192 PECULIARITIES IN 



both these causes arc concerned;— that the original source 

 of an attribute, which so strikingly characterizes our species, 

 is to be sought in the properties of the human frame ; and 

 that this original power of the bodily fabric is assisted and 

 fully developed by the mental prerogatives of man. 



In what way do the Greenlander, tlie Eskiraau, and 

 the Canadian * employ remarkable talents or invention to 

 protect themselves against the cold ? They brave the winter 

 with open breast and uncovered limbs, and devour their 

 whales and seals drest, raw, or putrid. The Negro f is 

 healthy and strong under a vertical sun, with the soles of 

 his feet bare on the burning sands. On the other hand, the 

 fox, the beaver, the marmot, and the hamster, seek the 

 shelter of dwellings, which they dig for themselves. In 

 this comparison, in respect to protection from external in- 

 fluences, man enjoys no peculiar privilege. The mind, 

 indeed, employs the excellent structure of the body, lifts 

 man above the rest of the creation, accommodates him to all 

 places, gives him iron, fire and arms, furs, and screens from 

 the sun, &c. ; but with all this could never make him what 

 he now is, the inhabitant of all climates, if he did not pos- 

 sess the most enduring and flexible corporeal frame. The 

 lower animals, in general, have no defence against the evils 

 of a new climate, but the force of nature. The arts of hu- 

 man ingenuity furnish a defence against the dangers that 

 surround our species in every region. Accordingly, we see 

 the same nation pass into all the climates of the earth ; 

 reside whole winters near the pole 3 plant colonies beneath 



* The Knisteneaux (situated north of the great lakes of Canada) often 

 go to the chase in the severest frost, covered with ordinary slight clothing, 

 Mackenzie, Travels in North America ; preliminary History of the Fur 

 Trade, p. 94. 



Two Indians (Americans) slept on the snow in an ordinary light dress, 

 when the thermometer at sunrise was 40 below 0. The man suffered no in- 

 convenience : the boy had his feet frozen, but they were recovered by cold 

 water. Lewis and Clarke's Travels, Mo. •^. 112. 



+ The women and children on the coast of Sierra Leone wear nothing on 

 their head, either in rain or sunshine. The ipean heat is only 84 ; but the 

 thermometer rises in th<? sun to 130 or 140. Winterbottom on the Native 

 Africans, v. i. p. 38. 



