438 



istence of the intermaxillary bones, at an age when, with us, the traces 

 of their separation are completely effaced ; the high situation and small 

 drvelopement of the calf of the leg, have been arguments more specious 

 than solid to those who have endeavoured to abase this portion of the 

 >*uman species, in order to justify an iniquitous traffic, and a cruel ty- 

 ranny; reproaches of civilized men, which they must wipe off by other 

 means than a presumptuous assertion of their own dignity, or a proud 

 insult on the native character of those whom they themselves have cast 

 into degradation. 



Without admitting this belief, which owes its origin to a thirst of 

 riches, we cannot help acknowledging that the differences of organi- 

 zation draw after them' a striking inequality in the devclopement of the 

 moral and intellectual faculties. This truth would appear in its full 

 light, if, after summarily indicating, as I have just done, the physical 

 characteristics of the races of men, I could unfold their moral differences 

 as real, and not less marked: opposing the activity, the versatility, the 

 restlessness of the European, to the indolence, the phlegm, the patience 

 of the Asiatic, examining what is the power, or the character of nations, 

 the fertility of soil, serenity of sky, mildness of climate; showing by 

 what catenation of physical and moral causes, the empire of custom is 

 so powerful over the people of the east, that we find in India and China 

 the same laws, manners, and religion, which prevailed there long before 

 our era; inquiring by what singularity, well worthy the meditation of 

 philosophers and politicians, these laws, this worship, and these man- 

 ners, have undergone no change, amidst the revolutions which have so 

 often taken place among those nations many times conquered by the war- 

 like Tartars; showing how, by the irresistible ascendancy of wisdom and 

 knowledge, ignorant and ferocious conquerors have adopted the usages 

 of the nations they have subjugated; and proving that the stationary 

 condition of the sciences and arts among those who, so long before our- 

 selves, were in possession of the advantages of civilized society, is deri- 

 ved not so much from the imperfection of thier organization, as from the 

 degrading yoke of a religion loaded with absurd practices, and which 

 makes knowledge the exclusive birth-right of a privileged cast*. But 

 such an undertaking, besides exceeding the limits I have prescribed my- 

 self, does not belong directly to my subject. 



The JHbinoes of Africa, the Cagots of the Pyrenees, and the Cretins of 

 the Valais, cannot be given as varieties of the human species. They 



cisely that state of contraction which OUP face takes when it is struck by light, and a 

 strong 1 reverberation of heat ; then, says this philosophical traveller, the brow contracts, 

 the cheek-bones rise, the eye-lids contract, and the lips project. Must not this contrac- 

 tion of the moveable part have influenced, in course of time, the hard parts, and even 

 moulded the structure of the bones ? Voyage en Syrie ct en Egypt t torn. I. p. 70. Sieme 

 Edition. Jlnlhor's Note. 



* \Ve must assign further as a main cause of the want of progress of the Indians and 

 Chinese, in the arts and sciences, sprung from civilization, the imperfection of their al- 

 phabet, which, being composed of a multitude of characters, which do not, like ours, 

 represent sounds, but ideas. It belongs not to our subject to show, how much signs 

 so defective must confine the sphere, and fetter the combinations of the mind. 



See, concerning the religion of the Bramins, and the Indian customs, Raynal's Phi- 

 losophical History : the Asiatic Researches; Institutes of Menu, Edin. Review, xxxii. ; 

 Ward's View of "the History of the Hindoos : Halked's Code of Gentoo Laws ; Cole, 

 brook's Digest of Hindoo Law. 



