VIEWS IN ETHNOGRAPHY, &c. 



In the remarks which will be offered in the present paper, it is 

 not intended to enter upon the question, which has so often and 

 so ably been discussed by physiologists and natural historians, 

 as to whether the numerous and strongly marked diversities in 

 the human race have proceeded from distinct stocks, or whether 

 they are derived from a common origin and are consequently to 

 be regarded as forming merely varieties of one and the same 

 species : it is sufficient to state, that, for the purposes of this 

 disquisition, the latter hypothesis is adopted, as being that which 

 appears to be the more in accordance with reason, and to have on 

 its side the greater weight of authority. 



It is also scarcely necessary to do more than allude to the 

 opinion generally entertained by physiologists, historians, jurists, 

 political economists, and others, who have investigated and 

 treated of the subject of the primitive condition of man, and 

 the rise and progress of society, that in the first ages the human 

 race existed in the lowest state of civilization* ; namely, that of 

 the mere consumer of the spontaneous productions of nature ; 

 and that mankind thence progressively advanced through the 

 several conditions of the hunter, the herdsman, and the agricul- 

 turist, or through states nearly corresponding with them : — 

 until, in this last state, an absolute property having been ac- 

 quired in the land, which was then first subjected to cultivation, 

 the residences of mankind became fixed and permanent ; whilst, 

 by the same progressive advancement, societies were formed, 

 which at first were simply patriarchal, but which, from their 



* [" It seems no longer possible to doubt that the human race has existed 

 on the earth in a barbarian state for a period far exceeding the limit of histo- 

 rical record." — Address of Sir William G. Armstrong, President of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Meeting at Newcastle, 

 August 26th, 1863.] 



