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COMMENDATORY NOTICES.
Of the articles which — enlarged and elaborated — form the substance of this work, the following from among several other notices, including the very favorable opinions of the Rev. Doctors Paine and Capers, Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, are given.
" A series of admirable papers, from the pen of the Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D., has recently appeared in the columns, respectively, of the Southern Presbyterian and Southern Baptist, both published at Charleston, S. C, in which the author has aimed to establish ' The Unity of the Human Races,' as • The doctrine of Scripture, Reason, and Science/ and we think with signal success, and, certainly, with commanding ability. In concluding their publica- tion, the Presbyterian says : ' We are glad that so full and able an exposition of the subject has been made. We hope they will some day be gathered, and put before the public in a more permanent form/ We concur with this hope, and trust that such a purpose may not be long delayed." — True Union, Balti- more.
" The question of the Unity of the Races has become the question of the day, and is likely to become one of increasing and absorbing interest to the cause of inspiration, humanity, and missionary effort. We have been much gratified to know that the series of articles thus far published by ourselves, and several other religious papers, has been read with deep interest in almost every section of our country." — Southern Presbyterian.
" The first of a series of articles from the pen of Rev. Dr. Smyth, of Charles- ton, on the Unity of the Races, appeared in our last No. ; the second will ap- pear next week. This is a deeply interesting subject, and the distinguished writer is well qualified to do it justice." — Cincinnati Presbyterian.
" The articles on this subject close with the present number. Our readers will agree with us that they are able, learned and elaborate — much the most instructive essays to be met with on that subject." — S. Presbyterian.
" As a general thing we do not like serial articles in a newspaper — our readers for the most part, we presume, are of the same mind. Yet there are some subjects proper for discussion in a weekly religious paper which cannot be dispatched in a single article. That which is employing the pen of Dr. Smyth, in the numbers which appear weekly on our first page, is of this sort. We dare say thousands of our readers have been interested and edified in the perusal of those masterly and elaborate articles ; which, by the way, ought to be reproduced in a volume, and which we understand will probably be the case." — Southern Christian Advocate.
" In this number also, the first part of the series of articles by the Rev. Dr. Smyth, on the Unity of the Races, is completed. And though we have had no intimation of the fact, we have no hesitancy in expressing the belief that they will soon be put, as they ought to be, in a more permanent form. We seldom see in a newspaper a series of articles on any subject which evince the same amount of labor and research ; and as a defence of one of the outposts of Christianity which both the learned and superficial have at times assailed, it seems to us altogether unanswerable." — Richmond Observer.
" It is with great pleasure that I have learned your intention of publishing the work of Rev. Dr. Smyth, on the Unity of the Races. I have had the opportunity of examining several parts of the work, and can truly say that for solid learning, fair and concise statement, and lucid reasoning, it is the best work I know on that subject." — Rev. Wm. A. Plumer, D. D.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
1. Apostolical Succession. 8vo. Boston. 1842.
*2. Presbytery and not Prelacy the Scriptural and Primitive Polity of the Churches. 8vo. Boston. 1843.
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*11. Union to Christ and His Church. 18mo. Edinburgh. 1844.
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13. Denominational Education. 8vo.
14. Pastoral Memento. 18mo. N. Y. 1850. A. S. Barnes & Co.
15. Life and Character of Calvin. 18mo.
16. The Westminster Assembly. 12mo., &c.
* These works have also been published in Great Britain i
UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
THE
UNITY OF THE HUMAN BACES
PROVED TO BE
THE DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE, REASON, AND SCIENCE.
* ^ WITH A
REVIEW OF THE PRESENT POSITION AND THEORY OF PROFESSOR AGASSIZ.
BY THE
REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.,
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.
Man is surely of all things in the Creation most interesting to man.
NEW-YORK : GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY.
<f • - 1850.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
GEORGE P. PUTNAM,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York.
John F. Trow, Printer, 49, 51 & 53 Ann-st.
*
&j)ts Volume is HBetitcateti
TO THE
LITERARY CONVERSATION CLUB
OF CHARLESTON, S. C,
BY WHOM ITS SUBJECT HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY AND PLEASANTLY DISCUSSED, WITH FEELINGS THE MOST HARMONIOUS AMID OPINIONS THE MOST DISCORDANT.
The Mature Fruit,
WHICH FIRST APPEARED IN ITS GERM AMID THE SOCIAL AND LITERARY INFLUENCES OF THIS ASSOCIATION,
IS NOW PRESENTED TO
ITS MEMBERS,
AND THROUGH THEM TO THE VARYING TASTE OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.
CONTENTS.-
PAGE
Preface, including a Critical Analysis of Genesis, chapters i. and ii., suggested by very recent Objections xiii
CHAPTER X.
The Historical and Doctrinal Evidence of Scripture ... 13 CHAPTER II.
The Historical and Doctrinal Evidence of Scripture — continued ; 31
CHAPTER III. The Former Civilization of Black Races of Men . . . .46
CHAPTER IV. The Former Civilization of Black Races of Men — continued . 60
CHAPTER V. The Former Civilization of Black Races of Men — concluded
73
viii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Origin of the Varieties of the Human Species . . . .85
CHAPTER VII. Origin of the Varieties of the Human Races — concluded . . 104
CHAPTER VIII. Presumptive Arguments in favor of the Unity of the Human Races 121
CHAPTER IX. The twofold Character of the Question — Scientific Argument . 142
CHAPTER X.
The Nature and Philosophy of Species . . 152
CHAPTER XI. The Unity of the Races proved by the Unity of the Species . 164
CHAPTER XII.
The Unity of the Races proved by the Unity of the Species. — con- cluded 173
CHAPTER XIII.
The Unity of the Races proved from their Fertility, and the Infer- tility of Hybrids 187
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Unity of the Races proved from the Universality, Nature, and
Connection of Languages 199
CHAPTER XV.
The Unity of the Races proved from the Universality, Nature, and
Connection of Languages — concluded 208
CHAPTER XVI.
The Unity of the Races sustained by the Testimony of History
and Tradition 223
CHAPTER XVII.
The Unity of the Races proved from the Religious Character of all Men, the Adaptation of Christianity to all Men, and the Truth of the Mosaic Records 241
CHAPTER XVm.
The Unity of the Races proved from Experience, and from known Changes which have occurred among the different Races of Men 255
CHAPTER XIX.
The Unity of the Human Races proved from the insensible Grada- tions of their Varieties, and from their Analogy to what takes place in other Animals . . . . . - . . . 284
X
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX. Resume" of the Arguments for the Unity of the Human Races, and
Objections considered 298
. CHAPTER XXI.
The Theory of a Plurality of Origin in the Races of Men unphi-
losophical . . 306
CHAPTER XXII.
The Theory of a Plurality of Origin in the Races of Men unchar- itable . . . 323
CHAPTER XXin.
The Theory of a Plurality of Origin in the Races of Men inexpe- dient and unchristian, and contrary to the necessary Claims of
the Historical Evidence of Scripture 331
CHAPTER XXIY. Latest Views of Professor Agassiz, and his Theory tested • . 348
APPENDIX. A.
Scriptural knowledge of Africa ...... 383
B.
Adaptation of Christianity to the Negroes 389
CONTENTS. Xi
C.
Review of Dr. Barratt's Address before the Medical Association of
South Carolina 391
D.
Additional Information ........ 393
E.
Notice of a Review of the Natural History of Man in the Demo- cratic Review for April, 1850 394
INDEX.
Scriptural . . .397
General 399
•
1*
PREFACE.
The subject discussed in this volume has formed the topic of anxious consideration with me for many years. In 1846, during the visit of Professor Agassiz, this question was discussed by the Literary Conversation Club of Charleston, when I was led to the formation of the plan of this volume. The interest awakened by the publication of Dr. Nott's Lectures in the further examination of this question, and especially in its relations to the Bible, induced me to prepare three discourses on the Unity of the Human Races, which were delivered in Charleston, in November, 1849. At the same time the publication of a series of articles upon the subject was commenced in the Southern Christian Advocate, the Southern Baptist, the Southern Presbyterian, the New Orleans Presbyterian, the Presbyterian of the West, and in the Watchman and Ob- server of Virginia. These articles modified and elaborated, con- stitute the present volume. They were written amid the nume- rous occupations of a pastoral charge, and the growing infirmi- ties of feeble health. They will, therefore, call for much allow- ance, both as to style and arrangement, more especially as they were printed at a distance. Since writing out the argument, it has been strengthened by several illustrations drawn from the recent scientific examination of the same subject, by the the Rev. Dr. Bach- man, and from some articles in our leading Reviews.
xiv
PREFACE.
My object has been to take a comprehensive survey of the whole subject in its relations to Scripture, Reason, and Science. The argument is cumulative, and the conclusion, therefore, depends not on any one line of reasoning, but upon the combined effect of all. Some are in themselves incomplete, and others only presump- tive, but on the doctrine of probability it may appear that the con- currence of so many distinct lines of proof in establishing the origi- nal unity of the human race, is equal to the clearest demonstration.
There is certainly, as has been said, no subject of science of deeper interest than that which regards the natural history and origi- nal condition of man. Even were the question it involves less re- markable and less important in regard to the present and future con- dition of the species, the methods of argument and sources of evidence are such as may well engage and engross every scientific inquirer. The evidence is drawn from all parts of creation — from the mind, as well as from the bodily conformation of man himself. The argument is one of probability, always tending to greater cer- tainty, though it may be incapable of ever reaching that which is complete. But this is a method of reasoning well understood to be compatible with the highest philosophy, and peculiarly consonant to our present faculties and position in the universe ; and if in this ocean of disquisition " fogs have been often mistaken for land," as in so many other regions of science, we may at least affirm, that the charts are more correctly laid down than ever before ; the bear- ings better ascertained ; and that our reason can hardly be ship- wrecked, on this great argument, if common caution be observed in the course we pursue.
To the clear and certain establishment of the truth involved in this question, it is, we think, essential, that its twofold character should be borne in mind. So long as naturalists were agreed that unity of species argued unity of origin, the question might be re- garded as single, and one of exclusively scientific character. But
PREFACE.
since the theory has been introduced and sanctioned by Professor Agassiz, that the same species may have been created in many dif- ferent provinces, and over their whole extent, the question of origin must be regarded as entirely distinct from the question of specific unity. The former is a question of fact, to be decided by historical evidence. The latter is a question of scientific observation and in- duction. The question of origin, therefore, can be determined only by the evidence of Scripture, history, tradition, language, religion, and the adaptations of Christianity to the mind and heart of all men. The question of species is to be tested by those criteria, which are employed to fix the classification of other animals. Between these questions there need be, and there ought to be, no collision, since the infallible certainty of the single origin of the human races, leaves the scientific investigation of their present specific character and classification altogether untrammelled, so that it might even be found convenient to regard as distinct species what are now con- sidered as only varieties, and yet leave their unity of origin to be de- cided by its appropriate evidence. Both these questions are con- sidered in this volume, and their lines of demarcation pointed out. But as the question of origin involves all that is important and es- sential in the inspiration of the Bible, and the scheme of redemption, the determination of this point has been chiefly kept in view.
On this subject I have dwelt at some length in the volume itself. But as the advocates of a plurality of originally created races of men claim to rest their theory on the statements of Scrip- ture, and especially as found in the Book of Genesis — I will here offer a few additional remarks.
I. And in the first place it is said, that the record found in the Book of Genesis has reference only to the ancestors of the Sa- cred, or Jewish, or Caucasian race. This, however, cannot be the case.
L Because our opponents affirm that there are in this very re-
xvi
PREFACE.
cord intimations of more than this one race, and they cannot both affirm and deny the same proposition.
2. Because many other nations proceeded from the stock here referred to. Among the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, there are found many of the greatest varieties of men, both as it re- gards color, stature, structure, physiognomy, character, and civiliza- tion.*
3. The actual varieties found to have arisen among men of the same stock, as in Ireland, England, and in Europe generally, are just as hard to be accounted for as the origin of all existing varieties from one original stock. The explanation of the varieties will also account for the origin of races.
4. It is here expressly said that Adam called his wife "the mo- ther of all living,'' that is, of all the kind, — of all human beings, — of all the sons of men, — and therefore of all the races of mankind.
5. Our Saviour traces all mankind up to this same original stock. " Adam said, (Gen. ii. 23, 24,) This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called Woman, .because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one flesh." In reference to this passage, our Saviour says, (Mark x. 6, 7,) " But from the beginning of the creation, God made them" — that is, Adam, or mankind, or every man, " male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife."
6. The New Testament every where expressly teaches that God " hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation ; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us." (Acts xvii. 26.)
* See S. Presb. Rev., January, 1850, pp. 473, 474; and Stilling- rleet's Orig. Sacrse, b. iii. ch. 4, p. 499, etc.
PREFACE.
xvii
7. The name Adam, employed in Genesis to designate man, is "the generic name of the human species."* " Among the Jews," says Rosenmuller, "this was the generic name of the whole species," and used only "singularly for the first man, (as in v. 27, Gen. 1,) or collectively, (as in v. 26 and 28,) where it must be referred to the whole human RACE."f As an adjective the word Adam refers not to color, but to origin, to the earth, (which may be red, black, or sandy,) out of which man was made. J
8. The specific attributes here given to man are those, not of any one race of men, but of the whole human family.
(a.) Man was created by the special counsel, co-operation, and agency of the entire Godhead in its plural, that is, in its triune 'char- acter. (Gen. i. 26, and 27.) It is, therefore, at once, inadmissible, unphilosophical and profane, to introduce such a mysterious interpo- sition of the Godhead for such an indefinite number of times as these theorists in question may choose to imagine. (See Calvin in loco.) The multiplication of causes beyond what is absolutely necessary to account for the effects, is in all cases unscientific. But in a case so supernatural, solemn, and mysterious as this, it is impiety as well as absurdity.
(b.) Man was created in the image or likeness of God. (Gen. i. 26, v. 1, ix. 6.) This may import, and in a figurative sense refer to, the majesty of man's countenance, his erect stature, and his other pre-eminent endowments. It has, however, special allusion to the soul of man, which in its nature is spiritual, invisible, and immortal, — which possesses the powers of reason, understanding, and will, —
* See the Sacred Scriptures in Heb. and English, by De Sola and Lindenthal, two eminent Jews. London, A. M. 5664, or A. D. 1846, p. 4.
t See Scholia in Genesi Lipsiae, Tom. i. p. 82, where are given many learned authorities.
t See De Sola, ibid., p. 5, n. 7, and Rosenmuller in ibid., and Gen. ii. 7.
XV111
PREFACE.
and to which were imparted knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. (Eph. iv. 24.) Man's nature possesses in itself all that is beautiful in inanimate nature, the life and growth of plants, the higher powers of beasts, the reason and wisdom of angels, and the moral lineaments of Deity. It is thus ppfi dbl* olam hakalon, as the Hebrews denominate man, or a microcosmos, or miniature of the world, as he is called by the Greeks. This image of God in man is seen also in its effects, in that dominion over the earth and all its animals by which all are made to co-operate for the supply of man's wants, and for the increase of man's comfort. (Gen. i. 28, &c.) " The plural number," used in this grant to man, intimates, say Cal- vin, " that this authority was not given to Adam only, but to all his posterity as well as to him. And hence we might infer what was the end for which#all things were created ; namely, that none of the conveniences and necessaries of life might be wanting to men."
Now in all these characteristics of man, which form the specific character given of him, and upon which the constancy of species de- pends, all men are essentially alike, so far as this image is retained by any of the sons of men.*
(c.) But we are further told in this book of Genesis, after the re- cord of the sin and fall of man, that " Adam begat a son in his own likeness after his image ;" (Gen. v. 3. See De Sola, &c. ;) that is, all who have descended from him are born in that mortal, sorrowful, and sinful condition into which sin has plunged mankind bodily, mentally, and spiritually. The present characteristic image of all the Adamic race of man, therefore, is one of deceitfulness and sin. And as in this image all men of every race are naturally alike, they are all of the same origin. This point is fully and frequently enforced in the New Testament. (See Rom. ch. iii. and v. &c.)
The Adam here referred to in the Book of Genesis, therefore,
* See Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations.
PREFACE.
xix
must be the original stock of all the races of men, and not of any one only.
9. This appears further from the promise made to Adam and his posterity of a Redeemer. (Gen. iii. 15.) Those to whom this Re- deemer is promised, are only such as are of " the seed of the woman," " of one blood" with her, and her posterity therefore by natural gene- ration. No others, as the Apostle argues, are included. (Rom. v. &c.) The Redeemer who is here promised to this posterity of Adam, was also to be of " the seed of the woman," that is, " accord- ing to the flesh." The incarnate Redeemer was therefore to be " born of a woman" — of a virgin of the seed of Eve. This is the reason why in the New Testament the descent of Christ as man is traced from Adam to Joseph, — why He is called " the second Adam," " our kinsman," and why " He became flesh," and " took our nature upon Him." (See Isaiah, ch. liii., and the passages we have quoted in ch. iii. pp. 47, 48, 49.)
All the races of men, therefore, who are interested in Christ and in His gospel are, and must be of Adamic origin, seed, or blood. All to whom that gospel is to be sent must also of necessity be of the same stock. And hence, as it is expressly commanded to preach this
gospel to EVERY CREATURE IN ALL THE WORLD, all must be of the
same original Adamic family and origin.
10. Finally, all the languages and traditions of all the races of men preserve more or less fully a reference to the facts recorded in the Book of Genesis. And as they could never have originated these statements, they prove, therefore, their primitive unity in origin and in knowledge. (See our chapter on this subject, and see also many remarkable proofs of reference to this record from classic writers with authorities, in Rosenmuller, as above, pp. 84 and 85.)
11. But it is further alleged by our opponents that this early record of man's history is plainly composed of different productions, and refers to the creation and history of different races.
PREFACE.
On this objection we remark,
1. That it contradicts the previous argument, as it would show that the Biblical record is not confined to one single race of men, but to several.
2. There is no proof that this record is made up of several dis- tinct and different documents. " To our minds there is a perfect unity of design pervading the Book of Genesis, no undue repetition and no confusion. Viewed in a merely literary aspect, it is the most venerable monument of antiquity ; in a historic or ethnographic light, the most valuable and satisfactory document in existence, and as a portion of the infallible rule of faith and practice for man, the foundation stone on which the whole edifice of revelation is built. Truly a writer may retrace his steps and enlarge his description for important reasons, without being charged with descrepancy. He is little versed in classic literature, whose mind does not recur to simi- lar instances in the most trustworthy and polished writers of anti- quity. And the oriental style resumes and repeats more than that of the west."
3. "If it could be proved that Genesis has, in part, been com- piled from pre-existing documents, its inspiration would not fall away. These may have been written by patriarchs before Moses, to whom God revealed his will ; or if the inspired Moses incorpo- rated them into his writings, they have received, in each word and letter, the sanction of the Spirit of God speaking in him."
" In the writing of the Scriptures there were two agents employed, the Spirit of God, the true Author of the whole ; and man acted upon by the Spirit, and speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. All Scripture, therefore, is given by inspiration of God. The men acted on by the Spirit, were acted upon as free and intelli- gent agents, and not as unconscious and senseless tools, and the peculiarities of their genius and previous culture were not lost from the writings which, under this celestial impulse, they produced."
PREFACE.
Whether, therefore, this record was originally suggested by direct inspiration, or whether it was formed under divine guidance from many existing traditionary materials, it was all given by inspiration. It is all the word of God, and when properly understood and explained " by the other Scriptures " it is infallibly and immutably certain.
4. This record, we further affirm, does not refer to the crea- tion of different races of men. It has indeed been affirmed that when it is said that " male and female, God created them," there is a re- ference to more creations than one. This is too puerile an objection to notice, and yet it is not beneath learned editors when the truth of a favorite theory is in question. The original words are " a male and a female created he them." God did not, therefore, create several males in several places, nor several females, but only one male and one female, who together constitute man, Adam, the generic parentage of the human species. This interpretation is in accordance with a Hebrew rule, by which a thing thus singularly ex- pressed is limited emphatically to one. (See 1 Chron. xvi., 3 ; 2 Sam. vi., 19; Deut. vi., 13; Matt, iv., 10.) In this passage, therefore, we are taught that God created one male and then one female as the original stock of the whole human family.
5. But again, if the passage in Gen., ch. ii., &c, records the creation of a different race of men from that alluded to in ch. i., then the heavens and the earth, and every thing else which is declared in the first chapter to have been created, must also have been different from those referred to in the second. " The earth," spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis, may just as well mean Palestine or any other limited portion of the globe as in the second, and the animals and vegetables said to.be created at the one period, may just as well be considered partial and territorial as in the other. But the crea- tion referred to in both chapters must be the same, because all things that were created are declared to have been created within six days. The work of creation was then completed, and on the seventh day
xxii
PREFACE.
God rested from all his works. The record in chapter second is, therefore, plainly, according to oriental style, a recapitulation and ex- pansion of that in chapter first, since an opposite conclusion is con- trary to the records themselves, and involves inconceivable absur- dities.
6. Again, Adam must have been aware of any previous or con- temporanerous creation of races of men had it taken place. When, therefore, he calls his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living men,* we have his testimony, and in the sanction given to his opinion by God himself, in every part of the Bible, the testimony of God also to the single origin of the whole human family.
7. Equally certain is it that the fact of the plural creation and existence of other races of men than the Adamic, must have been known by personal knowledge and indubitable tradition to Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Their sanction, therefore, of the record as it exists is proof positive that no such races ever existed. And when we consider that Moses has left incontestable evidences of his inspi- ration and divine legation, we must regard the doctrine of the unity of the races of men as stamped with the seal of divine authority.
It is indeed affirmed that Adam was only " a first man," and not " the first man," and that it is " the primer and not the Bible which teaches the contrary."! But surely this apologist for error had forgotten that the Apostle, quite as peremptorily as the primer, twice and very emphatically calls Adam " the first man Adam," o 7rpa>Tos avZpconos Ada/i, (1 Cor. 15 : 45, and again v. 47,) that is, the first representative and head of humanity. Christ also, as the only other representative head of humanity, the Apostle calls " the
* Adam had previously called her Isha, the feminine of Ish or man, i. e. vira, whence virago contracted virgin, and womb-man or woman. The phrase " was the mother " is equivalent to " was to be the mother," the natural mother of all mankind.
t Christian Register in N. Y. Herald, for April 29th, 1850.
PREFACE.
xxiii
second Adam." (See Work, p. 19 & 48.) Adam, therefore, was the first, and at that time the only existing human being.
It is also said,* that we have evidence of different races of men contemporaneous with the Adamic race, in the statement of Moses respecting "the sons of God" and "the daughters of men." (Gen. ch. 11.) To prevent their intermixture and the corruption of these different races, the present variations in form, color, &c, were, it is alleged, introduced. Every biblical scholar, however, knows, that by the terms " sons of God," or as the Chaldee renders them, " the eminent ones," is to be understood the descendants of Seth, Enos, and the other pious patriarchs who were separated from the pos- terity of Cain and formed the visible church. The same, therefore, are " called by the name of the Lord," (see Gen. 4, 26,) while the others are merely termed " men" and their daughters " the daugh- ters of men." (See 1 Cor. 13, 3.) Those men, in allusion to their cruelty, rapine, and violence, were also denominated " giants" (Gen. 6 4,) i. e. fallers or apostates. The Book of Genesis, there- fore, has undoubtedly no reference to any other than the Adamic race of men.f
8. But it is said in reply, that all other animals like plants are found to have been created in separate and limited regions, to which they are adapted and confined, and that it would be anomalous to suppose man to have been created and distributed on a different plan. In reply we observe :
(a) This record of the creation of all things, and that afterwards given of the flood, in no way requires us to suppose that animals and plants were created in pairs or in one central location, from which all the earth was supplied. (See fully illustrated and proved as long since as 1670, by Stillingfleet, in his Origines Sacrae, b. iii. ch. & sect. 4, p. 504, &c.)
* Amringe's Nat. Hist of Man. t See Bush on Genesis, in loco.
W xxiv PREFACE.
(b) This record distinctly teaches us, that there is as great a differ- ence between the plan followed in the creation and dispersion of man and of the lower animals, as there is between their comparative dignity and elevation in the scale of being. All the other animals and fauna were adapted to man for whose use they were made. (See Guyot's Lectures, p. 1 1.) "I will even goTarther," says he, " than is ordinarily done, and I will say, that there is an impassable chasm be- tween the mineral and the plant, between the plant and the animal ; an impassable chasm between the animal and the man ; and it is correct to say, that inorganic nature is made for organized nature, and the whole globe for man, as both are made for God, the origin and end of all things." Man is the end and the head of all. He is pre-eminent above all, and he is, therefore, an exception to all the rest of the creatton, as Professor Agassiz well and truly • states his position. (See as quoted in the volume, p. 131.) " Accord- ingly," to use the words of Stillingfleet, " in the production of beasts we read, 6 Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and every creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind : and it was so.' But in the production of man it was said, c Let us make man in our own likeness.5 From hence I observe this difference between the production of animals and of man, that in the one God gave a prolific power to the earth and waters for the production of the several living creatures which came from them ; so that the seminal principles of them were contained in the matter out of which they were produced, which was otherwise in man, who was made a peculiar being by the hands of the great Creator him- self, who thence is said to have formed man of the dust of the ground."
The same divine purpose is seen in the peculiar blessing and se- curity imparted by God to the human family, by which, whilst they were made productive beyond all merely natural increase, the high- est moral benefits were at the same time secured. There is there-
PREFACE.
XXV
fore every reason, as Bishop Cumberland supposes, for believing that Eve and her daughters, who are alluded to in Genesis, were fruitful beyond all subsequent experience, and that at the period of Abel's death, that is about one hundred and thirty years A. M., the popula- tion of the earth had multiplied to the amount of several hundred thousands.*
" The blessing of God," says Calvin, (Comment, on Gen. i. 28,) " may be regarded as the source from which the human race has flowed. And we must consider it not only with reference to the whole, but also, as they say, in every particular instance. For we are fruitful or barren in respect of offspring, as God imparts his power to some, and withholds it from others. But here Moses would simply declare that Adam with his wife was formed for the production of offspring, in order that men might replenish the earth. God could himself indeed have covered the earth with a multitude of men, but it was His will that we should proceed from one fountain, in order that our desires of mutual concord might be greater, and each might the more freely embrace the other as his own flesh." How should we all despair, if the words ' Our Father,' did not express the truth that we all participate in the blessings, as well as the curses of the whole race ; if these were words merely, and not the expression of an eternal truth ; if God were not that One Being eternal, im- mortal, invisible, to whom all may look up together, into whose presence a way is opened for all ; whose presence is that true home which the spirits of men were ever seeking, and could not find, till He who had borne their sorrows and died their death, en- tered within the veil, having obtained eternal redemption for them, and bade them sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. f
* See in addition to the consideration of this subject in ch. 1, p. 21, and in ch. xxii., Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations, pp. 79-82. t See Maurice on Lord's Prayer.
XXVI
PREFACE.
We are therefore brought to the conclusion that man was made designedly, and in accordance with his dignity, " an exception to all the rest of the creation," so that while they were created all over the world, and in pairs or groups, and adapted to their several localities, and to the ultimate use and benefit of man, man was created in one locality only, and in one pair only — " one male and one female" — and dispersed from this one blood, of which God hath made all the nations of the earth, to the several bounds and habitations which God had before appointed unto them, and to which they were adapted by the constitutional powers given to them, — by outward agencies act- ing upon them, — and by God's providence making every thing accom- plish the purposes of His good pleasure.
I will only add, that the ablest critics, even of the German school, have regarded the record in the book of Genesis as teaching the original unity of the entire human race. " From two human beings, therefore," says Rosenmuller, " the universal race of men drew their origin." Some, he adds, have doubted this, and denied that the au- thority of Scripture ought to constrain us to believe it ; (e. g. P. J. Brums, as quoted.) Their opinions, however, he thinks have been diligently examined, and refuted by Leonh. Joh. Carol. Justi, and others. (See as above, pp. 85, 86 ; and see also Hengstenberg on the confirmation given to the Genealogical Tables in Genesis, from the Monuments of Egypt, in his Egypt and the Books of Moses, ch. vii., p. 195, &c.)
With these remarks upon the Scripture relations of this question which have been urged upon me by very recent circumstances, I re- fer my readers to the work itself.
Charleston, S. C, May, 1850.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
CHAPTER L
THE HISTORICAL AND DOCTRINAL EVIDENCE OF SCRIPTURE.
At verbum Dei nostri stat in secula, et hoc est verbum quern annuntio vobis. — 1 Pet. i.
In entering upon the discussion of the unity of the human races, we are assured by some that with this subject the Bible has nothing to do ; by others that there is no reference in the Bible to any other than the Caucasian race ; while Dr. Nott has the astounding hardihood to affirm that the Bible contains much more against the unity of the human races than in favor of it.* We will, therefore, in the first
* See Lectures on the Bib. and Physical Hist, of Man, p. 14, 94. Of this work it is hard to say whether it is more confused and unscientific in its arrangements, — more illogical and inconclusive in its reasoning, — 2
L4
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
place, exhibit the teaching of Scripture upon this question, both doctrinally and historically, and present such general information as may be necessary to confirm its statements. By this course we hope to remove those prejudices which might hinder an impartial consideration of our subsequent argument, for the unity of the races, as the doctrine of reason and science.
In Acts 17 : 26, the apostle says — " and God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." In Mark 16 : 15, 16, is recorded that remarkable command of our Saviour, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (See also Matt. 28: 18, 20.) Now there is a very close con- nection between the statement here made by the apostle, and the command here given by our Lord Jesus Christ ; for it was in obedience to this command that the apostle was at that time at Athens. There, amid the proud and conceited philosophers of Greece, in the centre of their resplendent capital, surrounded on every hand by their noblest works of art and their proudest monuments of learning, the apostle proclaims the equality of all men, their common origin, guilt, and danger, and their universal obligations to receive
more self-contradictory and suicidal in its statements, — more arrogant and dictatorial in its spirit, — or more mean and cowardly in its venom- ous hostility to the Bible. It is truly what its author calls it — " hasty and disjointed remarks." — p. 47.
/
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
15
and embrace the gospel. The Athenians, like other ancient nations, and like them, too, in opposition to their own mytho- logy, regarded themselves as a peculiar and distinct race, created upon the very soil which they inhabited,* and pre- eminently elevated above the barbarians of the earth, — as they regarded the other races of men. Paul, however, as an inspired and infallible teacher, authoritatively declares that " God who made the world and all things therein,'5 " hath made of one blood," and caused to descend from one original pair the whole species of men, who are now by His providential direction so propagated as to inhabit " all the face of the earth," having marked out in his eternal and unerring counsel the determinate periods for their inhabiting, and the boundaries of the regions they should inhabit.
The apostle in this passage refers very evidently to the
* They also entertained the opinion that men sprung from some drops of sacred blood which fell down from Jupiter, and to which some think there is allusion. (Eisner Obs., vol. i. p. 447, 448.) Indeed every ancient nation was led through pride and ignorance to claim the same special origin, as is indicated by the words avroxdoves, aborigines and indigence. See numerous quotations in proof in Wetstein in N. T., vol. ii. p. 569, 570. The Stoics and Epicureans believed men to have sprung from the tender soil of the new-formed earth, at that time infi- nitely more prolific. Men were produced, they thought, in myriads of little wombs, that rose like mole-hills over the surface of the ground, and were afterwards transformed, for his nourishment, into myriads of glandular and milky bulbs. This, and the theory that mankind was propagated by eternal generations, were the only theories current among the Grecian and Roman philosophers. See Goode's Book of Nature, vol. ii. p. 79, and Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, p. 95, 97. Am. ed.
16
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
record of the early colonization and settling of the earth contained in the books of Moses. Some Greek copies pre- serve only the word evos, leaving out mfxaros, a reading which the vulgar Latin follows. The Arabic version, to explain both, has ex homine, or as De Dieu renders it, ex Adamo mio, there being but the difference of one letter in the Eastern languages between dam and adam, the one denoting blood, and the other man. But if we take this passage as our more ordinary copies read it, e£ evos aifxaros, it is still equally plain that the meaning is not that all mankind were made of the same uniform matter, as the author of the work styled Pre- Adamites weakly imagined, for on that ground, not only mankind, but the whole world might be said to be ex henos haimatos, i. e. of the same blood, since all things in the world were at first formed out of the same matter. The word aifxa therefore must be here rendered in the same sense as that in which it occurs in the best Greek authors — the stock out of ivhicli men come. Thus Homer says,
Et £T£Ov yf EjAOS can kcu aifxaros rjjxcTCOoio.
In like manner those who are near relations, are called by Sophocles 01 npos aiixaros. And hence the term consanguinity, employed to denote nearness of relation. Virgil uses san- guis in the same sense.
Trojano a sanguine duci.
So that the apostle's meaning is, that however men now are dispersed in their habitations, and however much they differ
THE UNITY OF THE III/ MAN RACES.
17
in language and customs from each other, yet they were all originally of the same stock, and derived their succession from the first man whom God created, that is, from Adam, from which name the Hebrew word for blood — i. e. dam — is a derivative.
Neither can it be conceived on what account Adam in the Scripture is called " the first man," and said to be " made a living soul/' and " of the earth earthy," unless it is to denote that he was absolutely the first of his kind, and was, therefore, designed to be the standard and measure of all the races of men. And thus when our Saviour would trace up all things to the beginning, he illustrates his doctrine by quoting those words which were pronounced after Eve was formed. " But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female; for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife." Now nothing can be more plain and incontrovertible than that those of whom these words were spoken, were the first male and female which were made in " the beginning of the creation." It is equally evident that these words were spoken of Adam and Eve : for " Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh ; therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife." If the Scriptures then of the New Testament be true, it is most plain and evident that all mankind are de- scended from Adam.*
* Stillingfleet's Origines Sacroe, b. iii. ch. 4, p. 498, 502, where other arguments for a pre- Adamite race are answered. On the supposed fossil remains of pre- Adamites, see Dr. Bachman on the Unity, &c, p. 43, and Mantell's and Lyell's Geology.
18
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
This humbling truth — humbling alike to their pride of lineage and of reason — the apostle, in the passage quoted, does not, it will be observed, attempt to prove. He gave the evidence of signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, that he was commissioned by God to teach it, and that it was there- fore to be received on the infallible authority of the revealer. By this divine authority Paul and all other ministers of the gospel — and in their manner and measure every member of the Church of Christ — are commanded to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature — to men of every nation and kindred and tongue and tribe and people. " By one man's disobedience,55 says the same in- spired teacher, " sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.55 God, therefore, argues the apostle, seeing that all the world has become guilty before him, having " so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life,55 — now " commandeth all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.55
This teaching of the New Testament on the subject of the unity of all the races of men, which is implied also in the entire scheme of redemption — including man's fall and recovery — coincides with the whole tenor of the Old Testa- ment Scriptures.
Here we are informed, that after God had made the hea-
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
L9
vens and the earth and every plant of the field, as yet " there
WAS NOT A MAN TO TILL THE GROUND. " (Gen. 2 I 5.) This
is given as a reason for the creation of Adam and Eve, who were immediately placed in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Adam and Eve therefore were the first and only human heings at that time created by God — the only human beings then existing — and they and their chil- dren were the first agriculturists. (Gen. 3: 23. 4: 2, 9 — 20.)
Adam is, we have seen, called expressly "the first man," and it is said " he was made a living soul, of the earth earthy." (1 Cor. 15: 45.) In these words the apostle evidently refers to those employed by Moses, when he de- clares that " God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and so he became a living soul." Adam was, there- fore, the first of all men, and the model type or species after whom all are formed.
Of all the other animals, " God said, let the waters bring forth," " and God created every living creature;" but when man was to be produced, " the Elohim — the triune Jehovah — said, let us make man — Adam, mankind — in our image, afer our likeness, and let them — the Adam or human race — have dominion over all the earth." (Gen. 1: 26 — 28, 5 : 1, and 9: 6.) In the other animals, even the meanest, there is some signum Dei vestigii, some mark of God's pow- er, but in man there is signum imaginis, something of real likeness in all the constituents of his physical, moral, and intellectual being. Like other animals he is material, and organized in his physical nature, but in man this structure is
20
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
" fearfully and wonderfully made/' paramount in beauty, and unlimited in its adaptation to every variety of occupation and enjoyment, and while
Pronaque cum spectant aniinalia csetera terram Os homini sublime dedit, cselumque tueri Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
When Eve was created she was called by God, Adam. (Gen. 1 : 26, v. 2 ; see also Numb. 31, 35 in Heb.)* This is therefore the proper name of the whole human race, and is so applied in Scripture. (Gen. 9 : 6 — 9 ; James 3:9; Ps. 2 : 4.) The Arabic translates this passage (in Gen. 5 : 2,) God " called them Adamites." All men therefore are the descendants of Adam, from whom they are called d^a ^35, beni Adam, the descendants of Adam. (Deut. 32 : 8 ; see Septuagint, and Gen. 1 : 5, 8, 10, and 26 ; and ch. 5 : 1.)
Adam and Eve having sinned, their sin affected all man- kind who were born in their sinful likeness after their (de- praved) image — exposed to toil and sorrow, and finally to death itself. (Gen. 3 : 15 — 24 : v. 3.) The word Adam, as an appellative, came therefore to signify the more degenerate and wicked portion of mankind. (Gen. 6 : 2; Ps. 11: 4, 12; 1, 2, 8, and 14 ; 2, &c.) In Adam therefore all die, and " so death has passed upon all men, because all have sin- ned" in Adam. (Rom. 5.)
* See Harris's Man Primeval, p. 25. Am. ed. See on the ana- logous classical usages of the same word in Kitto's Bib. Cycl., Art. Man.
•
THE UNITY" OF THE HUMAN RACES.
21
After this event Adam called his wife Eve, or life, in- stead of woman, (Gen. 2: 23,) because God had graciously mitigated their deserved destruction, and had graciously promised to make Eve " the mother, or progenitor, of all that live'5 — " of all men in the world" — or as the Chaldee translates, " of all the sons of man." The Arabic trans- lates this passage " because she was the mother of every liv- ing rational animal." Similar are the versions of the Mau- ritanian Jews and the Persic of Tawasius.* As in Adam therefore all men die, so through this mercy shown to Adam, all are permitted to live, for God even then declared for the benefit of all mankind, that " the seed of the woman" — that is a Saviour who, according to the flesh, should be born of her posterity, and of a virgin, — should bring eternal as well as temporal life to " all who should hereafter believe on him." And therefore as in Adam all men die, so in Christ all men may have life. (Gen. 3:15; and Rom. 5.)
