178 SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



to carry ourselves back to a period, when there 

 was but one race of men, to ascertain the characters 

 of that race, and to show how it first deviated into 

 the varieties we now behold, we shall find our- 

 selves involved in the utmost difficulty — a difficulty 

 which, if possible, is increased by the fact, that 

 from the earliest period of authentic history, the 

 varieties existed which now exist, equally sepa- 

 rated and distinct from each other. Dr. Prichard 

 has written a most ingenious work to prove that all 

 men were originally Negroes. Blumenbach em- 

 braces an opposite opinion, and with the more 

 reason, as we observe in the Caucasian race, a 

 greater tendency to individual variation than in 

 any other. 



. Many persons, misled by the sophisticated idea 

 of believing nothing they cannot demonstrate, and 

 selecting instances of the most opposite conforma- 

 tions from amongst the human varieties for compa- 

 rison, have been induced forcibly to doubt the unity 

 of the human race. The jet blackness of the integu- 

 ment of the negro, and his woolly hair, the extraordi- 

 nary posterior projection of the South African Bush 

 people, or any of the most prominent and remarkable 

 peculiarities by which certain races are marked, 

 when compared with what we see constantly before 

 our eyes, certainly raise a presumption prima facie 

 that persons so opposite cannot have descended 

 from a common root. As this is a favourite position 

 of scepticism, it may be proper to pause and con- 

 sider it, and to show that though we cannot ascer- 



