3o8 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



the present forms of man are distinguished only as races. 

 On this subject, we shall not lavish many words, since, 

 examined in the light, it is an affair of words only. In 

 the order of Primates, man constitutes a single family, 

 and represents it by a single genus. Whether Negroes, 

 Caucasians, Papuans, American-Indians, &c., be called 

 species or races, matters little. The facility of intercross- 

 ing the different nations would favour their characteri- 

 zation as races; but as the crossing of species does not 

 differ in principle from the crossing of races, and as 

 to the bodily varieties displayed in colour, hair, skull, 

 limbs, and other characters are added the profound dif- 

 ferences of language, the division of the genus homo 

 into species, diverging into many races, seems after all 

 more natural. But ultimately, as in the question of spe- 

 cies in general, the individual feeling of each person 

 proves decisive. Whether it was a lucky hit to found 

 the division of mankind on the position of the hairs, in 

 tufts or equally distributed upon the scalp, and further- 

 more on the section of the hair, whether it be more 

 flat and oval or circular in form, and finally on the in- 

 clination to curl or to lie stiff and smooth, the future must 

 decide. 



The twelve races cited in the table given above, may 

 be characterized by the aid of natural history; and as 

 within the limits of the best known races, languages 

 and families of languages may be found, which preclude 

 any common origin, it follows that the formation of 

 language began only after the still speechless primordial ' 

 man had diverged into races. In geological periods and 

 primordial history, all chronology is extremely decep- 

 tive : we may, nevertheless, acquiesce in an estimate made 



