EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. 515 



atrophy of the noble faculties which are the privilege of our species. 

 It is not the province of the present writer to determine the causes, 

 undoubtedly very complex, which have operated in the formation of 

 the various races composing the human genus, to allot to each the 

 physiological and psychological characteristics which distinguish them, 

 and to explain their distribution in the different regions of the globe. 

 These are problems, indeed, which science has only begun to inves- 

 tigate, and in whose discussion scientific men exhibit the widest 

 discrepancies of opinion. While one authority contends for man's 

 unity of origin, another believes that he has sprung from several 

 independent sources. All at present is hypothesis and conjecture; 

 nor do there apparently exist any well-approved facts on which a 

 satisfactory theory can be erected apart from the brief and succinct 

 details recorded in Holy Writ. Why one race has emerged from 

 barbarism while another remains sunk in its lowest depths, we can 

 only explain by admitting the exercise of a superhuman power. No 

 evidence can be given that any people has achieved civilization by 

 its own unassisted efforts. But in these pages I am not called upon 

 to enter into any philosophical speculations. I have only to deal 

 with facts ; and with one incontestable fact, the superiority of those 

 races which have acquired civilization over those which are incapable 

 of so grand a work, and which show little, if any, aptitude to profit 

 by the examples and the lessons brought within their reach. 



Whether it is due to wholly external circumstances, such as 

 climate, geographical situation, geological constitution of the soil, its 

 nature and that of its productions, that such differences should exist 

 between different races, that some should reign as sovereigns over 

 the earth, while others, in their pretended liberty, are given up to 

 all the horrors of slavery, ignorance, misery, and cannibalism, I am 

 not called upon to determine. It seems both probable and possible. 

 "To understand any people thoroughly," says Mr. Helps, "we must 

 know something of the country in which they live, or at least of 

 that part inhabited by the dominant race. The insects partake the 

 colour of the trees they dwell upon, and man is not less affected by 