Hence also we find that God is every where throughout Scripture, represented as the common God, Creator, Pre- server, Redeemer, and Judge of all men — " the God of the spirits of all flesh" — in evident reference to these early re- cords. (See Numb. 16: 32; 27: 16; Job 10: 12; 27 : 3 ; Eccles. 12 : 7 ; Isa. 52 : 5, &c.)
It may be well here to notice the objection made to this whole record, founded on the impossibility of explaining its statements about the marriage and dominion of Cain, with- out supposing other races, and a greater multitude of men.
* Selden De Jure nat. et Gent. 1. 1, c. 5, p. 65. 2*
22
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
This objection arises from overlooking the fact, that it is not the design of Moses to give us a particular account of the whole race of mankind descended from Adam, but only of those persons who were most remarkable, and whose history was necessary to be known, for the understanding of the succession down to his time.
It will therefore be observed, that besides those that are particularly mentioned in Scripture, we are told in general, that Adam begat sons and daughters; and if we will give credit to an ancient eastern tradition, he had in all thirty- three sons and twenty-seven daughters, which, considering the primitive fecundity, would in a short time be sufficient to stock that part of the world, at least, where Adam dwelt.
According to the computation of most chronologers, it was in the hundred and twenty-ninth year of Adam's age that Abel was slain ; for the Scripture says expressly, that Seth, (who was given in lieu of Abel,) was born in the hun- dred and thirtieth year, (very likely the year after the mur- der was committed,) to be a comfort to his disconsolate pa- rents. Cain, therefore, must have been a hundred arid twenty-nine years old when he abdicated his own coun- try, at which time there could not have been less than a hundred thousand souls. For if the children of Israel — from seventy persons — in the space of a hundred and ten years, became six hundred thousand fighting men, (though great numbers of them had died during this great increase,) we may very well suppose that the children of Adam, whose lives were so very long, might amount at least to a hundred thousand in a hundred and thirty years, that is, in five ge-
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
23
nerations. Upon this supposition we may likewise find men enough to build and inhabit a city : especially considering the word hir, which is rendered city, may denote no more than a number of cottages with some little hedge or ditch about them.*
That all the present inhabitants of the earth did originate from the race of Adam, is expressly taught in the destiny to which Adam and Eve were appointed by their Creator. " God," we are told, " blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue (or cultivate) it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every thing that moveth upon the earth." (Gen. 1 : 28.) Wherever, therefore, we find the earth occupied by men, we perceive the fulfilment of this destiny and the multiplication of the Adamic race.
Moses therefore assures us that the human family — as scientific analysis has been led to arrange its component membersf — is made up of the descendants of the three post- diluvian families. " The sons," he says, " of Noah that went forth from the ark, were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth
* Stackhouse's History of the Bible, B. %, sect. 4. See also Dr. Goode's Book of Nature, vol 2, p. 85. Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, pp. 92 — 94. Sumner's Records of Creation, vol 2, p. 342. Encyclop. Britan., vol. 14, p. 203. Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, B. 1, ch. 5, § 3—5 ; in Wks. vol. 2, Oxf. ed.
t See Prichard's Natural Hist, of Man, p. 136—138. Hamilton Smith's Nat. Hist, of the Human Species, pp. 124, 125, 126, 129, 165, 184, and 284.
24 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
(that is, all that is inhabited) overspread," or literally " scat- tered over." (Gen. 9 : 18, 19.) On these three races a separate destiny was pronounced, God impressing upon them a moral and physical nature in accordance with the destiny to which each of them was appointed. The promise of exten- sion was given to the race of Japheth— of religion to the pro- geny of Shem — and of servility to the descendants of Ham. Within the limits of this threefold destiny, this threefold race conveyed to their descendants those varieties of outward form and moral character which seem to be inseparably linked with their respective conditions.* The Japhetic race have occupied Asia and Europe. By the descendants of Shem, Judaism and Christianity have been established, and a corruption of both widely propagated in Mohammedanism and the Papacy. While from the posterity of Ham have proceeded all the nations of Africa — the servants of the other races — and the Canaanites, who were enslaved to the Israe- lites.")* Of this prophecy of Noah, a writer in Kitto's Cyclo- pedia, says : — " That prophetic denunciation is the last re- corded fact of the life of Noah, though he lived through the subsequent period of 350 years. It is a prophecy of the most remarkable character, having been delivered in the in- fancy of mankind ; in its undeniable fulfilment reaching through 4000 years down to our own time ; and being even now in a visible course of fulfilment."^:
* See Triplicity, vol. 1, p. 101, a work of much various and curious research.
t See Nolan's Bampton Lectures, 1. 8. Wells' Sacred Geography. t Article Noah.
■
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 25
The distribution of these three families over the whole earth was — as the apostle has already taught us — by di- vine allotment and choice ; and it took place — as Moses inti- mates— in the days of Peleg, a name signifying division, " for in his days was the earth divided" — or if we may angli- cise the Hebrew word, pelegged. (Gen. 10 : 25, and 11:6, and 1 Chron. 1: 19, This statement is repeated in Gen. 10 : 32, where it is said, " These are the families of the sons of Noah (according) to their generations in their na- tions ; and from these the nations were dispersed in the earth after the flood." And again in the 5th verse of the same chapter we are told, " from these the isles of the na- tions were dispersed in their lands, each (according) to its language, (according) to their families in the nations.5'*
But still further, in Deut. 32 : 8, 9, it is recorded — " In the Most High's assigning abodes to the nations, in his dis- persing the sons of Adam, he fixed boundaries to the peoples according to the number (more exactly numeration) of the sons of Israel : for the assigned portion of Jehovah is his people : Jacob the lot of his inheritance." Of this 8th verse the Septuagint translation is remarkable ; and it thus became the source of extraordinary interpretations : " When the Most High apportioned nations, when he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he fixed boundaries of nations according to the number of the angels of God."
Of the descendants of Ham we are specially informed, ¥ These are the sons of Ham (according) to their tongues in their lands, in their nations." Of his sons or tribes, thirty -
* Kitlo's Biblical Cyclopedia, vol. 2, p. 293. Eng. ed.
26
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
one are given. These refused to abide by the allotment of God, and under the arch-rebel Nimrod, drove out Ashur and his sons who had been located in the plains of Shinar, (chap. 10 : 11.) At that time it is recorded all the earth was of one language (lip), and of one speech (words), that is, their lan- guage was the same or similar, " and Jehovah scattered them from thence upon the face of the whole earth." (11 : 2, 9.) On this whole record Sir William Jones remarks : "The most ancient history of the human race, and the oldest composition perhaps in the world, is a work in Hebrew : of which the initial portions (Gen. 1 — 11) are a preface to the oldest civil history now extant. We see the truth of them confirmed by antecedent reasoning, and by evidence in part highly proba- ble, and in part certain ; but the connection of the Mosaic history with that of the gospel by a chain of sublime predic- tions unquestionably ancient, and apparently fulfilled, must induce us to think the Hebrew narration more than human in its origin, and consequently true in every substantial part of it ; though possibly expressed in figurative language. It is no longer probable only, but it is absolutely certain, that the whole race of man proceeded from Iran as from a centre, whence they migrated at first in three great colonies ; and that those three branches grew from a common stock, which had been miraculously preserved in a general convulsion and inundation of this globe."*
This division of the earth was probably made by Noah himself, in his prophetic and regal character, and under the immediate direction of Divine Providence. Epiphanius,f
* Wks. vol. 3, p. 191 — 19G. 8vo. ed.
t Opcr. v. 2, p. 703.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
27
and also Eusebius, take particular notice of this distribution of the earth. [Euseb. Chron. p. 10.] " In the two thousand six hundred and seventy-second year of the creation, and in the nine hundred and thirtieth of Noah, did Noah divide the earth among his three sons." And it is evident from the Sacred Record, that, in obedience to this decree, the various families of these three progenitors went forth, and took pos- session of their several lots. We find that both the tripartite allotment and the quiet concurrence of the parties therein, are particularly alluded to by the Heathen writers. Thus in the hymn of Callimachus in Jovem., v. 61, it is said.
By lot tripartite each of Cronus' sons Took up his several realm.*
Homer, says Bryant, " introduces Neptune speaking to the same purpose." (II. O. v. 147.)
We are from Cronus and from Rhea sprung, Three brothers ; who the world have parted out Into three lots : and each enjoys his share.
This tradition probably came from Egypt to Greece ; and is therefore more fully related by Plato. In his Critia, (vol. 3, p. 109,) he says, " The gods of old obtained dominion of the whole earth, according to their different allotments. This was effected without any contention, for they took possession of their provinces in an amicable and fair way by lot."f
* Cronus in his post-diluvian character is certainly Noah. See Fa- ber's Origin of Pag. Idol., vol. 3, p. 468. t Bryant's Ant. Myth. v. 4, p. 20.
28
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
The same triple division is noticed in a fragment of the Chaldaic or Persic oracles of Zoroaster, where it is added that the division was ordained by the Nous or intelligence of the father, i. e. by Nous, or Nuh, or Menes, or Noah.* Menes, the progenitor of the Egyptians, was also Noah, it being re- corded of him that he bound the ark to the peak of Hinrav- shu.f Noah was also the Fohi of the Chinese.:): From this triple division originated also the three worlds of the Hindu and the Rabbinical mythology. § Hence also, as Faber be- lieves, originated the various Triads of paganism, who appear at the dissolution of every former world for the purpose of re- plenishing and governing it, as among the Hindoos, the Budd- hists, the Jainists, the Chinese, the Tartars, the Peruvians, the Persians, the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans, the Canaanites, the Goths, the Celts, the Orphic, Pythagorean and Platonic schools, in the Orphic theology, and in the South Sea Islands. || The great gods of the Gen- tiles were also deified mortals, consisting of a father and three sons, and were acknowledged at once to be gods, and ancestors, while the great mother of the goddesses multiplied herself into three daughters. H
This argument Mr. Faber pursues at great length, by an illustration of the primitive dominion secured by Nimrod and
* Stanley's Ghaldee Phil. p. 41. Faber Orig. of Idolatry, 468, vol. 3.
t Hamilton Smith, &c. p. 357.
t Anct. Univ. Hist. Vol. 1, p. 261, &c.
§ Moore's Hind. Panth. p. 40, 104.
|| See the authorities given by Faber, vol. 3, p. 469, 471, and at length previously.
IT Ibid. p. 471 and 474.
THE UNITV OF THE HUMAN RACES.
29
his Cushites over their brethren, as manifested in the exist- ence of distinct castes or races, and other customs, among nations in every quarter of the globe.*
We will only add, at this stage of the argument, the tes- timony of Mr. Murray.f " That the three sons of Noah," says this writer, " overspread and peopled the whole earth, is so expressly stated in Scripture, that had we not to argue against those who unfortunately disbelieve such evidence, we might here stop ; let us however inquire how far the truth of this declaration is substantiated by other considera- tions. Enough has been said to show that there is a curious, if not a remarkable analogy between the predictions of Noah on the future descendants of his three sons, and the actual state of those races which are generally supposed to have sprung from them. It may here be again remarked, that to render the subject more clear, we have adopted the quinary arrangement of Professor Blumenbach ; yet that Cuvier and other learned physiologists are of opinion that the primary varieties of the human form are more properly but three, viz. the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian. This num- ber corresponds with that of Noah's sons. Assigning there- fore the Mongolian race to Japheth, and the Ethiopian to Ham, the Caucasian, the noblest race, will belong to Shem, the third son of Noah, himself descended from Seth, the third son of Adam. That the primary distinctions of the human varieties are but three, has been further maintained by the erudite Prichard, who, while he rejects the nomenclature
* See the authorities given by Faber, vol. 3. p. 475 — 498. t Encycl. of Geog. p. 255.
30
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both of Blumenbach and Cuvier, as implying absolute divi- sions, arranges the leading varieties of the human skull un- der three sections, differing from those of Cuvier only by name. That the three sons of Noah who were to " replen- ish the earth," and on whose progeny very opposite des- tinies were pronounced, should give birth to different races, is what might reasonably be conjectured. But that the ob- servation of those who do, and of those who do not believe the Mosaic history, should tend to confirm truth, by pointing out in what these three races do actually differ both physi- cally and morally, is, to say the least, a singular coinci- dence. It amounts, in short, to a presumptive evidence, that a mysterious and very beautiful analogy pervades through- out, and teaches us to look beyond natural causes in attempt- ing to account for effects apparently interwoven in the plans of Omnipotence."
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN BACKS.
31
CHAPTER II.
THE HISTORICAL AND DOCTRINAL EVIDENCE OF SCRIPTURE— Continued.
Dei sapientia et bonitas limites regionibus monies et fluvios dedit : ille populorum secudes aut figit aut mutat : hcec neque casu fiunt, neque ah cBterno fuere. — Virgil, JEn. viii.
It has been shown that the Scriptures represent Adam and Eve as the original progenitors of the whole human family, and Noah and his sons as the only parents of the post-dilu- vian races of mankind. The Bible does not involve the truth of its inspiration and the infallible assurance of its doctrines with any system of chronology. On this subject it has little to say, and from probable confusion and mistake in copyists, that little is involved in wisely permitted con- fusion. Neither does the Bible require us, by any necessity of interpretation, to believe that all the different races of animals, plants, and insects, which are now found peculiar to their several continents, were destroyed by the flood, and preserved, and again distributed by Noah. It would allow us, on principles of strict interpretation, to believe either that the submerged earth was the entire region inhabited by
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man, together with its plants and animals ; or that, having destroyed the whole earth, with all its vegetable and animal productions, God created new genera of organized beings, suited to every climate, and assigned them then, as he did at the first, their several localities and provinces.* But the Bible does require us to believe that all the human race perished in the flood, and that from Noah and his sons all the existing varieties or races of men have sprung. And to this doctrine of Scripture, ancient heathen writers, as has been shown, bear the attestation of general traditional belief! t
In reference to genealogy, it appears to us to have been the evident design of Scripture to dwell only upon the chosen line, from which, according to the flesh, Christ — " the Seed of the woman " — should proceed, omitting, or very partially noticing, all others. This is apparent both
* See Prichard's Researches into the Natural History of Mankind, vol. 1, p. 98 — 102. Dr. Pye Smith's Geology and Scripture. Powell's Connection of Science and Religion, etc. Kirby, however, accounts for the present distribution of animals on natural principles, and in accor- dance with the literal explanation of the Bible. Habits and Instincts of Animals, vol. 1, ch. ii.
t See this very strongly presented by Guyot in his Earth and Man, Lect. x. and xii. p. 280, 269, 270, 273, 277. Nolan's Bampton Lec- tures, p. 317, etc., and p. 492, etc., where may be found many heathen testimonies from classical writers. See also Gray's Connection of Sacr. and Prof. Literature. Smith's Patriarchal Age. Faber's Origin of Idol., vol. 3, b. 6, ch. i. to end of vol., p. 359 — GOO. Stackhouse's Hist, of the Bible, b. 2, § 2. Delafield's Antiq. of America, p. 284, and Anct. Univ. Hist., vol. 1, p. 284, &c.
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in the ante-cliluvian and post-diluvian records, and is, in our judgment, the probable source of the historical and chrono- logical difficulties suggested by the ethnological history of man.* While, therefore, much is said in the Bible about the race of Seth and Shem, but very little reference is made to the posterity of Cain and Ham.
Enough, however, is told us respecting Ham and his de- scendants, to trace some of them — under the influence of that curse, in which portions of the entire race seem, to some extent, to have been involved*)* — to the continent of Africa. For from Ham proceeded the Egyptians, the Liby- ans, the Phutim, and the Cushim or Ethiopians, who, colo-
* See Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, b. 1, ch. v. See also Nolan's Bampt. Leet.,p. 492 — 497, and the authorities there quoted. Also Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. 1, p. 22, where he gives the autho- rities of Eusebius, Syncellus, Cedrenus (Chron. Pasch.), Josephus, Ho- mer, Philo, and Plato. Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry. Smith's Patr. Age, Prel. Diss., and p. 158, etc. Prichard's Researches, vol. 5, Appendix.
t In the Canaanites — the posterity of Canaan — we see this curse undoubtedly visited with most wonderful certainty and emphasis ; but if Ham, as is possible, was also blamable, the consequences have been measurably extended with equal justice to other branches of his family ; while through this orignal wickedness on their part, and the consequent adaptation of their posterity to fulfil the purposes of God, the African races may yet do much towards praising and glorifying Him. See Bush's Notes on Genesis, on ch. ix. 22 — 27, and Ainsworth's Annotations in loco. Nolan's Bampt. Lect, p. 317, 492. Chrysostom on Gen., Homil. 29. Theodoret in Gen. qu. 58. Bochart Geog. Sacr., lib. l,cap. 2, col. 10.
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nizing the African side of the Red Sea, subsequently ex- tended themselves indefinitely to the west and south of that great continent. Plutarch says expressly, that Egypt was called Chemia, or the country of Ham ; and it has been thought that the Egyptian deity Hammon or Ammon was a deification of Ham.*
Chum, the father of Cush, was also brother of Mizraim the father of the Egyptians. The Cushites, so often spoken of in the Old Testament, are the same as the Ethiopians. On this point, — which involves much of the direct historical evidence of the Bible to the unity of the human races as the posterity of the same original family, — we are met by the bold assertion of Dr. Nott, which he labors to establish, that neither Ethiopia or negroes are mentioned in the Bible. The Bible he regards as the record and revelation of the Caucasian race exclusively.*)" We shall, therefore, enter into this inquiry at more length, than might be otherwise interesting.
The term Ethiopia was anciently given to all those whose color was darkened by the sun. Herodotus, there-
* In his work de Iside et Osiride. See Calmet's Diet., art. Ammon. See also Nolan's Bampton Lect., p. 484, where Marsham, Bochart, and Vossius are quoted to the same effect. Ham, therefore, is the ultimate root of Egyptian genealogy, while Menu may be identified with Noah, being claimed traditionally as their first king. See do. And as civili- zation preceded barbarity — the early civilization and fictitious chrono- logy of Egypt offer no difficulties, except to wilful skeptics. Dr. Morton thererefore defines the Egyptians to be the posterity of Ham. See in Ethnol. Journal, No. 4, p. 172.
+ Lect. Appendix, p. 138 — 146.
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fore, distinguishes the Eastern Ethiopians who had straight hair, from the Western Ethiopians who had curly or woolly hair.* Strabo calls them " a two-fold people, lying extended in a long tract from the rising to the setting sun."f Homer gives precisely the same description of the Ethiopians.^: So, also, does Apuleius,§ and accordingly we now know that the indigenous man in India was undoubtedly black — its white blood having come from Western Asia.|| Euse- bius, therefore, tells us that the Ethiopians in the West came to Egypt from India in the East, and thence passed over the Red Sea into Africa, the whole of which they peopled. IT Ethiopia, south of Egypt, was consequently well known to the ancients, and constituted a theatre of history, of civili- zation, and of empire. Indeed, Heeren and others think the civilization and religion of Egypt came from tribes beyond Meroe, in Ethiopia, who founded temples and colo- nies, and introduced the worship of Ammon, Osiris, and Phtha, known in Greece as Jupiter, Bacchus, and Vulcan.**
* Herodotus, vii. 69, 70. Anct. Univ. Hist., vol. 18, p. 254, 255. t Lib. 1, p. 60. t Od. A. 22.
§ Lib. xi. p. 364. See Kitto, art. Cush, and Wells' Sacred Geo- graphy under Cush.
|| Guyot's Earth and Man, p. 231.
IT Chronicles, p. 26, Syncellus, p. 151, Calmet 5, 27, American edi- tion, or Wells' Geography, art. Cush. See also Nolan's Bampton Lec- tures, p. 495, 496, and the authorities there given, Eupolemus, Eusebius, and Bochart. " Chami vero filios totam Africam et partem Asiae." Dr. Simson after Josephus Chron., P. 1, p. 11.
** Ancient History, p. 58. Lepsius, however, is opposed to this view. Ethnol. J., iv. 172,
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Eastern Africa also was certainly known in the time of the Caliphs, and noticed by Arrian. Ptolemy's most distant country, Agizymba, is probably Kissimbany, in the island of Zanzinbar, a negro country.* Sallust, in his Jugerthine war, placed Ethiopia next to the countries exusta solis ardo- thus, burned and dried up by the heat of the sun, and speaks of a people beyond Ethiopia as "just and amiable, whose manners and customs resemble the Persians."!
The ancients, says Dr. Anthon, included under the term Ethiopia those regions which we now call Nubia and Sen- naar, together with part of Abyssinia. They were also acquainted with Libya Interior, including Nigritia, on the banks of the Niger, and in a part of which is now Soudan. Their capital was called Nigera. Another of their cities, named by Ptolemy, Peside, seems to have stood near the modern Timbuctoo.
The Garamantes were a powerful nation occupying a tract of country south, with a part of Soudan and Bornou, and carried on a traffic in slaves with the Carthaginians. :j:
The term Ethiopia, therefore, was applied by the an- cients to all the fruitful lands stretching along the banks of the Niger, which were almost entirely unknown. § Herodo- tus, however, must have gone far enough to see those " Af- ricans" whom he describes as " having the most curly hair of all men." And the genuine negro was assuredly known,
* Pickering on the Races of Men, p. 189.
t See a Fragment, quoted in Fairholme's Scripture Geology, p. 443. X Ancient and Mediaeval Geography, p. 742 and 749. § Pickering on the Races of Men, p. 46.
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since their portraits aro found on Egyptian monuments, and their skulls among the Egyptian mummies.*
The children of Phut and the Lubim — who were of a very deep dye, and may be considered as more especially the fathers of the negro race — settled in Africa. Hence in an- cient days Lybia seems to have been the general appellation of Africa, from the Lubim or Lehabim. {Citron. Pash., p. 29.) Nor arc there wanting memorials of Phut. In Mau- ritania there was a region and a river called after him, as we learn from St. Jerome : — Mauritaniae fluvis usque ad presens tempus Phut dicitur: omnisquc circa cum regio Phutensis.f
The ancients even attempted to trace the origin of the color and of the curly hair of the Africans, and also of the sterility of that country which forms the boundary of Negro- land, in the fable of Phaeton and the extraordinary influence of the chariot of the Sun, during his unskilful driving.:):
* See Dr. Morton's Crania iEgyptiaca ; his Catalogue of Skulls, Philadelphia, 1849, 2d edition ; and his Observations on a Second Se- ries of Ancient Egyptian Crania, in Proceedings of the Acad, of Natural Science of Philadelphia, October, 1844. Also his Inquiry into the Abo- riginal race of America, App. No. 4, p. 45 — 47. See also Belzoni's Plates, Burton's Excerpta, and Penny Cyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 182.
t See Biblioth. Sacra, 1847, pp. 745, 746, where it is argued that two great branches of the negro race emigrated to Africa at remote peri- ods from each other, and from different parts of the old world. Mr. Birch frequently found the word Kush on Egyptian monuments. See Ethnol. Journal, No. 10, p. 467, 468, that is from the 23d to the 14th century before Christ.
X A similar memorial tradition is preserved among the Feejee Isl- anders ; see The Exploring Expedition, vol. 7th, 3
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That all the Ethiopians were descended from Chus or Cush, is expressly declared by Zonaras (21), who says, " Chus is the person from whom the Cuseans are derived. They are the same people as the Ethiopians." Such also is the testimony of Josephus, Eusebius, and Apuleius.* Calmet quotes, also, the author of Tarik Araba (Bibl. Orient., p. 425), as affirming that all the blacks were descended from Ham.*}* The Easterns, therefore, say that Cush had a son named Habaschi, the father of the Abyssinians. This word, which is the same as Ethiopia, signifies a people formed of a mix- ture of nations.:}: And hence all Asia calls the Ethiopians Cush, as they do themselves. § The whole obscurity of ancient writers in the use of these words — Cush and Ethi- opia— arises, therefore, from the difTerent families of the Cushites, who by the difTerent removals inhabited countries widely separated from each other.JJ
In the Scriptures, however, the use of the words Cush and Ethiopia are more definite and restricted. The term Cush is here sometimes employed to denote a part of Southern
* Joseph. Antiq,, lib. 1, c. 6 ; and Calmet, vol. 5, p. 20, 202, Am. ed., or Wells' Sacred Geography, t See Art. Ammon.
X Calmet's Dictionary, Art. Cush. This is the character of a great many of the negro tribes or nations.
§ Josephus Antiq., lib. 1, c. 7, and Calmet, art. Cush.
|| The negro race of the Nuba have spread as far North and East as Sennaar, where a negro dynasty of the Fungi established itself in 1504, and has mingled itself with the Arab blood, and adopted a Mo- hammedan creed. See Penny Cyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 182. Obers also have spread very far. p. 9182, do.
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Arabia, but is most generally employed to point out exclu- sively countries in Africa, lying to the South of Egypt. (Ezek. 29: 10, and 30: 4—6.) The Hebrew term, Cush, is rendered Ethiopia, not only by the English version under the authority of its numerous and very learned authors, but by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and almost all the other versions, ancient and modern. " It is not, therefore, to be doubted," says Poole, " that the term Cushim has by the interpretation of all ages been translated by Ethiopians, because they were always known by their black color, and their transmi- grations, which were easy and frequent." " The term Cush in Scripture denotes," — says Rosenmuller, whose ori- ental learning is undeniably great — " all the lands situated in the South, whose inhabitants have a black skin," that is, all denominated Ethiopia, and hence Blumenbach calls the negro race the Ethiopian. The Cushim in Scripture are also spoken of in connection with the Lubim, Sukim, Thut, and other nations of Africa who were found attached to the vast army of Shishak, king of Egypt, when he came up, B. C. 971, against Rehoboam, and in whose tomb, recently opened, there are found among his depicted army the exact repre- sentation of the genuine negro race, both in color, hair, and physiognomy.* Champollion also found upon the hierogly-
* Negroes are represented on the paintings of the Egyptians chiefly as connected with the military campaigns of the 18th dynasty. They formed part of the army of Ibrahim Pacha, and were esteemed as sol- diers at Moncha, and in S. Arabia, — Pickering's Races of Men, pp. 185, 189. That negroes were found in the armies of Sesostris and Xerxes, Herodotus assures us,1 and we know that they compose in part the army
1 Euterpe, cap. 6, and Polyhymn. cap. 70.
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phic monuments of Egypt the name Cush used for Ethiopia. Mr. Gliddon informs us also that " the hieroglyphical desig- nation of KeSH, exclusively applied to African races as dis- tinct from the Egyptians, has been found by Lepsius as far back as the monuments of the sixth dynasty, before b. c. 3000 ; but the great influx of Negro and Mulatto races into Egypt as captives, dated from the twelfth dynasty, when, about the twenty-second century, b. c, Pharaoh SESOUR- TASEN extended his conquests up the Nile far into Nigri- tia. After the eighteenth dynasty, the monuments come down to the third century, a. d., without one single instance, in the Pharaonic or Ptolemaic periods, that Negro labor was ever directed to any agricultural or utilitarian objects."* The term Cushite, therefore, while it applies in Scripture to the Arabian races, " became also the appellative of a negro." In this sense it is employed by the prophet Jeremiah (13: 23), when he asks, " Can the Ethiopian" — or as it is in the original, the Cushite — " change his skin, or the leopard his spots V3 " This text," says Patrick and Lowth, " is most probably to be understood of the Africans or blackmoors, as they are commonly called." Luther's German translation has Mohrenland, a term equivalent to negroland, or the country of the blacks. Dr. Watts followed this meaning in the well-known words of one of his hymns :
of Egypt now.2 Herodotus further states that 18 of the Egyptian kings were Ethiopians.3
* See in Ethnolog. Journal, No. 7, p. 310.
2 Burckhardt's Travels, p. 341. Dr. Wiseman, p. 07.
3 Euterpe, lib. C.
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As well might Ethiopian slaves Wash out the darkness of their skin, The dead as well may leave their graves, As old transgressors cease to sin.*
The prophet, six hundred years before the Christian era, thus affirms the existence of a black color in this particular class of men. He quotes a proverb,")* and thus proves that an unchangeable blackness of color had long been familiarly known to characterize this class of human beings."): And as the prophet denominates them Cushites, he thus teaches that some tribes of people, descended from Cush the eldest son of Noah, and inhabiting a country which the Septuagint, Vulgate, and other interpreters coincide in naming Ethiopia, were black. It is thus evident that the Scriptures declare the negro race to be the descendants of Noah, and therefore of the same original family with all other races of men.
But it is equally certain, as we have seen, that the term Cushite is applied in Scripture to other branches of the same family, as for instance to the Midianites, from whom Moses selected his wife, and who could not have been negroes. The term Cushite, therefore, is used in Scripture as denoting nations who were not black or in any respect negro, and also countries south of Egypt, whose inhabitants were negroes ; and yet both races are declared to be the descendants of Cush, the son of Ham. Even in Ezekiel's day the interior Afri-
* B. 2, 163. See also Appendix A.
t This proverb is found also in profane writers — " to wash the Ethio- pian or blackmoor white."
X The black race are known to have existed for 3445 years.
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can nations were not of one race, for he represents Cush, Phut, Lud, and Chub, as either themselves constituting, or as being amalgamated with, "a mingled people " (Ezek. 30 : 5,) " that is to say," says Faber, " it was a nation of ne- groes who are represented as very numerous — all the mingled people."* We thus learn — as far as Scripture au- thority is admitted — 1. That all men, even the negro race, are from the same original stock. 2. That from the same ancestor, races of different color and physiognomy proceed- ed, and therefore, 3. That there was a time when the negro peculiarities of color and form did not exist ; but that from some cause or causes, they originated at a period subsequent to the dispersion. We further learn, in the fourth place, that such a change from one physiognomy to another was not regarded by the prophet as impossible, but only as a change of very difficult and extraordinary character ; for at the very same time that he asks this question, he calls upon the people to secure that moral change to which he had re- sembled the color of the skin, by repentance and conversion, showing, as Christ did on another occasion, that " what is impossible to men is possible with God."f
These remarks we have made by way of anticipation, in order more fully to illustrate and establish the teaching of Scripture regarding the unity of all the races of men. That unity, it has been shown, the Scriptures teach, both historically and doctrinally. They teach that all men took
* Diss., vol. 2, p. 305.
t Matth. xix. 24. See Lowth and Jortin in Mant & Doyly's Bible, on Jer. xiii. 23.
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their origin in the divinely-created human pair, and that all the races of men, black and white, African and Caucasian, were subsequently dispersed from one postdiluvian stock. They teach that all are sinners, and in need of a common salvation. They teach that there is but one Name under heaven by which any man can be saved. And they require the gospel of this grace and mercy to be preached to every
CREATURE.
The Scriptures further inform us that the heathen are given to Christ for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. His kingdom is to include all nations, and kingdoms, and tribes, and people under the whole heavens. And while even China* and the islands of the sea are specified as among the future conquests to be achieved by this Prince of Peace, " the people of Ethiopia also, and men of stature shall," it is foretold, " come over unto him, and they shall be his." " They shall come after thee in chains," — that is, in their character and condition of servitude, and as slaves, — " they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto him. They shall make supplication unto the Church, saying, surely God is in thee, and there is none else- — there is no other God." — Is. 45 : 14. f " From beyond
* Is. li. 12, Sinim, a remote country in the S. E. extremity of the earth, as the context intimates. The Chinese were known to the Ara- bians by the name of Sin, and to the Syrians as Tsini. Other Asiatics gave them the same name, and it is known to the Chinese themselves, whose fourth dynasty was called Tshin. At Babylon the Jews might have easily heard of them.
t These countries are given as samples <jf the entire heathen world.
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the rivers of Ethiopia/' as Zephaniah prophesies — that i& from the very centre of Africa — " my suppliants shall bring mine offering. "— Zeph. 3: 10. "Ethiopia/7 says the inspired Psalmist, " shall soon stretch out her hands." — - Ps. 68: 31. And among those of whom it will be said in the great day of accounts, " that this and that man was born in her," Ethiopia shall be enumerated as well as other countries of the globe. — Ps. 87 : 4.
Such then is the clear and unequivocal doctrine of Scripture regarding the unity of the human race as involved in all its teachings, and as received by all those in every age, who believe it to be the word of Him who, as he knoweth all things, " cannot lie," and who, as He is the truth itself, will not deceive.
This doctrine, be it observed, Scripture teaches us — not as a matter of scientific knowledge — but as the foundation of all human obligation, and of the universality of human charity. It makes every man our brother, and it pro- claims that we are " debtors to all men, both to the Greeks (or civilized) and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise," having " the everlasting gospel " intrusted to us for their benefit. (Rom. 1 : 14.) And as all met* are commanded to repent and believe the gospel, so are
According to Knobel, their stature i3 here mentioned in order to show they were able-bodied, and would be profitable servants to the Jews. Whether these chains are to be considered as imposed by the conquer- ors, the words leave undecided. Whatever be the spiritual meaning of the passage, it is based upon the chains and slavery of a captive condi- tion. See Alexander on Isaiah, vol. 2, pp. 118, 117.
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we commanded to preach it to all men, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear.
From what we have said, it will be at once perceived that the gospel must stand or fall with the doctrine of the unity of the human races. For if, as it is alleged, the Caucasian race alone have any interest in the revelations, the promises, and the threatenings of the Bible, then it follows that the gospel ought not to be preached to any other than true and genuine Caucasian men. But where and how are these to be found ? Amid the incalculable inter- mixture of races which has taken place among men since the beginning of time, where is the man who can prove he is a pure Caucasian ? There is not one.* And, there- fore, there is not one who can dare either to preach or to hear the gospel. The gospel becomes an empty sound, and all religion is at an end.f
* " The primitive races no longer exist. All, or nearly all the in- habitants of the earth, are of mixed blood." — Ethnol. Journal, p. 129.
t It is not known nor agreed upon what was the original race, com- plexion, or form of either Adam or Noah. Mr. Pickering, the last writer on the subject, (on the Races of Men,) gives reasons for supposing the African to be the centre and origin of the human family. See p. 305, etc. So also does Hamilton Smith. The Ethnological Journal admits that there is not now a pure race of men to be found. Dr. Bachman offers very probable reasons for the opinion that the race of men were in- termediate in color and form between the black and the white, and that white are as much altered now as the black. See on the Unity of the Human Race, part 2, chap. 1, pp. 152 — 164.
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■
CHAPTER III.
THE FORMER CIVILIZATION OF BLACK RACES OF MEN.
Homo unus creatus, est — ob pacem hominu?n, ne quis se prcestantiore patre genitum gloriaretur ; ad hcec ne quis Epicureus ansam mul- torum Deorum, asserendorum haberet ; denique ad indicandum Dei eminentiam. Nam homo quidem uno ab annulo, licet multa, non- nisi consimilia signa exprimit, at Me rex regum Sanctus B. omnium hominum formas, a primi typo expressit, ita tamen ut nemo unus alteri consimilis reperiatur. — Sanhedrin 4. 5.
We have now exhibited the teaching of Scripture upon the subject of the original unity of all the races of men, as descended in the beginning from one pair, and after the deluge from the three families of Noah's sons.
That this is the unquestionable teaching of Scripture, will not, we think, be doubted by any reader of our previous chapters. " In its literal and obvious meaning," says Dr. Morton, " Scripture teaches us that all men originated from a single human pair."* The importance attached to this
* Crania Americana, p. 2. See also Prichard, p. 5. Guyot's Earth and Man ; and Dr. Caldwell's Inquiry.
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inquiry cannot, therefore, be over-estimated, and this is one reason assigned by Dr. Morton, and by Tiedeman, for pur- suing the investigation.*
It has, indeed, been said that we might imagine God to have created any number of original and distinct families at different centres of population, from whom as many races of men have proceeded, and yet believe that all were made by God equally related to Adam, — equally involved in guilt and corruption — equally exposed to danger — and equally interested in the provisions of the gospel. f
This supposition is, however, in every point of view objectionable. As an hypothesis it creates insuperable diffi- culties, and removes none. It involves that "throne," of which "justice and judgment are the habitation," in clouds and darkness, while it offers no solution of the prob- lem to be solved. But it is not only an impeachment of the justice and the wisdom of God, it is in open contrariety to His word. By that word all men are declared to be sin- ners. (Rom. ch. 1 — 3.) By that word misery and death are made, in the case of men, the penalty of sin. (Rom. 6 : 23 ; and v. 12. )% By that word it is declared that " in Adam all die," (1 Cor. 15: 22,) and that " by this one man's dis- obedience many were made sinners. (Rom. 5 : 19.) All
* Do. p. 4, Pref. See also Loncl. Quart. Rev. Jan. 1850.
t This is the theory of Dr. Nott ; of Drake in the Book of the Indians, B. i. ch. 2, p. 10 ; of Voltaire, Wks., vol. 4, p. 18 ; Essay on Maimers, etc. ; and Lawrence's Lect., p. 442, 8vo ed.
t See Dr. Pye Smith on Scripture and Geology, Note A, pp. 361 — 375, 3d Eng. ed.
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those who are sinners, and who3 as a consequence, die, were therefore, as we are here taught, in Adam virtually as their natural root, and representatively as their covenant head. And hence Christ, in order to redeem men, was under the necessity of assuming the same Adamic human nature ; — while to do this without the sin in which that nature was involved, He was born of a virgin, but was at the same time conceived " by the power of the Holy Ghost." (Heb, 2: 11, 14; Luke 1 : 23 ; Mark 1: 18.) The Saviour is therefore called av^pwiros Xpio-ros, — the man Christ Jesus — " the seed of the woman." (Gen. 3 : 15 ; Gal. 3 : 19, &c.) He " became man." He is " Immanuel, God with us." He is "the second Adam." "Both He that sancti- fieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." " For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same." (Heb. 2 : 11 and 14.) The unity of the human race is absolutely ne- cessary, therefore, to account for the present condition of human nature in consistency with the wisdom and justice of God, and also to render salvation possible to any human being.
This doctrine of the Bible, let it also be understood, is independent of all the speculations of naturalists about what constitutes a species, so that whatever confusion may be thrown around this latter question, will not affect the scrip- tural hearings of this doctrine. It has been said that none but the maker of an animal could assign absolute and infal-
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lible criteria of its specific character. This is pre-eminently the case with man, to whom, as their lord, all other animals were given in subjection, and to whom, as his geographical centre, the whole world, both land and sea, was appropri- ated as his "field." While, therefore, as we have seen, other animals are only said to be created by the word of God, man's creation is determined in the council of the Elo- him Jehovah, and his specific character is given in that image of God in which, as it is solemnly and repeatedly de- clared, he was made. (Gen. 1 : 26 ; v. 1 ; 9 : 6. 1 Cor. 11 : 7.) The name given to man — Adam — is, therefore, the characteristic of his nature, being derived from dam, like- ness, because man was made in the likeness of God. The natural and moral endowments by which man is certainly distinguished in his physical, mental, moral, and spiritual qualities, from "the beasts of the field" — these, therefore, are the characteristics by which any animal may be speci- fically distinguished as a man. (See again Gen. 9:6; and 1 Cor. 11 : 7.) And hence it is as unphilosophical, as it is degrading to our nature, to limit the criteria of man's species, to his material constitution in forgetfulness of his spiritual. In both he is found to be essentially elevated in organization, and in endowments above all other animals. In man, says Dr. Roget, in whom all the faculties of sense and intellect are so harmoniously combined, the brain is not only the largest in its size, but beyond all comparison the most com- plicated in its structure. All the parts met with in the brains of animals exist also in the brain of man, while several of
50
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those found in man, are either extremely small or altogether absent in the brains of the lower animals. Soemmerring has enumerated no less than fifteen material anatomical differ- ences between the human brain and that of the ape.
