74 



these nationalities owe, in like manner, their distin- 

 guishing characteristics mainly to the long-continued 

 influence of geographical conditions — the principle of 

 ascensive variation in time heiag always admitted 

 and allowed for. In Europe, for example, French, 

 Spaniards, Italians, and other minor contiguous sec- 

 tions, gradually shade into each other in form, 

 feature, language, and other peculiarities, which have 

 evidently been superinduced by their respective posi- 

 tions ; and hence they are regarded, though belonging 

 to different stocks, as coming under the same variety. 

 As the minor differences are mainly owing to geogra- 

 phical relations, so we may ascribe the major distinc- 

 tions to a similar causation acting through indefinite 

 periods ; and thus we may trace all the varieties — 

 European, Mongolian, Negro, etc. — as divergences 

 from earUer varieties, and ultimately from one origmal 

 source. We are aware that some naturaUsts, seeing 

 the wide differences that exist between the so-called 

 varieties, regard them as having sprung from different 

 primordial sources, and therefore assign to them differ- 

 ent specific centres of dispersion. But as these differ- 

 ences are not of equal value — ^that, for example, be- 

 tween the Caucasian and Mongol being not so great 

 as that between the Caucasian and Negro, and that 

 between the Mongol and Malay still less* — we think it 

 * The differences between these varieties being so unequal, some 



