked degree the colour and dimensions of 

 every animal, such variations render the division of 

 living beings into races and varieties, a matter of ne- 

 cessity- Thus all human beings belong only to one 

 species, which may, however, be divided into five 

 races, and these again into an infinity of varieties. 

 The differences between a race and a variety are, that 

 the latter is a subdivision of the former, and that in 

 the former the modifications are more profound, the 

 changes not being confined to the surface, but extend- 

 ing to the frame-work of the body ; whereas, to consti- 

 tute a variety, nothing more is necessary than the 

 superficial influence of heat and light on the skin, and 

 its appendages the hairs. The Negro and the Abyssi- 

 nian are precisely similar in colour, yet they are by no 

 means of the same race, as their different features will 

 distinctly prove ; the Abyssinian approaching as much 