Between man and the most sagacious of the brutes there intervenes an immense chasm, of which we can hardly esti- mate the magnitude. For if nature has created him appa- rently helpless, and denied him those instincts with which she has so liberally furnished the rest of her offspring, it was only to confer upon him gifts of infinitely higher value. While in acuteness of sense he is surpassed by inferior ani- mals, in the powers of intellect he stands unrivalled. In the fidelity and tenacity with which impressions are retained in his memory, in the facility and strength with which they are associated, in grasp of comprehension, in extent of reasoning, in capacity of progressive improvement, he leaves all other animals in an immeasurable distance behind. He alone en- joys in perfection the gift of utterance ; he alone is able to clothe his thoughts in words ; in him alone do we find im- planted the desire of examining every department of nature, and the power of extending his views beyond the confines of this globe.*
On man alone have the high privileges been bestowed of recognizing and of adoring the Power, the Wisdom, and the Goodness of the Author of the universe, from whom his be- ing has emanated, to whom he owes all the blessings which
* Animal and Vegetable Physiology, vol. 2, p. 575, by Peter Roget,
M. D., etc. etc.
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51
attend it, and by whom he has been taught to look forward to brighter skies and to a purer and more exalted condition of existence. Heir to this high destination, man discards all alliance with the beasts that perish ; confiding in the assur- ance that the dissolution of his earthly frame destroys not the germ of immortality which has been implanted within him, and by the development of which the great scheme of Providence here commenced, will be carried on in a future state of being, to its final and perfect consummation.
" Man," says Agassiz, " in virtue of his twofold constitu- tion— the spiritual and the material — is qualified to compre- hend nature. Having been made in the spiritual image of God, he is competent to rise to the conception of His plan and purpose in the works of creation."* Again he says :f " Besides the distinctions to be derived from the varied struc- ture of organs, there are others less subject to rigid ana- lysis, but no less decisive, to be drawn from the immaterial principle with which every animal is endowed. It is this which determines the constancy of species from generation to generation, and which is the source of all the varied exhibi- tions of instinct and intelligence which we see displayed, from the simple impulse to receive the food which is brought within their reach, as observed in the polypus, through the higher manifestations in the cunning fox, the sagacious ele- phant, the faithful dog, and the exalted intellect of man, which is incapable of indefinite expansion. Such are some
* See Agassiz's Principles of Zoology, p. 1, § 3-5. t Ibid, pp. 9, 10.
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of the general aspects in which we are to contemplate the animal creation. Two points of view should never be lost sight of, as disconnected, namely, the animal in respect to its own organization, and the animal in its relation to crea- tion as a whole. By adopting too exclusively either of these points of view, we are in danger of falling either into gross materialism, or into vague and profitless pantheism. He who beholds in Nature nothing besides organs and their func- tions, may persuade himself that the animal is merely a combination of chemical and mechanical actions and reac- tions, and thus becomes a materialist. On the contrary, he who considers only the manifestations of intelligence and of creation, without taking into account the means by which they are executed, and the physical laws, by virtue of which all beings preserve their characteristics, will be very likely to confound the Creator with the creature. It is only as it contemplates, at the same time, matter and mind, that Na- tural History rises to its true character and dignity, and leads to its worthiest end, by indicating to us, in Creation, the execution of a plan fully matured in the beginning, and invariably pursued ; the work of a God infinitely wise, regu- lating Nature according to inscrutable laws, which He has himself imposed on her."
Such then is the august and mysterious being of whose unity — amid all the diversity of his outward and inward character — the Bible is decisive. And as the Scriptures inform us of the dispersion of the multiplied races of men — their several allotments and condition — and the confusion —
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not destruction — of their original language — it will be im- portant to inquire whether there are any reasons to believe that the black races of men were at one time civilized — this having been the character, as we believe, of the most primi- tive condition of mankind.* To this inquiry — with reference to the descendants of Ham — we will now therefore proceed.
Abelfuera records a tradition of the Armenians, that Noah, in his distribution of the earth, gave the region of the blacks to Ham.
* On the primitive condition of man as more civilized than its subse- quent, see Smith's Patriarchal Age, Prel. Dissert, pp. 43 — 85, and the authorities there quoted. Hamilton Smith admits that the style of build- ing, drawing, and sculpture, is most perfect in the oldest monuments, and less so in those that are later. On the Human Species, p. 130. This is true also of Religion. Mr. Pickering on the Races of Men, ch. 25, p. 349, etc., shows that the early architecture, caves, and painting of India, with nothing borrowed from Greece or Egypt, exhibit a surprisingly high state of civilization, surpassing the conceptions of the present day. So in Egypt, p. 370, the earliest monuments indicate high civilization, mani- festing that idolatry and polytheism were not found till the Pharaonic age, p. 272. See also Harris's Man Primeval. Gh. iii. § 9. 166, etc. ; and Whately's Political Economy, Lect. v. and vi., p. 102. 3d ed. Smith's Essay on the Variety of Complexion in Man. Smith's Patri- archal Age, ch. 1, Introd. Triplicity, vol. 2, p. 301, etc. Records of Creation, by Sumner, pp. 351, 361, vol. 1. Johnes' Philological Proofs of the Unity of the Race, p. xxvii. Pye Smith's Geology, p. 351. " Who," asks the German Philosopher Fichte, " educated the first human pair 1 A spirit took them under his care ; as is laid down in an ancient venerable original document, which contains the deepest and the sub- limest wisdom, and presents results to which all philosophy must at last return."
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This family of Ham, in which Satan first raised the stand- ard of rebellion, was distinguished, also, by its sagacity and advancement in all worldly knowledge and science. The Africans, therefore, as a branch of this family, could not at once fall into their subsequently degraded condition. Like the other branches of the Amonian, or Ham race, they were once, we believe, famous for comparative wisdom, power, and science. In support of this opinion we offer the follow- ing observations.*
In many parts of the East, particularly in Japan, there are stupendous and magnificent temples of very remote an- tiquity, in which the idols are represented as negroes with woolly hair, though the present inhabitants of those regions are straight-haired. And what is very remarkable, among the Japanese, whose records are of the highest antiquity, black is a color of good omen. Among the Siamese, also, their chief deities, called Budha and Amida, are figured nearly like negroes. f
Among the Egyptians, Osiris, one of their principal dei- ties, is frequently represented black. £ Bubastis, also, the Diana of Greece, and a member of the great Egyptian
* See Triplicity, p. 301. Bryant's Ancient Mythology, vol. 5, p. 260—262.
t See Ambassades Memorables de la Companie des Indes Orien- tales des Provinces Unies vers les Empereurs du Japan. Amst. 1680, and Keempfer.
t Wilkinson's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 340 ; and Maurice's Indian Antiqui- ties, vol. iii. p. 223, p. 276, and p. 280.
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Triad, is now to be seen in the British Museum, sculptured in black basalt sitting figures.* Among the Hindoos, Kali, the consort of Siva, one of their great Triad, — Crishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, — and Vishnu also himself, the second of the Trimerti or Hindu Triad, are represented of a black color.f
According to Norden, Volney, Denon, and others, the great Sphinx at Gizeh, and many other ancient works of Egyptian art had prominent jaws, thick lips, a broad flattened nose, and projecting eyes, to account for which, Dr. Morton supposes " the Sphinx may have been the shrine of the negro population of Egypt,:]: who as a people, were unquestionably under our average size.§
The Buddhists of Asia, comprising three hundred millions of mankind, represent their principal deity Buddha, with negro features and hair. Captain Colin Mackenzie has de- scribed a statue of Buddha in an ancient temple at Villigam, on the coast of Ceylon, of which he says, that " the counte- nance is full and mild, and the top of the head painted to represent the hair in several small curls of a black color." In another paper by Lieutenant Mahoney, on the remains of sculpture in Ceylon, an image of Buddha, at Calanee, near
* Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, 4to, p. 91. Do. Sir Wm. Jones, vol. iii. p. 377. Coleman, p. 11.
t Asiatic Researches, vol. 6, pp. 536 — 448.
t Crania Americana, p. 29. See Dr. Lawrence's Lectures on Man, p. 232.
$ Ethnol. J., ix. 391.
jj :3flfc
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Columbo, is compared with one at Boodh Gya, in the pro- vince of Bahar, in Hindostan. It is observed " that both these statues agree in having crisped hair and long pendent ear-rings. "*
" In the plains of India,5' says Hamilton Smith, " are Xagpoor, and a ruined city without name at the gates of Benares, (perhaps the real Kasi of tradition,) once adorned with statues of a woolly haired race.f
It has been observed by several writers who have de- scribed the celebrated cavern in the Isle of Elephanta, (whose sculptures display the oldest form of the Indian religion, that of the Smartal Brahmins, since the attributes of the three persons of the Triad are there exhibited as united in one figure,) that the Hindoo gods there figured have African fea- tures. Dr. T. B. Hamilton, well known as a physician of great learning and judgment, whose works have contributed much to extend our knowledge of the races of people in India and the adjoining countries, says, that when he visited the cave of Elephanta, although then unacquainted with the con- troversies concerning the origin of the sculptures which it contains, he was struck with the African appearance of their images, particularly of their hair and features.:}:
Now it is evident that these edifices, idols and statues,
* Heber's Narrative, vol. 1, p. 254, Am. ed. Prichard's Researches, vol. 3, p. 229.
t Natural History of the Human Species, p. 209, 214, and 217. t Prichard's Researches, vol. 3, p. 229. Hunter in Archaeologia, vol. 7.
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were the works of a race analogous to the negro : for it would be absurd to suppose that a people of a fairer com- plexion would have so greatly honored a caste to which they did not belong. They were undoubtedly the Indo-Cuthites, the descendants of Ham, the aboriginal type of the black races of men, and the Ethiopians whose migrations extended from the rising to the setting sun. Sir William Jones, there- fore, observes, " that the remains of architecture and sculp- ture in India seems to prove an early connection between that country and Africa.* He adds, "the Pyramids of Egypt, the colossal statues described by Pausanias and others, the Sphinx, and the Hermes Canis, which last bears a strong resemblance to the Varaha Avatar, indicate the style of the same indefatigable workmen who formed the vast excavations of Canarah, the various temples and im- ages of Buddha, and the idols which are continually dug up at Gaya or in its vicinity. These and other indubitable facts may induce no ill-grounded opinion, that Ethiopia and Hindostan were peopled or colonized by the same extraordi- nary race ; in confirmation of which it may be added, that the mountaineers of Bengal and Benhar can hardly be dis- tinguished in some of their features, particularly in their lips and noses, from the modern Abyssinians."f
Hamilton Smith fully adopts the opinion that the negro or woolly-haired type of man was the most ancient, and the
* Works, vol. 3, Disc. 3d, on the Hindoos.
t The third discourse, of the Hindoos, in Wks. vol. 3, and Asiatic Researches, vol. 1, p. 427.
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original character of the inhabitants of Asia as far north as the lower ranges of the Himmalaya mountains, and presents at length many curious facts which cannot, he believes, be otherwise explained."
"In this view, the first migrations of the negro stock, coasting westward by catamarans, or in wretched canoes, and skirting Southwestern Asia, may synchronize with the earliest appearance of the negro tribes of Eastern Africa, and just precede the more mixed races, which, like the Ethi- opians of Asia, passed the Red Sea at the Straits of Bab-el- Mandel, ascended the Nile, or crossed that river to the west."*
" Taking the whole Southern portion of Asia westward to Arabia, this conjecture, — which likewise was a conclusion drawn, after patient research, by the late Sir T. Stamford Raffles, — accounts, more satisfactorily than any other, for the Oriental habits, ideas, traditions, and words, which can be traced among several of the present African tribes and in the South Sea Islands. Traces of this black race are still found along the Himmalaya range from the Indus to Indo-China, and the Malay peninsula, and in a mixed form all through
* " It shows," says he, " a more ancient date of existence than any others." (See Nat. Hist, of the Hum. Species, p. 126.) This he bases upon physiological and other arguments, see pp. 131, 188, and 200. Dr. Morton attributes the same opinion to some philosophers in his Crania Americana, p. 90, as it is known to have existed for 3445 years, or 730 years after Noah, while the earliest notice of the white race is b. c. 2200 during the 12th Egyptian dynasty. See Pickering's Races of Man, p. 370.
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the Southern states to Ceylon.5'* The Malays also, Hamil- ton Smith considers as an adulteration of the woolly-haired negro stock in connection with the Cacausian stock. f
* Prichard's Natural History of the Human Species, pp. 209 — 215. See also from p. 189—209. t Ibid, p. 217.
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CHAPTER IV.
THE FORMER CIVILIZATION OF THE BLACK RACES OF MEN.
u The negro, like the white man, is still God's image, although carved in ebony." — Dr. Goode.
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto. — Terence.
" According to various authors/' say the writers of the Uni- versal History, " the proper ancient Ethiopians were, for the most part, perfectly black, as we find their posterity at this day, though some particular cantons were white, called by Pliny, white Ethiopians. It is probable they were pleased with their national color, and preferred it to those of other nations. Some writers affirm, that the children of the pre- sent Abyssinians are terrified at the sight of an European, as much as ours at the sight of a negro ; and that they paint the devil white, in order to ridicule all complexions of, or bor- dering upon, that color."
Dr. Morton, speaking of the mutual repugnance of dif- ferent races, adds : " Not only is this repugnance proverbial among all nations of the European stock among whom ne- groes have been introduced, but it appears to be equally natural to the Africans in their own country, towards such
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Europeans as have been thrown among them ; for with the former, a white skin is not more admired than a black one is with us."
This variety of taste in regard to man, to woman, and to every thing else, is sufficient to dispel the illusive prejudice, founded merely upon national features, habits and prefer- ences, and we may therefore, as philosophical inquirers seeking after truth, admit the full force of any facts which may encourage the belief, that there was a time when the black race of man were the pioneers, or at least, the equals of any other races, in all the arts and acquirements of man's primitive civilization.
This fact indeed is not essential either to our doctrine, or to the statements of Scripture. We do not rest our con- clusions upon it. Neither is it necessary to any portion of our argument. But if it can be made probable, it will cer- tainly render the adoption of the scriptural history of man's primitive unity and identity of ancestral origin, more easy to be received ; and it will enable us also the more cheer- fully to admit that the present degradation of certain races of men was not their earliest primitive condition.
We have therefore presented numerous facts which it will be very hard to explain on any other theory than the original civilization of the black or Ethiopian races of man- kind. The attention of the reader will now be invited to some further developments of primeval antiquity bearing on this point.
According to writers of great learning and research, the aborigines of Hindustan were a race of negroes, or were 4
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in hair and features certainly analogous to them.* Such a race is found in Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and in the in- terior of the Malayan peninsula, and " it is therefore," says Prichard, " an established fact that a black and woolly- haired race is among the original inhabitants of Asia, and of countries not far from India. "f
A remote idolatry, says Hamilton Smith, of Papuan ori- gin, can still be traced in parts of India, and sovereign fami- lies even claim descent from monkey gods, that is from primeval Bheels ; but the worship has changed to Brahman- ism, and the ruling dynasties are now of high cast Cauca- sian.^:
" Hamilton Smith — in allowing as we have seen he does, only three primitive types of humanity — in order to produce the intermediate varieties, is of course obliged to admit the great modifying power of circumstances over organiza- tions.'^
Father Lewis de Froes, therefore, || speaking of the Idols in the temple of Amida, at Maeco, very properly character- izes them as Ethiopians : " Et circa statuam Amidae sal- tantes jEthiopas for the Ethiopians — who were so call-
* Prichard, vol. 2, p. 228, and Guyot, etc., as above.
t Prichard, do., and Ritter and Trail there quoted, p. 231, 232. He reduces the population of India, like Smith, to three different races, the whiter from the West ; vol. 4, p. 244.
t " A branch," he says, " of the negro stock, in color sooty black." (P. 200.)
§ Ethnological Journal, No 3, p. 148. 11 Ambasg. Mem., p. 439
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ed, not so much from their complexion as from the title of their Ophite deity — embraced, as we have seen, a very- large portion of mankind, of various shades of color, from the tawny to the black, from the straight-haired to the woolly. We have thus found Herodotus* speaking of the straight-haired Ethiopians ; while, at the same time he in- stances the negro caste of the same race in the inhabitants of the Colchic region, at the foot of Mount Caucasus upon the Pontus Euxinus ; of whom he says, " They are black- skinned and woolly-haired. Now these people were fa- mous in very remote times for their high civilization, and the perfection of their manufactures, particularly of linen, on which account the same historian pays them in conjunc- tion with the Egyptians, the extravagant compliment of call- ing them the only possessors of that art.
Dr. Wiseman has also shown that both Aristotle and Herodotus describe the Egyptians — to whom Homer, Lyeur- gus, Solon, Pythagoras, and Plato resorted for wisdom — as having the black skin, the crooked legs, the distorted feet and the woolly hair of the negro, from which I do not wish, or feel it necessary to infer that the Egyptians were negroes, but first, that the ideas of degradation and not-human, asso- ciated with the dark-colored African races of people now, were not attached to them at an early period of their history ; and secondly, that while depicted as negroes, the Egyptians were regarded by these profound ancients — the one a natur- alist and the other a historian — as one of the branches of
• I, 7, c. 70.
t 2 chap, 104, 105.
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the human family, and as identified with a nation of whose descent from Ham there is no question.*
The truth, however, seems to be that the most ancient Egyptians really did have more or less of the peculiar char- acteristics of the negro race. Pharaoh's daughter, the bride of King Solomon, speaks very emphatically of her own blackness of complexion.")* There is evidence also that Theothmosis IV. of the 8th dynasty, selected a negress for his queen. In their paintings they represented the whites waiting as slaves, while the negroes on the contrary, are depicted chiefly as connected with the military campaigns of this dynasty4 Dr. Prichard has brought together with great learning and industry, all the ancient testimonies that can illustrate this question, and has examined and collated
* See Dr. "Wiseman's Lectures on the connection between Science and Revealed Religion, Am. ed., p. 95, 98. Volney assumes this as an undoubted fact. Travels in Syria, ch. 2. See in Lawrence, p. 239. Bruce was of the same opinion. See Lawrence, p. 235. See Lucian, iEschylus and Ammianus Marcellinus, quoted by Prichard in Nat. Hist, of Man, pp. 152, 153 ; and by Lawrence, pp. 232, 237, where he quotes also Blumenbach.
t Black, literally "the dusk" of the morning, — "as the tents of Kedar," which were made of black goat's hair, or dyed black. This she attributes to the effects of the sun. She repeats the declaration in very strong language, saying, " I am very black," " prorsus vel valde et tota nigra." Markius Michaelis, Gill and Heb. in Ps. 45 : 5. Prov. 8 : 31. See Williams on the Song of Songs, pp. 164, 167; " It has been found dif- ficult," he says, " to explain literally, and no less so to apply figuratively ."
t Pickering on the Races of Man, p. 195. He says there is no ear- lier representation of negroes, nor any evidence to show that negro slavery is not of modern origin. Do., p. 186.
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them so carefully, that nothing further can be expected from this quarter. The results are thus summed up : " We may consider the general results of the facts, which we can col- lect concerning the physical characters of the ancient Egyp- tians to be this : that the national configuration prevailing in the most ancient times, was nearly the negro form with woolly hair. But that in a later age this character had be- come considerably modified and changed, and that a part of the population of Egypt resembled the modern Hindoos. The general complexion was black, or at least a very dusky hue." In this work the most extensive and learned re- searches are employed to prove further the affinity between the ancient Egyptians and the Indians ; and to show that both were marked by the characteristics of the negro race.* There are also many marks of relationship between the Egyptians and the natives of central Africa.f In their com- plexion, says Prichard, and in their physical peculiarities, the Egyptians were an African race. In the eastern, and even in the central parts of Africa, we trace the existence of various tribes in physical characters nearly resembling the Egyptians ; and it would not be difficult to observe a gradual deviation among many nations of that continent, from the physical type of the Egyptian to the strongly marked character of the negro, and that without any very decided break or interruption. The Egyptian language,
* See his Researches, pp. 158, 159 ; his Natural History of Man, and his Work on Egyptian Mythology, which is devoted to this inquiry.
t Prichard's Natural History of Man, p. 138. See Denon, p. 152, who says they display " the general African character."
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also, in the great leading principles of its grammatical con- struction, bears much greater analogy to the idioms of Af- rica than those prevalent among the people of other regions." Again he says, " There were in other respects, in the phy- sical type of that race, many tokens of relationship to the people of Africa. The puffed and full countenance, the full cheeks, thick, turned out lips, the peculiar shape of the mouth and eyes, the coppery and dusky complexion, ap- proaching in individuals to black, in others to red, like the color of the Fulahs, and only a few shades lighter than that of the Berberins, are instances of this resemblance.
" The weight and density of some Ethiopian skulls and the projection of the alveolar process, and the peculiar shape of the legs and flattened feet, must also be taken, onlo ac- count. In estimating the whole amount of evidence indica- tive of African relations, we must further take into view many circumstances connected with the moral 'habits, the singular superstitions, and the general laws governing the structure of language, common to the Ethiopians, and many other nations of the same continent."*
Dr. Morton has found, among one hundred skulls, sent to him by Mr. Gliddon from the tombs of Abydos, Thebes, Memphis, etc., forty-nine of what he terms the Egyptian race, that is, having a narrow and receding forehead, promi- nent face and smaller facial angle ; twenty-nine Pelasgic ; six Semitic ; eight Negroid, or in which the negro conforma-
* He says the Ethiopians were black, (Researches, vol. 2, p. 24,) and that they were kindred tribes of the same original stock as the Egyp- tians; p. 245.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
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tion predominates; one negro, and two denominated idiot. Now these tombs, be it remembered, were the receptacles only of wealthy individuals, the aristocracy of Egypt ; and exhibit, therefore, the very best development of the Egyp- tian form and features. It is also to be borne in mind that Lepsius admits that the veritable remains of primeval Egyptians are now but very partially found to exist, having been displaced by the Hykshos, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Saracens, and that no primitive Egyp- tian crania remain older than Psammeticus (b. c. 550). The mummies therefore that are now found may have been partly of Greek and other comparatively modern inhabitants of Egypt.* And yet notwithstanding all these admissions, about sixty out of one hundred were more or less of negro conformation ; while out of seventeen others subsequently procured by him, Dr. Morton finds eleven of the Egyptian form, two with traces of negro lineage, one of negroid form, two Pelasgic, and one Semitic ; that is, of these seventeen which he regards as very probably old and genuine, four- teen are more or less conformed to the lower races of man.f But further, we have, it is believed, in the Copts, the re- maining posterity of the once celebrated and civilized Egyp- tians. Now the Copts are dark in color, with flat heads,
* Few of the mummies, says Dr. Pickering, yet discovered, are older than the Greek- Egyptian period, commencing b. c. 650.
t Observations on a second series of ancient Egyptian crania, by Samuel Morton, M. D., pp. 7, 8, 9. In his Crania Americana he labors hard to disprove this resemblance to the negro, or negroid type, but his facts are against, and not in favor of, his views. See pp. 29, 31.
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soft woolly hair, short nose, wide mouth, bent eyes, bandy legs, and large flat toes. Such then is the Egyptian as seen on their monuments, and in their mummies, and in their de- scendants. " I never/' says Madden, " found one with a broad expansive forehead/'* And to reconcile all these dif- ficulties, the only possible theory is that adopted by Dr. Morton,f Hamilton Smith, and others, that among the inha- bitants of Egypt there was an early mixture of races ; the Caucasian, however, as Dr. Morton says, being at first rare, and the other forms greatly predominating, and being possi- bly characteristic of the ancient Egyptians as a race.
Hamilton Smith regards the Egyptians as composed originally of three nations, amalgamated together. The Ethiopic, deb or black with curly hair, long legs, thick lips, and very swarthy color ; the second a brown race, the Mis- raim ; and the third a fairer tribe of Caucasians, the last comers and a privileged body of conquerors, but not the au- thors of the civilization or the religion of the land 4
The Copts are represented by Dr. Morton as a mixture of Caucasian and negro. §
On the origin of the term Copt, a learned paper will be found in the Ethnological Journal. |[ The writer thinks it is a contraction of the word Aiguptoi, the ancient Greek name for the Egyptians. From it came Gupt, and hence Copt,
* Travels in Egypt, vol. 2, p. 93.
t Crania Americana, p. 28.
t Nat. Hist. Human Species, pp. 356, 357.
§ See Ethnol. Journal, No. 4, p. 172.
|| No. ix. p. 488,489.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 69
This Greek name he thinks was itself derived from the an- cient name of the country.*
Egyptian antiquity, adds Smith, not claiming priority of social existence for itself, often pointed to the regions of Ha- besh, or high African Ethiopia, and sometimes to the North, for the seat of the gods and demigods, because both were the intermediate stations of the progenitor tribes. f
There is, therefore, every reason to believe that the primitive Egyptians were conformed much more to the Af- rican than to the European form and physiognomy, and therefore that there was a time when learning, commerce, arts, manufactures, etc., were all associated with a form and character of the human race now regarded as the evi- dence only of degradation and barbarous ignorance.
But why question this fact when we can refer to the an- cient and once glorious kingdoms of Meroe, Nubia, and Ethi- opia, and to the prowess and skill of other ancient and interior African nations ? And among the existing nations of inte- rior Africa, there is seen a manifold diversity as regards the blackest races. The characteristics of the most truly negro race are not found in all, nor to the same degree in many.
" The exterior of the negro race,'5 as Blumenbach re- marks, " gradually approaches to that of other races, and acquires by degrees their fine features.":}: An actual trans- formation of races is seen in many of the African nations,
* See Ethnol. Jour., No. ix. p. 495. t Nat. Hist. Human Species, p. 373.
t See quoted in Transactions of the Royal Phil. Soc, Land, for 1836, pp. 512, 515.
4»
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THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
as in the Berbers, the Abyssinians, the Gallas, the Samauleg7 the Soudan, the Caffre, and several other kingdoms.* The Nubians to the West of the Nile are a gentle kind of ne- groes, having flat noses and woolly hair.f The Abyssinians discover some traits of the negro mixed with the Arab blood, and are therefore called habash or mixed people, by the Mahomedans4 The CafFres are a negro and Arab race. The Hottentots, though hemmed in from all conceivable mixture, are nevertheless a mongrel race.§ The Gallas have more negro and less Arab blood than the Abys- sinians. The Samaules, whose territories were known to the ancients, are also a mixed race. The Soudan popula- tion has been converted from a negro into a mixed race.[| And indeed a great portion of the African tribes are of this mingled character, and some of them have adopted the Mo- hammedan faith. Such also is the population of the South Sea Islands, in which, and sometimes in the same Island, there exists an evident diversity of shades, the black or negro, and the white races.
Clapperton and other travellers among the negro tribes of interior Africa, attest the superiority of the pure negroes above the mixed races around them, in all moral character- istics, and describe also large and populous kingdoms with numerous towns, well cultivated fields, and various manu-
* Guyot, Earth and Man, p. 237. British Encyclop., vol. 2, Art. Africa.
t British Encyclop., vol. 2, p. 225.
X British Enclyclop., p. 231.
§ British Enclyclop., p. 226.
H British Encyclop., vol. 2, pp. 232, 233, 237.
the unity of the human races.
71
factures, such as weaving, dyeing, tanning, working in iron and other metals, and in pottery.*
All the negro races also believe in the first principles of natural religion ; in one universally powerful Being ; in prayers and worship ; in rites and sacrifices ; in priests and ministers ; in the immortality of the soul ; in a future state of rewards and punishments ; in the division of time into weeks ; and they have given as ready a reception as any other people to religions, both true and false, to idolatry, Mohammedanism and Christianity.*)*
And as it regards languages, an analysis of the Mpong- wee, which prevails over a large extent of Western Africa, has shown it to possess a marvellous development and per- fection of structure.*}:
It is thus demonstrable that there is nothing in the facts of the case to invalidate the record of Scripture in tracing to Noah and his descendants, all the present varieties of the human family : on the contrary, while we can trace their growing posterity to every continent — even to this§-^we
* See British Encyclop., vol. 2, pp. 237, 238.
t Se Dr. Prichard's Researches, vol. 2, p. 216. They preserve among them a sacred reverence for the serpent. See pp. 207, 205.
t See an article by the Rev. John Leighton Wilson in the Bibliotheca Sacra, and in the Journal of the American Ethnological Society, and also Bartlett's Progress of Ethnology, pp. 34, 35. See also the Disserta- tions on the Kowledge of America by the Ancients in the Ethnological Journal, No. 3. 4, etc., and Pickering on the Races, p. 176.
§ See Delafield's Antiquities of America, 4th, N. Y., 1839. Hamil- ton Smith's Nat. Hist, of the Human Species, p. 237, etc. Boudinot's Star in the West. Franklin Smith on the Origin of the American In-
r72
THE UNITY OP THE HUMAN RACES,
have evidence to show that their diversity of conditions, des* tiny, and character, is the result of the laws of nature acting in accordance with, and under the directions of, the will of the God of nature ; and we can also demonstrate that stu- pendous monuments,*— as in the caves of Ellora and Ele* phantina, in the pyramids and temples of Ethiopia, and in the primitive works of Egypt, — prove the existence of civili- zation and art among nations who were nevertheless more or less black and negroid in their character.
dians. Pickering on the Races, and Prichard's Researches, vol. 5, pp. 289—546. Drake's Book of the Indians, ch. 1 and 2 ; Boston, 1841. Humboldt in Delafield,p. 8, and in Prichard's Researches, vol. 5, pp. 300 and 305, where may be seen also the authorities of Gallatin and Von Martius. Bishop England's Wks., vol. iv. pp. 469, 470 ; and Dr. Bach* man on the Unity of the Race, pp. 269 — 277.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
73
CHAPTER V.
THE FORMER CIVILIZATION OF BLACK RACES OF MEN.
Sic genus amborum scindit se sanguine ab uno. — Vm&. iEN*
From the facts we have adduced it seems to follow, that one of the earliest races of men of whose existence, civilization and physiognomy, we have any remaining proofs, were dark or black colored.* " We must,55 says Prichard, " for the present look upon the black races as the aborigines of Kelse- nonesia, or Oceanica,— that is, as the immemorial and primi* tive inhabitants. There is no reason to doubt that they were spread over the Austral islands long before the same or the contiguous regions were approached by the Malayo- Polynesians. We cannot say definitely how far back this will carry us, but as the distant colonizations of the Polyne- sians probably happened before the island of Java received arts and civilization from Hindustan, it must be supposed to have preceded by some ages the Javan era of Batara Gurn, and therefore to have happened before the Christian era."f
* Called by the Chinese, le min, or black-haired people. Hamilton Smith, p. 268.
t Prichard, vol. 5, pp. 281 and 283, and pp. 39—48.
<4
THE UNITY OF THE HU3IAN RACES.
The negro race is known to have existed 3345 years, says Dr. Morton,* 268 years later than the earliest notice of the white race, of which we have distinct mention b. c. 2200. f This makes the existence of a negro race certain about 842 years after the flood, according to the Hebrew chronology ; or 1650 years after the flood, according to the Septuagint chronology, which may very possibly have been the original Hebrew chronology. There is thus ample time given for the multiplication and diffusion of man over the earth, and for the formation — either by natural or supernatural causes, in combination with the anomalous and altogether extraordi- nary condition of the earth — of all the various races of men.
It is also apparent from the architecture, and other his- torical evidences of their character, that dark or black races, with more or less of the negro physiognomy, were in the earliest period of their known history cultivated and intelligent, having kingdoms, arts, and manufactures. And Mr. Pickering assures us that there is no fact to show that negro slavery is not of modern origin. The degradation of this race of men therefore, must be regarded as the result of external causes, and not of natural, inherent and original incapacity.
This conclusion has been denied by Camper, Soemmer- ing, and Cuvier, and by naturalists of less authority, who
* Crania Americana, p. 88.
t Pickering on the Races, p. 370 ; during the 12th Egyptian dy- nasty, that of the Hykshos.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
76
affirm that the black races are inferior to the European in organization, and therefore in intellectual powers.*
But on this position it is observed, first, that the crania examined are usually from the most unfavorable tribes, and from few and unfavorable specimens among those tribes ; the crania of some of the negro tribes, as of the Cafirs, being as large and anteriorly prominent as those of Europeans.")" Secondly, the skulls of the ancient Egyptians, notwithstanding all their evidences of intelligence and civilization, and that too even at a comparatively modern date, when intermixed with Caucasians, are found many of them to have a negroid character. This is also the case, as Dr. Tiedeman has shown, with the skulls of the ancient Germans. Judging, he says, by the capacity of the crania, the brain of some of our uncivilized British ancestors was not more developed than the average sized negro's brain.:): And thirdly, consi- dered even as they are now observed, Sir Charles Owen is of opinion that " there is no modification of form or size in the negro's brain which would support an inference that the Ethiopian race would not profit by the same influences, favoring mental and moral improvement, which have tended to elevate the primitively barbarous white races. § Such
* Tiedeman on the Brain of the Negro, in the Phil. Trans., 1838, p. 497.
t Prichard, vol. 2, pp. 359, 354 ; vol. 2, pp. 348, 228, 230.
X On the Brain. See quoted by Lyell in his Second Visit, etc., vol, 1, p. 105 ; and see alo Prichard's Nat. Hist, of Man, p. 193, etc.
§ Quoted by Lyell in his Second Visit to the United States, vol. 1, p. 105.
16 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES*
also is the opinion of Mr. Lyell,* and of Combe, who thinks many of the African nations " greatly excel several of the tribes of native Americans."")* Hamilton Smith is also of the opinion that the development of brain depends much on education, and has been effected in the African race in this country.:]: " The moment," he says, " either typical stock is in a position to be intellectually excited by education, it is progressive in development in succeeding generations. "§
Contrasting the negro and Caucasian races, Professor Caldwell, M. D., says : " In both individuals, however, we find the brain, which we regard as the seat of the moral principles, precisely alike, except that in the African it is somewhat smaller. Morality is seated neither in the skin, the nose, the lips, nor the bone of the leg. Being an intel- lectual rather than a corporeal quality, it is believed to be the offspring of the brain, which, except in point of size, is precisely the same in the African as the European. "||
Dr. Tiedeman, however, who is profoundly able, and by extensive opportunities better fitted than most others for the investigation, has laboriously analyzed the comparative size of the skull and brain of the negro and European races. IT His conclusions are as follows: — 1. In regard to size, the
* Second Visit to the United States, pp. 101, 208, 282, 283. t Essay in Dr. Morton's Crania Americana, pp. 271, 572. X Nat. Hist, of Human Race, p. 194. § Nat. Hist, of Human Race, p. 132. || Inquiry, &c., in The Port Folio, p. 13.
1T On the Brain of the Negro, &c, in Roy. Phil. Translations for 1838, p. 498.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
77
brain of the negro is as large as that of Europeans and other nations, (p. 574.) 2. In regard to the capacity of the cavum, the skull of the negro, in general, is not smaller than that of the European and other human races, and the opposite opinion is ill-founded, and entirely refuted by my researches. (511.) 3. In the form and structure of the well-possessed spinal cord, the negro accords in every way with that of the European, (512,) and shows no difference except that arising from the different size of body. (513.) 4. The cerebellum of the negro, in regard to its outward form, fissures and lobes, is exactly similar to that of the Eu- ropean. (513.) 5. The cerebrum has for the most part the same form as that of the European. (515.) 6. The brain, in internal structure, is composed of the same substance. (516.) 7. The brain of the negro is not smaller, compared as to size, nor are their nerves thicker. (518.) 8. The analogy of the brain of the negro to that of the ourang outang is not greater than that of other races, except it be in the greater symmetry of the gyri and salci, " which I very much doubt" (518, 519.) 9. As these features of the brain indi- cate the degree of intellect and faculties of the mind, " we must conclude that no innate difference in the intellectual faculties can be admitted to exist between the negro and European races/5 (520 — 524.) 10. The opposite conclu- sion, he adds, is founded on the very facts which have been sufficient to secure the degradation of this race. (521, 524.) 11. The more interior and natural the negroes are found in Africa, they are superior in character, in arts, in habits, and in manners, and possess towns, and literature to some
#
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THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
extent. " Whatever, therefore," as Robinson says, " may be their tints, their souls are still the same." (513, 525.)
This leads to the remark, that there are two facts in the history of human beings, so uniform that they may be re- garded as fixed laws, and with both of which the present con- dition of the black race is in perfect consistency. The first is, that it has been the invariable fact that every race of men, when left to the natural progress of corruption and de- pravity, unaided by the influence of pure religion and all its accompanying stimulating and civilizing benefits, have de- clined and fallen from a state of advancement in knowledge, art and science, to a condition of ignorance, vice and degra- dation, which if not prevented by the means alluded to, ter- minates in absolute barbarism. This law of downward pro- gress when not restrained by the civilizing and impelling force of true religion, is, we believe, universal in the past history of our race, as is illustrated both by sacred and profane writings.* The present condition of degradation to which many races of men have sunk who have lost all relics of a true and pure religion, is therefore in perfect con- sistency with the fact that they were, in the primitive period of their history, civilized and enlightened — as is seen in the present Copts, Abyssinians, Ethiopians and Bushmen. The want of these divine influences led to the corruption and de- cay of Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome and Egypt.
* Nat. Hist., p. 123 ; see also pp. 279, and 170 ; see also similar views in Pickering on Races of Men, pp. 183, 185, 186, 187, 190, 202, 186, 189 ; see also Modern Universal Hist., vol. 18, pp. 94, 100,303, etc.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
79
The soil, the sun, but not the slave the same.
