xvi CAUSES OF RACIAL DIFFERENCES 241 



species (no agreement has been arrived at as to the number, 

 which is estimated by different authorities at from three to 

 twenty or more) have been independently created in different 

 parts of the world, and have perpetuated the distinctive 

 characters as well as the geographical position with which 

 they were originally endowed. 



The view which appears best to accord with what is now 

 known of the characters and distribution of the races of man, 

 and with the general phenomena of nature, may be described 

 as a modification of the former of these hypotheses. 



Without entering into the difficult question of the method 

 of man's first appearance upon the world, we must assume 

 for it a vast antiquity at all events as measured by any 

 historical standard. Of this there is now ample proof. 

 During the long time he existed in the savage state a time 

 compared to which the dawn of our historical period was as 

 yesterday he was influenced by the operation of those 

 natural laws which have produced the variations seen in other 

 regions of organic nature. The first men may very probably 

 have been all alike ; but, when spread over the face of the 

 earth, and become subject to very diverse external conditions 

 climate, food, competition with members of his own species 

 or with wild animals racial differences began slowly to be 

 developed through the potency of various kinds of selection 

 acting upon the slight variations which appeared in individuals 

 in obedience to the tendency implanted in all living things. 



Geographical position must have been one of the main 

 elements in determining the formation and the permanence of 

 races. Groups of men isolated from their fellows for long 

 periods, such as those living on small islands, to which their 

 ancestors may have been accidentally drifted, would naturally, 

 in course of time, develop a new type of features, of skull, of 

 complexion or hair. A slight set in one direction, in any of 

 these characters, would constantly tend to intensify itself, and 

 so new races would be formed. In the same way different 

 intellectual or moral qualities would be gradually developed 

 and transmitted in different groups of men. The longer a 

 race thus formed remained isolated, the more strongly im- 

 pressed and the more permanent would its characteristics 



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