CHAPTER X. 



Division of the Human Species into Five Varieties. 



After taking into consideration the principal circumstances 

 which characterize the several races of man, and arriving — 

 by the proof that all such distinctions are produced in a still 

 greater degree among animals, chiefly of the domesticated 

 kinds, from the ordinary sources of degeneration — at the 

 conclusion that there is only one species, it remains for me 

 to inquire how many varieties ought to be recognized in 

 this species, and to enumerate the characters by which 

 they may be distinguished. As there is no circumstance, 

 whether of corporeal structure or of mental endowment, 

 which does not pass by imperceivable gradations into the 

 opposite character, rendering all those distinctions merely 

 relative, and reducing them to differences in degree, it is 

 obvious that any arrangement of human varieties must be 

 in great measure arbitrary. Our imperfect knowledge of 

 several tribes constitutes another very serious difficulty, A 

 complete and accurate arrangement cannot therefore be 

 expected at present; and it is more advisable to adopt 

 a general one, which may answer the purposes of classifying 

 the facts already known, and affording points of comparison 

 in aid of future inquiry, than to attempt the details and 

 minuter distinctions, for which we must depend on further 

 investigation. 



I think it best to follow the distribution proposed by 

 Blxjmenbach, although it is not free from objection ; and 

 although the five varieties, under which he has arranged the 

 several tribes of our species, ought rather to be regarded as 

 principal divisions, each of them including several varieties. 