No foreign foe could quell
Their soul, till from themselves they fell, Yes, self-abasement paved the way, To villain bonds and despot sway.*
A remarkable illustration of this fact is found in the na- tives of some parts of Ireland. On the plantation of Ul- ster, and afterwards on the success of the British against the rebels of 1641 and 1689, great multitudes of the native Irish were driven from Armagh and the south of Down into the mountainous tract extending from the barony of Flews eastward to the sea; — on the other side of the kingdom the same race were exposed to the worst effects of hunger and ignorance, the two great brutalizers of the human race. The descendants of these exiles are now distinguished physi- cally by great degradation. They are remarkable for " open projecting mouths, with prominent teeth and exposed gums, and their advancing cheek bones and depressed noses bear barbarism on their very front." In Sligo and northern Mayo, the consequences of the two centuries of degradation and hardship exhibit themselves in the whole physical con- dition of the people, affecting not only the features, but the frame, and giving such an example of human deterioration from known causes as almost compensate, by its value to future ages, for the suffering and debasement which past generations have endured in perfecting its appalling lesson. " Five feet two inches upon an average, pot-bellied, bow-
* See Kennedy's Nature and Rev., ch. v., and Scott's Refutation of Combe, ch. 2, and p. 512.
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legged, abortively featured ; their clothing a wisp of rags ; these spectres of a people who were once well grown, able bodied and comely, stalk abroad into the daylight of civilization, the annual apparitions of Irish ugliness and Irish want." In other parts of the island, where the population has never undergone the influence of the same causes of physical degradation, it is well known that the same race furnishes the most perfect specimens of human beauty and vigor, both mental and bodily.*
The other law of human nature alluded to, is the fact — that there is a point of degradation to which, when any peo- ple have once sunk, they never have, and never can, elevate themselves without external aid. This position will be found illustrated, in an irresistible manner, by Archbishop Whate- ley in his Lectures on Political Economy, to which our readers are referred. f It is also strongly presented in the London Ethnological Journal.^ " Let there be pointed out any one nation or race of men, which has changed its phy- sical peculiarities, or any portion of them, without mixing its blood, and we give up our theory. Or let there be pointed out any one nation or race which once existed in a barbar- ous state, and subsequently raised itself to civilization, with- out mixing its blood or receiving instruction from foreigners, and we give up our theory. The whole of history is before our opponents. We ask only for a single well ascertained
* See an excellent paper on the population of Ireland, in the Dublin University Magazine, No. 48, pp. 658 — 675.
t Lectures iv. and v., and Append. ; see p. Ill, third edition. X P. 31, vol. 1.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
81
fact, and we renounce our opinion. On the other hand, we shall support our own views not by a few facts, but by evi- dence the most extensive, precise, clear, and unmistakable. No one surely can object to these conditions, yet we offer them without the slightest fear, for we have no interest in our opinions, except in so far as they are true ; and that which is really true, is true in all cases. One clear, unex- ceptionable fact wTould, therefore, be as decisive in our judgment as ten thousand. But if one such fact existed, ten thousand analogous ones would be apparent, for the subject is too widely ramified not to present a vast amount of evi- dence bearing on one side or the other.
" Let the reader pass in review before his mind the lead- ing facts in the history of any country where barbarism once reigned and was succeeded by civilization, and then say whether or not this civilization was consequent and depend- ent upon foreign intervention.55 The continuance, there- fore, of several races of men for an indefinite length of time, in a condition of degradation to which they have fallen, and into which they have been left without the only proper means of elevation and the only adequate application of these means, is just what we should expect in regard to any race of men in similar circumstances.*
And since it is impossible for us to conceive that God would leave any race of men to enter upon their career, under circumstances which would necessitate their barba- rian degradation, we are compelled to believe that the first
* See also Humboldt's Personal Travels, 3, p. 208 in Kirby, 44.
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condition of mankind was one of civilization ; that it is to God men are indebted for language, speech, agriculture, government, and arts ; and that their subsequent degrada- tion is the result of forgetfulness of God, His law, and His worship.*
And who will say that the black race in this country, and every where — in proportion to the direct and efficient inculcation of moral and religious truth, and their enjoy- ment of the social and religious blessings of Christian culti- vation— are not manifesting signs of awakening progress ? Every where this race is swelling like the billows of a rising tide. " The force of negro expansion,55 says Hamil- ton, " is felt coming from the centre of Africa. It presses upon the CafFres, the Abyssinians, and the coast of Nigritia. Morocco is already ruled by black sovereigns, and the an- tique semi-Circassian tribes of the north part have greatly diminished, "f
On the whole, therefore, there is no ground either from history or science, to question the truth of the Scripture his- tory of the original unity and equality of all men, or that they are still — however much varied in character and con- dition— one species.
In regard to the blacks, Dr. Lawrence says : " I have shown that the striking peculiarities of the African organiza-
* See in addition to the previous references, Guyot's admirable work, Earth and Man, Lect. x. xi, xii.
t Blumenbach had a library of works written by negroes. See Gre- gory on the literature of the negroes, and Chambers' Tract on the same subject.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
83
tion, and particularly the great difference between its color and our own, have led many persons to adopt the opinions of Voltaire, — who had not sufficient knowledge of physiology and natural history to determine the question, — that the Af- ricans belong to a distinct species. I have shown, in the preceding divisions of this article, that there is no one char- acter so peculiar and common to the Africans, but that it is found frequently in the other varieties, and that negroes often want it ; also, that the characters of this race run by insen- sible gradations into the neighboring races, as will be imme- diately perceived by comparing together different tribes of this race, as the Foulahs, Jaloffs, Mandingoes, Kaffers, and Hottentots, and carefully noting how in these gradual dif- ferences they approach to the Moors, New Hollanders, Ara- bians, Chinese, etc.*
After pointing out the varieties existing among the negro tribes of Africa, Dr. Prichard remarks in a similar manner : " These observations can hardly be reconciled with the hypothesis that the negroes are one distinct species. We might more easily adopt the notion that there are among them a number of separate species, each distinguished by some peculiarity which another wants; but on that supposition the deviation will be so gradual from the physical character of other human races, as to undermine the ground on which the opinions of a specific and strongly marked distinction has been founded. Separate species of organized beings
DO NOT PASS INTO EACH OTHER BY INSENSIBLE DEGREES. The * Lectures on Man, p. 383.
H?
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more accurate are our researches into the ethnography of this region of the world, the less ground do we find for the opinion that the characteristic qualities of human races are permanent and undeviating.55*
" It appears then,55 adds Dr. Prichard,f " that there is no character whatever in the organization of the brain of the negro which affords a presumption of inferior endowment of intellectual or moral faculties. If it be asserted that the African nations are inferior to the rest of mankind on the ground of historical facts, and because they may be thought not to have contributed their share to the advancement of human arts and science, we have, in the first place, the ex- ample of the Egyptians to oppose to such a conclusion, and this will be allowed by all to be quite sufficient, if only we may be permitted to reckon the Egyptians as a native Afri- can tribe. But if we are confined to nations who are strictly negroes, it will be sufficient to point out the Mandingos, as a people who are evidently susceptible of mental culture and civilization. They have not, indeed, contributed towards the advancement of human arts and science, but they have shown themselves willing and able to profit by these advan- tages when introduced among them.55
* Researches, vol. 2, pp. 341, 342, 345. t Researches, vol. 2, pp. 353, 354.
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CHAPTER VI.
ORIGIN OF THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
The character of the true philosopher is to hope all things not impossi- sible, and to believe all things not unreasonable. — Sir J. F. W. Herschell Dis. Nat. Phil. The immense extent of our ignorance compared with that of our know- ledge, has been only the more powerfully forced upon the minds of philosophers as discovery has advanced ; and in emphatic language was the dying remark both of Newton and Laplace. — Powell's Nat. and Rev. Truth.
The doctrinal and historical evidence of Scripture in favor of the unity of the races of men, has now been presented. It will be at once perceived that the bearing of revelation upon this subject is altogether different from that which it sustains towards geological, astronomical, and other scientific ques- tions. In the latter cases the reference made to the facts it contemplates is casual, incidental, and necessarily clothed in such language as would be understood by men. There is every room, therefore, for ambiguity of meaning, and erroneous interpretation, and the change necessary in order to adapt the interpretation of any passage relating to science, to our present knowledge of the laws of nature, comes within
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THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
the legitimate province of criticism. But in the former case the whole history and doctrine of the Bible imply the truth of the original unity, and the equal humanity, of all the races of men, and the truth, inspiration, authority, and value of the Bible, must therefore stand or fall with this doctrine.
Having, therefore, traced the descendants of Noah to Africa and the East, and having proved the original compa- rative civilization of the black races of men, it may be pro- per to inquire whether there is any knowledge of the actual origin of the existing varieties of the human family.
On this subject the Bible does not inform us. It teaches us that " it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," — and this is, we may believe, one of the many " secret things which belong unto the Lord." Nor is its revelation of any consequence or necessity to us, except as a matter of mere curiosity. It has nothing to do with the determination of the question of the original unity of all mankind. Leibnitz, in reply to Bayle, has well remarked, that the utmost which can fairly be asked in reference to any affirmed truths of Scripture is, to prove that they do not involve any necessary contradiction,* and when, therefore, it is plainly revealed that all the present races of men are the descendants of one original family, the fact of great existing varieties offers no objection to the belief of this truth as an established fact. It is not at all necessary to point out the time and place, when the negro and the yellow variety arose in our species. It is enough to know that they have arisen from an original unity — that they imply no diversity of origin, moral character,
* Tract De la Confirmitie de la foi avec la raison.
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and everlasting destiny. The word of God, and the power of God, are infallible assurance of the certainty and of the possibility of these facts. And " the character of a true phi- losopher is to hope all things not impossible, and to believe all things not unreasonable.'7 The progress of our know- ledge marks the progress of our ignorance, and a willingness to admit this necessity, is the highest attainment of the most enlightened philosopher. It is, therefore, when we listen to such philosophers, and turn away from empirical dogmatists, we hear Newton, and Locke, and Bacon, acknowledging the necessity of " giving to faith what belongs to faith, and of not attempting to draw down or submit the mysteries of God to our reason, but contrariwise to raise and advance our rea- son to the divine truth. "*
* The great fault of human philosophy is its haste and anxiety to un- ravel and explain every thing. Sir J. Herschell has lately expressed his opinion, that it is impossible any longer to attempt the explanation of the movements of all the heavenly bodies by simple attraction, as understood in the Newtonian theory — these comets, with their trains perversely turned from the sun deranging sadly our systematic views. Nor are there (writes Humboldt) any constant relations between the distances of the planets from the central body round which they revolve, and their ab- solute magnitudes, densities, times of rotation, eccentricities, and incli- nations of orbit and of axis. After other remarks of the same character, he adds : — " The planetary system, in its relation of absolute magnitude, relative position of the axis, density, time of rotation, and different de- grees of eccentricity of the orbits, has to our apprehension, nothing more of natural necessity than the relative distribution of land and water on the surface of our globe, the configuration of continents, or the elevation of mountain chains. No general law, in these respects, is discoverable either in the regions of space or in the irregularities of the crust of the earth."
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Many eminent naturalists and men of medical science, however, such as Dr. Prichard and Dr. Lawrence, believe
that ALL THE VARIETIES OF MAN CAN BE ACCOUNTED FOR BY
natural causes. In his lectures on man, Dr. Lawrence, after examining all the differences found among men — ana- tomical, complexional, and physiological, — says, The facts and observations adduced lead manifestly to the following conclusions: 1. That the differences of physical organiza- tion and of moral and intellectual qualities, which character- ize the several races of our species, are analogous in kind and degree to those which distinguish the breeds of the do- mestic animals ; and must, therefore, be accounted for on the same principles. 2. That they are first produced, in both instances, as native or congenital varieties ; and then transmitted to the offspring in hereditary succession. 3. That of the circumstances which favor this disposition to the production of varieties in the animal kingdom, the most pow- erful is the state of domestication. 4. That external or ad- ventitious causes, such as climate, situation, food, way of life, have considerable effect in altering the constitution of men and animals ; but that this effect, as well as that of art or accident, is confined to the individual, not being transmit- ted by generation, and, therefore, not affecting the race. 5. That the human species, therefore, like that of the cow, sheep, horse, and pig, and others, is single ; and that all the differences which it exhibits, are to be regarded merely as varieties.*
* Lectures on Man, pp. 375, 376. See an argument for change of features from change of place, p. 2G3, and that the differences in man are less than known differences in other animals, pp. 303 and 310.
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Dr. Prichard, throughout his elaborate and extensive volumes, has presented abundant and incontestable proof to show that variations in the color, form, and other character- istics of man, have actually taken place, and that they must be accounted for in the same way as similar changes in other animals are explained, in combination with those pe- culiar causes to whose operations man alone is exposed. Thus, to take one or two illustrations out of many, he says : The Arian race of India or Aryavarta differ in physical characters from the Medo-Persian Arians. The difference is most striking in complexion, the Hindoos being black, while the Persians are comparatively fair with black hair and eyes. The cause which has given rise to this diversity can apparently he nothing else than the influence of the hot cli- mate of Hindustan. Every historical indication is against the supposition, that the dark complexion of the Hindoos has arisen from the intermixture of an Iranian ancestry with the aborigines of India. The purity of the Sanskrit language, which would on that supposition have been merged in the idiom of the great mass of the community, precludes the no- tion that the Arian colonists were but a band of conquerors. All the historical traditions, and the written histories which go back to the date of the Manava Sastra are, as we have already had occasion to observe, decisive against that notion.
Neither are the physical characters of the Hindoos such as would be produced in a mixed offspring of Iranians with the tribes resembling the Bhils or the Rajamahal Paha- rias. And if we were to adopt the notion, that the Brah- mans and Xatriyas alone were foreigners, and that they con-
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quered and reduced the aboriginal people, and condemned them to an inferior rank, we have still to account for the black complexion of the Brahman tribe. It is true that the Brahmans are generally a comparatively fair people. But there are Brahmans extremely black, and the social regula- tions of the Indian community, which go back to the first ages of India, preclude the supposition, that this race at least, has been intermixed with the barbarous aboriginal tribes. That the black color of the Hindoos who live in the hot plains near the tropics is a result from the agency of temperature, is rendered extremely probable by the consideration that the northern colonies of these very people, and the families who dwell near the sources of the sacred rivers, to which we may add the Siah-Posh of the Hindu-Khuh, are extremely fair and xanthous, with blue eyes and all the characteristics of a northern and even of a Teutonic race.*
In regard to Africa, Dr. Prichard remarks :f If we inquire in the first place whether the physical characters of the African nation display themselves under any relation of climate ; facts seem to decide the question in the affirmative, for we might describe the limits of Negro- land to the north and south with tolerable correctness, by saying that it is bounded on both sides by the tropics ; that is, that the native country of all the black races, properly so termed, seems to be the inter-tropical region. If we follow the prolongations of Central Africa to the southward of the tropic of Capricorn we find the Hottentots, in whom the hue
* Researches, vol. 4, p. 248. t Ibid. vol. 2, pp. 331, 332.
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of the negro is diluted to a yellowish brown, and the Hafirs, who in the country of Bechunas, are said to be red or cop- per-colored ; but here are no people resembling the black na- tives of equatorial Africa. To the northward of the Senegal we have the Tuaryk in the oases of the Great Desert, and wandering tribes of Arabs, in both of which races some tribes or families are said to be black ; but the same races are in general brown or almost white, and the Berbers, akin to the Tuaryk, inhabiting the second system of mountains or highlands in this quarter of the world, an elevated region eight or ten degrees in breadth, and extending lengthwise through a great part of Africa, but under a temperate cli- mate, are not like the native races of the inter-tropical parts, but white people with flowing hair, similar to the nations of Europe, in some high tracts displaying all the characters of the xanthous variety of mankind.
We may find occasion also to observe that an equally decided relation exists between local conditions and the ex- istence of other characters of the human races in Africa. Those races who have the negro character in an exaggerated degree, and who may be said to approach to deformity in person — the ugliest blacks with depressed foreheads, flat noses, crooked legs — are in many instances inhabitants of low countries, often of swampy tracts near the sea-coasts, where many of them, as the Papels, have scarcely any other means of subsistence than shell-fish, and the accidental gifts of the sea. •
We may further remark, and perhaps this observation is fully as important as that of any other connected fact or coin-
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cidence, that physical qualities of particular races of Afri- cans are evidently related to their moral or social condition, and to the degrees of barbarism or civilization under which they exist. The tribes in whose prevalent conformation the negro type is discoverable in an exaggerated degree, are uniformly in the lowest stage of human society ; they either are ferocious savages, or stupid, sensual and indolent ; such are the Papels, Bulloms, and other rude hordes on the coast of western Guinea, and many tribes near the slave coast, and in the Bight of Benin, countries where the slave-trade has been carried on to the greatest extent, and has exercised its usually baneful influence. On the other hand, wherever we hear of a negro state, the inhabitants of which have attained any considerable degree of improvement in their social condition, we constantly find that their physical char- acters deviate considerably from the strongly-marked or ex- aggerated type of the negro. The Ashanti, the Sulima, the Dahamans, are exemplifications of this remark. The negroes of Guber and Hausa, where a considerable degree of civiliza- tion has long existed, are perhaps the finest race of genuine negroes in the whole continent, unless the Golofs are to be excepted. The Golofs have been a comparatively civilized people from the era of their first discovery by the Portu- guese, to which I have alluded in the preceding pages."*
Dr. Prichard then proceeds to apply the same remarks to the inhabitants of the European and Asiatic continents, and with the same general results, allowing for peculiar cir- cumstances in some special exceptions to the general rule.
* Researches, vol. 2, pp. 231—238.
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In the inhabitants of the Oceanica we find every variety of the human form, features, hair, skull, and other peculiari- ties, except those of the Esquimaux, to whose climate there is nothing analogous.* If, as is believed, and the facts would indicate, the Malayo- Polynesian portion of this numerous peo- ple are all the offspring of one original colonizing stock, then we perceive among them actual and undoubted transfor- mations into the most extreme varieties. Among the inhabi- tants of the same island are found also great variety both of features and complexion, which can only he explained by the difference of food, exposure, and other peculiarities of condi- tion. " It seems," says Dr. Prichard, " to have been the ultimate and full persuasion of all those persons who have made a long abode in the islands of the Pacific under cir- cumstances favorable to accurate investigation, that these phe- nomena can only be explained on the supposition that they result from the agency of climate and physical influences on the original race. The appearance of a xanthous com- plexion under moderate temperature and among people living in a state of protection from severities of climate is so com- mon an observation, and one that we have already traced in so many instances in almost every other part of the world, that we may well look for it in the Polynesian Islands, and there, when we find this change connected and coextensive with another physical change, we may fairly infer that these con- nected phenomena have one and the same cause."
" I allude to changes in the stature, the form of the head, the quality of the hair, etc. There seems to be no other
* Prichard, vol. 5, p. 284. 5*
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hypothesis, if we open the widest field to conjecture, that can in any way explain all the phenomena of physical va- riety that display themselves in the Oceanic region, and this without difficulty accounts for all of them, namely, the devi- ation of the primitive Malayan or Indo-Chinese type on the one side to the character of the European, and on the other to a conformation of body very similar to that of the Af- rican."
The same conclusion is drawn from an examination of the American races, among whom there is a great variety. Thus M. D'Orbigny, a distinguished naturalist, says: "As a general position we may regard each particular nation as having between its members a family resemblance, which, distinguishing it clearly from its neighbors, permits the practised eye of the zoologist to recognize, in the great as- semblage of nations, all the existing types, almost without ever confounding them. A Peruvian is more different from a Patagonian, and a Patagonian from a Guarani, than is a Greek from an Ethiopian or a Mongolian. There is, indeed, a prevalent general type which may be recognized in most of the native races of both North and South America, and which is perceptible both in color and configuration, and tends to illustrate the tendency of physical characters to perpetuate themselves ; but from this type we have seen many deviations which are sufficient to prove that it is not a specific character. The Esquimaux furnish a strong in- stance. The deviations noticed by Humboldt and M. D'Or- bigny and others between the South American nations as to color, form, and stature, afford proof that varieties spring up
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in these as in other races of mankind, and approximate to the characters of other departments of the human family.
" But the assertion that the color of the human skin has in America no relation to climate, is only the result of careless and hasty generalization. The reader may be convinced of this by comparing the black Californians who struck La Perouse and other travellers as the almost exact counter- parts of the slaves of a negro plantation in the West Indies, with the white Haida Kolushians and other nations of the Eastern coast further northward, whose complexion was said by Portlock to be nearly that of a fair English woman. The Esquimaux are reckoned among the white races, though not fair or xanthous."
The same was the view of this subject taken by Dr. S. Stanhope Smith in his Essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species, which has ob- tained such permanent celebrity abroad.
Mr. Prout, in his work on Chemistry and Meteorology, exhibits at length the nature of climate ; — its influence upon the vegetable and animal creation, — and the effect which this difference produces on the manners and the health of the earth's inhabitants.* He shows also that those plants and animals most useful to man possess in a remarkable and inscrutable manner, the faculty of accommodating them- selves to all climates, and of producing multiplied varieties. f He thus recognizes in the mutual adaptation of the constitu-
* Chemistry, Meteorology, etc. B. II., pp. 204, 215, 218. t Ibid. p. 219.
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tion of nature, and the constitution of the animals and man, the source of all their existing varieties.
Mr, Whewell, in his work on Astronomy and General Physics, presents very similar conclusions from his examina- tion into the facts of the case, and in these wonderful capa- cities and adaptations of animal life, he sees the evidence of a wise and benevolent intention overcoming the varying dif- ficulties, or employing the varying resources of the elements, with an inexhaustible fertility of contrivance, a constant ten- dency to diffuse life and well-being.* And speaking ex- pressly of the varieties in man, he says many of these differ- ences depend upon custom, soil, and other causes with which we do not here meddle ; but many are connected with climate : and the variety of the resources which man thus possesses, arises from the variety of constitution belonging to cultivable vegetables, through which one is fitted to one range of climate, and another to another. We conceive that this variety and succession of fitness for cultivation shows undoubted marks of a most foreseeing and benevolent design in the Creator of man and of the world, j"
Sir Whitelaw Ainslie, M. D., has also illustrated the ne- cessary power of atmospheric influence in moulding the physical and moral character of men and other animals, and has quoted Falconer on Climate to the same effect. :j:
Brande also attributes all the varieties in man and the
* Chemistry, Meteorology, etc., B. II. p. 60. t Ibid. p. 62.
t M. R. A. S., F. R . S. E., etc. Obs. on, in five parts, etc. See Jour- nal of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 5, &c.
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lower animals to the influence of climate, habits, and social condition.* Kenrick, as quoted by Prichard, does the same.f Such also is the view taken by Mr. Delafield and his co- editor, Dr. Lakey, who endeavor to point out in the southern hemisphere of the earth the causes of man's uniform degeneracy under its influence, — even of the Dutch, the Spaniard, and the English, when long exposed to its deterio- rating character. This they attribute to the short summer ; the immense body of water; the less distance of the sun, and to magnetic intensity.^:
Heeren, in his work on the African nations, attributes the complete assemblage of all varieties of form and color in that country, to the existence within its immense extent, of every variety of soil, climate, and condition. §
Dr. Bachman has shown that the facts of natural history prove that all quadrupeds, birds, and plants, when in a state of domestication or of cultivation, are subject to the most remarkable change when removed to other soils, latitudes, and conditions, and that when formed, these varieties be- come, in many cases, permanent. This he illustrates from the apple, the peach, the potato, the cabbage, the carrot, and from all the common fowl, and quadrupeds. || He is there- fore of opinion, that God has stamped upon the race of men a
* Cyclopedia, p. 712, col. 2.
t Prichard, vol. 5, p. 552, Essay on Primitive Chronology. + Antiq. of America, pp. 108 — 124. § Vol. l,pp. 296,287.
|| On the Unity of the Human Race, Examined on the principles of Science. Charleston : 1850, pp. 13, 14.
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constitutional power to produce, under the influence of ana- logous causes, analogous and permanent varieties.
This subject Dr. Bachman treats in a distinct chapter.* After giving the views of others, and pointing out the un- doubted influence of climate, he there says :f Our expla- nation of this phenomenon is grounded on the constitutional adaptation or predisposition to produce varieties which are developed in particular situations and under peculiar cir- cumstances. We agree in the results, but we differ in the causes which produce these effects. Their theory is, as we have seen, founded principally on the influence of climate, gradually changing the color, form, and hair. Cold and temperate climates they suppose have a tendency to produce the white color on the skin and straight hair, and warm cli- mates to cause a black color with crisped hair. Ours rests on an adaptation in the human constitution to produce a succes- sion of strikingly marked varieties, in those countries where such a peculiarity in constitution is suited to the regions it is required to inhabit, — in other words, different climates require different constitutions, and a wise Creator has implanted in the organization of man an adaptation to produce such modi- fications as are essential to the health, comfort, and future increase of his posterity.
What are the causes in nature to produce first a pecu- liarity in climate, and then an adaptation of the constitution suited to that climate, are subjects which, owing to our imperfect knowledge of the laws of the Creator, the wisest philosophers are unable fully to explain. The production
* See Part ii. ch. iv., p. 175.
t Ibid. p. 179.
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of these varieties may be the effects either of altitudes or depressions in countries — of geological formations — of elec- trical phenomena— of peculiar atmospheres — of soils — of an approximation to, or a removal from the ocean — of particu- lar kinds of food and manner of life, or of all these causes combined.
The effects, however, are before our eyes in every country— in every tribe of men, and in every race of domes- ticated animals ; and could we be permitted to see more clearly into the hidden mysteries of nature, we would find no difficulty in accounting for the causes why, from time to time, offspring, differing widely from the parents, is pro- duced in different regions of country. A tendency to pro- duce such varieties exists in such countries, since we per- ceive that they spring up in various localities at the same time. This in a short period of time, often in the course of a few generations, becomes a native and preponderating variety. This variety is propagated by generation, in ac- cordance with another law of nature, taught us by experi- ence, that peculiar formations in animals and men become organic and are transmitted to their posterity. The travel- ler in Europe, in looking at the descendants of the Cauca- sian race, is struck with a peculiar cast of countenance in the inhabitants of the various kingdoms, possessing nearly the same latitudes and geological formations. Thus an Englishman, a Scotchman, an Irishman, a German, a Frenchman, or an Italian, may be recognized by the close observer without inquiring into their several places of na- tivity. We see and admit these striking characteristics, but we cannot tell why this is so.
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From the account given of his lectures on the Races of Men, Dr. Knox, F. R. S. E., believes that there are transcendent characteristics of the human system by which race is permanent so long as the existing media and order of things prevail, but that a great change in these might pro- duce a modification in animal forms that would constitute new races.*
The same seems to be the view of Agassiz. Though he does not believe that the diversity of animals is in exact proportion to longitude or latitude, yet " there is," he says, " a direct relation between the richness of a fauna and the climate." " Animals," he adds, " are endowed with in- stincts and faculties corresponding to the physical character of the countries they inhabit, and which would be of no ser- vice to them under other circumstances." And while he does not allow these differences to be produced by climate, he does allow that animals have been constitutionally adapted by God for the place which they inhabit, and for a change adapted to the modifications of climate and condition, when domesticated by man. The way in which these changes are produced, he very wisely does not attempt to explain. " Hence," he says, " other influences must be in operation besides those of climate : — influences of a higher order, which are involved in a general plan, and intimately associated with the development of life on the surface of the earth." Now man alone being a cosmopolite, — man alone being om- nivorous— and man alone being adapted to every variety of association, clothing and habitation — and the transition from
* Ethnological Journal, No 2, p. 94.
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man the rude barbarian, to man the civilized and refined being, the greatest possible — whatever influence outward circumstances are capable of exerting upon an organized being must be increased a hundred-fold in the case of man, under all his diversified conditions. And as man was origin- ally destined — and otherwise adapted — for the occupation and culture of the whole earth, we might well expect that he would be constitutionally fitted also for every variety of change.
" Indeed, to use once more the language of Agassiz, the facilities, or sometimes we might rather say, necessities — arising from varied supplies of animal and vegetable food in the several regions — might be expected to involve, with his corresponding customs and mode of life, a difference in the physical constitution of man, which would contribute to augment any primeval differences. It could not indeed be expected, that a people constantly subjected to cold, like the people of the north, and living almost exclusively on fish, which they cannot obtain without great toil and peril, should present the same characteristic, either bodily or mental, as those who idly regale on the spontaneous bounties of tropical vegetation."*
Faberf supposes that in the first instance, the coloring fluid of the negro was a disease inflicted upon some remote progenitor or some collective body of progenitors ; the symp-
* Principles of Zoology, p. 181, etc.
t Ethnological Journal, p. 293, vol. 2, and pp. 306, 307, and 313, where he gives ancient authorities in favor of such a supposition as widely spread among the Gentiles; and from Scripture, pp. 310, 311.
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toms of the disease subsequently remaining, when the dis- ease itself had been removed.*
The influence of climate and other physical causes, in combination with social, civil, and moral condition, may, it is true, be exaggerated, as they undoubtedly have been by some who argue in favor of the original unity of the human races. It is just as true, however, that the influence of such causes may be as greatly underrated, as it certainly is by many opponents of this doctrine.")" We confess that when to the present necessary and powerful influence of these causes are added — the peculiar condition of the earth at the period of man's early history — the equally irregular and exposed condition in which men were at that time placed — the length- ened period of patriarchal life — the confinement of marriage within the limits of close affinity — and the multiplied geolo- gical convulsions through which the earth has undoubtedly passed, and which must have given inconceivable intensity to all such causes:): — we have ourselves no difficulty in sup- posing that every present variety in the races of men, may have originated through the working of natural causes upon the naturally susceptible constitution of primitive man.
On the other hand, to those who regard all existing na- tural causes as insufficient to explain the phenomena pre-
* See his Eight Dissertations, vol. 2, App. on Negroes.
t The apparently contradictory facts stated by the Ethnological Jour- nal, have all been examined by Prichard, and either disproved, qualified, or accounted for.
t See exhibited at large by Hamilton Smith in his Nat. Hist, of the Human Species.
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sented to us in the different races of men, Scripture offers the testimony of that God who " made of one blood all the nations of the earth," that all were originally one, and con- strains them, therefore, as they would not be found making God a liar, to lay hold of the supernatural cause it presents to their belief ; yea, and however humiliating it may be to the pride of human philosophy, to embrace it as a mystery, or in other words, an inexplicable verity. But of this in our next.
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CHAPTER VII.
ORIGIN OF THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN RACES CONCLUDED.
The degree of evidence for any 'proposition is not to be learned from logic, nor indeed from any one distinct science ; but is the province of whatever science furnishes the subject matter of our argument. — Archbishop Whateley.
Many events are altogether improbable to us, before they have happened, or before we are informed of their happening, which are not the least incredible when we are informed of them. — Mills' Logic.
The origin of the varieties of the human races is not con- nected by any natural or logical necessity, with their original unity. The fact of their original unity may be infallibly certain, while the time and manner of their variations are enveloped in undiscoverable mystery. To many philoso- phers, we have seen, these varieties appear to be the result of natural constitutional organization, in connection with the natural laws of external nature and social condition operat- ing through a long series of ages.
To those whose opinions we have already adduced in favor of this conclusion, we would add the following remarks from the elaborate work of Dr. Carpenter.
" From the foregoing survey of the phenomena, bearing
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upon the question of the specific unity or diversity of the Human Races, the following conclusion,55 says this writer, M may be drawn : —
" 1. That the physical constitution of man is peculiarly disposed, like that of the domesticated animals, to undergo variations ; some of which can be traced to the influence of external causes ; whilst others are not so explicable, and must be termed spontaneous.
" 2. That the extreme variations which present them- selves between the races apparently the most removed from one another, are not greater in degree than those which exist between the different breeds of domesticated animals, which are known to have descended from a common stock ; and that they are of the -same kind with the variations which present themselves in any one race of mankind, — the differ- ence of degree being clearly attributable, in the majority of cases, to the respective conditions under which each race exists.
" 3. That none of the variations, which have been pointed out as existing between the different races of mankind, have the least claim to be regarded as valid specific distinctions ; being entirely destitute of that fixity, which is requisite to entitle them to such a rank; and exhibiting, in certain groups of each race, a tendency to pass into the characters of some others.
" 4. That, in the absence of any valid specific distinc- tions, we are required, by the universally-received princi- ples of geological science, to regard all the races of man- kind as belonging to the same species, or (in other words)
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as having had either an identical or similar parentage ; and that this conclusion is supported by the positive evidence af- forded by the agreement of all the races in the physiological and psychological characters, that most distinguish them from other species, and especially by the ready propagation of mixed breeds or hybrid races.*
It cannot."'' he adds, " be doubted, when the known his- tory of the domesticated races is fairly considered, that a change of external circumstances is capable of exerting a very decided influence upon the physical form, upon the ha- bits and instincts., and upon various functions of life. The variations thus induced, extend to considerable modifications in the external aspect, such as the color, the texture, and the thickness of the external covering : to the structure of limbs and the proportional size of parts : to the relative deve- lopment of the organs of the senses and of the psychological powers, involving changes in the form of the cranium ; and to acquired propensities, which, within certain limits, (de- pending it would appear on their connection with the natural habits of the species.) may become hereditary.
" Again, we should expect to find these varieties in ex- ternal circumstances, together with the change of habits induced by civilization, (which is far greater than any change atfected by domestication in the condition of the lower animals.) producing still more important alterations in the physical form and constitution of the human body, than those erlected in brutes by a minor degree of alteration.
* Carpenter? ■ Principles of Human Physiology/' pp. 90, 91. Phila- delphia.. 1547.
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And it may be reasonably anticipated, that, as just now ex- plained, there would be a greater tendency to the perpetua- tion of these varieties, in other words, to the origination of distinct races, during the earlier ages of the history of the race, than at the present time ; when in fact, by the increasing admixture of races which have long been isolated, there is a tendency to the fusion of all these varieties and to a return to a common type."*
To these authorities we may add the views of Dr. Dowler. " It may be affirmed," says he, " with considera- ble probability, that cultivation changes even the organization, developing, for example, the anatomy, increasing the nutri- tion, the sensibility, the adaptive powers, and the energy of the whole nervous system, especially of its inter-cranial portion, "f
The same views have been very recently and ably presented by Mrs. Somerville in her elaborate work on Phy- sical Geography, in which she devotes a full chapter to the consideration of the various causes by which such diversi- ties of race have been produced in the human species, which she believes to have been originally one and the same.
" No circumstance in the natural world," says this writer, "is more inexplicable than the diversity of form and color in the human race. It had already begun in the antediluvian world, for ' there were giants in the land in those days.'
* Carpenter's " Human Physiology," p. 81.
t On the Vital Dynamics of Civil Government, in New Orleans Me- dical Journal, May 1849, p. 708. See also Dr. Daniell in Prichard's Nat. Hist., p. 612, 3d ed.
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" Civilization is supposed to have great influence on color, having a tendency to make the dark shade more general, and it appears that in the crossing of two shades, the off- spring takes the complexion of the darker, and the form of the fairer.
" Darkness of complexion has been attributed to the sun's power from the age of Solomon to this day — ' Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me f and there can be no doubt that to a certain degree, the opinion is well founded. The invisible rays in the solar beams, which change vegetable colors, and have been em- ployed with such remarkable effect in the Daguerreotype, act upon every substance on which they fall, producing mysterious and wonderful changes in their molecular state — man not excepted.
" Even supposing that diversity of color is owing to the sun's rays only, it is scarcely possible to attribute the thick lips, the woolly hair, and the entire difference of form, extend- ing even to the very bones and skull, to any thing but a con- currence of circumstances, not omitting the invisible influ- ence of electricity, which pervades every part of the earth and air, and possibly terrestrial magnetism.
" Every change of food, climate, and mental excitement, must have their influence on the re-production of the mortal frame; and thus a thousand causes may co-operate to alter whole races of mankind placed under new circumstances, time being granted.
" The refining effects of high culture, and, above all, the Christian religion, by subduing the evil passions and encour-
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aging the good, are more than any thing calculated to im- prove even the external appearance. The countenance, though perhaps of less regular form, becomes expressive of the amiable and benevolent feelings of the heart, the most captivating and lasting of all beauty.
" Thus, an infinite assemblage of causes may be as- signed as having produced the endless varieties in the human race ; but the fact remains an inscrutable mystery. But amidst all the physical vicissitudes man has undergone, the species remains permanent. — Physical Geography, chap. 33.
But if to any these causes are insufficient, the Bible of- fers, with its record of man's original unity, and of man's subsequent dispersion and diversified allotment, the omnipo- tent agency of that overruling Providence which
" Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent,"
and by whose wise determination their bounds and habita- tions were assigned. It teaches us that the same Almighty Being who made of one blood all the nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, also secured His own purposes in the peopling of every portion of the globe, by adapting men to the climate and condition to which they were thus destined. The belief of this supernatural cause as the source of all present varieties in man, so far as it may be necessary to look to it rather than natural causes, is therefore required of us by the very necessity of the case, and by the authority of God.
Such is the course which reason and true science alike 6
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conduct us. These demand a cause, — a cause adequate to the effects to be accounted for ; — and these require also our admission of such a cause, when its existence is proved by sufficient evidence. Now that God exists, and that His power is sufficient to meet the difficulties in the case, all true science affirms. He is recognized as the Creator and preserver of man and beast, even by those who question the original unity of the present varieties of the human race. And if, therefore, this great first cause is admitted even by our opponents, in the first creation of man, and in the con- temporaneous or subsequent creation of all the varieties of men, it is no less scientific to believe — if there is evidence for the opinion — that this omnipotent Being secured the pro- duction of all these varieties in man's primitive constitution, either to render certain the peopling of the earth, — to adapt men to its diversified climates, — to provide materials for the future invigoration or elevation of certain races by amalgama- tion with others, — or in some cases, as a curse inflicted upon some guilty and rebellious people. And as there is evidence in Scripture to prove that all the present nations of the earth were originally made of one blood, our faith in the present unity of the human races is rational, whether we do or do not believe that the changes in them could be brought about by natural and constitutional laws.
