404 HISTORY or 



strangers, or has had less commerce with the rest of mankind, 

 We find their persons and their manners more strongly impress- 

 ed with one or other of the characters mentioned above. On 

 the contrary, in those places where trade has long flourished, or 

 where enemies have made many incm'sions, the races are usually 

 found blended, and properly fall beneath no one character. 

 Thus, in the islands of the Indian ocean, where a trade has been 

 carried on for time immemorial, the inhabitants appear to be a 

 mixture of all the nations upon the earth ; white, olive, brown, 

 and black men, are all seen living together in the same city, and 

 propagating a mixed breed, that can be referred to none of the 

 classes into which naturalists have thought proper to divide 

 mankind. 



Of all the colours by which mankind is diversified, it is easy 

 to perceive, that ours is not only the most beautiful to the eye, 

 but the most advantageous. The fair complexion seems, if I 

 may so exj)ress it, as a transparent covering to the soul ; all the 

 variations of the passions, every expression of joy or sorrow, 

 flows to the cheek, and, without language, marks the mind. In 

 the slightest change of health also the colour of the European 

 face is the most exact index, and often teaches us to prevent those 

 disorders that we do not as yet perceive ; not but that the Afri- 

 can black, and the Asiatic olive complexions, admit of their 

 alterations also ; but these are neither so distinct, nor so visible, 

 as with us ; and in some countries the colour of the visage is 

 never found to change ; but the face continues in the same set- 

 tled shade in shame and in sickness, in anger and despair. 



The colour, therefore, most natural to man, ought to be that 

 which is most becoming ; and it is found, that, in all regions, 

 the children are born fair, or at least red, and that they grow 

 more black, or tawny, as they advance in age. It should seem, 

 consequently, that man is naturally white ; since the same causes 

 that darken the complexion in infants, may have originally oper- 

 ated, in slower degrees, in blackening whole nations. We could, 

 therefore, readily account for the blackness of different nations, 

 did we not see the Americans, who live under the line, as well 

 as the natives of Negroland, of a red colour, and but a very small 

 shade daiker than the natives of the northern latitudes, in the 

 same continent. For this reason, some have sought for other 

 causes of blackness than the climate ; and have endeavoured to 



