SECT. III.] ORIGINAL EQUALITY OP RACES. 351 



scale of civilization, as essentially due to the natural con- 

 ditions and mode of life under the influence of which they 

 stand; or whether we must assume a specific difference of 

 mental endowment, since the above physical and social forces 

 appear insufficient to explain the phenomenon. 



According to the teaching of the American school/ the 

 higher races are destined to displace the lower. This ex- 

 tinction of the lower races is predestined by nature, and it 

 would thus appear that we must not merely acknowledge the 

 right of the white American to destroy the red man, but per- 

 haps praise him that he has constituted himself the instrument 

 of Providence in carrying out and promoting this law of destruc- 

 tion. The pious manslayer thus enjoys the consolation that he 

 acts according to the laws of nature which govern the rise and 

 extinction of races. Such a theory has many advantages : 

 it reconciles us both with Providence and the evil dispositions 

 of man; it flatters our self-esteem by the specific excellence 

 of our moral and intellectual endowment, and saves us 

 the trouble of inquiring for the causes of the differences 

 existing in civilization. This theory has thus obtained many 

 adherents ; whilst there are some who consider this one of the 

 reasons which render the assumption of a specifically higher 

 mental endowment of the white race, improbable. 



In opposition to this American doctrine, we maintain that 

 the psychical endowment of the various races was most probably 

 originally the same, or nearly so ; that the earlier or later emer- 

 gence of individual peoples from the primitive state essentially 

 depended on the natural and social conditions in which they 

 were placed ; and that by these external circumstances in their 

 manifold concatenations, the extent and rapidity of their deve- 

 lopment was mainly determined. We must not omit referring 

 here to a principle already touched upon namely, that the deve- 

 lopment of mankind in the course of time produces a favour- 

 able predisposing influence on the psychical endowment of the 

 progeny, which increases with the progress of civilization, 

 which predisposition must be less the nearer a people is to the 



1 Agassiz, Morton, etc., etc. 