When, therefore, we hear men, as we do Mr. Drake, Dr. Nott, The Ethnological Journal, Voltaire, Mr, Gliddon, &c.,* ridicule with profane and vulgar buffoonery, the
* The full sentiments of this gentleman will be learned from the Ethnological Journal. In No. vii. for Dec. 1848, at p. 297, he remarks
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Ill
doctrine of the unity of the human races because it requires the exercise of supernatural power, when they themselves profess to attribute the existence of every variety of man to
as he says en passant : " Under this view, however, the ethnological in- quirer is presented with a dilemma, either horn of which is awkward to his orthodoxy ; because, if, grounded on the mythos of Adam and Eve, he contend for Unity of Race, he must abandon ' plenary inspiration,' and with it genesiacal chronology in any text or version of the Penta- teuch : or, should he advocate the inspired authenticity of Hebrew, Greek or Samaritan numerals for ante-Abrahamic ages, he must (in the face of incontrovertible facts conceded by Prichard himself, which show that, within human record, neither time nor climate has ever transmuted a Caucasian into a Negro, or vice versa,) abandon the hypothetical primitive Unity of the now diversified species of mankind." On page 297, he speaks of the contracted systems of English chronographers, which, if su- perlatively orthodox, are, &c, quoting Volney. See the whole article, from which it is evident that while he has devoted four years to Biblical studies, (as he says,) he has not learned the elementary distinction be- tween the corruption or loss even of the original Hebrew numerals and the consequent knowledge of the true chronology they indicated, and the plenary inspiration of all that really appertains to the Bible, so far as it is proved to be genuine and authentic. A pyramid is not less a pyramid because it is the fact that in some cases part is wanting or part super- added to the original building. Nor is the Bible less the inspired word of God because some numerals may have fallen out or may have been foisted in. If not genuine, these numerals may be, and they will be, all aban- doned without touching the integrity of the text and the plenary inspira- tion of the Bible. Mr. Gliddon's studies appear, from his own refer- ences, to have been confined to such rationalists and skeptical writers as De Wette, Parker, Munk, etc. See Journal, No. viii. p. 354. No won- der, therefore, that he recognizes no superhuman knowledge among the ancients — (Ibid. p. 385) — that he vehemently repudiates any comparison
112 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
that very supernatural cause, we plainly perceive that their objections are not made to the doctrine for its own sake, but to the inspiration and authority of that Bible, by whose testi- mony this, and many other doctrines still more unpalatable to the pride of man, are infallibly proclaimed.
To every mind imbued with the proper spirit of rever- ence for God and His inspired communications, there is the most perfect harmony between the scientific inability to ac- count for the variations of the human races from the origi- nal type by existing natural causes, and the ability to be- lieve on the best of all evidences — the testimony of God — that such is nevertheless beyond controversy the fact. And whether God brought about these changes at the time of Cain, as some think, or of the flood, or of the dispersion, or of the exodus from Egypt, as others think, — is a matter of no importance to him whose faith rests upon the testimony, and the infinite, — though oftentimes inscrutable, — wisdom and goodness of God.
Such is the position, as we understand it, of Dr. Morton,
between the physically harmless abominations of the Egyptians and those atrocities which hundreds of texts of Hebrew annals (his own italics) prove to have been quite common in Palestine, in the self-same days (No. ix. p. 395) ; that he gives to man an indefinite number of centuries prior to all recorded annals of his existence (No. viii. p. 357, and No. x. pp. 400, 407^) ; and that he "referred to this inscription in his first Lec- ture, as an evidence that the ancient Egyptians believed in the immor- tality of the soul, although this dogma was unknown to the writers of the Hebrew Pentateuch : but see Munk, (" Palestine," Paris, 1845, pp. 147 a 150.) (See p. 291.)
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 113
who has with such lustre to himself and to our country, in- vestigated the ethnological history of the human family. He adopts the arrangement of mankind under "the human species," containing under this one species, five races and twenty-two families.* His introductory Essay is "on the varieties of the human species. "•(* " The unity of the human species," says his able reviewer, " is assumed by Dr. Mor- ton,":): not, however, because he could prove it or believe it to be a fact from present physical evidence, or the opera- tion of present natural causes, but because it is clearly taught in the Bible. He believes, therefore, that God adapted each race to its peculiar destination. " The idea," he says, " may, at first view, seem incompatible with the history of man, as recorded in the sacred writings. Such, however, is not the fact. Where others can see nothing but chance, we can perceive a wise and obvious design dis- played in the original adaptation of the several races of men to those varied circumstances of climate and locality, which, while congenial to the one, are destructive to the other. The evidence of history, and of the Egyptian monuments, go to prove that these races were as distinctly stamped three thousand five hundred years ago, as they are now ; and in fact that they are coeval with the primitive dispersion of our species. "§
* See Crania Americana, and Inq. into the Aborig. Race of Ame- rica, pp. 47, 48.
t Introd. to Crania Amer.
J Silliman's Journal, vol. 38, No. 2, p. 4.
§ Inquiry, p. 36. See on Dr. Morton's position, Dr. Bachman on Unity, etc., p. 246.
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Similar is the spirit and conclusion of Dr. Caldwell in his very able, though unnecessarily severe, Review of the Essay of Dr. Stanhope Smith.* In this Essay he denies the
9
sufficiency of climate and other natural causes, to explain the existing diversities of the human races ; but he as cer- tainly and clearly affirms his belief, that they are varieties from an original identity.
" Men," says he, " have sustained since their creation very signal changes in their complexion and figure. The object or final cause of these changes is supposed to be the adaptation of the human race to become inhabitants of the different climates of the globe. Their efficient or produc- tive causes are undetermined. Our only intention is to endeavor to prove, which we think may be most definitely done, that the varieties, as to complexion and figure, which now exist in the great family of man, were not, and, indeed, could not have been, produced by the operation of the physi- cal causes to which the Rev. Dr. Smith attributes them.55
Again, he says, " On the correctness of the Mosaic ac- count of the creation of man, we place the most full and implicit reliance. We receive the Scriptures entire as the oracles of divine truth, and have neither the arrogance nor the impiety to question a fact which they clearly set forth. Whatever they may contain that is above our reason and comprehension, as ordinarily exercised, we embrace and cherish as a matter of faith. Nor have we ever presumed to make our feebleness of intellect the standard of their im- maculate verity."!
* Port-Folio, vol. 4.
t Port-Folio, vol. 4, p. 148. See also pp. 11, 18, 48.
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115
The belief of a divine power exerted for the production of the varieties of the human family, was, we have seen, mythologically preserved among the classic nations, in the fable of Phaeton. It is very openly and boldly taught in the Koran as if communicated by God himself, and this, too, as a reason for the observance and praise of His infinite wisdom.
There is, also, a very curious traditionary legend, in which a divine origin is attributed to the variety of human races, still found among the Tonga islanders in the South Seas. They believe that originally there was no land above the waters of the sea; but that when one of their gods, named Tongalou, was fishing in the ocean, his hook became fixed at the bottom ; he exerted his strength, and presently there appeared, above the surface of the water, several points of rock, which increased, in number and extent, the more he drew his line. The rocky bottom of the ocean was now fast advancing to the surface, when, unfortunately, the line broke, and the Tonga Islands remain to show the in- completeness of the operation. The earth, thus brought to the light of day, now became replete with all kinds of plants and animals, (such us exist in an imaginary island, called Bolotoo, or the residence of the gods,) but they were of an inferior quality, and subject to decay and death. Tongalou now sent two of his sons to dwell in Tonga, and to divide the land between them. But one of these sons was indus- trious, and the other idle, and envious of his brother, whom at length he killed. On which his father confined him and his race to the Tonga Islands for ever, to be black in their
116
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persons, and to have bad canoes; while he sent the children of his murdered son into a distant land, to be white in their color, as their minds were pure ; to be wise and rich, and to have axes and large canoes in the greatest abundance.*
Seeing therefore that the Bible does not require us to believe that the varieties in the human races were brought about by the operation of present and merely natural causes, scientific inquiry is left to pursue its investigations into their origin perfectly untrammelled, so long as it does not go be- yond its province, and — because it may not be able to ex- plain them in consistency with an original unity of species, that is, of origin — skeptically deny that God either has or could have effected them.
There are, however, others to whom it may seem more in accordance with the facts in the case to combine — in the production of the varieties of the human races — both the su- pernatural and the natural causes. Among those who hold this opinion we may rank Mr. Kirby, who has considered the subject at some length. He shows that many animals, known to be of the same origin, exhibit differences so strik- ing as to appear to a young zoologist marks of specific dif- ference— that these depend upon climate, food, and cultiva- tion by man — that their improvement of character and habits may probably be deemed the result of some developments of brain produced by education, and present some analogy to the effect of the latter in the human species — and that by these they are enabled to follow man into different climates,
* See Fairbairne's Geology of Scripture, p. 467 ; and the United States Exploring Expedition, vol. 6, pp. 177, 178.
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117
and to accommodate themselves gradually to any change of circumstances. There is thus, he thinks, imparted to all animals a capability of improvement and of the development of latent qualities not apparent in their wild state.
And in special reference to man, he says, " climate, the elevation of country, its soil, waters, woods, and other pecu- liarities ; the food, clothing, customs, habits, way of life, and state of civilization often of its inhabitants, produce effects upon the different races of men as well as of the animals that inhabit our globe, and will account for many distinc- tions, which indicate that such an individual belongs to such a people." He adds : " But these circumstances will not explain and satisfactorily account for all the peculiar char- acters that distinguish nations from each other, without hav- ing recourse to the will of a governing and all-directing Power, influencing circumstances that happen in the com- mon course, and according to the established order of nature, to answer the purposes of his Providence. When he con- founded the speech and language of the descendants of Noah, congregated at Babel, he first made a division of man- kind into nations ; " and from thence did Jehovah scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." The same Divine Power that effected this distinction, which may be called the origin of nationality, also decreed that nations should be further separated by differences of form and color as well as speech, which differences originated not in any change operated miraculously, but produced by second causes, under the direction of the first. When we are told expressly that " the hairs of our head are all numbered,"
6*
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and that in God's " book all our members are written," we learn, that in common parlance we acknowledge that it is according to God's will that we are made so and so. That persons who, in some one or other of their parts and organs, exhibit an approximation to races different from that to which they belong — as in thick lips, a prominent facial angle, a difference in the relative proportion of certain bones to each other, in the curling of the hair and the like — occur in all places, must be obvious to every one who uses his eyes and intellect. But it is as evident that all these variations are produced by circumstances that we cannot fully appreciate.
It is evident, therefore, from fact and from what ordi- narily happens, that there are powers at work at and after conception, and while the foetus is in the womb, that can produce variations in the same people, approaching to those that distinguish the negro, the red man, or the brown man ; which, indeed, can produce forms much more singular and extraordinary ; for instance, the monsters that sometimes make their appearance in the world, as the Siamese youth, children with two heads, &c. The mysterious influence that the excited imagination, or passions, or appetites of the mother have over the foetus in her womb, is well known, and produces very extraordinary consequences, and malforma- tions and monstrosities. When we consider that all these facilities, if I may so speak — these tendencies to produce variations in the foetus, are at the disposal of Him, who up- holds all things by the word of his power, and turns them to the fulfilment of his own purposes, — we may imagine that thus new types may be produced, which may be continued
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119
in the ordinary way of generation, according to that obser- vation of Humboldt, that " the exclusion of all foreign mix- tures contributes to perpetuate varieties, or aberrations from the common standard."
We have now completed the first part of our designed argument in favor of the unity of the human races. We have shown that this fact is implied in the whole teaching of the Bible. It is distinctly and unquestionably and repeat- edly presented in its historical records. It is made the basis on which all the doctrines of Scripture relating to the fall and recovery — the guilt and redemption — of man are found- ed. And it is also the foundation on which is erected the claims of charity, love, and all the offices of Christian phi- lanthropy. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and " honor all men."
Thy neighbor 1 It is he whom thou
Hast power to aid and bless, Whose aching heart or burning brow
Thy soothing hand may press.
Thy neighbor ? 'Tis the fainting poor,
Whose eye with want is dim, Whom hunger sends from door to door, —
Go thou and succor him.
Thy neighbor ? 'Tis that weary man, Whose years are at their brim,
Bent low with sickness, cares and pain : — Go thou, and comfort him.
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Thy neighbor ? 'Tis the heart bereft
Of every earthly gem ; Widow and orphan, helpless left : —
Go thou, and shelter them.
Whene'er thou meefst a human form
Less favored than thine own, Remember ?tis thy neighbor worm,
Thy brother, or thy son.
Oh, pass not, pass not heedless by ;
Perhaps thou canst redeem The breaking heart from misery ; —
Go, share thy lot with him.
We have also shown that this doctrine of Scripture is confirmed by the historical records of antiquity, and the primitive civilization of races of men who were character- ized by a physiognomy similar to that which is now made the reason for a denial of the unity of the human races.
Having thus cleared the way by meeting the objections founded on the present supposed impossibility of an original and essential identity of all men, we proceed to show that their existing varieties may be accounted for either by the operation of natural causes acting upon the constitutional susceptibilities of human nature, or by these causes preterna- turally excited, and made to work out the purposes of that all-wise God, who, having made of one blood all the nations of the earth, assigned them both their bounds and their destinies.
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CHAPTER VIII.
PRESUMPTIVE ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
Acrca kcli d'^aWcds tvog aifxarog cos \oyos cort— — ANTHOL. 3. 31, 6.
Nam a natura habemus omncs omnium gentium nullam aliam nisi humanam Deorum. — Velleius.
We will now proceed to offer positive arguments for the unity of the human race, leaving to our readers to adopt either or both methods of accounting for the great present diversity found among them, to which we have referred. This we do ex abundantia — without any necessity — the fact of man's original unity having been established by infallible testimony. We may look above us, below us, and around us, and still we shall find that God's Word is true — that heaven and earth may pass away, but that not one jot or one tittle of God's Word shall fail — for " the Scripture cannot be broken." Let us then remember that difficulties in par- ticulars must not be allowed to interfere with the reception of general truths.
To this doctrine, however, as taught in Scripture, there have been serious objections raised by some naturalists and
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medical men in recent times, who are not willing to admit the testimony of God. It is affirmed by those men that God did not make all nations of men of one blood or parentage, but of many, and that the present inhabitants of the earth consist of many distinct and entirely separate species created in different localities, and having different endowments and destinies.
For, some philosophers of late here, Write, men have four legs by nature, And that 'tis custom makes them go Erroneously upon but two.*
We will, therefore, present some reasons which will serve to show that the presumption is altogether in favor of the doctrine of the unity of the human races, and that it must, therefore, be received as true, until it is demonstrated that the present varieties of men did not arise from one origi- nal species, either through the agency of natural causes, or of supernatural causes, or of both combined.
We would then observe, in the first place, that the unity of the human races has been always regarded as a fact es- tablished beyond all controversy. This general belief does not, we know, prove the truth and certainty of this doctrine, but it does create a strong presumption in favor of its truth. It makes it very probable that it is correct. And it throws the entire burden of proof that all men are not of one species, upon those who say that this established fact is not true. For if the oldest historical record that exists — and that by
* Butler's Hudibras.
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123
hundreds of years — unequivocally asserts that the whole earth was peopled by the descendants of one family, and if this truth has been generally admitted in the face of all the apparent difficulties which now exist, they who deny this fact must be able to produce incontestable evidence that it is not true. And when we find that no such evidence is at- tempted to be produced, and that the rejection of the doctrine of the unity of the race is based upon a few differences which always existed and were always known, we must re- gard it as unreasonable, unphilosophical, and inadmissible.
We remark, in the second place, that this is a question on which Christians of every denomination agree. All va- rieties of Christian sects agree in regarding the unity of the human race as a doctrine of Scripture, and also as lying at the basis of Christian obligation and duty, since in this identity of man's nature and the consequent closeness of his relation- ship, is laid the foundation of all social duties and affections. And as the preservation and happiness of man depends upon the duties involved in this common humanity, so it is true that man alone, of all other terrestrial animals, is found ca- pable of recognizing it. All agree, — in accordance with Scripture, — in representing God as " our Father/5 — " all men as brethren," — and Christ as " the Saviour of all men," — " the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." All agree in regard- ing it to be the duty of every human being to " love the Lord their God with all their heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, and to love their neighbor," that is every other human being, " as themselves." All agree in considering
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that this doctrine affects both the truth, inspiration, and au- thority of Scripture, and also the entire nature, extent, and obligation of Christian duty. This inquiry, therefore, is both a religious and moral question, affecting equally our rela- tions and obligations to God and to man.
Now the peculiar force of this concurrence of opinion will be at once perceived, when it is contrasted with the contra- rieties of opinion existing among these different denomina- tions, on other subjects connected with the statements and disclosures of revelation ; and when it is remembered that the Koran as well as the Bible, and Mohammedans as well as Christians, agree on this point.* It makes it very cer- tain that in the opinion of all those who receive the Bible as an inspired communication from God, its authority is compromised, and its truth implicated by the rejection of this doctrine of the unity of the races. And inasmuch, therefore, as such momentous interests are at stake, they who advocate a theory which so directly conflicts with the Word of God, must be required to produce evidence as con- clusive and overwhelming for their theory, as can be given for the infallible accuracy of the Sacred Scriptures.
We do not affirm that a man cannot, in any sense, receive and adopt the Bible as a book containing, among its learned and traditionary records, a revelation from heaven, and yet deny the unity of the human race. But no man can deny
* Among the signs by which God is known to his people, one is the " creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variety of languages and complexions." — Sale's Koran, vol. 2, p. 256.
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125
this doctrine while he receives the Bible as having been — in all its contents — arranged, ordered, and directed by a superintending wisdom, which either directly communicated its statements, or — when their truths were otherwise known — preserved the inspired writers from all error in their com- pilation and presentation. Most certain it is, that this theory, — by denying the truth and accuracy of the Bible in a par- ticular tenet which is implied in all its doctrines and in all its duties — undermines altogether the authority of the Bible as an inspired book, and paves the way for that universal skepticism to promote which the theory has been introduced and advocated in modern times by Rousseau, Voltaire, Pey- rere, Nott, Drake, and the Ethnological Journal.1
We remark, in the third place, that the unity of the hu- man race has been received as an established fact by many of the most learned and eminent men in every department of scientific research bearing upon the investigation of the questions involved in the discussion.
It has been advocated by such scholars as Smith,2 Smellie,3 Wiseman,4 Chevalier Bunsen,5 Sir James Mack- intosh,6 Sharon Turner,7 Goguet,8 The Encyclopedia Bri-
1 See Lawrence's Lectures on Man, p. 176, and references. Goode's Book of Nature, vol. 2, p. 83 ; and Encycl. Brit. Art. Peyrere. Drake's Book of the Indians, Book i. ch. 1.
2 On the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure, etc.
3 Philosophy. 4 Lectures on Science and Religion.
5 See in Edinb. Rev. for 1849, Jan. Art. Ethnology, pp. 83, 84 ; and Prichard's Nat. Hist, of Man, Dedication.
6 Hist, of Eng., vol. 1. Introd. p. 4. 7 Sacred Hist, of the World. 8 The Origin of Laws, Arts and Sciences, vol. 1, pp. 1 — 5.
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tannica,1 Rees' Cyclopedia,2 The Encyclopedia Americana,8 The Edinburgh Review,4 Bossuet,5 Berkeley,6 Captain Fitzroy,7 Faber,8 Archbishop Sumner,9 Boyle,10 Quete- let,11 Squier,12 Sir Walter Raleigh,13 The U. S. Exploring Expedition,14 Mills,15 The Encyclopedia Metropolitana,16 Brande's Encyclopedia,17 Faber,18 Stillingfieet,19 Somer- ville,20 Johnstone,21 and Sears.22 Locke, speaking of Ge-
1 Vol. 2, 134, and vol. 6, p. 274, etc.
2 Article, Man. 3 Article, Man.
4 See Selections from vol. 4, p. 550, and a long article in favor of, in No. 3, for Jan. 1849, on Ethnology. 6 Universal Hist.
6 Alciphron, vol. 2, pp. 84, 85, 1732.
7 Early Migration of the Human Race, etc., by Capt. Fitzroy, R. N., and Gov. of New Zealand, vol. 2, p. 642, etc.
8 See Faber's Eight Dissertations, vol 2, p. 288, etc.
9 Records of the Creation, vol. 2, p. 342, etc.
10 Encycl. Brit. vol. 17, p. 78.
11 Treatise on Man. Edinb. ed., pp. 97, 123.
12 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 304.
13 Hist, of the World, in Wks., vol. 2, B. i. ch. 5, etc.
14 Vol. 6. pp. 117 and 194, as it regards all the varieties of the Oceanic tribes, by Hale.
16 Logic, p. 445, Am. ed.
16 Hist, and Biogr., vol. 1, pp. 10, 11.
17 Of Art, Science, and Literature, p. 712. Col. 2. Art. Man.
18 Eight Disser., vol. 2, p. 319, and all his works. J9 Origines Sacrae.
20 Physical Geography, chap. 33, p. 436.
21 Physical Atlas, Ethnographic Divisions and Distribution of Man- kind, p. 101.
22 Wonders of the World — 2d Series, chap. 1.
THE UNITY OF TIIE HUMAN RACES.
127
nesis i. 26, says,1 "The whole species of man, who is the image of his Maker, has the dominion over the creatures." And in his great work, B. III. ch. vi. § 4, he says, " Other creatures of my shape may be made with more and better, or fewer and worse faculties than I have ; and others may have reason and sense in a shape and body very different from mine."
Dugald Stewart is also very strong.2 "The capacities of the human mind," he says, " have been in all ages the same, and the diversity of phenomena exhibited by our species, is the result merely of the different circumstances in which men are placed."
Delafield,3 Catlin,4 Elias Boudinot,5 De Witt Clinton,6 Franklin Smith,7 Robertson8 — who says, " we know with infallible certainty, that all the human race sprung from one source" — Bishop Mcllvaine,9 Archbishop Whateley,10
1 Treatise on Government, in Wks., vol. 2, ch. xi., and vol. 1, p. 269.
3 Dissert, to Encycl. Brit., p. 53.
8 Antiquities of America, pp. 119, 120, 139, 140.
4 N. American Indians, vol. 1, pp. 5, 8, etc.
5 Star in the West. Trenton, 1816, on the Amer. Aborigines.
6 Mem. of the Antiq. of the West of N. Y. Albany, 1818, pp. 9, 10.
7 The Origin of the Amer. Indians, in De Bow's Review.
8 Wks., vol. 9, pp. 269—294.
0 Introduction to Delafield's Antiquities. " In reference to the ques- tion," he says, " whether all the races of men have descended from one common stock, the antiquities of this continent are especially interesting, and may prove of very great value. It is a question, indeed, for ever set- tled by the researches of Bryant, Faber, and Sir William Jones."
10 Political Economy, ed. 3d, p. 108, and App. A., p. 243, where he quotes several, and all Lect. v.
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Murray,1 Wilford,2 Roberts,3 Hales,4 Bryant,5 Heeren,8 Lord Bacon,7 The Universal History,8 Michaelis,9 Vin- cent,10 The Edinburgh Encyclopedia,11 Madden,12 Calmet,18 Wells,14 Locke,15 Flourens,16 New Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,17 George Ross, Esq.,18 Lord Brougham,19 John Shute Duncan.20
The unity of the human races has been adopted by all the most eminent naturalists — some of whom have been skep- tics, and have been led to its admission solely by the weight of irresistible evidence. Among naturalists we may name
1 Encyclop. of Geography, p. 255.
2 Asiatic Researches, vol. 6, p. 455.
8 C. M. R. A. S., etc., in Journal of Roy. Asiat. Soc, vol. 2, pp. 87—92. *
4 Chronology.
5 Mythology and Truth of Christianity, p. 245, etc.
6 African Nations, vol. 1, pp. 285, 286.
7 Wks. vol. 1, pp. 260, 269.
8 See vol. 18, p. 248. Ancient Hist.
9 Spic. Par., pp. 148, 5 and 7, in Nolan's Bampt. Lect. p. 498.
10 Peripl. in ibid. p. 502.
11 Art. Mazzology, vol. 12, p. 555.
12 Preface to Poems, by a Negro of Cuba. Lond., 1840, p. 22.
13 Dictionary of the Bible, etc.
14 Geography of the Bible, 2 v.
15 Wks. 4to. vol. 1. p. 510, etc.
16 Annales des Sciences, t. 10, p. 361.
17 Vol. 27, p. 358, Oct. 1839.
18 Origin of Nations in Ethnol. Journal, No. 3. 18 Edn. of Paley's Nat. Theol.
20 Botanical Theology.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
129
Linnseus,1 Ray,2 Denham,3 Buffon,4 Pennant,5 Schrebar,6 Ernleben, Forster,7 Shaw,8 Ballas,9 Cuvier,10 Fischer,11 II- liger,12 Humboldt,13 Blumenbach,14 Leichenbach,15 Lichten- stein,16 Turton,17 Sir Wra, Hooker,18 Professor Buckland,19 Camper,20 Zimmerman,21 Mudie,22 Lyell,23 Gmelin,24 De
1 Systema Naturae.
2 Wisdom of God in the Creation.
3 Physico-Theology.
4 Nat. Hist. v. 3, pp. 443—446.
5 On Quadrupeds.
6 Seaugthiere.
7 Observations during Voyage round the World, ch. 6, § 3.
8 Geographische Geschicte, etc.
9 Glires.
10 Regne Animale.
11 Synopsis. 13 Prodromus.
13 Personal Travels, vol. 2, p. 565, and 3, p. 208. M De Gen. Hum. Var., p. 124. 16 Regni Animali.
16 Seaugthiere.
17 Nat. Theol., etc.
18 Rees* Cyclopedia, Art. Hooker.
19 Geology, vol. 1, ch. 2.
20 On the regular Gradation, in Lawrence, p. 358.
21 The Naturalist.
22 Physical Man.
23 Geology, vol. 1, p. 230 ; and Second Visit to the United States vol. 1, pp. 105, 208, 282, 283. « Whatever may be their (the negroes') present inferiority as a race, some of them have already, etc."
24 Goode's Book of Nature, vol. 2, p. 70.
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Guignes,1 The French Academy of Science,2 Audubon, Bachman,3 Guyot,4 Stark,5 Bushman,6 Mantell,7 Picker- ing,8 Sir Charles Owen who says, " he is not aware of any modification of form or size in the negro's brain, which would support an inference that the Ethiopian race would not profit by the same influences favoring mental and moral improve-
1 Goode's Book of Nature, vol. 2, p. 75.
3 In their report we have an account of Blumenbach, in which they say in reference to his first rule : — " A profound gulf, without connec- tion or passage, separates the human species from every other. There is no other species that is akin to the human, nor any genus whatever. The human race stands alone. Guided by the facial line, Camper drew a resemblance between the orang-outang and negro. He regarded the form of the skull, which makes an apparent resemblance, but overlooked the capacity of the skull, which makes a real difference.
" In form, the skull of the negro is near the skull of the European. The capacity of these two skulls is precisely the same. But that which is far more essential, the brain, is the same — absolutely the same. And, besides, what animates the brain in this case 1 The human spirit is one — the mind is one. In spite of its woes the African race has had its he- roes. M. Blumenbach, who has collected every thing which has honored the race, estimated as belonging to it the most humane men and the bravest ; also historians, savans and poets. He had a library composed of books written by negroes."
8 On the Unity of the Human Races.
4 The Earth aad Man, pp. 239, 242, 241, 242, 243, 244.
5 Elem. of Nat. Hist., vol. 1, pp. 38, 39.
6 See Exploring Exped., vol. 6. p. 194.
7 Wonders of Geology, vol. 1, p. 86.
8 On the Races of Men, p. 306, etc.
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ment, which have tended to elevate the primitively barbarous white races."
To these we feel happy in adding the name of the cele- brated Agassiz. In his pamphlet on the Geography of Ani- mals, published in Europe, in 1845, Mr. Agassiz, after show- ing that the faunas are distributed in different species over different continents, asks, "But this diversity having the same origin, has it the same signification in regard to men that it has among animals ? Evidently not. And in this is re- vealed again the superiority of the human race, and its greater independence in nature. Whilst animals are of dis- tinct species in the different zoological provinces to which they belong, man, notwithstanding the diversity of the races, constitutes only one and the same species over the whole surface of the globe. In this respect, as in so many others, man appears to us an exception, as a being in this creation of which he is at the same time the object and the end."2
This opinion Mr. Agassiz — for some reason — apparently modified when in Charleston in 1847, but has now confirmed by his approbation of M. Guyot's Lectures, and by his own able work on Zoology.3 He here says that "man is every where the one identical species, yet several races marked by certain peculiarities of features." It has indeed been said that the word species here means type, and proves nothing. But this is impossible in a work of science, and
1 Quoted by Lyell in his Second Visit, vol. 1, p. 105.
3 Notice sur la Geographie des Animaux, Neuchatel, 1845, p. 31.
* Principles of Zoology, p. 180.
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has been rendered impossible by the definition given by Mr. Agassiz himself, of this very word, as used in this very work. In the introduction he defines the terms genus and species, and says of species that " it is founded upon less important distinctions, such as color, size, proportions, stature, etc. Thus we have different kinds, or species, of duck, different species of monkey, etc., varying from each other in some trivial circumstances, while those of each group agree in all their general structure. The specific name is the lowest term to which we descend, if we except certain peculiari- ties, generally induced by some modification of native habits, such as are seen in domestic animals. These are called varieties, and seldom endure beyond the causes which occa- sion them.5'* And on p. 156, Mr. Agassiz will be found speaking of animals of the same type which are " repre- sented by different species."
"On the whole,5' says Buffon, "every circumstance con- curs in proving that there was originally but one species." And it may be unhesitatingly affirmed that all natural- ists who have described the genera and species of verte- brated races, have recorded their opinions in favor of the unity of the human race.
Many of the most eminent men in the medical profession have also adopted the opinion of the unity of the races, not- withstanding their perfect familiarity with all the differences disclosed by the scalp and by comparative anatomy. Among these we may mention Sir Richard Owen, Sir John Rich-
* Principles of Zoology, pp. 13 and 14.
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ardson, Abernethy, Sir Charles Bell,1 Hunter,2 Lawrence,3 Prichard,4 Carpenter,5 Gardner,6 Moore,7 Combe,8 Godman,9 Rush,10 Goode,11 Tiedeman,12 Mitchell,13 Barrierre, Tor- rey,H Davis,15 Physick,16 Horner,17 Sir William Ainslie,18
I Treatise on the Hand.
3 See Lawrence's Lectures, p. 180, and Brit. Encycl. vol. 17. p. 78.
3 Lectures on Man.
4 Researches into the Physical History of Man, 5 vols. 8vo. ; Physi- cal History of Man, 1 vol. 8vo. ; Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, 1 vol. roy. 8vo. ; Origin of the Celtic Nations, 8vo.
6 Physiology.
6 Great Physician, pp. 91—93.
7 Power of Soul over the Body, and of the Body over the Mind.
8 Constitution of Man.
9 American Natural History, vol. 1, Introduction.
10 Rees' Cyclopedia, Am. ed., to which he contributed.
II Book of Nature, vol. 2, Lect. III., p, 8.
12 See his paper on the Brain of the Negro compared with the Euro- pean and the Ourang-outang. Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the University of Heidelberg, Member of the Royal Society.
13 Encycl. Brit. vol. 1G, p. 78.
14 Mosaic account confirmed by the Nat. Hist, of the Am. Aborigines in Bib. Repos. July, 1833.
16 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 304. 16 So he has expressed himself. 1T Do.
18 Observations on Atmospheric Influence, Moral as well as Physical, in five parts, by Sir Whitelaw Ainslie, M. D., M. R. A. S. F. R. S. E., in Journal of the Roy. Asiat. Soc, No. iii. vol. 2. 7
I
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Arbuthnot,1 Falconer,2 Prout,3 Boerhave,4 De Haen,g Lackey,6 Parsons,7 Sminton,8 S. L. Mitchell,9 McCulloh,10 Paxton,11 Haller, Gmelin, Cartwright, McCulloch,12 and Jo- hannes Milller, one of the greatest anatomists of our age, says Humboldt,15 and Todd, with his numerous and learned associates.14
To these might be added the great mass of living physi- cians in Great Britain and America ; and Hamilton Smith allows that this is now the established doctrine of phy- siologists.15
Many of the most learned and celebrated Ethnographers and Linguists have also adopted this opinion, such as the
I See on the Effect of Air on the Human Frame, ch. vi. xx., in Ains- lie, p. 58.
3 Falconer on Climate, pp. 123 — 152 ; in Ainslie, p. 58. 8 Chemistry, Meteorology, etc., B. II.
4 See quoted in Lawrence, pp. 339, 340.
5 Ibid.
6 So editor of Delafield's Antiq. See p. 140.
7 Remains of Japhet. Lond. 1767.
8 Univ. Hist, vol 20, pp. 162, 163.
9 Drake's Indians, p. 14.
10 Researches Phil, and Antiq. cconcerning the Aboriginal Hist, of America. Bait., 1829, quoted in Drake, p. 15.
II Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, in Paley's Nat. Theol., with plates and notes.
12 Proofs of the Attributes of God, from the Physical Universe, 3 v. 8vo. Lond. 1837. See vol. 3, pp. 445, 453, 481, 489.
13 Physiol, des Menchen.
14 Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology, as referred to. *6 Nat. Hist, of Man, pp. 232 , 144.
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French Academy,1 Frederick Schlegel,2 Klaproth,3 Para- vey,3 Merian,8 Humboldt,3 Herder,3 Count de Gebelin,3 Abel Remusat,3 Niebuhr,4 in his later and maturer opinions, Adrien Balbe,5 Laplace,6 Mortulca,6 Delambre,6 Colebrook,6 Davis,6 Sir Wm. Jones,6 Hamilton,6 Wilfort,6 Col. Tod and Heeren,6 Professor Vater,7 M. Duponceau,7 Von Spix,8 and Von Martius,8 Grotius,9 Adelung,10 Carl Ritter,11 Johnes,12 Grimm,13 Count Gouliananoff and the Academy of St. Pe- tersburg,14 Sharon Turner,15 Bunsen,16 Le Brotonne,17 Hodgson,18 and Daniell.19
I See Redford's Scripture Verified, p. 56.
* Philosophisiche der sprache und des wortes in ibid., and Wiseman, p. 70.
3 Quoted in do., pp. 160, 161 ; and Wiseman's Lect.,pp. 68, 69, 72.
* Romische Geschichte,3 Ausgabe, Jer. Th. s. 60. See do. 163.
s Atlas Ethnographique du Globe. Eth. 1. See Wiseman, p. 76.
6 Redford, pp. 178, 179, and quoted in proof of the chronology re- quired by the theory of the unity.
7 In do., p. 187, and Encycl. Brit., vol. 6, p. 276.
8 Quoted in do., p. 188.
9 In Johnes' Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Races. Lond. 1843, p. 14.
10 Mithridates, vol. 1.
II In Johnes, p. 18. 11 In the work above named. 13 In Encycl. Brit., vol. 6, p. 275. 14 Dr. Wiseman's Lect., p. 68. 16 Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. 1, Pt. 1,
Lond. 1827. pp. 17—106.
16 See Edinb. Rev. 1849, p. 77, etc. Am. ed.
17 Civilization, Primitive.
18 On the Berber Language in Tr. of Am. Phil. Soc. 1829. w See in Prichard, p. 612, 3d ed.
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The enumeration we have made of names eminent in every branch of science bearing upon the unity of the hu- man race, will show that a majority of those whose opinions are most entitled to weight, have adopted the opinion that the human races are of one species. And this they have done while holding the most opposite opinions on religious sub- jects, some being skeptical, and others belonging to every variety of denomination ; and this they have done also upon various grounds of conclusive evidence. And against this array of testimony given by those whose province it is to judge rightly of the degree of evidence in a question of Na- tural History and Ethnography, who are our opponents ? Dr. Morton enumerates Virey, Boyde St. Vincent, Barton, Dr. J. C. Warren, Prof. Gibson, Dr. B. H. Coates, to whom Dr. Bachman adds Desmoulin and Broc. To these Drake fur- ther adds the names of Voltaire, Lord Kaimes, and Thomas Paine. And we may increase the list with the names of Mr. Burke of the Ethnological Journal, Mr. Gliddon, and Dr. Nott.
The argument founded on probability in favor of the unity of the human race, is therefore of such overwhelming power, that nothing short of clear and evident demonstration ought to overrule it.
We will only suggest as a fourth remark in confirmation of this presumption for the unity of the human races, the fact already established, that all the world over, and in every age, men have practically acknowledged this unity by amalga- mation of all the various races of men, so that at this mo- ment there is not, as we have seen, a pure and unmingled
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race of men on the face of the globe. Dr. Morton has in- deed laid it down as a fact in relation at least to the negro race, that the same repugnance that exists in the different species of animals, is also evidenced among the varieties of men ; that " this repugnance is only partially overcome by centuries of proximity, and by the moral degradation conse- quent to the state of slavery." He adds, " not only is this repugnance proverbial among all nations of the European stock among whom negroes have been introduced, but it appears to be equally natural to the Africans in their own country, towards such Europeans as have been thrown among them ; for with the former, a white skin is not more admired than a black one is with us."
"We could heartily wish," says Dr. Bachman, whose lan- guage we will employ, "in behalf of good morals, that these views of our esteemed friend could be verified by our expe- rience in regard to the two varieties to which he alludes. Charleston has from time to time received the majority of its male inhabitants from our Northern United States and Europe. Personal observation does not verify his asser- tion, that it requires centuries of proximity to remove this natural repugnance ; on the contrary the proofs are suffi- ciently evident, and to a melancholy extent, that if it ex- isted on the day of their arrival here, it faded away not after the lapse of centuries but in a very few days. In regard to the Europeans in their own country, this repugnance is even less than in the Northern States of America. In passing through the small village of Stratford, which recalls to the mind of all travellers the memory of the Bard of Avon, we
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observed on the steps of a neat cottage a well dressed and rather pretty white woman leaning on the shoulders of her husband, a full blood African; They were surrounded by their mulatto progeny. This family we ascertained was on terms of social intercourse with the neighborhood. We also recollect having seen well dressed young white men and women walking arm in arm with negroes in the streets of Edinburgh, London, and Paris. However revolting this sight was to our American feelings, yet it did not appear to be regarded with the same repugnance by the communities in Europe. On the other hand, the repugnance of the Afri- can in his own country to the white man, may be the result of the jealousy of the former on account of the superiority of the latter ; but it is very evident that the white race has not only every where established its superiority over the African, but it has won its way to all manner of intercourse. Nor does this repugnance exist between the Caucasian, the Mongolian, and other varieties. There are in Russia whole regions of country where many races from the Caucasian, and some from the Mongolian, the descendants of the ancient Huns, have intermarried for ages, and they are so blended that it is difficult to trace their several origins. This admix- ture of two or more varieties does not, on the one hand, ap- pear to have had a deteriorating effect on the Caucasian, and certainly elevates those whose remote origin can be traced to the Mongolian. In regard to the admixture of a superior with an inferior race in America, which in almost every case results in degradation and crime, it should be discountenanced by every lover of virtue, of good order and of sound morality."
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This presumptive argument we will conclude by giving the testimony of one of the most extensive and scientific tra- vellers of this or any other age, we mean Baron Humboldt. It is taken from his recent work entitled Cosmos.*
" Whilst attention was exclusively directed to the ex- tremes of color and of form, the result of the first vivid im- pressions, derived from the senses, was a tendency to view these differences as characteristics, not of mere varieties, but of originally distinct species. The permanence of certain types, in the midst of the most opposite influences, especially of climate, appeared to favor this view, notwithstanding the shortness of the time to which the historical evidence ap- plied ; but, in my opinion, more powerful reasons lend their weight to the other side of the question, and corroborate the unity of the human race. I refer to the many intermediate gradations of the tint of the skin, and the form of the skull, which have been made known to us by the rapid progress of geographical sciences in modern times : to the analogies de- rived from the history of varieties in animals, both domesti- cated and wild ; and to the positive observations collected respecting the limits of fecundity in hybrids. The greater part of the supposed contrasts to which so much weight was formerly assigned, have disappeared before the laborious in- vestigations of Tiedeman on the brain of negroes, and of Europeans, and the anatomical researches of Vrolik and Weber, on the form of the pelvis. When we take a general view of the dark-colored African nations, on which the work
* Vol. l,p. 351.
