NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 501 



originals of our species like to any of the derivative races, or 

 moulded in some form now lost amidst the multitude of 

 secondary varieties ? In his earliest researches Dr. Prichard 

 adopted a view somewhat repugnant to the common notions 

 and feelings of the civilised world. He boldly stated his 

 belief that the Negro must be considered the primitive type 

 of the human race ; resting this conclusion on the following 

 grounds ; 1st, that in inferior species of animals any 

 variations of colour are chiefly from dark to lighter, and this 

 generally as an effect of domesticity and cultivation ; 2ndly, 

 that we have instances of light varieties, as of the Albino, 

 among Negroes, but never of anything like the Negro among 

 Europeans ; 3rdly, that the dark races are better fitted by 

 their organisation for the wild or natural state of life ; 4thly, 

 that the nations or tribes lowest in the scale of actual civili- 

 sation have all kindred with the Negro race. 



Taking these arguments as they are stated, and even 

 conceding for the moment the assumptions they involve, we 

 see no such cogency in them as to oblige us to relinquish 

 the fairer conception of our original progenitors. Even Dr. 

 Prichard himself seems to have abandoned this theory in his 

 later writings, though rather by silent evasion of it than by 

 avowal of change. While, however, we refuse on present 

 proof to people our Eden with a negro pair, we must fairly 

 admit that we can give no satisfactory answer to the point 

 in question. Direct evidence on the subject is wholly want- 

 ing, nor do we see whence it can ever be obtained. There is 

 as much reason for supposing the original type to be alto- 

 gether lost, as for believing it to be represented in any one 

 form that now exists around us. All we can presume with 

 any degree of assurance is, that this primitive type did not 

 depart out of the limits of existing forms, in whatever manner 

 or proportion it may have combined their varieties. Beyond 

 this we can affirm nothing ; and rather than hazard an idle 



