306 THE ACTION OF NATURAL 
had each species created in pairs, while others require 
nations to have at once sprung into existence, and 
that there is no stability or consistency in any doctrine 
but that of one primitive stock. 
The advocates of the original diversity of man, on 
the other hand, have much to say for themselves. 
They argue that proofs of change in man have never 
been brought forward except to the most trifling 
amount, while evidence of his permanence meets us 
everywhere. The Portuguese and Spaniards, settled 
for two or three centuries in South America, retain 
their chief physical, mental, and moral characteristies ; 
the Dutch boers at the Cape, and the descendants of 
the early Dutch settlers in the Moluccas, have not lost 
the features or the colour of the Germanic races; the 
Jews, scattered over the world in the most diverse 
climates, retain the same characteristic lineaments 
everywhere; the Egyptian sculptures and paintings 
show us that, for at least 4000 or 5000 years, the 
strongly contrasted features of the Negro and the 
Semitic races have remained altogether unchanged ; 
while more recent discoveries prove, that the mound- 
builders of the Mississippi valley, and the dwellers 
on Brazilian mountains, had, even in the very in- 
fancy of the human race, some traces of the same 
peculiar and characteristic type of cranial formation 
that now distinguishes them. 
If we endeavour to decide impartially on the merits 
of this difficult controversy, judging solely by the evi- 
dence that each party has brought forward, it certainly 