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of Prichard has thrown so much light, and when we com- pare them with the natives of the Australian Islands, and with the Papuas and Alfourans, (Harafores Endamenes,) we see that a black tint of skin, woolly hair, and negro fea- tures, are by no means invariably associated. So long as the Western nations were acquainted with only a small part of the earth's surface, partial views almost necessarily pre- vailed ; tropical heat, and a black color of the skin, appeared inseparable. ' The Ethiopians,' said the ancient tragic poet, Theodectes of Phaselis, 1 by the near approach of the Sun- God in his course, have their bodies colored with a dark sooty lustre, and their hair curled and crisped by his parch- ing rays.' The campaigns of Alexander, in which so many subjects connected with physical geography were originally brought into notice, occasioned the first discussion on the problematical influence of climate on nations and races. 6 Families of plants and animals,' says one of the greatest anatomists of our age^ Johannes Mttller, in his comprehen- sive work, entitled Physiologie des Menschen, ' in the course of their distribution over the surface of the earth, undergo modifications within limits prescribed to genera and species, which modifications are afterwards perpetuated organically in their descendants, forming types and varieties of the same species. The present races of animals have been produced by a concurrence of causes and conditions, internal as well as external, which it is impossible to follow in detail ; but the most striking varieties are found in those families which are susceptible of the widest geographical extension. The different races of mankind are forms or varieties of a single
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species ; their unions are fruitful, and the descendants from them are so likewise ; whereas, if the races were distinct species of a genus, the descendants of mixed breeds would be unfruitful ; but whether the existing races of men are descended from one, or from several primitive men, is a question not determined by experience.5
" Mankind are therefore distributed in varieties, which we are often accustomed to designate by the somewhat
vague appellation of ' races.' By maintaining the
unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the cheerless assumption of superior and inferior races of men. There are families of nations more readily susceptible of culture, more highly civilized, more ennobled by mental cultivation than others ; but not in themselves more noble. .... Deeply rooted in man's most inmost nature, as well as commanded by his highest tendencies, the full recognition of the bond of humanity, of the community of the whole human race, with the sentiments and sympathies which spring therefrom, becomes a leading principle in the history of man."
9*
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CHAPTER IX.
THE TWOFOLD CHARACTER OF THE QUES- TION.—SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT.
Inductive philosophy is subservient both to natural and revealed reli~ gion. — Powell.
Though science may often clash with religious errors, it cannot possi- bly be opposed to religious truth. — Ethnological Journal.
Difficulties in particulars must not be allowed to interfere with the reception of general truths. — Villiers.
The truth and certainty of the unity of the human races has now, we believe, been established as an incontrovertible fact. It rests upon the unmistakable evidence of the infal- lible word of God, who in the beginning made of one blood
ALL THE NATIONS OF MEN TO DWELL ON ALL THE FACE OF
the earth. It is supported also by presumptive arguments which are impregnable against all the speculations and diffi- culties by which they may be assailed.
The unity of the human races for which we "contend earnestly," is therefore the identical origin of all mankind — originally from Adam and Eve— and subsequently from Noah and his sons. It is in this point of view the question be- comes one of fundamental importance and transcendent in-
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terest to every human being, both as it regards the life that now is, and also that which is to come. The relations of all men of every race and form, to the same original head and representative ; — their equal humanity ; — their common par- ticipation in all the consequences of the fall and in all the benefits of redemption ; — and the common rights, privileges, and obligations to which as spiritual and immortal beings all are destined; — these are the great and glorious principles involved in this doctrine, and with which the truth of Scrip- ture must stand or fall.
In this aspect of the question it is, it must be admitted, fairly and legitimately a scriptural one. It is plainly be- yond the discovery of reason. It lies in regions to which the clue of history offers no guide. It is immeasurably be- yond the reach of inductive observation. The facts we can- not observe. Reasoning upon these facts, and conclusions founded on that reasoning, we cannot make. The appeal must be made, therefore, to testimony, and that testimony must be divine. And if this testimony exists, then our be- lief in the original unity of the human races is — like our belief in the certain immortality of the soul in a state of hap- piness or misery, in all the doctrines of the Bible, and in the original creation out of nothing of the earth itself — an exer- cise of faith, and not a conviction produced by science. For even as it is "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb. xi : 3), so through faith we believe also, that " God in the begin- ning made of one blood all the nations who now dwell upon the face of all the earth."
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It is in this view of the question, as we have said, it is altogether independent of the speculations of science — the theories of the physiologist — the classifications of the natural- ist— or the dreams of the ethnologist — and that it is therefore to be decided by the same rules of historical criticism which decide upon any and every other doctrine of the Bible.
In this view also the question is as evidently not. about a matter of curiosity, but one in which the inspiration and truth of the Bible are involved, and which is pregnant there- fore with inconceivably important results.
According to the Ethnological Journal, the determination of the differences of mankind is to lead to " the deduction of principles for human guidance in all the important relations of social existence."* " It developes facts and principles whose application will ultimately change the face of the world." That such will be the case who can dare to doubt ? For " when we assert," adds this Journal, " that its researches already assign to man an antiquity of some twenty or thirty thousand years, during the greater portion of which mighty empires have been rising, and spreading, and perishing, in various regions of the earth ; when we assert that there were many ranges of civilization and empire in Europe, be- fore a pyramid or a temple was raised in Egypt, or a cave excavated in Abyssinia or India — when, in fine, we assert that America was among the earlier seats of civilization and empire, and that its glories were well known to many of the most ancient races of the old world, it is obvious that if these
* Vol. l,p. 1.
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things can be substantiated, the historical portion of ethno- logy must possess an interest of the most absorbing nature.7'
Another of " the fundamental doctrines of ethnology" is that " the human body is a true machine in the most per- fect sense of the term, and consequently in its origin, deve- lopment, and natural decay, it is subject to all the essential laws of pure mechanism, and to no others."
This, however, does not imply materialism ! — but only " that the human body is not an organic structure merely, but a bona jide machine ! /" " Death is as natural as sleep, (for) man is a machine, not a tree." " The genus homo is divisible into two ranges, the harmonic and the discrepant," the former intermarrying and having prolific offspring, and the latter not breeding together, and being incapable of pro- ducing prolific offspring. Of the harmonic range there are thirteen species and sixty-three races, and of the discrepant an indefinite number not yet apparently determined.
Now that all these and many similar conclusions " can be substantiated," continues the Journal, "we have no hesita- tion in asserting. Most of these points it is in our power to prove at this moment ; the truth of the rest we clearly see, though we are not as yet in possession of all the details that might be requisite for impressing this conviction on the minds of others. These, however, will not be long in com- ing. Sufficient materials already exist, and are accessible ; they merely want collection and arrangement."
"It is not forgotten or overlooked that 6 every one of these principles' is in open contrariety to the Bible, and to all philosophy, and to all science as now established. For all
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this the conductors of this Journal are prepared. As for the hasty, the superficial, or the prejudiced, we must man- age with them as well as we can. We have no further ex- cuse to make to them, nor would any be of avail. We must, however, say, that if our principles are to be overturned, it will not be by them. We know their weapons and their power, and we are superabundantly prepared against them, while they have no conception of what our resources are. We have measured these against their anger, and we wait with confidence the issue/'
But still further, not only are these views entertained by Mr. Burke, the editor and principal contributor of the Ethnological Journal, " but we learn," he says, " from Mr. Gliddon, with the greatest pleasure, that Ethnology is excit- ing a vivid interest in the United States, and that its advo- cates entertain enlightened views upon the subject, and are prepared to receive and carry out whatever can be shown to be the truth, irrespective of conventional prejudices." In other words, the Ethnologists of the United States are equally prepared, with Mr. Burke, to make this question of the unity of the human races, the vehicle for diffusing the most infi- del and materializing opinions. " There are," he adds, " some whose independence and enthusiasm will not suffer them to be satisfied with giving an indirect support to what they deem an important principle, and amongst these no one has lately attracted a greater share of attention than Dr. Nott of Mobile." Such, then, are the avowed tendencies and de- sign of this controversy on the unity of the races. It will not now be doubted that it involves the truth and authority of the Bible.
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There is, however, another aspect in which the question of the unity of the human races may be received, and in which it becomes a scientific inquiry, and that is, the ques- tion of fact regarding the present actual characteristics of the various races of men,— -the extent and character of their differences, — the possibility of accounting for them by na- tural and existing causes, — the classification which these varieties require to be made of the races of men, — whether all these races ought to be considered varieties of one spe- cies or different species of one genus, — and finally, whether in the case of any particular tribe of beings resembling man, such as the Dokos, &c, they are or are not to be admitted under the genus or the species homo, or are to be classed among some lower order.
These, we apprehend, and these alone, are the scientific boundaries of this question. The only province to which science can direct its efforts in this inquiry, is the discovery of truth, by the sole use of our reasoning faculties in dedu- cing laws and causes from the facts experimentally and veri- tably before us.
In this view all facts which come within the knowledge of our minds, whether by observation, experiment, or testi- mony, whether from the domain of history or philosophy, — "all facts which," as Doctor Morton says, "tend to establish analogies among men," are " evidently proper and neces- sary to the scientific determination of this question."
The conclusion, therefore, cannot scientifically be ar- rived at by the testimony of anatomy alone, or of physiology alone, or of ethnography alone, or of history alone, or of ex-
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perience and observation alone, — but it can properly follow only from the examination of all the facts attested by all these sciences combined. The scientific argument on this subject is cumulative. It rests not upon any one line of proof, but upon every thing which bears upon the determi- nation of the proposition that all the existing races of men possess — amid all their diversities — physical, intellectual, and moral — attributes which essentially belong to man, and which at the same time identify all men as belonging to one and the same species.
Are all men, therefore, of one and the same species ? This is the first point to which, in a scientific aspect of this question, we are led, and to which we will now give our attention.
This question, however, involves several difficulties which occasion great obscurity, to which we must pre- viously advert.
One source of this obscurity is man's compound nature, which is physical and spiritual. Abstractly considered, we might regard these as entirely independent, so that the con- sideration of the one would not involve the other. We might thus imagine men not to be all of one species morally, and yet to be of the same species physically, or the reverse. And this is in fact the course pursued by many. In treat- ing of man's specific character, they have regard only to his animal organization and nature. But while this might be permitted when the object is merely to accommodate the convenience of scientific analysis, yet when we come to speak of man practically, and in view of his relations to God
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and to his fellow-men, it is altogether inadmissible. Man, as he is, as he lives, moves, and acts, and thinks and wills, is not an animal. He is more, — inconceivably more. Every one must admit and feel that it is not man's animal frame, exquisite as is its workmanship, that we find the most re- markable of the human phenomena. All must admit that there is in man an element remarkably distinct from all his other functions, an essence whose property is thought. "What gives to this animal frame its chief importance is, that it is the shrine of that mysterious principle which lies hidden within — that volatile element which no chemist has been able to detect — that impalpable thing which has es- caped the scalpel of the most minute anatomist — that which, itself invisible, gives to the eye all its diversified expres- sion, revealing itself there in a thousand intimations, — which transfuses itself into the voice, inspiring its ever-changing intonations, and rendering it the conveyancer to others of the endless series of thoughts and feelings belonging to our personal consciousness, and which imparts to every variety of feature and gesture all that it has of life, and interest, and expression." Any determination of man's specific charac- ter and position in the scale of beings therefore which leaves out of mind that very nature which makes him what he is, we must protest against in the name of humanity, reason, and science. Let us then suppose that naturalists, for their own convenience, should arrange men into several species founded upon their color and other physical peculiarities, this classification would not affect the question of their real and essential unity, first as descended originally from the
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same primeval pair, and secondly as possessing the essential attributes of human nature perfect and entire. It would undoubtedly, if consistently carried out, lead to an entire change in the arrangements of zoology, so that all former classifications would be of no further use ; but when once it came to be universally understood that the term species did not imply any relation whatever to original descent, or any other qualities than the physical peculiarities above al- luded to, the question of real unity of nature between the different races of men would be left to be determined by its own proper evidence, species having no relation to it one way or the other.
On this supposition any human foetus which was found externally destitute of the marks included under the term species, would not belong to the species of man at all, though born of Christian and Caucasian parents. It might have a soul and all the essential attributes of humanity as known to God, but not those selected for their arrangement by natural- ists. Such a use of the term species would only have the effect of throwing the whole of zoological classification into confusion, by substituting the term species for the present term variety. It would, therefore, be both an unwise and useless change ; unwise because it would disturb all existing classifications, and useless because it would leave the ques- tion of origin and of nature just where it is, to be decided as it must now be.
This, however, has not been the general sense of man- kind. Origin and descent have hitherto guided mankind in determining in every case, whether an individual who was
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destitute of external organs and qualities, or of internal facul- ties and powers, — as in the case of the Abbot of St. Martin — belonged to the species man, and were to be treated as human beings. And thus we perceive that the only ques- tion of real importance to men's social, moral, and political interest is, their common origin in Adam and Eve. This involves the equal relation of all men to those temporal and eternal interests in which they and their posterity are in- volved by reason of their relation to Adam, to God, and to the destinies of immortality. For even if naturalists should range mankind under different species but one genus, that generic character — which of course all the species must pos- sess— would comprehend the ideas of reason, responsibility, and the relations specified above ; — and of this generic whole it would still be true, that all its members were originally descended from Adam and Eve, and that however now di- versified, they are one in origin, in duty, in danger and in destiny.
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CHAPTER X.
THE NATURE AND PHILOSOPHY OF SPECIES.
Species serves to form the groundwork of science. We discriminate things in a loose or general manner by saying that they are of the animal or vegetable kind; of the canine or feline kind. But we dis- criminate them precisely if we say that they are a species of ar- butus, of the pomegranate, of the dog, the horse, and the like. — Crabbe's Synonymes.
The essence of any being is that internal constitution or frame or modi- fication of the substance , which God in his good pleasure thinks fit to give to every particular creature when he gives a being. — Locke.
We have considered the twofold character of this inquiry, and the obscurity arising from the twofold nature of man. But another source of obscurity is found in the very indeter- minate character of the term species.
The word species, from specio, to behold, signifies liter- ally the form or appearance, and hence it denotes a class or division causing the same or similar sensations to the sight, having or showing the same particular and discriminating qualities.
This term, like that of genus, is used in a popular, in a logical, and in a zoological sense. In the popular sense the
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term species means any class either of subjects or of objects which are included under a more general class. Thus a ma- thematician is a species of man. Justice, prudence, courage, &c, are species of the genus virtue. Species is in this sense synonymous with kind, as when sweet, sour, and salt tastes, are spoken of as species of taste. The word man, in this use of the word, refers to all beings who have a certain form and rationality, and has no reference to the teeth or other zoological properties. In this popular sense the same thing may be a genus with reference to the sub-classes or species included in it, and a species in reference to a more compre- hensive class ; as for instance, animal in reference to man and brute on the one hand, and to organized being on the other. And hence it will be seen that in this sense there may be different kinds or species, where there is no differ- ence zoologically or physiologically.
In its logical sense the term species signifies any class of whatever nature which is distinguished from all other classes by an indeterminate multitude of properties not derivable from another class, and which is not divisible into other kinds. In this sense species is a general name grounded not upon the attributes it connotes, but the kind or class re- ferred to, or, in other words, the relation which it bears to the subject of which it happens to be predicated. Logically considered, therefore, species and genus are no real things existing independent of our thoughts, but are the creatures of our own minds. When several individuals are observed to resemble each other in some one point, a common name may be assigned to them denoting that point and distinguish-
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ing them from all others. And as we may select at plea- sure the circumstances that we choose to abstract, we may thus refer the same individual to several different species. The measure and boundary by which we constitute a spe- cies or particular sort, includes all those ideas regarded as essential for the purpose in view. These together form the complex idea to which we give, in the case now under con- sideration, the name man. Thus when we say, voluntary motion, sense, and reason, constitute man, then these alone form the essence and standard of the species of man. Only that which is thus made necessary to the general idea of man, therefore, is necessary to determine the species of any race of beings, since we find many of the individuals that are ranked into one sort, called by one common name, and so received as being of one species, have yet qualities de- pending on their real constitutions, as far different one from another as from others from which they are accounted to differ specially. A species is determined therefore logi- cally, not by the real or entire nature of the object, which can be known only by God, but by certain qualifications which are conventionally regarded as necessary to enrol it under the same general division.
The essential characteristics of species can therefore be known only by God. Man can know only the outward qua- lities. God alone, says Locke, can know " that constitution of man from which his faculties of moving, sensation, and reasoning, and other powers flow, and on which his regular shape depends.55
Things, therefore, which are in themselves essentially
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alike, may be classed logically under different species, and things essentially different may be arranged under the same species. We might, therefore, logically divide men into a number of species according to the poetical, oratorical, ima- ginative, logical, or active characteristics by which they are distinguished from one another, — or into the white, the red, the yellow, and the black, — or into the bearded and the beardless, — or into the civilized and uncivilized, — and yet determine nothing respecting their unity of origin, of es- sence, or of destiny.
It is very different, however, when we come to speak of the term species zoologically. Each science or art forms its classification of things according to the properties which fall within its special cognizance, or of which it must take ac- count in order to accomplish its peculiar practical ends. The divisions of the agriculturist, the geologist, and the na- turalist, are, therefore, widely different, both in their nature, names, and ends.
A nomenclature, says Mill, " may be defined, the col- lection of names of all the Kinds with which any branch of knowledge is conversant, or more properly of all the lowest Kinds or injimae species, — that is, those which may be subdi- vided indeed, but not into Kinds, and which generally accord with what in natural history are termed simply species. Science possesses two splendid examples of a systematic no- menclature : that of plants and animals, constructed by Lin- naeus and his successors, and that of chemistry, which we owe to the illustrious group of chemists who flourished in France towards the close of the eighteenth century. In these
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two departments not only has every known species or lowest Kind a name assigned to it, but when new lowest Kinds are discovered, names are at once given to them upon a uniform principle. In other sciences the nomenclature is not, at pre- sent, constructed upon any system, either because the spe- cies to be named are not numerous enough to require one (as in geometry for example), or because no one has yet suggested a suitable principle for such a system, as in min- eralogy ; in which the want of a scientifically constructed nomenclature is now the principal cause which retards the progress of the science."
It will be important to dwell a little on this point, in or- der to meet the objection that there is no possibility of deter- mining what constitutes a species.
The ancients made species include the essence of the subject. With them man was the lowest species, and fur- ther divisions into tfhich man might be broken down as into white, black, and red, they did not admit to be species.*
Among the Schoolmen, differences which extend to a certain property or properties, and there terminated, they considered as differences only in the accidents of things; but when any class differed from other things by an infinite series of differences, known and unknown, they considered the distinction as one of Kind, and spoke of it as being an essential difference.
Zoological classes are not, therefore, conventional, arbi- trary, abstract terms, but are based upon the truth thus
* Mills' Logic, p. 82.
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always known — though very obscurely and incorrectly worded — that " there are in nature distinctions of Kind — distinctions not consisting in a given number of definite properties, plus the effects which follow from those proper- ties, but running through the whole nature — through the at- tributes generally, of the things so distinguished."
The groups of naturalists do not, therefore, depend on arbitrary choice. " They are determined," says Mill, " by characters which are not arbitrary. The problem is to find a few definite characters which will point to the multitude of indefinite ones. Kinds are classes between which there is an impassable barrier, and what we have to seek is, marks whereby we may determine on which side the barrier an object takes its place. The characters which will best do this are what should be chosen. If they are also important in themselves, so much the better. When we have selected the characters, we parcel out the objects according to those characters."
" The end of Classifications, as an instrument for the in- vestigation of nature, is (as before stated) to make us think of those objects together, which have the greatest number of important common properties, and which, therefore, we have oftenest occasion, in the course of our inductions, for taking into joint consideration. Our ideas of objects are thus brought into the order most conducive to the successful pro- secution of inductive inquiries generally."
To constitute, therefore, a class of natural objects pro- perly, we must take into consideration all the varieties of existing objects, and the exact place of the plants and ani- 8
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mals thus classified in a general division of nature. The whole of the properties and relations of these objects must also be taken into account, " those attributes being regarded as the most important, which contribute either by them- selves or by their effects to render the things like one another, and unlike other things ; which give to the class composed of them the most marked individuality ; which fill, as it were, the largest space in their existence, and would most impress the attention of a spectator who knew all their properties, but was not specially interested in any. Classes formed in this manner may be called in a more em- phatic manner than any others, natural groups." "The properties according to which objects are classified, should, therefore, if possible, be those which are causes of many other properties ; or at any rate such as are sure marks of them. Causes are preferable both as being the surest and most direct of marks, and as being themselves the property which is the cause of the chief peculiarities of a class. But this is unfortunately seldom fitted to serve also as the diag- nostic of the class. Instead of the cause, we must generally select some of its more prominent effects, which may serve as marks of the other effects, and of the cause itself."
It is evident from these observations that every species must be distinguished from all other classes by an indeter- minate multitude of properties not derivable from another. Species must also be the lowest kind, so that any lower di- vision would be founded not upon essential, but upon definite distinctions, not pointing (apart from what may be known of their causes or effects) to any difference beyond them-
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selves. Species does not, therefore, exclude — but on the contrary implies — the existence of many individual and fa- mily differences. The members of a species have only in common a limited number of characters. It is only neces- sary that these characters should be important, and that the objects contained in the species should resemble each other more than they resemble any thing which is excluded from the species.
To make definite distinctions which are not distinctions in kind or essence, the grounds of separating objects from a species, is, therefore, inadmissible in any scientific classifi- cation. For " since the common properties of a true Kind, and consequently the general assertions which can be made respecting it, or which are certain to be made hereafter as our knowledge extends, are indefinite and inexhaustible ; and since the very first principle of natural classification is that of forming the classes, so that the objects composing each may have the greatest number of properties in com- mon ; this principle prescribes that every such classification shall recognize and adopt into itself all distinctions of kind which exist among the objects it professes to classify. To pass over any distinction of Kind, and substitute definite dis- tinctions, which, however considerable they may be, do not point to ulterior, unknown differences, would be to replace classes with more by classes with fewer attributes in com- mon, and would be subversive of the Natural Method of Classification."
Many differences in animals arise from modifications of the mysterious principle of life, and from the intermixture of
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the effects of incidental causes peculiar to the nature of each. Thus in man, for example, (the species in which both the phenomenon of animal and that of organic life exist in the highest degree,) many subordinate phenomena develope themselves in the course of his animated existence, which the inferior varieties of animals do not show. The proper- ties which are made the characteristics of a species must, therefore, be not only differences, but differences which are essential, and which belong to it universally and con- stantly.
In Zoology accordingly it is a fixed principle — founded upon the indefinite varieties of which animal life is capable, — that common parentage, where this can possibly be traced, is a certain and infallible criterion of species.
" The species of plants," says Mill, " are not only real Kinds, but are probably all of them real lowest Kinds, or infimae species. I say probably, not certainly, because this is not the consideration by which a botanist determines, what shall or shall not be admitted as a species. In natural history those objects belong to the same species, which con- sistently with experience might have been produced from the same stock. But this distinction in most, and probably all cases, happily accords with the other. It seems to be a law of physiology, that animals and plants do really, in the philosophical, as well as the popular sense, propagate their kind ; transmitting to their descendants all the distinctions of Kind (down to the most special or lowest Kind) which they themselves possess."
On this point Archbishop Whately is equally positive.
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When applied to organized beings, he says, " the term spe- cies is always applied (when we are speaking strictly as naturalists) to such individuals as are supposed to be de- scended from a common stock, or which might have so de- scended ; viz. which resemble one another — to use M. Cu- vier's expression — as much as those of the same stock do. Now this being a point on which all — not merely Natural- ists— are agreed, and since it is a fact (whether an ascer- tained fact or not) that such and such individuals are, or are not thus connected, it follows, that every question whether a certain individual animal or plant belongs to a certain spe- cies or not, is a question not of mere arrangement, but of fact. If for instance it were disputed whether the African and the Asiatic elephant are distinct species, c-r merely va- rieties, it would be manifest that the question is one of fact ; since both would allow that if they are descended (or might have descended) from the same stock, they are of the same species, and if otherwise, of two ; this is the fact which they endeavor to ascertain, by such indications as are to be found." * * * "In the 6 Infimae species,' — according to the view of a Naturalist — of plants and animals, the differentia which constitutes each species, includes in it a circumstance which cannot often be directly ascertained (viz. the being sprung from the same stock), but which we conjecture from certain circumstances of resemblance, so that the marks by which a species is known, are not in truth the whole of the differentia itself, but indications of the existence of that dif- ferentia; viz. indications of descent from a common stock."*
* See Logic. See also Carpenter's Physiology, pp. 76, 77.
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Wherever, therefore, there is reason to believe that or- ganized beings are of the same stock, all differences, whether individual or collective, are regarded as accidental varieties. Under this term, says Mill, are included all attributes of a thing which are neither involved in the signification of the name, (whether ordinarily or as a term of art,) nor have, so far as we know, any necessary connection with attributes which are so involved. They are commonly divided into se- parable and inseparable accidents. Inseparable accidents are those which — although we know of no connection between them and the attributes constitutive of the species, and al- though, so far as we are aware, they might be absent without making the name inapplicable, and the species a different spe- cies, are yet never in fact known to be absent. A concise mode of expressing the same meaning is, that inseparable accidents are properties which are universal to the species but not necessary to it. Thus blackness is an attribute of a crow, and as far as we know, a universal one. But if we were to discover a race of white birds, in other respects re- sembling crows, we should not say, these are not crows; we should say, these are white crows. Crows, therefore, do not connote blackness ; nor from any of the attributes which it does connote, whether as a word in popular use or as a term of art, could blackness be inferred. Not only, therefore, can we conceive a white crow, but we know of no reason why such an animal should not exist. Since, however, none but black crows are known to exist, blackness in the present state of our knowledge ranks as an accident, but an inseparable accident, of the species crow. Separable accidents are those
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which are found in point of fact to be sometimes absent from the species ; which are not only not necessary, but not univer- sal. They are such as do not. belong to every individual of the species, but only some individuals ; or if to all, not at all times. Thus, the color of a European is one of the separa- ble accidents of the species man, because it is not an attri- bute of all human creatures. Being born is a separable accident of the species man, because although an attribute of all human beings, it is so only at one particular time. A fortiori, those attributes which are not constant even in the same individual, so as to be in one or in another place, to be hot or cold, sitting or walking, must be ranked as separable accidents.
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CHAPTER XL
THE UNITY OF THE RACES PROVED BY THE UNITY OF THE SPECIES.
The apparent indefiniteness and inconsistency of the classifications and definitions of Natural History belongs in a far higher degree, to all other except mathematical speculations. — Mill's Logic.
Aliquem humani specie et figura, qui immanitate bestias viceret. — Cicero.
We are now brought to the question of fact, whether upon the principles we have elucidated, zoologists have been, or can properly be, led to make such differences as confessedly exist among men, marks of different species ; and whether among higher animals specific character has been regarded as presumptive proof of the unity of origin.
In reply to these queries we venture to affirm that every mark which has ever been laid down by naturalists to dis- tinguish one species of animals from another, proves, when applied to man, that all the varieties of the human family are of one species, and that these marks are equally conclu- sive in determining that there is a fixed and impassable boundary separating men from all other animals.
In his physical nature as possessed of corporeal organiza-
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tion, man is unquestionably an animal. As such he is in- cluded in the classification of the animal kingdom, under the department of vertebrates, the class of mammalia, and the order of two-handed. But it is as true that even in this as- pect of his nature, the peculiar characteristics of man are so numerous and strong, as to have led all naturalists, with very few exceptions, to arrange a separate order or genus for himself. The same rules by which the characteristics of distinct and separate species and genus are determined as it regards other animals, when applied to man in view of his physical and other qualities, have led naturalists to the un- hesitating conclusion that he is at a much greater distance from all other animals, than they are from one another, and that he must, therefore, be regarded as a distinct genus, which contains under it no species, but only permanent va- rieties.
In all that man possesses in common with the brutes he is characterized by superiority, and exhibits a marvellous adaptation to all the higher and varied functions and occu- pations to which he, and he alone, is destined. Physiologi- cally and anatomically, therefore, in the complicated nature of their organization, in their structure, in their organs, in the multiplicity of their relations to the external world, in the great variety of their functions, in their nervous system, in their development, in their limitations to territory, habits, food, and employment — man is pre-eminent.
Man is thus specifically distinguished from all other ani- mals, according to the very full and elaborate investigations of Dr. Lawrence, in the following particulars. 8»
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1. Smoothness of skin, and want of natural offensive weapons, or means of defence.
2. Erect stature ; to which the conformation of the body- in general, and that of the pelvis, lower limbs, and their muscles in particular, are accommodated.
3. Incurvation of the sacrum and os coccygis, and con- sequent direction of the vagina and urethra forwards.
4. Articulation of the head with the spinal column by the middle of its basis, and want of ligamentum nuchse.
5. Possession of two hands, and very perfect structure of the hands.
6. Great proportion of the cranium (cerebral cavity) to the face, receptacles of the senses and organs of mastication.
7. Shortness of the lower jaw, and prominence of its mental portion.
8. Want of intermaxillary bone.
9. Teeth all of equal length and approximated, inferior incisors perpendicular.
10. Great development of the cerebral hemispheres.
11. Greatness of brain in proportion to size of the nerves connected with it.
12. Great number and development of mental faculties, whether intellectual or moral.
13. Speech.
14. Capability of inhabiting all climates and situations ; and of living on all kinds of food.
15. Slow growth, long infancy, late puberty.
16. By very great peculiarities connected with the func- tions, times and seasons of procreation.
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In addition to these broad and prominent distinctions, the human race — in contrast with all other animals — use fire, — sing, — laugh, — weep tears of sympathetic joy and sorrow, — change their habits, — vary their employments, — diversify their methods for attaining the same ends, — provide various means of transportation both by sea and land, — construct and diversify their habitations in adaptation to climate and condition, — have arts, languages, and laws, — are possessed of intellect, imagination, and reason, — are endowed with the mysteriously sublime power of conscience, a sense of re- sponsibility, a knowledge of right and wrong, an anticipation of immortality, of future retribution, — a belief in God, the maker, preserver, and the judge of all, — and a constant fear of death and eternity.
It is, says Dr. Hoppus, his intellect, and his moral sense — his conscious capacity of an excellence he has never reached — his inward vision of the true, the beautiful, and the good — that invest him with a dignity which belongs to him alone of all earthly things ; and, more than any mere external superiority, mark him as a creature of a higher or- der, and adapted to nobler ends, than the rest, between which and himself there is a wide and inaccessible distance. It is true that other animals not only often excel man in the per- fection of their senses, but also give unequivocal indications of possessing other faculties. They recognize the past, and are influenced by association. They appear to dream. Like man, too, they are capable of a variety of affections and emotions. Like him they can be agitated with terror, and can anticipate pain and danger. When provoked and injured they are enraged, and when humanely treated and
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caressed they often show grateful returns. They exhibit a sagacity, between which and reason it is not always easy to draw the line. Some naturalists, whose talents and re- searches entitle them to the highest deference, would say that even the infusorial animalcules, the polygastrica or po- lycystica, (some of which are not more than l-2,000th of a line in their greatest diameter, and revel in a single drop of water or in the fluids of other animals,) live an age of "emo- tion and thought" in their ephemeral life of a few hours. But without inquiring how low in the scale of being we are to trace the existence of something more than mere animal sensibility and blind mechanical instinct, we certainly can- not continue to ascend without meeting with something more, even before we reach the highest point. If we may, with the naturalist, speak of the pectoral and caudal fins of fishes as their hands and feet — the analogue of these parts in the quadrumana and bimana — we may surely say, when we ob- serve the sagacity and the affections of the animals most conversant with man, and which have sometimes been term- ed his " friends/5 that they have a mind, in many respects, the analogue of his own. Still their limited range of under- standing is evinced in their want of rational curiosity, — in their appearing incapable of wonder in Ihe midst of a uni- verse where all is wonderful, — in their deficiency of moral feeling, and the sense of a Creator.
Man advances in knowledge and attains to truth : but his fellow-animals exhibit no progression : their life is uniform from age to age. Every individual has all the knowledge of its species — every species all the knowledge of its progeni- tors. The bird still builds her nest, the beaver his house, the
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bee her cell, as they ever did ; and while the architecture of man has improved from the rude wooden hut of the Nomadic tribes, to the immortal temples of Greece, the workmanship of the lower animals has always been so perfect in its kind as to need no improvement. It is true that the sagacity (as we term it) of animals, is quite a distinct manifestation from those wonderful instincts which seem to operate almost as mechanically as the physical laws of nature ; and this saga- city appears sometimes to approach very nearly to reason. But we soon perceive, on the comparison, how widely differ- ent is the reason of the lower animals from that of man. If they can ever be said to reason at all, their reasoning is but as a single link — it is never carried out into a long chain. Man has a reason that can stretch itself forward into a continuous series — a reason which allies itself with sesthetical and moral feeling, and with religion.
One of the great characteristics of man, is the power he possesses of reflecting on the phenomena of his own con- sciousness. This reflex consciousness is at the same time a deep and unfathomable mystery of his nature. Our practi- cal familiarity with the operations of our own minds, indeed, prevents us from being fully alive to the marvellous consti- tution of the inner man. The internal scenery of conscious- ness is often viewed without any sentiment of novelty, like the visible objects we have been accustomed to from infancy : all is coeval with the memory of ourselves. It is, perhaps, only when we survey the results of mind, that we become adequately open to the impression of its grandeur and dig- nity among created things. If the vast and magnificent temple which is the most striking memorial of the genius of
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Sir Christopher Wren, made the sepulchral marble superflu- ous, and his best euology was the inscription, si monumentum requiris circmnspice, — how true is it, in the general, that man's greatness is best seen in his works ? Alas, that such a being should, by a perverse and evil will, often place him- self in a depth of degradation to which the brutes cannot descend !*
Are then all men as much alike to each other as they are distinguished from all other animals ? It cannot be denied that in every one of those characteristics by which man is distinguished from other animals — in the exact number and location of the bones, the teeth, and the limbs, — in the number of their young — in the average of their age — in their liability to disease — in the nature and cookery of their food — in the laws of the animal economy — in the impulses or active principles which govern their lives and habits — in their periods of slumber and activity")* — all men of every variety and age and country, are found most perfectly to agree. In all these they are constant and invariable.
" We have shown," says Dr. Bachman,^: " that all the
* On the superiority of man to all other animals, see Carpenter's Human Physiology, p. 67-76. Agassiz regards man as widely distin- guished from even the highest kind of monkeys ; see also Dr. Goode's Book of Nature ; Brande's Cyclopedia, Art. Man ; Rees' Cyclopedia, Art. Man ; London Quarterly Review, Jan. 1850, p. 8 ; Zoology, p. 40, ch. iv. p. 43, &c, and p. 641.
t Todd's Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiol., p. 680.
X The Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race, examined on the principles of Science. By John Bachman, D. D., Prof. Nat. Hist. Col- lege of Charleston, &c.
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varieties evidence a complete and minute correspondence in the number of the teeth and in the 208 additional bones con- tained in the body.
" That in the peculiarity in the shedding of the teeth, so different from all other animals, they all correspond.
" That they are perfectly alike in the following particu- lars :
" In all possessing the same erect stature.
" In the articulation of the head with the spinal column.
" In the possession of two hands.
" In the absence of the intermaxillary bone.
" In the teeth of equal length.
" In a smooth skin of the body, and the head covered with hair.
" In the number and arrangement of the muscles in every part of the body, the digestive and all the other organs.
" In the organs of speech and the power of singing.
" They all possess mental faculties, conscience, and en- tertain the hope of immortality. It is scarcely necessary to add, that in these two last characteristics man is placed at such an immeasurable distance above the brute creation as to destroy every vestige of affinity to the monkey or any other genus or species.
" They are all omnivorous and are capable of living on all kinds of food.
" They are capable of inhabiting all climates.
" They all possess a slower growth than any other ani- mal, and are later in arriving at puberty.
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" A peculiarity in the physical constitution of the female, differing from all the other mammalians.
" All the races have the same period of gestation, on an average produce the same number of young, and are subject to similar diseases."
In these and similar facts, therefore, a certain answer may be found to our inquiry, and that answer is that men
ARE ALL OF ONE AND THE SAME SPECIES as Well as of One
and the same genus and order. They constitute an assem- blage of individuals descended from common parents, which bear as great a resemblance to them as they do to each other, and have fixed forms which, though to a certain extent altera- ble, are handed down essentially unimpaired from genera- tion to generation. " If, then, the term 'species,' " says the Encyclopedia Americana, " is used in its common scientific sense, it cannot be denied that there is but one species of men.55 The dispute on this subject the same authority pro- nounces to be a dispute of words, founded upon an effort to subvert the established rules, and the received and well- known meaning of natural science. There are undoubtedly certain and constant differences among men — of stature, physiognomy, color, nature of the hair, and form of the skull, pelvis, and heel bone. But the most opposite extremes in these varieties are connected together, and intermingled, and gradually brought together by numerous gradations. And in every character important and essential to the being of man, as distinguished from other animals, all men are pre- cisely alike, and capable of uniform, invariable and perma- nent continuance by natural propagation.
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CHAPTER XII.
THE UNITY OF THE RACES PROVED BY THE UNITY OF THE SPECIES.
Let men mistake in the complication of their ideas, either in leaving out or putting in what doth not belong to them ; and let their ideas be what they please, the real essence of the individuals comprehended under the names annexed to these ideas, will be the same, because they do not depend on the will of the Creator, who hath made seve- ral sorts of beings. — Bishop of Worcester.
Man hath his daily work for body or mind
Appointed, which declares his dignity,
And the regard of heaven on all his ways ;
While other animals inactive range,
And of their doings God takes no account. — Milton.
The differences found in all the races of men, are distinc- tions not of kind running through the whole nature and attri- butes of man, but are what are termed definite properties. There is no impassable barrier between the different races. These are found on the contrary to run into one another by- insensible gradations. Their differences are not, therefore, essential because they do not distinguish each several race from every other by an indeterminate multitude of proper-
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ties not derivable from any other. They are not lowest kinds, for if these differences constitute species, then it will be true as we have heard it affirmed, and that too by a naturalist, (who, of course, opposed our views,) that every several child in the same family and of the same parents, and every member of the same community, is a distinct species.
