326 



0>,- THE VARIETIES 



to the isle of Cuba, in 1509, Iiave since degenerated into a variety wi:^h a 

 hoof of the same solid kind, and of the enormous size of not less than Jialf 

 a span in diameter. 



How absurd, then, to contend that the distinctions in the different varie- 

 ties of the human race must have proceeded from a plurality of species, 

 while we are compelled to admit that distinctions of a similar kind, but 

 more numerous and more extravagant, have proceeded from a single spe- 

 cies in other animals ! 



It may appear singular, perhaps, that I have taken no notice of the wide 

 difference which is supposed to exist in the intellectual faculties of the 

 different varieties of man. To confess the truth, I have purposoiv omitted 

 it, because of all the arguments that have ever been ofl'ered to .support the 

 doctrine of different species, this appears to me the feeblest and most 

 superficial. It may suit the narrow purpose of a slave merchant, — of a 

 trafficker in human nerves and muscles, — of a Vv^retch, who, in equal defi- 

 ance of the feelings and the laws<of the day, has the impudence to offer 

 for sale on the polluted shores of our own country, in one and the same 

 lot, as was the case not long since, a dead cameleopard and a . living Hot- 

 tentot woman :■— it may suit their purpose to introduce such a distinction 

 into th^ir creed, and to let it constitute the whole of their creed, but it is 

 a distinction too trifling and evanescent to claim the notice of a physiolo- 

 gist for a moment. 



The variable talents of the mind are as propagable 'as the variable fea-' 

 tures of the body^~how, or by what means, we know not, — but the fact 

 is incontrovertible.' Wit and dulness, genius and idiotism, run in direct 

 streams from generation to generation ; and hence the moral character of 

 families, of tribes, of whole nations. The understanding of the Negro 

 race, it is admitted, is in many tribes strikingly and habitually obtuse. It 

 has thus, indeed, been propagated for a long succession of ages ; and till 

 the Negro mind receives a new turn, till it becomes cultivated and called 

 forth into action by some such benevolent stimulus, as that which is now 

 abroad generally, and especially such as is afforded it by the African In- 

 stitution of our own country, (an establishment that ought never to be 

 mentioned without reverence,) the same obtuseness must necessarily con-^' 

 tinue, and by a j)rolongation of the habit, may, perhaps, even increase. 

 But let the man who would argue from this single fact, that the race of Ne- 

 groes must be necessarily an inferior species, distinct from all the rest of 

 the world, compare the taste, the talent^, the genius,lh e eruditioi), that have 

 at different periods blazed tbrth indifferent individuals of this despised peo- 

 ple, when placed under the fostering providence of kindness and cultivation, 

 with bis own or those of the generality of his own countrymen, and let him 

 blush for the mistake he has matle, and the injury he has committed. 



Freidig, of Vienna, was an excellent architect, and a capital performer 

 on thfe violin ; Hannibal was not only a colonel of artillery in the Russian 

 service, but deeply skilled in the'mathematical and physical sciences ; so, 

 too, Vi'as Lislet, of the isle of France, who was in consequence made a 

 member of the French academy ; and Arno, who was honoured with a 

 diploma of doctor of philosophy, by the University of Wirtemberg, in 1 734. 

 Let us add to these the names of Vasa and Ignatius Sancho, whose taste 

 and genius have enriched the polite literature of our own country : and, 

 with such examples of Negro powers before us, is it possible to do other- 

 wise than adopt the very just obser\4ition of a very quaint orator, who has 



