192 LECTURE VII. 



of the sutures and tlie projection of tlie jaws, the same process 

 takes place as in the ape. The intellectual faculties remain 

 stationary, and the individual — as well as the race — is inca- 

 pable of any* further progress. 



The grown up Negro partakes, as regards his intellectual 

 faculties, of the nature of the child, the female, and the senile 

 White. He manifests a propensity to pleasure, music, dancing, 

 physical enjoyments, and imitation, while his inconstancy of 

 impressions and all the feelings are those of the child. Like 

 the child, the Negro has no soaring imagination, but he peoples 

 surrounding nature, and endows even lifeless things with 

 human or supernatural powers. He makes himself a Fetish of 

 a piece of wood, and beheves that the ape remains dumb lest 

 he should be compelled to work. The general rule of the 

 slaveholder is, that slaves must be treated like neglected and 

 badly brought up children. The Negro resembles the female 

 in his love to children, his family, and his cabin ; he resembles 

 the old man in his indolence, apathy, and his obstinacy. 

 Temperate in common things, the Negro becomes intemperate 

 if not kept within certain bounds. He knows not steady 

 work, cares little for the future ; but his great imitative in- 

 stinct enables him to become a skilful workman and artistic 

 imitator. In his native country the Negro is shepherd or 

 agriculturist ; some tribes understand working metals ; others 

 carry on trade, not without cunning. Some tribes have 

 founded states, possessing a pecuKar organisation ; but, as to 

 the rest, we may boldly assert that the whole race has, neither 

 in the past nor in the present, performed anything tending to 

 the progress of humanity or worthy of preservation. As a 

 proof in favour of the artistic and scientific capacity of the 

 Negro, we find cited in nearly all works the instance of Mr. 

 Lille Geofiroy of Martinique, an engineer and mathematician 

 and corresponding member of the French Academy. The fact 

 is, that the mathematical performances of the above gentleman 

 were of such a nature that, had he been bom in Grermany of 

 white parents, he might, perhaps, have been qualified to be 

 mathematical teacher in a middle-class school, or engineer at 

 a railway; but having been born in Martinique of coloured 