These differences we would further observe, do not con- stitute species, because, notwithstanding them, all the races of men resemble each other far more than they do any other animals. These differences are not involved in the significa- tion of man — they have no necessary connections with the attributes which jointly form that signification. They are, therefore, either separable or inseparable accidents. They might all be conceived to exist in the case of individuals of the other races without altering their specific character. An American man would not cease to be such though he should become, by some mysterious process, dark in color ; or be- cause he had a badly shaped head, prominent jaws, some bones comparatively long, and a feeble intellect. These are not the attributes which enter into the idea of an American or a Caucasian man. If all these were found united in one individual, they would be regarded as very extraordinary, but their existence separately and in modified degrees, is what we observe daily among the various European races found among us. The existence, therefore, of these pecu- liarities in innumerable variety of degrees among different tribes of men, cannot constitute them different species from other men with whom they hold in common all the peculiarly human characteristics we have described. In their struc-
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ture, in their physiology, and in all the laws of their being, these races are uniform with the white and the yellow races of man, and different from all other animals. They are all, therefore, of one and the same species, and these differences must be accidental though permanent peculiarities, and are not essential or specific. " I have likewise," says Prichard, " in a separate chapter, compared the physiological charac- ters of different tribes, having first, by a tolerably extensive induction, established the fact that between different species, properly so termed, there are in general strongly marked diversities with relation to the great laws of the animal economy, and that each species has a distinct physiological character. The conclusion which evidently resulted was, that no differences such as those above described are to be found among human families, and that whatever exist in these respects are the effects of external agencies, and the tendency to variations which such agencies call into activity."
Species do not, it must be remembered, exclude differ- ences, but on the contrary, as we have seen, necessarily im- ply their existence. Variation is the inevitable and designed result of individual life, and is found characteristic of mem- bers of the same family and class and tribe, and even of every seed-plot, throughout all animated nature. And not only is variety the law of nature and of life, it is the law of nature that this difference should be multiplied in exact pro- portion to the capacity of the individual being for such varia- tion. Since therefore man, of all organized beings, is most capable of change, because he is possessed of life in its high- est development, man is also the most liable to variations.
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Every man, therefore, possesses not only that real internal constitution which is of the same identical human kind with all other men, but he has besides this, an individual and cha- racteristic nature peculiar in its essential character to him alone, and different from that of all other men, and by which he is distinguished both in body and in mind, from all other men. And it will be found, we think, on a moment's consi- deration, that these individual peculiarities are as great, if not greater, than those general varieties which characterize particular races of men. If, therefore, peculiar and striking differences in color, in form, in height, in structure, in voice, in brain, in disposition, in mind, in every thing, are adequate grounds for specific distinctions, then we must divide man into as many species as there are human beings.
Specific distinctions are constant and universal. But " all the varieties of men have," as Hamilton Smith admits, " a tendency to pass to the highest standard rather than to a lower condition, or to remain stationary.55 They are not, therefore, of different species, but of one and the same.
The variations found among the different races of men are not greater or as great, as those found among other ani- mals of the same species, and therefore they do not prove them to be different species. " Every vertebrated animal,55 says Dr. Bachman, " from the horse down to the Canary bird and gold-fish, is subject in a state of domestication to very great and striking varieties, and in the majorities of species these varieties are much greater than are exhibited in any of the numerous varieties of the human races. Tak- ing it for granted,55 he adds, " that they admit, that in our
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examination of man as a species, we must be governed by the same laws by which we examine all the species of ani- mals in a domesticated state — they who have made this issue and denied the long received doctrine of the unity of the human race, are now required to show those characteristics which will justify us in regarding the varieties of men, as distinct species, whilst they consider those of animals equally striking, not as species but mere varieties."
Dr. Bachman proceeds to detail the extraordinary varia- tions which have arisen in the wolf, and then asks, " Are all these strangely marked varieties which are permanent in certain regions where each propagates its own variety, and has done so from our earliest knowledge, but every where associating and multiplying with neighboring varieties, to be regarded as miraculous creations of separate species, or are we not able to trace all these variations to the original con- stitution of the wolf, adapting it to the various climates and situations in which it takes up its residence, and to its in- stinctive impulses to a wandering and migratory life ? Are there any more distinctive marks in the skulls, in the co- lors, and in the habits of the varieties of man than are found in those of the wolves ? and if not, what reasons can natu- ralists assign for admitting the races of wolves as mere varieties, and yet insisting that the races of men are distinct species ?"
Dr. Bachman proceeds to the examination of domestic animals — and of the horse, he asks, " Will the advocates of a plurality of species in men point out those distinctive marks, which would make the various races of horses of all
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sizes, forms, and colors, each propagating its own kind when kept separate, as only varieties, and yet insist that the varieties of men are distinct species ?" Dr. Bachman then takes up the cow, and having pointed out its differ- ences, asks, " If men are of all colors, black, brown, red and white, so are these cattle. If the various races of men are all prolific with each other, so are the varieties of cattle. If they differ in their skulls, these cattle differ from each other much more, not only in skull, but in the size of their ears, length of tail, in height, and in form of body. If they will make five, ten, or a hundred species of men, why do they not carry out their principles, and make five, ten, or a hun- dred species of common cows, their varieties being fully as numerous, their breeds as permanent, and their characteris- tics as various as those found in the human species Vf
Then he points out the variations among swine, of sheep, of the dog, of our common fowl, of the turkey, of the goose, of the duck, and of the pigeon, of the Guinea-pig, of the dove. " By the rules," he argues, " which govern natural- ists in their designation of domesticated species, the varie- ties of these animals are all regarded as one species, and no naturalist would risk his reputation in pronouncing a differ- ent decision. Are not, we ask, these varieties as permanent and as widely separated, as are the varieties of men ? And if we cannot separate the races of common fowls, turkeys, geese, or ducks, what authority have we in separating the races of men into different species 1
" Since, therefore, naturalists cannot establish a rule for the designation of one species or variety of domestic man,
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which they should not be willing to apply to the varieties of domesticated animals, we would ask them to point out those distinctive characters, by which the varieties of men are divided into many species, and the varieties of the pigeon, for instance, are all included under one species?
" We may conjecture," adds Dr. Bachman, " what will be their reply to these questions. They will inform us, that although the varieties are as striking and as permanent in character as are those in the races of men, yet, as we know that the former have originated from well known species, and some in our day, they cannot, therefore, be mistaken in setting them down as mere varieties ; but as they cannot trace the origin of the human races to their original source, therefore they will regard them as different species. But we ask, is not this one of those arguments which is not ad- missible ? Is not this depending more on the history of a species, as far as our imperfect knowledge extends, than on those distinctive marks which are stamped upon the races themselves ? Would not this uncertain mode of deciding on species, throw the science of natural history into inextrica- ble confusion ? You would here place a dependence on uncertain tradition, whilst the characteristics which nature presents, the only guides to truth in matters of science, are abandoned."
But if we appeal to other animals for analogical proof that changes as great and as manifold as those which occur in man, occur also in animals, not as capable or liable to changes as he is, we present a difficulty in the way of our conclusion. For while, it may be argued, in other ani-
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mals there are many species under one genus, in man we contend for a single species as well as a single genus. To this it may be replied, that were the fact so, it would be of no force, because it would only show man's supremacy above all other animals. But the fact is not so. " In this," says Dr. Bachman, " man does not form an exception to the general law of nature. There are many of our genera which contain but a single species in the genus. Among American quadrupeds the musk ox, (Ovibos moschutos,) the beaver, (Castor fiber,) and the glutton or wolverine, (Gulo luscus,) and among birds, the wild turkey, (Meleagris galli- pavo,) are familiar examples. The oscillated turkey, which was formerly regarded as a second species, has recently been discovered not to be a true turkey; — in addition to its different conformation, it makes its nest on trees, and lays only two eggs, possessing in this and other particulars the habits of the pigeon." To these he adds the horse, " the only true species in the genus, for naturalists have now in- cluded all the others under the asses and zebras, and also the beaver."
But further, to what confusion and injury to science must any attempt to distort the established classification of mankind under one species, necessarily lead ? Hamilton Smith admits that the supposition of a plural creation of se- veral single species of man requires " the term species to assume a different acceptation, and that it confounds the no- tions hitherto attached to it. This reductio ad absurdum, we have already seen, is urged by the Encyclopedia Ameri- cana, and that the theory of a plurality of human species can
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be maintained only by a total alteration of the established zoological meaning of the term species, we have made cer- tain by the authority of Whateley and Mill, who l)ase their opinion upon the very great personal knowledge of the sub- ject, and upon the elaborate analysis of Le Comte into this subject.*
" The opponents of the unity of the human race cannot, therefore," says Dr. Bachman, " fail to perceive that the position they have assumed is surrounded with infinite diffi- culty ; that in order to establish their views they must over- turn all the principles which science has adopted for the de- signation of species ; and that in departing from our ancient landmarks, which have hitherto enabled us to decide with accuracy on the character of species, they would not only demolish the simple and beautiful temple reared by the labor of Linnaeus, Cuvier, and their coadjutors, but would scatter the very materials to the winds, and leave us with no other guides than those of uncertain conjecture. The new and obscure path in which they have invited us to tread, is op- posed to our views of science. A vast majority of natural- ists disclaim them as leaders, and will leave them to pursue their journey alone, whilst we are content to follow the safe and long-trodden paths."
This last consideration we would press upon the special
* Mr. Pickering says species are found to have a certain geological range, and notwithstanding a few instances of wide diffusion, nature has not reproduced a species in different quarters of the globe, (p. 303.) A very decided change may take place in the aspect, without a specific differ- ence, (p. 505.) Varieties do not revert to the original type. (p. 305.) 9
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attention of our readers. The host of eminent men entitled to speak authoritatively on this subject, and who maintain the unity of tne human races, has been already given, together with those who have opposed it. All naturalists who have described vertebrated animals, arrange mankind under one species. They have, therefore, decided the question, and as Dr. Bachman says, who is entitled to speak on the subject ex cathedra, " Those who are now entering into the field, about whose qualifications, as judges, the world as yet knows nothing, and is therefore unprepared to pronounce an opinion, are bound to give some satisfactory reasons for their dissent.35
But this novel theory would not only overwhelm the science of natural history in confusion, it would rush to its conclusion over the principles of all true science. These principles forbid the introduction of more causes than are necessary to account for the phenomena, and they forbid an appeal to supernatural causes when not peremptorily de- manded by the facts of the case. Now " the creation of species is an act of divine power alone, and cannot be ef- fected by any other means." Those who believe the varie- ties of men and other animals mentioned to be of different species, believe that they were created distinct species. Rather than believe that all those variations have proceeded from an original constitution of nature, adapted to various climates and situations, these writers would thus multiply indefinitely, and probably at sundry times, the necessity for the direct interposition of a miraculous and creating power.
It is not, indeed, self-evident, to use the words of Dr.
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Prichard, " if we suppose it to be conceded that all human races are of one species, technically so termed, and that they are not distinguished from each other by characters ever constant and immutable, and such as cannot have been pro- duced in a breed or race which had been previously desti- tute of them; and the question still remains, What is the proof, that all races actually descended from one stock or parentage ? It is not self-evident, that many families of the same species were not created at first to supply at once with human as well as with other organized beings various re- gions of the earth. This, indeed, is improbable when we take into account the almost universally rapid increase of living species, and the surprising efficacy of the means every where contrived by nature, both for their multiplica- tion and dispersion, which would seem to be superfluous, or at least much greater than would be requisite, on the hypo- thesis that a multitude of each tribe existed from the be- ginning.55
" It has been observed in both the animal and the vege- table kingdoms, that while tribes of the most simple struc- ture are spread in the present time, and appear to have been originally diffused over the most distant regions, races of a higher and more elaborate organization exist only in places to which it is not generally obvious but always probable that they may have obtained access from some particular spot, apparently the local centre and primitive inhabitants of the tribe. Hence we derive each tribe among the higher and more perfectly organized creatures, whether locomotive or fixed, whether animals or plants, from some original point
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and from a single stock. We are a fortiori at liberty to ap- ply this conclusion to the instance of the human species, so as to infer that the law of nature, otherwise universal or very general in its prevalence, has not been in this case transgressed, where such an exception would be of all cases the most improbable."
One other point may be here adverted to, and that is the consideration that different animals and plants, and different species of the same genus, are infested by worms or insects peculiar to themselves, and by which their genus and species may be determined. On this ground an argument has been based against the unity of the human races from the sup- posed fact that parasites of the races are different. But to this it is replied, that the horse and the ox are known to have different insect parasites and assailants in different climates. Into this subject also Dr. Bachman enters fully, and after considering the facts known respecting the twenty-one spe- cies found in different parts of man's system, he concludes that they infest equally the white and the black races, and that there is in fact no difference in the species found in dif- ferent races. In reference to lice, he says : — " Two species of Pendiculi existing on the surface of the body we have examined and compared. We are aware that a species was described as existing on the African under the name of P. nigratarum ; we have not recently seen the description, which we believe was given by Fabricius. We presume it is the same as is at present found among our negroes. It is darker in color than that on white persons ; this however is the only difference — we suspect the coloring matter under
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the human skin imparts this deeper shade to the insect. In the mulatto its color is intermediate. We have found the two species P. humanis et P. ubis, the only ones we have had the opportunities of comparing with the microscope, in the white race and the negro, frequently exchanging resi- dences, especially between nurses and children. If we were in possession of any other information in reference to these pests, whether favorable or opposed to our theory, we would not withhold it. We now submit, whether with our present knowledge on this subject any argument in favor of the plu- rality of species can be deduced from it. Do not these facts, on the other hand, afford another very strong evidence in favor of the unity of the species, since we know of no two species of animals that are in common infested by so many species of insects V He concludes, therefore, that the in- sects which are found on the surface, and the vermes within the body, as far as they have been examined, are the same in all the varieties of men, and that where peculiar parasites infest men in particular countries, they are equally found in all the races.
We will add here also in conclusion, one other consi- deration in the words of Dr. Bachman. " The important fact must not be overlooked that our opponents are the as- sailants in this controversy. When Voltaire first promul- gated his crude and most unscientific notions on this subject, and attempted to show that not only the African, but the Albino also, were distinct species of men, his object confess- edly was not so much to establish a truth in science as to invalidate the testimony and throw contempt on the Chris-
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tian Scriptures. It is but recently that the advocates of the theory of a plurality have denied the long received doctrine of the unity of the human race, as inconsistent with those principles which are received as the established laws of sci- ence. The onus probandi therefore rests with them. They have not been able to prove the truth of their position. We have no hesitation in saying that they are incapable of prov- ing it. Until they shall have succeeded in this, the faith of men will remain unchanged."
Let it be therefore duly considered, that from this inves- tigation we are enabled to prove the unity of the human races by a twofold argument. If — as we have previously es- tablished— all men have proceeded from the same original stock, then all men are and must be, according to the estab- lished usage of the word in natural science, of one species ; and if on the other hand, as has now been proved by a purely scientific argument, all men are of one and the same species, then it follows, on the principles of science, that all men have proceeded from the same origin or stock as the Scriptures teach.
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CHAPTER XIII.
THE UNITY OF THE RACES PROVED FROM THEIR FERTILITY, AND THE INFERTILITY OF HYBRIDS.
That only is reasonable which is true; that only can be legitimately affirmed to be true which can be clearly proved to be true. All be- yond is conjecture, and conjecture is not science. — Ethnological Journal.
The sole consideration inductive research regards is the accuracy and Truth of its evidence. — Powell's Nat. and Divine Truth.
Nature will perpetuate varieties, for this is in accordance with her operations ; but refuses to multiply hybrids, for this is contrary to her laws. — Dr. Bachman.
We are now led to remark that among all other animals, without exception, different species remain separate and dis- tinct— do not naturally and voluntarily associate, breed, or mate together, and are not capable of uniform, invariable, and permanent continuance by natural propagation. For the full and indubitable establishment of these positions we refer to the profound and elaborate work of our friend, the Rev. Dr. Bachman, who is, we believe, admitted to be the most eminent of American Naturalists, and not inferior in his departments to any of any country. In this work he has incontrovertibly established the positions above stated, and
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by an examination, seriatim, has shown the incorrectness of every instance adduced by Dr. Morton to prove that a fertile progeny has been produced by the union of animals — both birds and quadrupeds — who were of different species.
Formerly the constancy and fertility of offspring were regarded by naturalists as infallible criteria of species. Con- stant reproduction therefore entered into the definition of spe- cies as given by Buffon, Cuvier, and others. Flourens, after citing Buffon and Cuvier's definitions of species as based on constant reproduction, concludes that "unity, absolute unity, of the human species, and variety of all its races as a final result, is the general and certain conclusion of all the facts acquired concerning the natural history of man."
To prevent the inevitable certainty of this conclusion, and the consequent establishment of the truth of Scripture in one important doctrine which it every where affirms and implies, great efforts have been made to produce hybrid breeds, and from them to secure permanent and fertile varie- ties. The results seemed so far favorable to the opponents of the unity of the races, as to lead Drs. Prichard, Law- rence, and others, to abandon constant reproduction as an in- fallible mark of species. To sustain this position, Dr. Mor- ton published an elaborate Essay, in which he accumulated with great industry and learning all the instances of fertile hybrids which had occurred. This Essay was entitled, " Hybridity in animals considered in reference to the ques- tion of the Unity of the Human race."*
* Annales des Sciences Nat. t. x., Dec. 1838, p. 361 ; do. in Rev. of Morton, pp. 5, 6.
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To this question Dr. Bachman has devoted years of ex- periment, observation, and study, both in Europe and Ame- rica, and to its thorough examination he has appropriated a large portion of his volume, which has just issued from the press.
"The object," says Dr. Bachman, uof Dr. Morton's pa- per is to show from facts, 6 that different species of animals are capable of producing together a prolific hybrid offspring, and therefore that hybridity ceases to be a test of specific affiliation/ 6 Consequently, the mere fact that the several races of mankind produce with each other a more or less fertile progeny, constitutes in itself no proof of the unity of the human species.5
" The infertility of hybrids has always been a stumbling- block in the way of their theory, who deny the unity of the human race. If the races of men produced fertile offspring with each other, and the races of inferior animals did not, if the latter were found to be barren and unfruitful, and the former increased and multiplied, and replenished the earth, then they would be obliged to prove that man was an excep- tion to this universal and invariable law that regulated the whole of the inferior creation. They possessed no evidence to prove this ; for although man in his moral nature is en- dowed with high intellectual powers, yet in his physical nature he is an animal, coming into the world like other animals, and like them returning to the dust. In this di- lemma they resorted to the desperate expedient of endeavor- ing to show, that in respect to the fertility of hybrid offspring man was not peculiar ; that many races of animals could be 9*
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found possessing the same physical powers of producing in- termediate and fertile races. Hence they have ransacked the almost forgotten tales of ancient travellers, and dragged from obscurity the vulgar errors long hidden beneath the dust of antiquity, and indulged themselves in conjectures and doubts, in order to weaken the faith of men in the long established views of naturalists in regard to the sterility of hybrids. Our object has been to show the frail tenure of the foundation on which they leaned for support, the many errors which they triumphantly paraded as facts, and the weakness of the arguments by which they sought to build up their theory.
" We will endeavor now to offer our reasons and produce our facts to prove that several of his facts are not supported by competent authority, that others are disproved by natur- alists of high authority, and that when the statements con- tained in his papers have been so expurgated as to be freed from matters admitted on very doubtful authority, the result will prove that his facts militate against his theory, and go to maintain the view we have adopted after some sacrifice of time, and no small degree of labor."
After devoting a full examination to every instance al- leged by Dr. Morton in favor of the fertile hybridity of ani- mals, Dr. Bachman concludes: " We have now seen that with all the ingenuity of the believers in the fertility of hybrids, they have not been able to produce a solitary case in which they have clearly and incontestably proved that a single race of animals or birds has been perpetuated from hybrids of two or more species. Their vague assertions have been
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hazarded without proof, and have been contradicted by the experience of many eminent naturalists, whose general knowledge and habits of close investigation, have certainly given them equal claims on public confidence.
u In one case out of a hundred — such as the instances of the buffalo and common cow among quadrupeds, and that of the China and common goose among birds, which are the only two cases well attested — hybrids have been productive, but this did not continue beyond two or three generations, and could be prolonged only with the pure blood of either stock, and of course either died out or returned to their ori- ginal species. We have no doubt that among a few species, especially the ducks, some may produce hybrids constituted like those from the China goose, to produce progeny for even two or three generations before absolute sterility occurs ; we observed a cross of this kind in the Zoological Gardens, be- tween the common duck and some other European duck, we believe the shell-drake (Atadorna), which was said to have been fertile for at least one or two generations. Of the re- maining number that are recorded by Dr. Morton, the cases of hybridity may be set down as those of absolute sterility, since, had it been otherwise, the world would have been made acquainted with the important facts.55
After enumerating a multitude of cases of sterility, Dr. Bachman proceeds to remark : " We could add half a page to this list, and of these not a few were produced under our own eye ; but this would be superfluous. In all these cases, nature proclaims her determination to preserve the races in spite of all intermeddling with her operations. This stamps
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upon these unnatural offspring the seal of sterility, and nearly all the cases that Dr. Morton has cited, and fifty more that are on record, are so many proofs of the errors in the theory of Col. Smith, and all who have adopted his specula- tive notions. Each new case of a sterile hybrid is an addi- tional evidence in favor of our theory, that the laws of na- ture are opposed to the production of new races by the com- mingling of two or more species.
" Nor should the fact be overlooked, that the occurrences in hybridity that are on record have taken place at very long intervals of time, and in most cases through the artifi- cial agency of man. There is a repugnance among the wild species to such a union, and it only occurs when the individuals thus unnaturally paired are entirely excluded from those of their own species. Even should an attach- ment take place, the organic differences in the different species, in the majority of instances, prevent the produc- tion of any issue.
"In reading the articles of Dr. Morton, we have fre- quently been reminded of another fact. Nearly all the examples which he had quoted that have an important bearing on this subject, are brought to us from so great a distance that we have not the means of investigating the accuracy of the statements, and courtesy would lead us not to deny that which we have not the means of disproving. But why carry us to Egypt, to the steppes of Tartary, to the Island of Java, and the wilds of Paraguay and Yucatan, to ascertain the truth of the relations of Maga and De la Malle, the beytrsege of Rudolphi, the rambles of Captain
"MIL v, . • % '
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Stedman, or the interested collector who sent to Temminck his specimens of wild and tame cocks and curassoes ? Have we not a right to suppose that the same prodigies that have occurred elsewhere, will take place here ? Striking and permanent varieties, it must be admitted, have occurred in our country, as they have elsewhere. The wolf, the squir- rel, the deer, the black rat, the Norway rat, and the white- footed mouse, among wild animals, have produced their permanent varieties ; and among the domesticated ones, the cow, the hog, the sheep, the pea-fowl, and Guinea-hen, and the common fowl, have, within our own memories, exhibited this phenomenon. But from whence have these varieties been derived ? Not surely from any intermixture of any two species, for there were no species with which they could unite ; they have sprung up with themselves, and were not indebted to any foreign alliance for the changes which na- ture produced."
The following are the conclusions to which Dr. Bach- man believes himself incontrovertibly led by the facts in regard to all animals.
" 1. Nature, in all her operations, by the peculiar or- ganization of each species — by their instinctive repugnance to an association — by the infertility of a hybrid production, when by art or accident this takes place — and by the ex- tinction of these hybrids in a very short period of time, gives us the most indubitable evidences that the creation of species is an act of Divine Power alone, and cannot be effected by any other means.
" 2. That no race of animals has ever sprung from a commingling of two or more species.
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" 3. Domestication, in every species that has been brought under subjection, produces striking and often permanent va- rieties, but has never evolved a faculty to produce fertile hybrids.
" 4. Since no two species of animals have ever been known to produce a prolific hybrid race, therefore hybridity is a test of specific character.
" 5. Consequently the fact that all the races of mankind produce with each other a fertile progeny, by which means new varieties have been produced in every country, consti- tutes one of the most powerful and undeniable arguments in favor of the unity of the races."
In accordance with these conclusions Professor Owen says : — " The tendency of all the natural phenomena relating to hybridity is to prevent its taking place, and when it has occurred, to arrest the propagation of varieties so produced, and to limit their generative powers so as to admit only of reversion to the original specific forms. The individuals of different species do not voluntarily copulate. In a few ex- ceptionable cases, serving only to establish the rule of their inferiority, specific hybrids have been known to propagate together and produce a degenerate intermediate race, which soon becomes extinct ; it more commonly happens that a hybrid is sterile, or propagates only with an individual of pure breed."
" We would ask then," says Dr. B., " those who con- sider the races of men as composed of different species, why all the varieties of men are found to produce fertile new races, whilst we discover that when we associate two true
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species of other animals their products are hybrids, and in- capable of perpetuating a race ? Why is it that they ha^e been so much staggered and perplexed by this most im- portant fact ? Why was it that in order to escape from this annoying difficulty, they were for so many years engaged in vain and ineffectual endeavors to prove that the descend- ants of their two species of men, the white and the black, were hybrids ? First they endeavored to show that they were sterile — then that they were only prolific with one or the other of the original species ; and finally, that the hybrid race soon died out. When at last the supporters of their own doctrines pointed out to them races that had existed and multiplied for hundreds of years, and were now as healthy and fertile as any of the other races of men, why have they so suddenly shifted their sails on the other side, and would carry their sinking bark to a port of safety under the false colors of fertile hybrids in the lower races ?
" Let it then be understood that we have no case on record where a single new race of animal or bird has sprung up from an association of two different species.
" All the varieties of the human species are known to t propagate with each other — to produce fertile progeny, which has continued to propagate from the earliest periods on record, through every succeeding age up to the present period. In this way new races have been formed and per- petuated. Since this is known to be the case, then, if these various races of men are composed of different species, they will prove an exception to the general law by which all other organized beings are governed, and it rests with our
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opponents to show wherein this organization consists, and why man should be an exception to these laws of the Creator which are stamped on all the inferior races.
" It is then, as our opponents are aware, a long esta- blished and undeniable fact, that all the races of men in every age and in every country, produce offspring in their association with each other. That the Caucasian, Mon- golian, African, Malay, and the aboriginal American, all are affording us the most convincing evidences of this fact. That in this manner many new intermediate races have been produced on the confines of Asia, Africa, and Europe ; and that within the last two hundred years, a new race has sprung up in Mexico and South America, between one branch of the Caucasian and the native Indian, together with no small admixture of African blood. They are aware that in the United States, whose first permanent settlement commenced in Virginia in 1607, the two extremes of Afri- can and Caucasian have met and produced an intermediate race. We know them to be fully as prolific, if not more so, as the whites, where their constitutions have not been wasted by dissipation. We will not stop to inquire whether this race is equally as long-lived as either of their originals; but even here we would find no difficulty, as no one will be dis- posed to deny the fact that some races of the pure Cauca- sian, the Mongolian and African families are more robust and longer-lived than others. The facts, however, are un- deniable, that all these half-breeds are prolific with each other ; and we can point out at least the descendants of five generations, both in Carolina and New-York, where there
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has been no intermixture with either of the original varie- ties, and they are to this day as prolific as any of the other races of men. We are aware that labored articles have been written to show that the descendants of the two races, especially those between the Caucasian and African, in the process of time, become sterile. We have not, however, of late, heard this argument insisted on, and we believe it is virtually abandoned.
" The learned researches of Dr. Morton, (Crania Ameri- cana,) which are characterized by great knowledge and sound discrimination, will, we think, set this matter for ever at rest. The accounts scattered throughout his essay, of the many intermediate tribes of nations that have derived their origin from an admixture of Mongolian, Malayan, American, Caucasian, and African blood, are calculated to convince all who have hitherto entertained any doubts on this subject, that not only these widely separated, but all the varieties in the human species, produce in perpetuity an intermediate and fertile progeny. Malte Brun, speaking of the Portu- guese in Africa, says : < The Rio South branch is inhabited by the Maloes, a negro race, so completely mingled with the descendants of the original Portuguese as not to be distin- guished from them.5 Several writers inform us that there is a large and growing tribe in South Africa called the Griqua, on Orange river, being a mixture of the original Dutch set- tlers and the Hottentots, composed of more than five thousand souls. These are referred to by Thompson and Lichten- stein, in their travels in South Africa. Several similar races, a mixture of the African and Spaniard or Portuguese, exist
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in South America, separated from other communities. The last calculation we have read of the population composed of the mixed races, in North and South America, amounted to upwards of five millions."
To conclude ; since this law of uniform, permanent, and natural propagation has been made by God an invariable mark of specific difference among all other animals, it fol- lows, that as the present inhabitants of the earth are made up of races formed by the amalgamation of many varieties, the human family must be of one species.
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CHAPTER XIV.
THE UNITY OF THE RACES PROVED FROM THE UNIVERSALITY, NATURE, AND CONNECTION OF LANGUAGES.
IIOAAAI fxev envois TA&TTAI, pta S'AdavctToiat. Tecog 6s ovrag ofjLoy\o)o-aovs sk Qsojv iroXvQpov (pa)vr]v evaixaadai vvv Bo/?u-
XaJl/ KdXsiTCLl, 6lA TY]V (TVy%V(TlV TOV TTSpi SlO, TY]V \SKT0V TTpOJTY}V SVCipyOVS. ABY-
DENUS IN EUSEB. ChRON., p. 13.
Language is the miracle of human nature, at once its chief distinction, and its highest glory. The lower animals can indeed communicate with one another by signs and sounds, but they cannot speak. They are destitute of vocal organs and of the thoughts that breathe and the words that burn. Between those voices of which lower animals are capable and the language of man, there is very little analogy. Human language is capable of expressing ideas and notions which there is every reason to believe that the mind of the brutes cannot conceive. "Speech,5' says Aristotle, " is made to indicate what is expedient and what is inexpedient ; and in consequence of this, what is just and unjust. It is there- fore given to men, because it is peculiar to them, that of
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good and evil, of just and unjust, they only, with respect to other animals, possess a sense or feeling." The voices of brutes seem intended by nature to express, not distinct ideas or moral modes, but only such feelings as it is for the good of the species that they should have the power of making known ; and in this as in all other respects, these voices are analogous, not to speaking, but to weeping, laughing, sing- ing, groaning, screaming, and other natural and audible ex- pressions of passion or appetite. Another difference between the language of men and the voices of brute animals consists in articulation, by which the former may be resolved into distinct elementary sounds or syllables ; whereas the latter, being for the most part inarticulate, are not capable of such a resolution. Hence Homer and Hesiod characterize man by the epithet ^po\^, or voice-dividing, as denoting a power peculiar to the human species ; for though there are a few birds which utter sounds that may be divided into syllables, yet each of these birds utters but one such sound, which seems to be employed rather as a note of natural music than for the purpose of giving information to others ; and hence when the bird is agitated, it utters cries which are very different, and have no articulation.
A third difference between the language of men and the significant cries of brute animals is, that the former is the product of art, the latter derived from nature. Every hu- man language is learned by imitation, and is intelligible only to those who either inhabit the country where it is vernacular, or have been taught it by a master or by books. But the voices in question are not learned by imitation ; and
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being wholly instinctive, they are intelligible to all the ani- mals of that species by which they are uttered, though brought together from the most distant countries on earth.*
The existence, therefore, of language, is itself a proof of the specific character of humanity in all those among whom it is found.
Language is also a proof of the original unity of all men. Even Lord Monboddo candidly acknowledges, that if lan- guage was invented, it was of very difficult invention, and far beyond the reach of the grossest savages. Accordingly he holds, that though men were originally solitary animals, and had no natural propensity to the social life ; yet, before language could be invented, they must have been associated for ages, and have carried on in concert some common work.
Man, however, we may confidently affirm, never could have invented language. Aristotle has defined man to be faov fiLfjLTjTLKov or imitative animal, and the definition is cer- tainly so far just, that man is much more remarkable for imitation than invention ; therefore, had the human race been originally mutum et turpe pecus, they would have con- tinued so to the end of time, unless they had been taught to speak by some superior intelligence.
It is now, therefore, generally conceded that language was originally imparted by God, and hence we must con- clude, that, as God does not work unnecessarily miracles, it
* Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Language. See also the London Quarterly Review, Jan. 1850, pp. 19, 20.
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was given to one original pair, and not to many in different portions of the earth.*
Language also, every where, and in all cases, proves demonstrably the existence of the same human nature, in all who possess it. The fact, says Isaac Taylor,")" that every language of civilized men comprises a large class of words and phrases dependent one upon another for their meaning, and related, closely or remotely, to a certain property or function of human nature, and which terms we can by no means dispense with in describing man, as he is distinguished from the terrestrial orders around him ; this fact, attaching universally to the vehicle of thought, affords all the proof which a strict logic would grant of such an identity.
And what is true of language generally, respecting hu- man nature at large, is true, in particular, of the language of each race, respecting its characteristics, and even its history.
And it deserves particularly to be noted, that while the language of civilized races at large furnishes evidence on all points touching man's nature, physical, intellectual, and moral, those especial refinements, which characterize this or that language, and which have resulted from the eminent attainments of the people using it, only serve to exhibit that one rudiment of human nature as we might say magnified, and its inner structure expanded.
* See Dr. Spring on the Obligations of the World to the Bible. Wall's elaborate and learned volumes on the Origin of Alphabetic Wri- ting, vol. i. ; and Encyclop. Brit., as above.
t Responsibility of Man, p. 4, &c.
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Were it for instance questioned whether man be an ima- ginative being, formed to catch analogies, and to be charmed with resemblance ; three-fourths of every language, bar- barous or civilized, attest the fact ; nor is this evidence touched by any instances of what may be false in taste, or factitious in the literature of the people. Or is the question, " Am I responsible — am I a moral agent — am I to be held accountable for my temper, dispositions, and conduct ; and am I so constituted as that a future retribution will be a fit issue of my present course of life V If this be the question, it is answered at once concisely and conclusively by simply appealing to the mere words that must be employed to ex- press it. If we suppose then our objector to have complied, he stands convinced ; at least, if his mind have been trained to habits of logical inquiry, he will not fail to see that in de- scribing the moral nature, with the intent to deny it, he has unwittingly affirmed it, and we might say to him — " more convincing than any syllogysms, or than any discursive argument, in proof of the reality of that moral scheme which you call in question, are the words (considered as products of the human mind) to which you have been compelled to have recourse in announcing your skepticism.55 The sys- tem we live under is in fact a moral system in the highest sense, because among all people with whom the human nature has been at all expanded, a copious vocabulary of terms is found, to which no sense could be assigned in a world of beings, either purely spiritual, or purely intellectual, or purely physical.
If man be not a moral agent, and if his sphere do not im-
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measurably transcend that of the sentient orders around him, how comes he to talk as if he were ? If in regard to a moral system, he be only a brute of finer form, born of the earth, and returning to it, whence is it that, in respect of virtue and vice, of good and evil, the dialect of heaven rolls over his lips ? When was it, and how, that he stole the vocabulary of the skies ?
The testimony to the common humanity of every race of men who possess a language, as it is given by that lan- guage, is therefore beyond all controversy. Language, con- tinues this writer, when combined in continuous discourse, may indeed, and too often does, convey notions, totally false and absurd : but language itself, which is at once the engine of cogitation, and the record of all facts permanently or in- cidentally attaching to human nature : language, the most fallacious of historians, which, while it notes the revolutions of empires, is the enduring type of the visible world, and the shadow of the invisible — the mirror of the universe, as known to man — language never lies ; how should it do so, seeing that it is itself the creature and reflection of nature ? As well deny that the trees, buildings, rocks, and clouds, painted on the bosom of a tranquil lake are images of reali- ties ; as well do this, as assume that language, in the ab- stract, has ever belied humanity, or presented any elements foreign to our constitution. Philosophers or teachers may have affirmed, and the multitude may have believed, far more than could be proved : meantime the vehicle they have employed in defining and promulgating such illusions, has faithfully embodied the permanent varieties of philosophy and
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religion ; just as a wonder-loving traveller, while he tells a thousand tales of griffons and dragons, sets us right by the dumb testimony of the specimens he has brought with him. Men might as easily create to themselves a sixth sense, as fabricate and retain in use a system of terms, having no archetypes in nature.
This leads us to remark that the unity of the human races is proved not only by their possession of language, which is the high and peculiar attribute of humanity ; and by the incontrovertible evidence given in every language of all the attributes of man's intellectual and moral nature ; but also by the high degree of perfection to which the language of some of the lowest tribes of people, according to physical qualities, are elevated. Of this we gave an example in the Mpongwee language spoken by numerous tribes in Western Africa.* A communication appears in the London Literary Gazette, written by Mr. Koelle, one of the Sierra Leone agents of the Church Missionary Society, describing the dis- covery of a written language in the interior of Africa. This discovery was made under the following circumstances : Captain Forbes, on the station there, being one day on shore near Cape Mount, on or near the northern boundary of the American colony of Liberia, saw some unknown characters on a native house. On making inquiries, he learnt that these characters represented the Vy language ; and he found
* See an article by the Rev. John Leighton Wilson in the Biblio- theca Sacra, and in the Journal of the American Ethnological Society ; and also Bartlett's Progress of Ethnology, pp. 34, 35. 10
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a man of the Vy nation who possessed a book, and was able to read the characters. The man remained several days on board the vessel of Captain Forbes, and was seen there by Mr. Koelle, who also saw the book and heard him read it. The man stated that the art of writing was communicated to his nation by eight strangers from the interior a long time ago; that schools were instituted, and the people generally taught ; but that the inroads of the Portuguese had checked education, and few could now read. Mr. Koelle says the alphabet of this language consists of about one hundred let- ters, each representing a syllable. He gives a short speci- men of the alphabet, and a list of about fifty words. The new character is said to have no analogy with any other known.
In a great number of languages, says Mr. Duponceau,* of which no grammars or dictionaries yet exist, there are still specimens which afford a tolerable opportunity of esti- mating their general character and analogies; and as far as these data extend, it would appear that similar laws of con- struction are universal among the idioms of the New World. " Many of these languages, as that of the Lenni Lenape in particular, would appear rather from their construction to have been formed by philosophers in closets than by savages in the wilderness." This is an assertion, which, though true, appears improbable, and the author of the remark offers the best defence that can be given. " If it should be asked," he says, " how this can have happened, I can only
* See Prichard, vol. 5, p. 306.
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answer that I have been ordered to collect and ascertain facts, and not to build theories."
Another observation is of importance in this argument, and that is, that similarity of language proves identity of origin, among nations of the most contrary physical charac- ters. This argument has been elaborately presented by Dr. Wiseman, and need not be here very fully developed.
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CHAPTER XV.
UNITY OF THE RACES PROVED FROM THE UNI- VERSALITY, NATURE, AND CONNECTION OF LANGUAGES. — Concluded.
