INTEODUCTION. 5 



astrous, let the origin of this previous idea be in ourselves or 

 in others, whether it is our own or has been imposed upon us.* 

 In starting with a preconceived idea one arrives most often, 

 in science, at false allegations, always at uncertainties. It is 

 upon reasons of this sort that some have not feared to rest the 

 theory of the unity of the human race ;f since this hypothesis 

 being accepted, they have caused, willingly or otherwise, their 

 observed facts to correspond with it. Were the generally- 

 admitted principles of classification irksome to them ? They 

 passed on ; they shut their eyes to the most profound, the 

 most positive, the most evident differences. Ought not, then, 

 unity to triumph ? What did it signify, besides, whether the 

 Negro descended from the white man, or the contrary for 

 these two opinions have been defended; for some, a few 

 generations have been sufficient to transform the fine Greek 

 blood, which gave models to Phidias and Praxiteles, into an 

 Australian aboriginal. For others, the Negroes were the true 

 representation of our first parents, that perfect work which 

 last of all left the hands of God. Lieut. -Colonel H. Smith J 

 would admit that in the beginning were created separately 

 certain groups of men, if revelation were not positive on this 

 point. We notice especially in Kaempfer a specimen of what 

 we may call orthodox ethnology, which is curious above all 

 things ; having discovered that the Japanese have nothing in 

 common with the Chinese, he decides, with a marvellous 

 assurance, that they are directly descended from the men on 

 the scaffoldings of the Tower of Babel. And as their language 

 resembles no other tongue, he draws the conclusion that their 



* "It is too evident," says a modern philosopher, "that in the eyes of 

 science, which, reasoning about discoveries, makes a rule to admit nothing 

 as a theory which cannot be proved by experience, the agreement of faith 

 with reason is a chimera : to speak more exactly, such a problem does not 

 exist. The conditions of science are the observation of facts, not of 

 facts exceptionally produced, seen by chance, noted by privileged witnesses, 

 and unable to be reproduced at will ; but constant facts, placed under one's 

 hand for observation, and always able to be verified. We must consider that 

 religion can in no way submit to such exigencies, and that the faith which it 

 proclaims must be, in this light, radically inconsistent." P. J. Proudhon, De 

 la Justice, vol. ii, p. 309. See also on this subject, L. Fleury, Le Progres, 1858, 

 No. 4, p. 92. De Jouvencel, Bulletins de la Societe d'Anthropologie, May 2, 1861. 



f See Bertillon, Bulletins de la Societe Anthropologie, June 18, 1863. 



j The Natural History of the Human Species, 1848, p. 40. 



