268 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



we must imagine to have been the original condition of every 

 race ; and though we would not designate it as an utterly 

 barbarous and degraded state, we must consider it as a mode 

 of human existence in which all intellectual and moral forces 

 were yet undeveloped. But though we are compelled to pro- 

 ceed from the assumption, that all peoples have passed through 

 a period so absolutely uncultured, that originally they were 

 psychically -equal, there yet remains a possible supposition that 

 some owing to superior predispositions, perhaps in conse- 

 quence of an innate specific impulse have more easily, and 

 from slighter external influences, worked their way out of 

 that original state, than other peoples who not 'only were un- 

 able to effect this, but who were also unable to appropriate the 

 elements of foreign civilization. 



Keeping the latter point in view, our first task must be to 

 find out the specific characters of man generally, i. e., those 

 which distinguish him from the brute, in order to learn whether 

 or not these characters pertain to all races and individuals. 

 The second question, then, will be, whether within these cha- 

 racters, which constitute the psychical essence of man, there 

 exist permanent differences which compel us to view the races 

 of mankind, not as varieties of one species, but as species of a 

 genus. In attempting a solution of this question, we shall 

 availing ourselves of existing materials have to sketch a 

 picture of the natural state of man, which, free from philoso- 

 phical theories, must be founded on our actual knowledge of 

 mankind. In order finally to arrive at a correct estimation of 

 the differences between the various stocks in mental develop- 

 ment, we shall have to take into consideration the circum- 

 stances which induce man to leave the natural state ; whereby 

 we may learn whether the existing differences in development 

 are the result of specific differences in mental endowment, 

 or the consequence of different surrounding media, mode of 

 life, contact with other nations; in short, of differences of 

 their historical events, or possibly of the combination of 

 both. 



