1364 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



line has now been given, may be stated as 

 follows : 



1. The extremes! differences from each other, 

 or from a common stock, presented by the 

 races of Mankind, in regard alike to physical, 

 physiological, and psychological peculiarities, 

 are not greater in degree than those which 

 are known to arise amongst other species of 

 animals possessed of a similar adaptive capacity, 

 under the influence of changes in external con- 

 ditions ; and they differ only in degree, not in 

 kind, from those of whose origin in a change 

 of external conditions, in the case of mankind, 

 we have adequate evidence. 



2. In whatever mode the types of the prin- 

 cipal varieties are selected, they are found to 

 be connected by intermediate or transitional 

 gradations ; the descendants of each principal 

 stock exhibiting, in a greater or less degree, 

 a capability of approximation to the characters 

 of others. 



3. There is nothing in these diversities, 

 therefore, to justify the erection of specific 

 distinctions among the different races of Man- 

 kind ; and, whilst a probability of the unity 

 of their original stock may consequently be 

 said to exist, all scientific evidence points to 

 the conclusion, that, if the original stocks were 

 multiple, they must have had attributes es- 

 sentially the same. 



4. The supposition of a number of distinct 

 " protoplasts," one for each principal region 

 of the globe, is not required to account for the 

 extension of the human family over its area, 

 and it does not afford any assistance in ac- 

 counting for the phenomena of their existing 

 distribution ; since each principal geogra- 

 phical area contains races of very diversified 

 physical characters, the affinity of whose lan- 

 guages makes it next to certain that they must 

 have had a common descent. 



5. The evidence of philological research 

 decidedly tends to the conclusion, that such 

 affinities exist between the earliest known 

 stocks of the principal groups of languages 

 now and heretofore in use, as can only be 

 reasonably accounted for on the hypothesis of 

 their common origin, and the consequent ra- 

 diation of the whole species from one centre. 

 What that centre is likely to have been, is a 

 legitimate object of inquiry ; and the follow- 

 ing, which have long been regarded by the 

 author as the most probable deductions from 

 modern Ethnographical research in relation to 

 this subject, are now submitted with additional 

 confidence, on account of the confirmation 

 which they have received from the most recent 

 investigations, and, in particular, from their 

 conformity with the arrangement which Dr. 

 Latham's linguistic researches have led him 

 to adopt. 



The stock from which the globe was ori- 

 ginally peopled, is probably more nearly repre- 

 sented at this time by the Turanians of High 

 Asia than by any other; and some part of 

 that region was probably their primary seat. 

 It is among the Mongols and their allies, that 

 that combination of physical attributes which 

 is best adapted to the exigencies of a nomadic 



life, and that constitution which renders a 

 nomadic life a necessity of their nature, most 

 characteristically present themselves. The 

 bodily system of these people possesses a 

 vigour and adaptiveness, which enables it to 

 flourish under all the diversities of climate to 

 which their wandering propensities conduct 

 them ; and they can accommodate their mode 

 of life, without any great departure from their 

 characteristic nomadism, to a great variety of 

 external circumstances. Moreover, the geo- 

 graphical relations of High Asia make it the 

 most central spot on the whole globe, for the 

 radiation of Man to every corner of the ha- 

 bitable world; its connections with all other 

 lands are such as are possessed by no other 

 region ; while its climate is so intermediate 

 between that of the frigid and that of the 

 torrid zones, that the passage into either is 

 without any violent transition ; and, as a 

 matter of fact, we find that, while the Tungu- 

 sians and Ugrians have carried the Turanian 

 stock to the shores of the Polar Sea, a Tartar 

 tribe has made itself master of China, and 

 governs the whole of the south-east of Asia, 

 even to the Indian Ocean. This a priori ar- 

 gument, however, would be worth very little, 

 if we did not find it in correspondence with 

 the very curious fact, that the most ancient 

 inhabitants of nearly every part of the globe 

 are connected with the nations of High Asia, 

 more or less closely, by affinity of language or 

 of physical characters. This we have seen to 

 be the case, not merely with the Seriform 

 stock of Southern Asia and the Hyperborean 

 and Peninsular Mongols of the north and 

 north-east, but also with the aboriginal people 

 of Northern and Southern Europe, with those 

 of the Caucasus, and with the first settlers of 

 the Indian Archipelago. Not less complete 

 is the transition to the American nations; for 

 whilst, on the one hand, the Esquimaux forms 

 the link of connection, agreeing in physical 

 character with the Hyperborean Mongols, and 

 in language with the mass of the proper Ame- 

 rican nations, increased acquaintance with the 

 languages of the latter, and with the languages 

 of the Northern Asiatics, has confirmed the 

 suggestion long since made, that they are con- 

 structed upon a plan essentially the same; 

 the tendency to agglutination, which is less 

 manifested in the more immediate descendants 

 of the parent-stock, being most fully carried 

 out in its offsets, the Euskarian of the Basque 

 provinces, the languages of the Peninsular 

 Mongolidac, and the American tongues. The 

 only region regarding which there is not the 

 same amount of evidence, is Africa. But we 

 have seen reason to regard the whole group 

 of African nations as connected, through the 

 Semitic stock, with the Asiatic races ; and all 

 the knowledge recently acquired of the lan- 

 guage of Ancient Egypt*, together with all the 

 information gained by Major Rawlinson and 



* See the memoir by the Chevalier Bunsen, " On 

 the results of the recent Egyptian Researches in 

 reference to Asiatic and African Ethnology, and the 

 Classification of Languages," in the Reports of the 

 British Association for 1847. 



