226 EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



means of subsistence abundantly, are generally simple and 

 innocent; their instinctive and perceptive faculties are also 

 apt to be active, although the higher intellect may be dor- 

 mant. If we therefore presume India to have been the cradle 

 of the principal portion of our race, they might at first 

 exemplify a kind of golden age ; but it could not be of long 

 continuance. The very first movements from the primal seat 

 would be attended with deterioration, nor could there be any 

 tendency to true civilization till groups had settled and 

 thickened in particular seats physically limited. 



The causes of the various external peculiarities of mankind 

 now require some attention. Why, it is asked, are the 

 Africans black, and generally marked by ungainly forms ; 

 why the flat features of the Chinese, and the comparatively 

 well-formed figures of the Caucasians ? Why the Mongolians 

 generally yellow, the Americans red, and the Caucasians 

 white ? These questions were complete puzzles to all early 

 writers ; but physiology has lately thrown a great light upon 

 them. It is now shown that the brain, after completing the 

 series of animal transformations, passes through the cha- 

 racters in which it appears in the Negro, Malay, American, 

 and Mongolian nations, and finally becomes Caucasian. The 

 face partakes of these alterations. " One of the earliest points 

 in which ossification commences is the lower jaw. This bone 

 is consequently sooner completed than the other bones of the 

 head, and acquires a predominance, which, as is well known, it 

 never loses in the Negro. During the soft pliant state of the 

 bones of the skull, the oblong form which they naturally assume, 

 approaches nearly the permanent shape of the Americans. At 

 birth, the flattened face, and broad smooth forehead of the in- 

 fant, the position of the eyes rather towards the side of the head, 

 and the widened space between, represent the Mongolian form ; 

 while it is only as the child advances to maturity, that the 

 oval face, the arched forehead, and the marked features of the 

 true Caucasian, become perfectly developed." ( 92 ) The leading 

 characters, in short, of the various races of mankind, are 

 simply representations of particular stages in the development 

 of the highest or Caucasian type. The Negro exhibits per- 



