84 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 



with a greater degree of intellect, and another 

 remarkable for more acute sensation, that, there- 

 fore, they cannot be derived from a common 

 origin ? Nations are often led by custom as well 

 as individuals ; they, therefore, usually walk in 

 the path that their ancestors have trod before 

 them, and, from circumstances connected with 

 this, it happens that some apply their faculties 

 to higher pursuits than others. Those that 

 chiefly cultivate the intellect improve it by that 

 very act ; while those who are principally en- 

 gaged in pursuits that require the constant and 

 skilful use of the organs of sensation acquire a 

 degree of expertness in that use not to be met 

 with in the others ; but the intellect being em- 

 ployed only upon low objects, becomes habitually 

 degraded, and loses all taste for things that are 

 not visible and tangible. Though in an indi- 

 vidual, or in a long succession of individuals, this 

 might not produce a perceptible contraction and 

 non-developement of the organ of the intellect, or 

 in the chamber that contains it ; yet, in the lapse 

 of ages and generations, this effect would gradu- 

 ally be produced, for if an organ is not used for 

 a long course of years, it becomes contracted, 

 and from long habit unapt to perform its natural 

 functions. Some American nations, by the ap- 

 plication of boards properly shaped, depress the 

 skull-bone of their infants, thinking a flat head 

 a great beauty, whence the tribe is distinguished 



