320 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



barbarism in which, we still find many nations sunk, whilst primi 

 tive crudeness now and then breaks forth even among the most 

 civilized. Where is the warranty that we may not relapse into 

 such a primitive state ? Who can calculate the time during 

 which the present cultivated nations remained stationary ? 

 Where are the proofs that the so-called lower races are con- 

 demned to remain in their present state ? The few thousand 

 years we are in advance of them in civilization, are, considering 

 the great antiquity of the earth, too short a period for us to 

 form a decisive judgment of the capacity of all mankind. 



Though it can be shown that in North America and in the 

 South Sea, a wide-spread civilization formerly existed, which had 

 already greatly declined at the arrival of the Europeans, no- 

 thing of the kind has been found in Africa ; for what Smyth 1 

 and others have asserted of the ancient civilization of Negroes, 

 seems fabulous and only based upon the hypothesis that Negro 

 nations were formerly in possession of the South of Asia, and 

 had also contributed much to old Egyptian civilization, appa- 

 rently proved by the Negro-skulls found in old Egypt. Still less 

 probable is Dunmore Lange's assertion, that the black race of 

 the South Sea had formerly occupied a much higher position 

 than at present. 2 Though such unfounded assertions cannot 

 induce us to estimate the capacities of the so-called lower races 

 more favourably than is usually done, we must, on the other 

 hand, be on our guard against the unfavourable influences 

 drawn from the gross superstition so prevalent amongst them. 

 We need only refer to the old Germans, who burned horses and 

 weapons with their dead, and on important occasions sacrificed 

 human beings. 3 Moreover, the belief in witchcraft, spectres, 

 etc., is not yet extinct amongst us. In the last century, when 

 princes were lying in state, a well-furnished table was pro- 

 vided for the dead in the chapel, and faithful catholics still 

 entertain the most extravagant expectations from the purchase 



i The unity of the human races/' N. York, 1850. 



a " Cooksland, in North-east Australia," p. 362, 1847. 



3 We must not omit mentioning that the custom, to sacrifice human 

 beings, among Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Celts, Franks, Goths, 

 may safely be traced to cannibalism as its source (J. G. Miiller, " Gesch. d. 

 Am. Urrelig./' p. 629, 1855). 



