42cS DIKFERKNCES fN 



modern times. Their works and lives are so well known, 

 and so easily accessible, that it is only neccessary to men- 

 tion them. 



On reviewing these instances, which indeed must be re- 

 ceived as exceptions to the general results of observation 

 and experience respecting the Negro faculties, I may 

 observe, with Blumenbach, from whom some of them 

 are borrowed, that entire and large provinces of Europe 

 might be named, in which it would be difficult to meet with 

 such good writers, poets, philosophers, and correspondents 

 of the French Academy. These insulated facts are not, 

 however, adduced to prove that the African enjoys an 

 equality of moral and intellectual atrtibutes with the Euro- 

 pean race 5 but merely to shew, that of the dark-coloured 

 people none have distinguished themselves by stronger 

 proofs of capacity for literary and scientific cultivation, and 

 consequently that none approach more nearly than the- 

 Negro to the polished nations of the globe. That the Ethi- 

 opian, taken altogether, is decidedly inferior to the Cauca- 

 sian variety in the qualities of the heart and of the head, 

 will be soon recognised by any one who attentively weighs 

 the representations of all unprejudiced and disinterested ob- 

 servers respecting the conduct, capabilities, and character 

 of the Africans, whether In their own country, in the West 

 Indies, or in America; and the continuance of the whole 

 race, for more than twenty centuries, in a condition which, 

 in its best forms, is little elevated above absolute barbarism, 

 must give to this conviction the clear light and full force of 

 demonstration. I cannot therefore admit, without some 

 restriction and explanation, the quaint but humane expres- 

 sion of the preacher, who called the Negro " God's image, 

 like ourselves, though carved in ebony." 



As the external influences of climate, soil, situation ; of 

 way of life, degree of civilization, habits, customs, form of 

 government, religion, education, are manifestly inadequate 

 to account for the very marked differences which at all times, 

 in all countries, and under all circumstances, have character- 

 izcd the white and the dark races, and the various subdivi- 



