DIVISIONS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. xlv 



had been formed of considerable power and splendour, yet 

 destined to fall an easy prey to European strangers. 



Looking at the great diversities which present themselves 

 in these different races of the human family, a natural curio- 

 sity prompts us to inquire whether they are of one species ; 

 and whether, on the assumption that they are of one species, 

 they have sprung from the same stock, and spread over the 

 earth from some common centre ; or whether they have been 

 called into existence, either contemporaneously, or at diffe- 

 rent epochs, according as the different parts of the earth be- 

 came fitted for their reception. 



If, by species, we understand animals possessing certain 

 characters in common, which we term specific, and having 

 the power, which we see them to possess, of reproducing 

 creatures having the same characters, there can be no diffi- 

 culty in admitting that all the races of man, in so far as they 

 have yet been examined, are of one species. If, indeed, we 

 were to place beside a Persian of Ispahan, or a mountaineer 

 of the Caucasus, a Negro of the Gambia, with his sooty skin, 

 his wool- like hair, his projecting jaws ; or a Bushman of the 

 Gariep, with his pigmy form, his yellow hue, his restless 

 eye ; or a savage of Van Dieman's Land, with his lank hair, 

 his large head, his slender limbs ; we might find it hard to 

 believe that creatures so unlike were identical as species. 

 But, great as the differences of external form here are, we 

 fail to discover any difference of conformation which can be 

 regarded as essential, or which we should call specific. The 

 individuals of the most dissimilar tribes breed freely with 

 one another, and the progeny has nothing of a hybridal cha- 

 racter, but is as fruitful as the parents from which it springs : 

 and, however dissimilar the races in question may appear in 

 their external characters, there is nothing like that great 

 dissimilarity which we continually see in creatures admitted 

 to be of the same species, as the wild and domesticated Hog, 

 and our Dogs of all sorts. 



The other question, whether the human races have all 



