39 



this subject, you have no reason to pronounce 

 it to be " the wrong opinion." p. 246. 



As far as I can comprehend your meaning 

 concerning a variety, as distinguished from a 

 species, it consists in a certain unknown and 

 unaccountable deviation " from the law of re* 

 " semblance between parents and their off- 

 " spring." * Thus as you remark, f two white 

 cats will sometimes produce a black kitten 

 amongst several white ones : and it is on this 

 sage observation that you would attempt to ac- 

 count for the varieties in the human race, inde- 

 pendent of climate, food, &c. If so, why is it 

 that we do not discover white negroes (not Al- 

 binoes) mingled with the black ? And why are 

 not black children occasionally born amongstus? 



" If it be allowed," you say, " that all men 

 " are descended from the same species, it does 

 " not follow that they all descend from the same 

 " family." J No, Sir, it will not follow to any 

 one who will maintain the absurdity, that God 

 would unnecessarily create multitudes of the 

 same species at the same moment. Yet, even 

 admitting this absurdity, what becomes of those 

 varieties, which you have already asserted not 

 to be coeval with the race; but to arise from some 

 accidental deviations from the laws of nature ? 

 But what are we to think of the wisdom of a 

 writer who actually believes that the English and 

 Scottish nations have originally descended from 



* P. 446. f P- 510. + P. 516. 



