74 INTELLECTUAL AND 



harmony obtain an absolute value from a necessary inequality 

 of parts, whilst she herself restores to each part an equal 

 value, in making them all co-operate towards the same end, 

 the same action, in which are distributed great and minor 

 parts, some brilliant, some humble, some concealed ?* 



That fine North American race, which is so much admired 

 by all who have lived among them, will be no longer, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Martius,t the worthy descendant of the first mur- 

 derer, a collection of maniacs and insane folks, brought to that 

 state by misery and the reprobation of God. We only see in 

 them men endowed like ourselves, but more in harmony with 

 the nature which animates them, having, of course, their im- 

 perfections like ourselves, but giving us also an example of 

 great qualities, firmness, courage, patience, and an intense 

 love of liberty. Whites and blacks may be slaves, but the 

 American has never served a master. J The Negro himself 

 has his advantages ; and we could not, perhaps, struggle with 

 him about affective or hateful faculties. M. de Gobineau seems 

 to us to be strangely mistaken in the portrait which he has 

 attempted to draw of the black man ; he has made his race 



* " I maintain/* says Courtet de 1'Isle (Tableau EthnograpMque du genre 

 humain, p. 89, 8vo, Paris, 1849), " that human races are unequal in intellec- 

 tual power, that they are, consequently, not susceptible of the same degree 

 of development, and that each of them is called upon to fill, in unequal con- 

 ditions, a mission marked out by Providence." 



f Doctor Martius is a curious example of the extravagances to which mo- 

 nogenist ideas may lead. In order to explain the moral character of the 

 Americans, he is obliged to suppose a frightful cataclysm [great inundation] 

 which happened, he cannot say when, and adds, " Is it the profound terror 

 felt by those unhappy people who escaped from this awful calamity which, 

 being transmitted without a diminished intensity to following generations, 

 has troubled their reason, obscured their intelligence, and hardened their 

 heart ?" Compare Morel, Traite des Degene'rescences de Vespece humaine, 1857, 

 and Discours Inaugural a I' Academic de Rouen, 1857. 



J D'Orbigny saw the Charruas continue a war against the Spaniards (who 

 decimated them) rather than renounce their much-valued independence. 

 (Voyage dans I'Amerique Meridionale, vol. iv, Introduction p. 4. [Our author 

 ought not to compare the northern Americans with the southern aborigines, 

 giving to both of them, apparently, the same characteristics. The northerners 

 are whites, and (supposing the Canadians and the north-western settlers are 

 spoken of) worthy of his praise. We put the present Northern States on one 

 side altogether, as the character given by our author cannot possibly apply 

 to them. The Charruas, who are mentioned in the above note, are Indians, 

 inhabiting the banks of the Uruguay in South America, and therefore, what- 

 ever may be their courage and love of liberty as aborigines, they cannot pro- 

 perly be classed with white inhabitants, who are merely settlers, EDITOR.] 



