1316 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



can be attained, the practical question is at 

 once and completely settled, we shall apply 



Fig. 805. 



ourselves to the search for it, as fully as our 

 present limits permit. 



Fig. 806. 



Tasmanian female. (From the " Atlas du Voyage Aramanga youth. (From a portrait in Dr. Picker- 

 de I' Astrolabe.") ing's " Natural History of Man." ) 



What, then, is the true zoological relation- 

 ship between these different races, so dissi- 

 milar in colour, features> bodily conformation, 

 stature, habits of life, and moral and intel- 

 lectual cultivation ? Have we any ground to 

 consider them as distinct species ? or are we 

 to regard them as varieties of one and the same 

 species ? Are the fair Circassian and the jet- 

 black African, the olive Malay and the red 

 American, the dusky New Zealander and the 

 florid Saxon, all of one original stock ? Did 

 the Patagonians, whose average height is 

 nearly six feet, spring from the same parents 

 with the pigmy Bosjesmans, whose usual 

 height is under five, that of the females rarely 

 much exceeding four ? Are the fat, blubber- 

 fed, flat-visaged Esquimaux even most distantly 

 related to the lean, date-eating, hatchet-faced 

 Arab ? " Does the Bosjesman, who lives in 

 holes and caves, and devours ants' eggs, 

 locusts, and snakes, belong to the same species 

 as the men who luxuriated in the hanging 

 gardens of Babylon, or walked the olive-grove 

 of Academe, or sat enthroned in the imperial 

 homes of the Csesars, or reposed in the mar- 

 ble palaces of the Adriatic, or held sumptuous 

 festivals in the gay salons of Versailles ? Can 

 the grovelling Wawa, prostrate before his 

 fetish, claim a community of origin with those 

 whose religious sentiments inspired them to 

 pile the prodigious temples of Thebes and 

 Memphis, to carve the friezes of the Parthe- 

 non, or to raise the heaven-pointing arches 

 of Cologne ? That ignorant Ibo, muttering 

 his ail-but inarticulate prayer, is he of the 

 same ultimate ancestry as those who sang 

 deathless strains in honour of Olympian Jove, 

 or of Pallas Athene ; or of those who, in a 

 purer worship, are chanting their glorious 

 hymns or solemn litanies in the churches of 

 Christendom ? That Alfouro woman, with 



her flattened face, transverse nostrils, thick 

 lips, wide mouth, projecting teeth, eyes half 

 closed by the loose swollen upper eyelids, 

 ears circular, pendulous, and flapping ; the 

 hue of her skin of a smoky black, and, by 

 way of ornament, the septum of her nose 

 pierced with a round stick some inches long, 

 is she of the same original parentage as 

 those whose transcendent and perilous beauty 

 brought unnumbered woes on the people of 

 ancient story, convulsed kingdoms, entranced 

 poets, and made scholars and sages forget 

 their wisdom ? Did they all spring from one 

 common mother ? Were Helen of Greece, and 

 Cleopatra of Egypt, and Joanna of Arragon, 

 and Rosamond of England, and Mary of 

 Scotland, and the Eloisas, and Lauras, and 

 lanthes, were all these, and our poor 

 Alfouro, daughters of her who was * fairest of 

 all her daughters, Eve ? ' The Quaiqua or 

 Saboo, whose language is described as con- 

 sisting of certain snapping, hissing, grunting 

 sounds, all more or less nasal, is he, too, of 

 the same descent as those whose eloquent 

 voices ' fulmined over Greece,' or shook the 

 forum of Rome, or as that saint and father of 

 the church surnamed the 'golden-mouthed,' 

 or as those whose accents have thrilled all 

 hearts with indignation, or melted them with 

 pity and ruth, in the time-honoured halls of 

 Westminster?"* 



This question is capable of being considered 

 under a great variety of aspects. There are 

 many very excellent persons, who think it 

 quite sufficiently answered by the authority of 

 the Scriptural narrative, and who maintain that 

 to this authority all opposing considerations 



* From an Introductory Lecture, entitled " Our 

 Institution and its Studies : " by Dr. J. A. Symonds. 

 Bristol, 1850. 



