SECT. II.] PSYCHICAL UNITY OP MANKIND. 321 



of popish bulls, quite analogous to the amulets of the Negroes 

 and other savages. 1 A parallel to it exists at this day in 

 Dauphine, where every passer-by throws into certain chasms 

 a little stone, as an offering to the mountain spirit ; where at 

 now year's and St. John's Eve a meal of cheese, bread, and 

 wine, is served up in every house for the wandering Fadets 

 and Blanquettes ; where soothsayers (devins) are consulted 

 against fever and pestilence ; and where sick men and beasts 

 are cured by pronouncing some unintelligible gibberish. 2 



The above facts, selected from among the more important, 

 appear to us sufficient proof for our argument as regards the 

 mental relationship of the civilized European with primitive 

 nations. They have at the same time confirmed our view that 

 the natural state of man is not a state of original purity and 

 perfection, but just the reverse. 



But though we may, after what has been stated, feel inclined 

 to answer the question, whether there be specific differences 

 among mankind, in the negative, we cannot consider it as 

 solved so long as there remain so many objections to such 

 a view. It is said that the Negro, the American Indian, the 

 Australian, and many others, show themselves everywhere in- 

 capable of taking the initiative in civilization ; what prevents 

 them doing so, if it be not their inferior mental endowment ? 

 Their resistance against cultivation is such that the teaching 

 and the example of the White have no power over them. They 

 remain just what they are and ever were. The European alone 

 progresses, there is within him a mental impulse in which the 

 other races are deficient ; if such be not the case, what are the 

 causes of the progress of the former and the retrogression of 

 the latter ? 



Before discussing this subject, which we reserve for the next 

 section, it may be necessary to offer some considerations calcu- 

 lated to support the theory of the psychical unity of the human 

 species. 



Even in recent times, the proposition has been often de- 



1 Marchand, " Neueste Eeise um die Welt," i, p. 50, Leipz. ; Lavaysse, 

 "Eeise n. Trinidad, Tabago, iind Venoz.," p. 423, 1816. 

 8 Von Ghuner in Ausland, No. 15, 1855. 



