SECTION II. 



ON THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



Statement of the Subject — Mode of Investigation — The Question 

 ainnot be settled from the Jewish Scriptures, nor from other 

 Historical Records. — The Meaning of Species and Variety in 

 Zoology; Nature and Extent of Variation: — Breeding, as a 

 Criterion of Species. — Criterion of Analogy. 



The differences which exist between inhabitants of the dif- 

 ferent regions of the globe, both in bodily formation and in 

 the faculties of the mind, are so striking, that they must 

 have attracted the notice even of superficial observers. With 

 those forms, proportions, and colours, which we consider so 

 beautiful in the fine figures of Greece, contrast the woolly 

 hair, the flat nose, the thick lips, the retreating forehead 

 and advancing jaws, and black skin of the Negro : or the 

 broad square face, narrow oblique eyes, beardless chin, 

 coarse straiglit hair, and olive colour of the Calmuck. Com- 

 pare the ruddy and sanguine European with the jet-black 

 African, the red man of America, the yellow Mongolian, or 

 the brown South-Sea Islander ; the gigantic Patagonian, to 

 the dwarfish Laplander; the highly civilized nations of 

 Europe, so conspicuous in arts, science, literature, in all 

 that can strengthen and adorn society, or exalt and dignify 

 human nature, to a troop of naked, shivering, and starved 

 New Hollanders, a horde of filthy Hottentots, or the whole 

 of the more or less barbarous tribes that cover nearly the 

 entire continent of Africa. Are these all brethren ? Have 

 they descended from one stock ? or must we trace them to 



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