200 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



capacity in the offspring, but that the same tendency continues 

 to operate between different tribes; the constant crossing of 

 Celtic with Teutonic blood, upon a Perso-Arabian basis, being 

 per. laps a principal cause of the early progressive civilization 

 of Southern and Western Europe; and the stationary charac- 

 ter, chiefly observed in the Mongolic race, being a result of the 

 want of the same acting cause. Notwithstanding the desire 

 of the beardless type to violate its own prohibitory laws, inter- 

 marriage with Caucasian women is decidedly more sterile than 

 the union of the bearded and woolly-haired sexes. Where 

 human laws prevent intermarriage, nature endeavors to be 

 avenged through the more powerful operation of the passions, 

 by means of interunion with foreign slaves, by abduction, and 

 by child-stealing; whence results a certain restoration of the 

 balance. There are localities in Europe, where the frequent 

 intermarriages of the same families produce constantly indi- 

 viduals defective in constitution, mind, or limbs. 



Without intermixture of races, the ratiocination of mankind 

 appears inoperative to certain particulars in life. Nomad 

 nations may not wander with their cattle solely from inclina- 

 tion. Necessity is the first cause. But there are tribes, such 

 as we have already named, who are not to be taught by 

 example, or by the advantageous results of undertaking certain 

 things that their inclinations reject. The Jews probably never 

 were a truly agricultural people, working with their own 

 hands. The Veneti, Heneti, Gwyniad, or Ventae, were always 

 the real commercial pedlers of antiquity. The Armenians are 

 nationally merchants, from London to Bokhara. Neither were 

 ever warriors ; they traded solely ; and the last mentioned con- 

 tinued to act on the same principle. They lived under the 

 shield of the strongest warlike people that would protect them ; 

 the first, under Etruscans, Gauls, and Romans, till the fall of 

 the Western Empire ; and the second, under still existing gov- 

 ernments. Some nations decline the use of horses ; others 

 abhor the plough or a sea life. The Gypsies are always 



