306 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



There is, I conceive, no middle ground, between the admission of 

 eleven distinct species in the human family, and the reduction to one. 

 The latter opinion, from analogy with the rest of the organic world, 

 implies a central point of origin. Further, Zoological considerations, 

 though they do not absolutely require it, seem most to favour a centre 

 on the African continent. Confirmatory circumstances of a different 

 character, are not wanting; some of which, may be worth enume- 

 rating. 



In the first place, we have no less than five races actually inhabit- 

 ing Tropical Africa; while the diversity diminishes as we recede; 

 until districts of greater territorial extent, are inhabited by but a 

 single race. 



Again, some accordance may be found, in the history and habits of 

 the Arab tribes; holding as they do, the country interposed between 

 the heart of Africa and extensive and important seats of population ; 

 while these are occupied in regular succession, by pastoral and agri- 

 cultural nations. The disowning, too, by the Desert tribes, of such 

 individuals as take up agricultural pursuits, looks very like the inci- 

 pient extension of population. 



There is something also, in the fixed condition of the African 

 tribes; on which. Time, in some instances, seems scarcely to make 

 an impression. Something, in the near approach to the absence of 

 Invention, or of the spontaneous evolution of knowledge : something, 

 in the seeming yielding of civilization before barbarism : and in the 

 bounds prescribed to ambition, from the general failure of attempts to 

 colonize this continent. Africa, under various guise, having been 

 always sending forth streams of population ; and at the same time, 

 prohibiting a return. 



