INTRODUCTION. 95 



degenerated from the original type of the.r species. Why have 

 accidental circumstances always preventec the latter fum rising, 

 while they have only stimulated the former to higher attainment? 

 The whole mass of facts leads to the conclusion that the dark races 

 are inferiorly organized, and cannot, to the same extent as the white 

 races, understand the laws of Nature, and therefrom obtain an ever- 

 increasing light and knowledge ; that they bear the stamp of their 

 inferiority in their physical organization. 



The North American Indian bears a stamp of inferiority in his 

 physical and mental constitution ; his nature shows a preponderance 

 of the " vegetative element," as Guyot calls it; his temperament is 

 lymphatic, cold, unsocial, insensible; he is the man of the forest, 

 sombre and sad. The results of the mixture of the White and Red 

 races for two hundred years are well known. The Indian civiliza- 

 tion has not advanced permanently, or of itself; they will not give 

 up their wild life for the restraints of civilization ; they cannot, 

 from their organization, be civilized. Like the wild animals of the 

 forest, they retreat before ihe whites, contact with whom has nearly 

 annihilated them as a race. Similar reflections arise in contem- 

 plating the Negro races. Amalgamation of races will not mend the 

 matter. The inferior race will gain, for a time, what the superior 

 loses ; but return to one of the original types, or degeneration and 

 final extinction, must sooner or later be the result. 



Physical geography teaches us that, of the two great elements 

 of the earth, the water element and the land element, the latter is 

 by far superior to the former in the animal and vegetable life to 

 which it gives origin ; geology and palaeontology show us that this 

 was true also in ancient ages. The oceanic climate corresponds to 

 a Flora and a Fauna numerous in individuals, but scanty in species; 

 all the large animals are wanting ; the types are inferior. In the 

 continental climate there is greater variety, more numerous species, 

 and higher types of life. But the highest of all life belongs to what 

 Guyot* calls the maritime climate, the combination of the conti- 

 nental and the oceanic. To use h:s words, " Here are allied the 

 continental vigor, and the oceanic softness, in a fortunate union, 

 mutually tempering each other. lere the development is more 

 intense, life more rich, more varied n all its forms." In like man- 

 ner, we find the highest human types neither among the indolent 

 man of the Pacific, nor among the energetic Negro of continental 

 Africa, but in maritime man wherever found ; whether it be in 

 peninsular Europe, Asia, or North America, " enthroned, queen- 



* Earth and Man: by Arnold Guyot. Boston, 1850. 



