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THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 



[1855. 



But the iiiterost attaching to this discussion involves much 

 more than the character or religious belief of any single 

 scientific enquirer, and it may not be uninteresting to the 

 readers of the Canadian Juanial, to peruse the following 

 abstract of an article published recently in 2'Ae Scotsman 

 and which from the initials C. M. attached to it, is no doubt 

 from the pen of Charles Maclaren, F.li.S.E., long the talented 

 editor of that journal, and now well known among the scientific 

 geologists of the Scottish oiipital. The article is espressly 

 written to refute the arguments advanced by a member of the 

 Edinburgh corpora:ion, in proof of the disqualification for a 

 chair in a Scottish University of any one venturing to entertain 

 a doubt as to the unity of the human race; and further to 

 show that the doubt referred to is less novel or startling than 

 unscientific readers may be aware of 



Referring to the arguments of this civic censor, the writer 

 observes : — 



" He seems to me to consider the question respecting the unity of 

 tlie human race as one that had never been agitated till Agassi?.- pub- 

 lished the memoir referred to. I thought it had been universally 

 known that, from the days of Aristotle downward, opinions have been 

 divided upon the subject ; that, while some maintained that the white, 

 black, yellow, and red men were distinct species, the progeny of dis- 

 tinct primitive pairs, others held that they were merely varieties of one 

 species, and all sprung from a single pair. BufFon, the great authority 

 of the last century, be ieved in the unity of the human race ; but, in 

 deference to those who embraced an opprsite opinion, thought it 

 necessary to argue the question, not on theological, but on physiolo- 

 gical grounds. Cuvier, tlie founder of scientific zoology, came to the 

 same conclusion, but app.arently with hesitation, and on the narrow 

 ground that niulattoes and other human hybrids have offspring like 

 themselves, while among the lower animals mongrels were supposed 

 to be universally barren. He does not say that the hum.an species is 

 single, but " would appear to be s\ug]e, since the mingled progeny of 

 all the individuals composing it is fecund."* And the learned trans- 

 lator. Dr. Carpenter, informs us, in a note, that Cuvier's argument 

 rests on a sandy foundation, for that some hybrid animals are fruitful. 



In 1825, liory St. Vincent, a far-travelled naturalist, and editor of 

 the " Dictionnaire Classique d'Histoire Naturelle," published L'Jlomme, 

 J^ssai Zoologiqve sur le genre Jlumain, in which he maintained that tlie 

 human race embraces fifteen different species, derived from as many 

 primitive p.airs. The book, in two volumes, has run through three edi- 

 tions at least. In the following year a woi'k appeared on the same 

 subject in one volume by JM. Desmoulins, an anatomist (Histoire Na- 

 turelle des llaces Humaines), who divides mankind into sixteen distinct 

 species." 



It is therefore apparent, thatAgassiz is by no means the first 

 who has broached the opinion that mankind does not consist of 

 one, but of several species ; nor did the doubt it implies, which, 

 when first broached, presents so repulsive an aspect to many 

 good men, deter the learned and pious Dr. John Pye Smith 

 from giving the inquiry an impartial critical review in his work 

 on " The relation between the Holy Scriptures and some parts 

 of Geological Science." Note E of that work contains a "dis- 

 sertation on the varieties of the Human Species," in which the 

 learned divine remarks : 



" 'It would be wrong to conceal the difBculties with whicli the sub- 

 ject is surrounded, however satisfied we may be with the evidence in 

 favour of the descent of all mankind from one original pair of ances- 

 tors.' To the unscientific reader these difBculties may appear to be 

 far-fetched novelties of modern scepticism, but inquiry proves them 

 to be as little novel as baseless. They were felt by writers in very 

 ancient times ; as appears from a targura, or old .Jewish paraphrase, 

 of Genesis ii. 7, quoted by Dr. Pye Smith, in which it is explained 

 that God created man red, black, and white. 



