NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 2TI 



02)inioii, that a pair, in wliifli lootli parties were so distin- 

 guished, mip^ht be the progenitors of a new variety of the 

 race who would be thus marked in all future time. It is 

 not easy to surmise the causes which operate in producing 

 such varieties. Perhaps they are simply types in nature, 

 'possible to be realised under certain apiwopriate conditions, 

 but which conditions are such as altogether to elude 

 notice. I might cite as examples of such possible types, the 

 rise of whites amongst the Negroes, the occurrence of the 

 family of black children in the valley of the Jordan, and 

 the comparatively frequent birth of red-haired children 

 amongst not only the Mongoliaii and Malayan families, 

 but amongst the Negroes. We are ignorant of the laws 

 of variety-production ; but we see it going on as a prin- 

 ciple in nature, and it is obviously favourable to the sup- 

 position that all the great families of men are of one stock. 



The tendency of the modern study of the languages of 

 nations is to the same point. The last fifty years have 

 seen this study elevated to the character of a science, and 

 the light which it throws upon the history of mankind is 

 of a most remarkable nature. 



Following a natural analogy, philologists have thrown 

 the earth's languages into a kind of classification : a 

 number bearing a considerable resemblance to each other, 

 and in general geogi-aphically near, are styled a groirj^ or 

 sid)-family ; several groups, again, are associated as a 

 family, with regard to more general features of resem- 

 blance. Six families are spoken of. 



The Indo-Eurojoean family nearly coincides in geo- 

 graphical limits with those which have been assigned to 

 that variety of mankind which generally shows a fair 

 complexion, called the Caucasian variety. It may be 

 said to commence in India, and thence to stretch 

 through Persia into Europe, the whole of which it 



