210 ON THE VARIETIES 



the French writers) Esquimaux of the latter ; and westerly from the 

 north of Persia along the banks of the Euxine, in successive waves, and 

 chiefly under the different denominations of Fins, Goths, Alans, and 

 Huns ; the two last uniting on various occasions, and especially under 

 the triumphant banners of Attila, and overrunning great part of Ger- 

 many, and consequently intermixing with the European race ; at the 

 same time driving the Fins into higher northern latitudes, along the 

 shores of the Baltic, where they at length intermingled with the Lapland- 

 ers. Among both these nations therefore, whether blended or sepa- 

 rate, we still meet with very strong marks of the true, genuine Asiatic 

 face, flat, wide, and of a sallow or olive hue ; the eyes being small, and 

 the hair dark and scanty. 



It is probable, also, that the more polished nations of America, as the 

 Toltecs and Mexicans that belong to the northern, and the Peruvians and 

 Araucans that belong to the southern division of this continent, have 

 originated from an Asiatic source. De Guignes, Forster, and Hum- 

 boldt, concur in believing them to have been of Chinese or Japanese de- 

 scent ; while the mass of the numerous tribes that constitute the chief 

 population of this continent, and are altogether distinguished in externa! 

 and internal character from the preceding nations, seems to have issued,/ 

 in various migrations, from some of the red or copper-coloured tribes 

 with lank hair, which have of late years been traced in particular parts of 

 Africa. It is also probable that Australia has in like manner been peo- 

 pled by successive waves of rovers from both these continents ; for we 

 trace proofs of both sources, sometimes separate, and sometimes mixt. 

 But the theories that have been oflTered upon this subject are too nume- 

 rous, and for the most part too fanciful for a minute detail, and belong 

 rather to the geographer than to the physiologist. 



There are some philosophers who have assigned several other distinctive 

 characters to the different families of mankind than any thus far dwelt upon ; 

 and which are chiefly derived from the stature, the shape of a particular 

 limb, or the intellect ; thus the gigantic height of the Patagonian has been 

 adverted to as a very prominent feature ; the pigmy form of the Esqui- 

 maux ; and the still more pigmy .form of the Kimos of Madagascar, if any 

 reliance may be placed on the testimony of Commerson, now that it has 

 been corroborated by Modave, and still more lately by the Abbe de Ro- 

 chon ; the curved leg of the Calmuc race ; the long leg of the Indian ; 

 and the high calf and flat foot <5f the Ethiopian. But it appears to me 

 that all such distinctions are upon too narrow a scale, and perhaps too 

 much dependent upon particular circumstances, for an admission into the ' 

 lines of a broad and original demarcation. To the different powers of 

 the intellect, which are still less to the point than even these corporeal 

 peculiarities, I shall have occasion to advert presently. 



Omitting, then, the consideration of these subordinate points, v/hence 

 have proceeded those striking and far stronger characteristics which we 

 have noticed in the preceding divisions ? Are the different distributions of 

 man mere varieties of one common species, or distinct species merely 

 connected under an imaginary genus ? Has the human ^ace proceeded 

 from ohe' source or from many ? 



In a country professing the Christian religion, and appealing to the re- 

 cords of Moses, as an established and veritable authority, 1 ought, perhaps, 

 to blush at proposing such a question in public : but the insinuations which 

 have in varions wavs been thrown out affainst this anthoritv demand it. and 