" Dr. Smith admits that the action of the solar light and heat in 



* "Quoique I'espece humaine paraisse unique, puisque tous les in- 

 dividus peuvent se meler indistiuctmeut, et produire des individus fe- 

 conds," &c. 



tropical climates only produces various shades of brown, but ' wehave 

 no instance of a white family or community acquiring the proper 

 negro colour;' nor of a negro family becoming of a healthy European 

 white, except by intermarriages. This permanence of the white and 

 black complexions suggests another dilficulty. ' The recent explor- 

 ings of the Egyptian tombs and temples have brought to light pictures 

 of native Egyptians, and of men and women of other nations, com- 

 prising negroes, who are distinguished by their characteristic form of 

 face and their completely black colour. Some of these highly interest- 

 ing representations are proved to be of the age of .Joseph and earlier, 

 and some in which the negro figures occur are of the eighth century 

 after the flooJ. Assuming, then, that the complexion of Noah's family 

 w IS what I have ventured to suppose as the normal brown, there was 

 not time for a negro race to be produced by the operation of all the 

 causes of change with which we are acquainted.' Who, indeed, will 

 believe that a Spaniard transplanted to Guinea would bjcome a negro 

 in twenty-four generations ? The force of the objection is vastly in- 

 creased when we refer to the history of the Berbers, Tibboos, and 

 Tuaricks, all speaking the same radical language, and spread over the 

 oases of the Sahara, from Morocco to Egypt, who have lived under the 

 same burning sun with the blacks since the time of Herodotus (2300 

 years), and are only brown — no more negroes than the jMoors or Egyp- 

 tians. 



"Adam might be the first created man, the protoplast of the race, 

 a fair representative of all its quaJities, without being literally the fa- 

 ther of all mankind. ' Mr. Edward Iving, a zealous Christian,' says 

 Dr. Smith, ' strenuously maintained the opinion of the plurality of 

 human ancestry.' The illustrious Dr. Arnold of Rugby also held that 

 ' the physiological question was not settled.' ' Nor can we affirm it to 

 be an impossibility that the Almighty Creator should have seen fit to 

 bring originally into being duplicates, triplicates, or other multiples of 

 pairs, formed so alike that there should be no specific difference be- 

 tween them.' 



" With regard to Acts xvii. 2G, it cannot be proved that ' one blood' 

 necessarily signifies descent from a common ancestry ; for, admitting 

 a specific identity, though having proceeded from distinct foci of crea- 

 tion, both the physical and mental characteristics would be the same 

 in all essential qualities. 



" ' But if we carry our concessions to the very last point — if the pro- 

 gress of investigation should indeed bring out such kinds and degrees 

 of evidence as shall rightfully turn the scale in favour of the hypothe- 

 sis that there are several races of mankind, each having originated in 

 a different pair of ancestor.s — what would be the consequence to our 

 highest interests, as rational, accountable, and immortal beings ? 

 Would OUT faith, the fountain of motives for love and obedience to God, 

 virtuous self-government, and universal justice and kindness^would 

 this faith, 'the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 

 not seen,' sustain an}' detriment, after, by due meditation and prayer, 

 we had surmounted the first shock ? Let us survey those conse- 

 quences. 



" ' If the two first inh.abitants of Eden were the progenitors, not of 

 all human beings, but only of the race whence sprung the Hebrew fa- 

 mily, still it would remain the fact, that all were formed by the im- 

 mediate power of God, and all their circumstances, stated or implied 

 in the Scriptures, would remain the same as to moral and practical 

 purposes. 



" ' Adam would be ' a figure of Him that was to come ' the Saviour 

 of mankind ; just as Melcliizedek, or Moses, or Aaron, or David. The 

 spiritual lesson will be the same. 



" ' The sinful character of all the tribes of men, and the individuals 

 composing them, would rem.ain determined by the most abundant and 

 and painfully demonstrated proofs, in the history of all times .and 

 nations. The way and manner in which moral corruption has thus 

 infected all men, under their several heads of primeval ancestrj', 

 would be ,an inscrutable mystery (which it is now) : but the need of 

 divine mercy and the duty to seek it would be the same ; the same 

 necessity would exist of a S.aviour, a redemption, and a renovation of 

 the internal character by efficacious grace. 



" ' That the Saviour was, in his human nature, a descendant of 

 Adam, would not militate against his being a proper Redeemer for all 

 the races of mankind, any more than his being a descendant of Abra- 

 ham, .Judah, and David, at all diminishes his perfection to save us, 

 ' sinners of the Gentiles.' 



" ' Some difficulties in the Scripture-history would be t.aken away ; 

 such as — the sons of Adam obtaining wives not their own sisters ; — 

 Cain's acquiring instruments of husbandry, which must have been 

 furnished by miracle immediately from God upon the usual supposi- 



