414 DIFFERENCES IN 



devoted friendship, which would sustain a comparison with 

 the most splendid similar examples In the more highly-gifted 

 races. Honourable and punctual fulfilment of treaties and 

 compacts, patient endurance of toil, hunger, cold, and all 

 kinds of hardships and privations, Inflexible fortitude, and 

 unshaken perseverance in avenging Insults or Injuries ac- 

 cording to their own peculiar customs and feelings, shew 

 that they are not destitute of the more valuable moral 

 qualities *." 



The Mongolian people differ very much In their docility 

 and moral character. While the empires of China and Japan 

 prove that this race is susceptible of civilization, and of 

 great advancement in the useful and even elegant arts of life, 

 and exhibit the singular phenomenon of political and social 

 institutions between two and three thousand years older than 

 the christian era, the fact of their having continued nearly 

 stationary for so many centuries, marks an Inferiority of na- 

 ture, and a llnjlted capacity, in comparison to that of the 

 white races. 



When the Mongolian tribes of central Asia have been 

 united under one leader, war and desolation have been the 

 objects of the association. Unrelenting slaughter, without 

 distinction of condition, age, or sex, and universal destruc- 

 tion, have marked the progress of their conquests, unattended 

 with any changes or institutions capable of benefiting the 

 human race, unmlngled with any acts of generosity, any 

 kindness to the vanquished, or the slightest symptoms of 

 regard to the rights and liberties of mankind. The progress of 

 Attila, Zingis, and Tamerlane, like the deluge, the tor- 

 nado, and the hurricane. Involved every thing in one sweep- 

 ing ruin. 



In all the points which have been just considered, the 

 white races present a complete contrast to the dark-coloured 

 inhabitants of the globe. While the latter cover more than 

 half the earth's surface, plunged In a state of barbarism In 

 which the higher attributes of human nature seldom make 



*See Mr. Jefferson's eloquent vindication of tlie North American savages 

 from the degrading picture drawn of them by Buffon. Notes on Virginia. 