That language should exist at all, and that it should exist among every people and community of the earth, even those lowest in the scale of civilization, is in itself a cogent argument for the unity of man as a species. — London Quarterly Review.
The classification of language is, in truth, the classification of man- kind.— The migration and intermixture of languages are records of the changes and movements of man over the face of the globe.
In our previous article on this subject, we have shown that language is a peculiar characteristic of man — and that it implies in its origin and its nature the possession in all who use it, of the same moral and intellectual powers, and there- fore unity both of origin, and of specific character. This is confirmed by an examination of the faculties developed on the languages even of the lowest races, and it is made more certain by the relations found to exist between the languages of races who are now physically the most dissimilar. Of this point we proceed to give some illustrations different from those of Dr. Wiseman, referring for its full elaboration to his able lectures.
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In regard to Africa, Dr. Prichard in his latest additions to his work, says :* One fact not unimportant in its bearing on the early history of mankind, appears to have been ren- dered manifest by late researches in Northern Africa : it is a much wider extension over those regions, than was here- tofore supposed to exist, of tribes bearing an unquestionable, though sometimes remote affinity in language, and there- fore probably in origin, to the Syro- Arabian or Shemite race. This denotes the very ancient dispersion of an Asiatic popu- lation over a great and central part of the African continent. I refer not at present to tribes of Arabian origin, or to such as can be supposed to have entered Africa subsequently to the era of Islam, but to races bearing indications of affinity to the Shemite stock, by far more ancient, and more widely spread.
The resemblances in languages to which I now allude, as existing between the African and the Shemite races, are approximations not to the modern but to the most ancient dialects of this latter family of nations.")*
The nations of particular oases in the Great Desert are like the inhabitants of islands in the ocean. They never move in any considerable numbers from their native spot, nor are they visited by many strangers. They acquire consequently characteristics of physiognomy, through the agency of external conditions, the effect of which accumu- lates through many generations.
* P. 550, 551, 3d edition ; and also p. 557 and 558. t Prichard, p. 550.
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In one of these oases, namely that of Wadreag, Mr. Hodgson discovered that the people, though Berbers by the evidence of their language, which they speak with purity and correctness, were not only black, as many of the genuine Abrabs of the country are known to be, but have features approaching those of negroes, and hair like that which is the characteristic of the negro race. It was the opinion of Mr. Hodgson that these characteristics had been acquired, not as the result of the intermixture of races, which the local circumstances of the tribe seemed to him to preclude, but through the long-continued agency of physical causes upon a tribe of genuine Tuaryk origin, though the ordinary type of that race is almost similar to the Arabian.*
Again the Hausan people are negroes ; they have hair of the kind termed woolly, and their color is a jet-black. The features are remarkably good, and appear to have little resemblance to those of the natives of Guinea. That such a people should betray any relationship to the Shemite nations is a fact so contrary to prejudice and prevailing opinion, that the assertion will not be believed without proofs ; and these could not well be displayed in the short space of this Appen- dix. For the sake of those who feel curious 'upon the sub- ject, I must beg to refer to an appendix to the fourth volume of my " Physical History of Mankind," written by Mr. F. Newman, from materials furnished by M. Schcen.f
The inhabitants of almost every valley or separate plain, or mountainous tract, were supposed to have a language of
* Prichard, p. 559.
t Prichard, p. 566 and 567.
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their own, unconnected with the idioms of their nearest neighbors. Wherever sufficient inquiry has been made, a more accurate acquaintance with facts has proved the fal- lacy of this opinion, and has shown that a few mother tongues, mostly divided into a variety of dialects, are spread over vast spaces. In proportion as the inquiry has been more accurately pursued, and a scientific examination of languages has advanced, in the same degree the number of languages supposed to be distinct has been from time to time diminished. With the number of separate languages, that of distinct races or families of nations, has been in pro- portion reduced. These observations are, perhaps, in no instance more applicable than they are to the languages and nations of Africa. If we survey the language in refer- ence to the present state of our knowledge, we may perhaps venture to say that three-fourths of the whole extent of this continent are occupied by three great families of nations.*
One objection will be offered to the supposition that all nations who speak the various dialects of this mother tongue are of one origin, and that is, the great extent of their physi- cal diversity. The tribes of the coast of Ajan are, as we have seen, of a jet-black, while the Bechuana are of a light- brown, the Amakosah being somewhat darker. In Kongo there are various complexions. The features also differ. The nomades of the high plains beyond the tropics have often features which approach the Arabian type, and an Arabian origin has been assigned to them, whilst the nations
* Prichard, p. 588.
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of the Mozambique coast have nearly the negro character. But there is enough that is peculiar in the hair and color of all these tribes to preclude the notion of an Arabian parent- age. On the other hand, the deviation in physical charac- ters is not greater than that which is to be found in the Dekhan among tribes of the native Tamulian family, where we may compare the tall, handsome, and comparatively fair Tudas of the Neilgherry mountains with the puny tribes of black people who are to be found in the low plains of Mala- bar and Coromandel.*
The same conclusion is deduced from an examination of the tribes of India. In the Niligiri or Neilgherry hills, in the Southern part of the Dekhan towards the junction of the two chains of Ghauts, are various barbarous tribes termed by Mr. Hough, who has described them, Thodaurs, Budda- gurs, Curumbars, and Kothars. To these must be added the Cohatars, who occupy the summits of hills. In physical character these races differ greatly among themselves : some of them are small, shrivelled, black savages, who have been thought to resemble the negroes of Africa ; others are tall and athletic, handsome, with features resembling the Euro- pean type. These are the inhabitants of the elevated tracts, where a tolerably cool and salubrious climate exists : the blackest and most diminutive tribes are found in the jungle near the rivers, and in low, unhealthy districts. Yet it is probable that most of these tribes are of one aboriginal race, since, when vocabularies of their various dialects have been
* Prichard, p. 652 and 653.
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collected, they have been found generally to bear some traces of affinity to the Tamulian, or its sister languages, that is, to the idioms of the civilized nations of the Dekhan.
Unity of language also proves unity of origin among all the diversified aboriginal inhabitants of America, from one end of the continent to the other.*
We remark further, that the unity of the human race is capable of irresistible proof by another and altogether dis- tinct line of argument, founded upon the unity which has been discovered in all the languages of the earth, of which there are probably not fewer than two thousand. f Lan- guages being the most durable of human endowments, by detecting in their composition common elements and forms of speech, both as it regards the words themselves and also as it regards the grammatical construction, arrangement and form, we obtain, it has been thought, the most satisfac- tory evidence of the original identity of those races by which such languages are spoken 4 In regard to the natural history of our globe and facts connected with its physical geography and the multiplication and dispersion of species, both of animals and plants, there are many grounds of un- certainty, since we can never duly appreciate the effects of its physical causes operating during a course of ages in- definitely great. But in the case of languages, especially
* See Prichard's Researches, vol. 5, p. 304, 306, and Natural History, App., 3d ed. Also Dr. Morton's Crania Americana, t S. Presbyterian Review, 1849, p. 244.
t Encyclopedia Brit., vol. 6, p. 274, and Carpenter's Physiology, p. 93. 10*
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of those which, though no longer spoken, are still preserved, there is no such element of uncertainty ; and hence an analysis of languages, conducted on strict philosophical prin- ciples, must lead to the most solid conclusions respecting the aboriginal history of our species.*
" A comparison of languages," says M. Klaproth, " fur- nishes in default of history the only method of distinguishing correctly from each other the different races of people who are spread over the earth. "f
The early investigations into this branch of inquiry, like those in geology and ethnology, seemed to be entirely ad- verse to the representations of Scripture, where we are told that after the flood all men " were of one lip and one speech," (Gen. xi. 6,) and that God " confounded their lan- guage that they might not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon all the face of the earth . . . therefore the name of it is called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the languages of all the earth." (v. 8, 9.)| The results, however, of maturer and very extensive investigation, prove that the 3064 languages of Adelung, and the 860 languages and 5000 dialects of Balbi, may be reduced to eleven families ;
* Encyclopedia Brit., vol. 6, p. 275. These principles, it is here said are now universally received as almost the only guides in investigating the origin and descent of nations. Also London Quarterly Review for January, 1850.
t See also Nolan's Bampton Lectures, p. 322.
t See Wiseman's Lectures, lect. 1 and 2, for an interesting history of this inquiry, its progress and results.
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and that these again are found to be not primitive and in- dependent, but modifications of some original language ; and that " the separation between them could not have been caused by any gradual departure or individual development, but by some violent, unusual, and active force, sufficient at once to account for the resemblances and the differences. "
To this truth even profane historians bear witness, and show that it was in the very way described in Scripture that men met the signal punishment of Almighty God.
Eupolemus says " the city of Babel was first founded, and afterwards the celebrated tower ; both which were built by some of those people who had escaped the deluge. They were the same who, in after times, were recorded under the character of giants. The tower was at length, by the hand of the Almighty, ruined, and these giants were scattered over the whole earth.'5
Abydenus, in his Assyrian Annals, alludes to the insur- rection of the sons of Chus, and to their great impiety. He also mentions the building of the tower and confusion of tongues ; and says that the tower, analogous to the words of Scripture, was carried up to heaven ; but that the gods ru- ined it by storms and whirlwinds, and frustrated the purpose for which it was designed, and overthrew it upon the heads of those who were employed in the work ; that the ruins of it were called Babylon. Before this, there was but one lan- guage existing among men, but now they had a manifold sound or utterance. A war soon after ensued between Cro- tus and Titan. He repeats that the particular spot where the tower stood was in his time called Babylon. It was so
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called, he says, from the confusion of tongues, and variations of dialect ; for in the Hebrew language such confusion is termed BabeL
It is interesting, says the Quarterly Review, to note how much these discoveries, as well as the classification and nomenclature of languages previously adopted, connect themselves also with the recorded tripartite division of man- kind into three great families after the Scriptural deluge. Some of the most remarkable results recently obtained are those which disclose relations, hitherto unsuspected or un- proved, between the language of Ancient Egypt and the Semitic and Japhetic languages of Asia ; thus associating together in probable origin those three great roots which., in their separate diffusion, have spread forms of speech over all the civilized parts of the world. Taking the Japhetian or Indo-Teutonic branch, as it has lately been termed, we find these inquiries embracing and completing the connections between the several families of language which compose this eminent division of mankind, already do- minant in Europe for a long series of ages, and destined, ap- parently, through some of its branches, to still more general dominion over the globe. We may mention as one of the latest examples of the refined analysis of which we are speaking, the complete reduction of the Celtic to the class of Indo-Teutonic languages through the labors of Bopp, Prich- ard, and Pietet, whereby an eighth family is added to this great stock, and the circle completed which defines their relations to one another and to the other languages of man- kind.
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In relation to our argument, the very multiplicity of languages, therefore, like that of the physical varieties of mankind, becomes an evidence of common original. What- ever opinion be held as to the primitive source of language — and many have found cause to consider it of divine com- munication— we may fairly presume that the numerous va- rieties of speech, now existing, had their origin in the de- tached localities and under the various conditions in which portions of mankind were already spread over the earth. These formations, and the changes they have undergone, have been determined by the faculties, feelings, and social instincts, common to the whole species, and requiring analo- gous modes of expression by speech. Accordingly we find, that the grammatical relations of different languages, apart from those technical forms which disguise them to ordinary observation, are more certain and closer than the connection by words and roots. Were there more than one species of mankind, and were the type of one race really inferior in its origin to that of another, nothing would be so likely to attest this as the manner of communication of thought and feel- ing. Language itself would become the surest interpreter of this difference. But its actual varieties, only partially coincident with the degree of civilization and social advance- ment, offer no such lines of demarcation, and however great the differences, all possess and manifest in their struc- ture a common relation to the uses and necessities of man.*
But in order to illustrate the force of this argument, we will refer to the various languages of our aboriginal Americans.
* Jan. 1850.
218
the unity of the hitman kaces.
" Professor Benjamin Smith Barton," says Mr. Dela- field,* " was the first to collect and classify American words. After him followed Vater, who, in his Mithridates, published at Leipsic in 1810, carried out the subject in an extended form. The result of their labors is thus stated : In eighty- three American languages, one hundred and seventy words have been found, the roots of which have been the same in both continents ; and it is easy to perceive that this analogy is not accidental, since it does not rest merely on imitative harmony, or on that conformity of organs which produces almost an identity in the first sounds articulated by children. Of these, three-fifths resemble the Mantchou, Tongonse, Mongol, and Samoiede languages ; and two-fifths the Celtic, Tchoud, Biscayan, Coptic, and Congo languages."
The inquiry may be made, " What number of words, found to resemble one another in different languages, will warrant our concluding them to be of common origin ?" The learned Dr. Young applied to this subject the mathematical test of his calculus of probabilities, and says it would ap- pear therefrom that nothing whatever could be inferred with respect to the relation of any two languages, from the coin- cidence of sense of any single word in both of them ; the odds would be three to one against the agreement of any two words ; but if three words appear to be identical, it would be then more than ten to one that they must be derived in both cases from some parent language, or introduced in some other manner ; six words would give more than seventeen
* Antiq. of America, pp. 70, 71.
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hundred chances to one ; and eight, near one hundred thou- sand ; so that in these cases the evidence would be little short of absolute certainty.
Ethnography, then, has furnished conclusive evidence that the family of American languages has had a common origin with that of Asia. A lexical comparison has estab- lished an identity in one hundred and seventy words, al- though this study is yet in its infancy ; and this, relying on the correctness of Dr. Young's mathematical calculation, is an argument which cannot be controverted.
In reviewing then the results to which philology inevita- bly brings us, and of which but a few instances are here adduced, we are obliged to refer the savage and larger portion of America to the North of Asia, and the civilized family of Mexico and Peru to ancient Egypt and Southern Asia.
The unity of all human languages, therefore, is a con- clusive proof of the unity of all the human races.
"All dialects,'"' says the Petersburg Academy, " are to be considered as dialects of one now lost." u The universal affinity of languages/"' says Klaproth, " is placed in so strong a light, that it must be considered by all as completely de- monstrated." "'There is a great probability," says Herder, while skeptical of the Mosaic record, " that the human race and language therewith go back to one common stock, to a first man, and not to several dispersed in different parts of the world." "The books of Moses," says Balbi, "'no monument either historical or astronomical has yet been able to prove false, but with them on the contrary agree, in
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the most remarkable manner, the results obtained by the most learned philologers and the profoundest geometricians."
We conclude, therefore, with the words of Chevalier Bunsen.
We cannot better express the general conclusion to which we are conducted by the study of the various forms of human language, says the Edinburgh Review, after giving an analysis of the various languages of men, than in the words of Chev. Bunsen. After stating the two possible hy- potheses— first, that there has been a great number of begin- nings, out of which different tribes have sprung, and with them different languages, — each doing originally the same work, and continuing and advancing it more or less accord- ing to its particular task, its natural powers, and its historical destinies; and second, that the beginning of speech was made only once, in the beginning of human time, in the dawn of the mental day, by one favored race, in a genial place of the earth, the garden of Asia, — he thus continues :
" If the first supposition be true, the different tribes or families of languages, however analogous they may be, (as being the produce of the same human mind upon the same outward world by the same organic means,) will neverthe- less offer scarcely any affinity to each other, in the skill displayed in their formation, and in the mode of it ; but their very roots, full or empty ones, and all their words, whether monosyllabic or polysyllabic, must needs be entirely differ- ent. There may be some similar expressions, in those inar- ticulate bursts of feeling not reacted on by the mind, which grammarians call interjections. There are besides some
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graphic imitations of external sounds, called onomatopoetica, words, the formation of which indicates the relatively great- est passivity of the mind. There may be, besides, some casual coincidences in real words ; but the law of combi- nation applied to the elements of sound, gives a mathema- tical proof that, with all allowances, such a chance is less than one in a million for the same combination of sounds signifying the same precise object. What we shall have to say hereafter about the affixing of words to objects, will show that this chance is considerably diminished, if the very strict and positive laws are considered which govern the applica- tion of a word to a given object. But the ordinary crude method suffices to prove that if there are entirely different beginnings of speech, as philosophical inquiry is allowed to assume, and as the great philosophers of antiquity have as- sumed, there can be none but stray coincidences between words of a different origin. Now, referring to what we have already stated as the result of the most accurate lin- guistic inquiries, such a coincidence does exist between three great families, spreading from the north of Europe to the tropic lands of Asia and Africa. It there exists, not only in radical words, but even in what must appear as the work of an exclusively peculiar coinage, the formative words and inflections which pervade the whole structure of certain families of languages, and are interwoven, as it were, with every sentence pronounced in every one of their branches. All the nations which, from the dawn of history to our days, have been the leaders of civilization in Asia, Europe, and Africa, must consequently have had one beginning. This
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is the chief lesson which the knowledge of the Egyptian language teaches us."
This statement, having especial reference to the Semitic, Japetic, and Chametic languages only, is, of course, equally true of those still more widely diffused forms of speech which are referable to the Turanian stock, that stock being itself, in Chev. Bunsen's estimation, a branch of the Japetic. And thus, in a very unexpected manner, we find Egyptological researches have greatly contributed to establish the doctrine of a common origin of all the languages of the globe ; and strengthen, therefore, the hypothesis of the original unity of mankind.*
* See Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, p. 67, et preced. and p. 86 Redford's Scripture Verified, Lect. II. pp. 152 — 175, etc. ; and p. 55, etc. Abel Remusat quoted in Wiseman, pp. 73, 74. Herder as quoted also in do. p. 73. Niebuhr in ibid., p. 75. And Edinb. Rev., Oct. 1846, p. 186. Am. ed., and London Q. Rev., Jan. 1850.
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CHAPTER XVI.
THE UNITY OF THE RACES SUSTAINED BY THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY AND TRADITION.
Ex infinita societate generis humani. — Cicero.
Ex annalium vetustate et monumentis eruenda est memoria. —Cicero.
It is no longer probable only, but it is absolutely certain, that the whole race of man proceeded from Iran as from a centre, whence they migrated at first in three great colonies; and that those three branches grew from a common stock, which had been miraculously preserved in a general convulsion and inundation of the globe, — Sir W. Jones.
The only certain means by which nations can indulge their curiosity in researches concerning their remote origin, is to consider the lan- guage, manners, and customs of their ancestors, and to compare them with those of the neighboring nations. — Hume's Hist, of Eng., vol. i. p. 1.
Another branch of evidence confirmatory of the doctrine of the unity of the human races, is derived from history.
" Ethnology divides itself into two principal departments, the Scientific, and the Historic. Under the former is com- prised every thing connected with the natural history of man, and the fundamental laws of living organisms ; under
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the latter, every fact in civil history which has any import- ant bearing, directly or indirectly, upon the question of races — every fact calculated to throw light upon the num- ber, the moral or physical peculiarities, the early seats, migrations, conquests, or interblendings of the primary divi- sions of the human family, or of the leading mixed races which have sprung from their intermarriages.*"
Adelung, in his great work on language, has summed up what history discloses to us on this subject. " Asia," says he, " has been in all times regarded as the country where the human race had its beginning, received its first education, and from which its increase was spread over the rest of the globe. Tracing the people up to tribes, and tribes up to families, we are conducted at last, if not by history, at least by the tradition of all old people, to a single pair, from which families, tribes, and nations, have been successively produced. The question has been often asked, What was this first family, and the first people descending from it ? Where was it settled ? and how has it extended so as to fill the four large divisions of the globe ? It is a question of fact, and must be answered from history. But history is silent; her first books have been destroyed by time, and the few lines preserved by Moses are rather cal- culated to excite than satisfy our curiosity."
Such is the uniform and unvarying testimony of history. It traces up all the nations of the earth, like streams, to a common fountain, and it places that fountain in some orien- tal country in or near the tropics. " I trace," says Sir Wil-
* Ethnological Journal, No. 1, pp. 1, 2.
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liam Jones, "to one centre the three great families from which the families of Asia appear to have proceeded." " Thus, then," he adds, " have we proved, that the inhabit # ants of Asia, and consequently, as it might be proved, of the whole earth, sprang from three branches of one stem ; and that those branches have shot into their present state of luxuriance in a period comparatively short, is apparent from a fact universally acknowledged, that we find no certain monument, or even probable tradition, of nations planted, empires and states raised, laws enacted, cities built, naviga- tion improved, commerce encouraged, arts invented, or let- ters contrived, above twelve, or at most fifteen or sixteen centuries before the birth of Christ ; and from another fact, which cannot be controverted, that seven hundred or a thou- sand years would have been fully adequate to the sup- posed propagation, diffusion and establishment of the human race."
" The history of the world," says Dr. Goodman, " as presented to us by the most authentic records, or by the voice of universal tradition, leads us inevitably to conclude that from some point in the Eastern continent the human race originated, and gradually extended in various direc- tions, subject to the influence of all accidents, of place, cli- mate, disease, and facility or difficulty in procuring food ; hence, notwithstanding that the connection of many nations with the parent stock is entirely lost, there is not the slight- est evidence that such nations are derived from any but the source we have stated."*
* American Natural History, vol. 1, pp. 19, 20. See also Sir Hum-
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" We do not know," says Wilhelm Von Humboldt, in an unpublished work, On the Varieties of Languages and Na- tions, " either from history or from authentic tradition, any period of time in which the human race has not been di- s vided into social groups. Whether the gregarious condition was original, or of subsequent occurrence, we have no historic evidence to show. The separate mythical relations found to exist independently of one another in different parts of the earth, appear to refute the first hypothesis, and concur in ascribing the generation of the whole human race to the union of one human pair. The general prevalence of this myth has caused it to be regarded as a traditionary record transmitted from the primitive man to his descendants."*
To these authorities may be added the testimony of Hamilton Smith. f " Although," says he, "in Central Asia no very distinct evidence of a general diluvian action, so late as to involve the fate of many nations, can be detected ; still there cannot be a doubt, that with scarce an opposable cir- cumstance, all man's historical dogmatic knowledge and traditionary records, all his acquirements, inventions and domestic possessions, point to that locality as connected with a great cataclysis, and as the scene where human develop-
phrey Davy's Consolations in Travel. Sir William Jones's Discourse on Origin and Families of Nations, in Wks. vol. 3, pp. 185, 191, 194. Redford's Scripture Verified, pp. 175 — 195. Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the World, vol. 2. Faber's Eight Dissertations and his other works.
* See Cosmos, p. 360, vol. 1.
t Natural History of Man, p. 171.
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ment took its first most evident distribution/' He then proceeds to show that every thing which man has found most essential in the animal and vegetable kingdom is na- tural to that part of the world, and remarks : " It would be vain to look for so many primitive elements of human sub- sistence, in a social state, in any other portion of the globe. Nearly all of them were originally wanting in the Western Caucasus ; and the civilized development of Egypt could not have occurred without the possession of wheat, barley, flax, the leek, garlic, onion, and many other objects; all foreign to Africa. These can have been brought westward only by colonies practically acquainted with their value.55*
The same view of ancient history is taken by Guyot in his recent lectures. j* " Western Asia,55 he affirms, " is the original country of the white race, the most perfect in body and mind. If, taking tradition for our guide, we follow step by step the march of the primitive nations, as we ascend to their point of departure, it is at the very centre of this pla- teau that they irresistibly lead us. Now, it is in this cen- tral part also, in Upper Armenia, and in Persia, if you re- member, that we find the purest type of the historical nations. Thence we behold them descend into the arable plains and spread towards all the quarters of the horizon. The ancient people of Assyria and Babylonia pass down the Euphrates and the Tygris into the plains of the South, and then unfold, perhaps, the most ancient of all human civilization. First,
* P. 173. See also pp. 169—171, 181—185. t Earth and Man, p. 269, 276, &c.
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the Zena nation dwells along the Araxes, then, by the road of the pleateau. proceeds to found, in the plains of the Oxus, one of the most remarkable and the most mysterious of the primitive communities of Asia. A branch of the same people, or a kindred people — the intimate connection of their language confirms it — descends into India, and there puts forth that brilliant and flourishing civilization of the Brahmins, of which we have already spoken. Arabia and the North of Africa receive their inhabitants by Soristan ; South Europe perhaps by the same route through Asia Minor ; the North, finally through the Caucasus, whence issue in succession, the Celts, the Germans, and many other tribes, who hold in reserve their native vigor for the future destinies of this continent. There, then, is the cradle of the white race, at least of the historical people, if it is not that of all mankind.
" The examination we have made of the structure of the northern continents, considered in respect of the influ- ence they exercise through their physical nature upon the condition of human societies, enable us to judge in advance that they are formed to act different parts in the education of mankind. It remains to be seen whether the course of history will confirm these anticipations. Now, if we find a real concordance, a harmony between these two orders of facts, we may fearlessly assert that these differences of phys- ical organization were intentional, and prepared for this end by Him who controls the destinies of the world.
" The first glance we cast upon the annals of the nations, enables us to perceive a singular but incontestable fact, that
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the civilizations representing the highest degree of culture ever attained by man, at the different periods of his history, do not succeed each other in the same place, but pass from one country to another, from one continent to another, fol- lowing a certain order. This order may be called the geo- graphical march of history."
" Again,5' says Guyot, " tradition every where repre- sents the earliest race descending, it is true, from the high table-lands of this continent ; but it is in the low and fertile plains lying at their feet, with which we are already ac- quainted, that they unite themselves for the first time in national bodies, in tribes, with fixed habitations, devotiqg themselves to husbandry, building cities, cultivating the arts; in a word, forming well regulated societies. The traditions of the Chinese place the first progenitors of that people on the high table-land, whence the great rivers flow, they make them advance, station by station, as far as the shores of the ocean. The people of the Brahmins came down from the regions of the Hindo-Kue and from Cash- mere into the plains of the Indus and the Ganges; Assy- ria and Bactriana receive their inhabitants from the table- lands of Armenia and Persia. Each of them finds upon its own soil all that is necessary for a brilliant exhibition of its resources. We see those nations come rapidly, and reach, in the remotest antiquity, a degree of culture of which the temples and the monuments of Egypt and of India, and the recently discovered palaces ofNineveh, are living and glori- ous witnesses.
" Great nations, then, are separately formed in each of 11
230 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
their areas, circumscribed by nature within natural limits. Each has its religion, its social principles, its civilization, severally. But nature, as we have seen, has separated them ; little intercourse is established between them ; the social principle on which they are founded is exhausted by the very formation of the social state which they enjoy, and is never removed. Now, God has revealed himself to man, has made known to him his will, and pointed out the path which he ought to have followed. The Creator himself condescended to guide the steps of the creature upon the long journey he had to travel. This is what the Bible tells us; this is confirmed by the vague memorials of all the primitive nations, whose eldest traditions, — those antecedent to the philosophical theogonies prevalent at a later period, and giving them their specific character, — contains always some disfigured fragment of this divine history."
Mr. Pickering presents many striking considerations in favor of a central origin of the human family, and to show that the most remote must have had former intercourse with the most central,* and that there is nothing contravening the idea of a single source of the invention of language in the multitude of languages in India and America.f He points out also natural passages, by sea and land, for migrations to the different parts of the earth, in chapters 17 and 18. He shows that, as all animals are adapted to their natural local- ities, man must have originated in a warm climate, and that
* Races of Man, p. 281-285 and 298. t Pickering on Races of Man, p. 283.
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there has been a time when the human family had not strayed beyond these geographical limits.* This he proves by another argument, founded on the physical discordance of man to the region of the frosty Caucasus. f On zoologi- cal grounds, the human family, he believes, is also foreign to the American continent.:]: Other reasons exclude New Guinea, Madagascar, Ceylon. All men, however, he thinks, could proceed from Africa and the East Indies. §
A furtner confirmation of the Scriptural doctrine of the primitive unity of the human race, is found in the fact to which history attests, that the earliest condition of all ancient nations was the most civilized. On this point we have already offered sufficient testimony. We will only add that given by the Ethnological Journal itself.
"Connecting these several results," says that Journal,|| " we are led to the conclusion that all ancient civilization must have sprung from some common centre, however diffi- cult or impossible it may be to say where or what that centre was. If we look to the earliest historical traditions, we find that they date their origin, not from periods of bar- barism, but from periods of high civilization. Menes, the first mortal king of Egypt, was a great conqueror. Some of his immediate successors are stated to have built pyra- mids, and such like mighty works. Some of the writings attributed to Zoroaster plainly evince a most remote anti-
* Pickering on Races of Man, p. 302. t Do., p. 303.
|| No. 5, p. 152—156.
t Do., p. 303. § Do., p. 305.
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quity ; and these writings point to a still older religion, of which the creed of Zoroaster was a reformation, or recon- struction. It is needless to specify any of the chronological traditions of the Chaldean, Hindu, or Chinese nations ; every one knows that they vie with those of Egypt in their preten- sions to antiquity. That these pretensions are not wholly without foundation, that a degree of civilization existed in times long anterior to the commencement of regular history, is a position which cannot be much longer denied. It was not by barbarians that the pyramids, temples, and other vast works of Africa were erected ; and yet the more searching is our inquiry into their origin, the more distant does this appear to be. The cave-temples of India are the remnants of a civilization whose memory has wholly perished ; while neither the traditions or history of Italy or Greece enable us even to conjecture who were the nations that erected their Cyclopean buildings. Even in the New World, the king- doms destroyed by the Spaniards were founded on the ruins of far mightier empires, whose shattered works speak of a civilization and a power rivalling in greatness and in anti- quity that of Egypt itself.
" Religious institutions and languages are equally un- equivocal in showing the wonderful extent of this ancient civilization. In India, in Japan, and even in the Polynesian Islands, we find existing to the present times, and reaching back into the remote past, systems of sacerdotal power quite similar to those of ancient Egypt ; and supported by doc- trines and mythologies fundamentally the same. In Peru, especially, the Spaniards put an end to a race of pontiffs —
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kings, the very counterparts of the first sovereigns of Egypt. But it is not only in civilized and partially civilized coun- tries, that we find traces of the old religions and mythologies. We are perpetually startled by their occurrence when in- vestigating the superstitions of the most remote and bar- barous tribes. In Europe and Asia we meet them among the Northern Fins, and Laplanders and Samoides, and Ostiachs and Tongonisi ; we meet them in New Zealand, and in numerous other islands of the Pacific ; we meet them in the wilds of North America. And wherever we meet them, we also meet numerous words derived from the very languages to which the antique civilization can be traced.
" Another point worthy of consideration is, that the far- ther back we remount into ancient times, in any of the great centres of civilization, the more vast do we find the vestiges of their power, the more pure and elevated the traditions of their philosophy. The greatest works of modern times, however striking the scientific skill displayed in them, are, with few exceptions, far inferior, in point of grandeur, to corresponding productions of Greek or Roman art, while these latter, however exquisite in artistic beauty, are insig- nificant in point of vastness, when compared with the labor of traditional and anti-traditional antiquity.
" Time has developed skill and science, and in some instances, taste also ; but the instructors and rulers of men in the earlier ages of the earth must have had, in general, some capacious minds, a loftier ambition, and a vaster or more available dominion over men than those of later ages. This mental elevation is as strongly marked in what we
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know of their opinions, as in the remnants of their architec- ture. In profane writing we every where find, that the sublimest philosophy and the purest morality, is that which is most ancient. The moderns, except in those cases in which an improved science has come to their aid, have pro- duced nothing superior to the speculations of the sages of Greece ; while these latter openly professed to be the col- lectors and interpreters of the wisdom of still remoter times. In the ages which we are in the habit of naming antiquity, we find that the men then living, invariably regarded them- selves as having fallen upon late and evil days. Though conscious of having recently emerged from that state of semi-barbarism, called the heroic age, they were convinced at the same time, that that state had arisen from the ruins of a previous and great civilization which the hand of time had still spared. Thus Hesiod tells us that he lived in the iron age, an age of extreme degeneracy, and that this age had succeeded that of heroes and demi-gods ; but at the same time, he informs us that this latter had been preceded by three other great periods — the brazen, the silver, and the golden ages. It is to this golden era, the most remote of all, that the ancients invariably looked for the origin of all their sublime knowledge.*
Geology has reluctantly, but very emphatically, testi- fied that no traces of man can be found until a period agree- ing precisely with the Mosaic record. f Chronology has
* See also Hamilton Smith, p. 130.
t See Lyell's Principles of Geology. Mantell's Wonders of Geology. London Quarterly Review, Jan. 1850, art, 1, &c.
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been brought by the independent and scientific researches of philosophers — many of them also declared unbelievers — into a most singular and unexpected identity with this au- thoritative document, and proves that there is no real chrono- logy and no true history earlier than that of the inspired historian.* Few national histories can be traced even so far back as the age of Abraham, and most assuredly none prior to the Mosaic date of the confusion and dispersion of Babel. The plain of Shinar, then, was the true nursery and cradle of mankind. From hence as from a fountain in the mountain's side, small at first, but rapidly increasing, all the streams of human population have flowed and diverged. From the event of their confused speech and necessary dis- persion, immediately commenced the diverse nations which sprang up in India, Egypt, Assyria, and China, mature and mighty almost at once, and fulfilling the renewed benedic- tion of their Creator, " to be fruitful and multiply and re- plenish the earth." j-
And as the Bible declares that of the three sons of Noah the whole earth was peopled, so is it true that most, if not all, the known inhabitants of the earth can be, and indeed have been, traced up to the one or other of these three roots,
* This leaves the question of the Septuagint or Hebrew chronology free and open.
t See a review of the efforts made to 'extend chronology and history by the Egyptians, Chinese, &c, in Redford's Scripture Verified, p. 175- 135. Hale's Analysis of Chronology. Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, Appendix. The Truth of Christianity Demonstrated, by Murray ; and Stillingfleet's Origines Sacra, chap, i., and ch. ii., B. 1.
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and thus verify in their permanent condition and destiny, .he prophecy made by Noah and preserved by Moses re- specting the future posterity of Shem, Ham, and Japhet.*
And while many of the nations of the earth were settled in their present countries before the period of historical tra- dition, and not a few maintain that their ancestors were natives of the country, " still, however," says Schlegel, " their languages are manifestly nearer or more distant va- rieties of a single mother-tongue, spoken by one family of people, and prove that in a distant and indeterminate anti- quity, emigration took place over wide tracts of country from a common and original abode. This is no hypo- thesis," he adds, " but a fact clearly made out — though not resting upon testimony which can no longer be denied — in our researches into primeval history."*)"
We proceed to remark in the next place, that we find an- other and a very strong confirmation of the doctrine of the original identity and unity of the human race, in universal tradition. Hume asserted, " that the Books of Moses are corroborated by no concurring testimony." Dr. Campbell answered, " as little is it invalidated by any contradictory testimony ; and for this plain reason, because there is
* See Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the World, vol. 2, p. 480, &c. Redford, as above, p. 182. Davies' Lectures on Prophecy, Lond. 1836, lect. 3, on Noah's Prophecy. Faber's Eight Dissertations, vol. 1. Nolan's Bampton Lectures, lect. 8, and Notes on the same. Also Cro- ly's Divine Providence, p. 289.
t Preface to Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. xix. and xx.
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no human composition that can be compared with this, in respect of antiquity." But are the Books of Moses without collateral evidence ? Thales measured the height of the pyramids, by the length of their shadows. What if we measure the truth of the facts, narrated by Moses, by the number and variety of the traditions among all nations con- cerning them ?
In speaking of the generation of the subordinate deities, Plato says : " We must believe those who have spoken be- fore, because they must be conceived to have known their own ancestors." He appealed therefore to " ancient story," and " learning hoary with time;" and presents some tradi- tional doctrines which can only be explained as the wide- spread knowledge resulting from a Scriptural revelation.*
We find therefore a valid and irresistible argument in the preservation — among men of every color, character, and condition ; of every age, country, and climate ; and of every degree of civilization or barbarity, — of traditions which verify and confirm the records of the Bible, and connect men of every nation, country, tribe, and people, with the events there detailed. The primitive condition of mankind, the purity and happiness of the golden age, — the location of man in a garden — the tree of knowledge of good and evil — the influence of a serpent in the seduction and ruin of man — the consequent curse inflicted on man, on woman, and upon the earth — the promise of an incarnate Redeemer —
* The Ethnological Journal also appeals to tradition, see No. 4. 151, 152, and 157.
11*
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traditions respecting Cain and Abel, Enoch and Noah ; the longevity of the ancient patriarchs, and the existence of ten generations from Adam to Noah — the growing deterioration of human nature — the reduction of man's age and power — the deluge and destruction of all mankind except a single family — the building of an ark and its resting on a moun- tain and the flying of the dove — the building of the tower of Babel and the miraculous confusion of languages — the insti- tution of sacrifices — the rainbow as a sign and symbol of destruction and of hope — the fable of the man in the moon which is equally known in opposite quarters of the globe* — the great mother who is a mythos of the arkf — the herma- phroditic unity of all the gods and goddesses from a mis- taken notion of the creation of Adam and Eve J — the nature and purport of the mysteries in the Old and New World § — groves, and mountains, and caves as places of worship, || — traditions also of Sodom and Gomorrah ; of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the Red Sea — the division of time by weeks — and the expectation of a future conflagration of the earth IT — these and many other facts, which lie at the
* See Faber's Orig. of Idolatry, vol. 3, pp. 16, 17.
t Do., ch. iii.
t Do.,ch. iv.,p. 60-92.
§ Do., ch. vi., pp. 110, 150, 188.
|| Do., ch. vii.
IT See Hamilton Smith, pp. 127, 132, 172, 176, 221, 244, 245, and 381. See also many wonderful analogies in tradition and habits in the most remote countries and nations, in Pickering on the Races of Men, pp. 2^1-285, 287. Delafield's Antiquities of America, pp. 32 and 54- 64. See also Cuvier, in Edinb. N. Phil. Journal, Jan. 1850; in do. p. 9.
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foundation of sacred history and the earliest events of hu- manity, are all found imbedded like the fossils of the earth in the traditionary legends, both written and oral, of every tribe and people under the whole heavens.*
Now if mankind have all proceeded from the same original family, and were thus in their primitive stock acquainted with the same primitive revelation and the same Scriptural facts, the preservation of these original traditions with an essential identity, and at the same time with many differences and mythological incrustations, is a fact both natural and to be expected; just as in the exactly analogous case of a diversity together with an essential unity of lan- guages. But on the other hand, if mankind is made up of an indefinite number of races, entirely distinct and inde- pendent in their origin and subsequent history, then such a unity in the preservation of facts and doctrines — which are many of them foreign to all natural suggestions of the hu- man mind, and most peculiar and remarkable in their
* See Redford's Scripture Verified, lect. i. and ii. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacra, B. iii.,ch. iv. and v. Gale's Court of the Gentiles, 4 vols. 4to — Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, 6 vols. — Faber's Origin of Idolatry, 3 vols 4to ; and all his works on archaeological sub- jects. The Worship of the Serpent Traced Throughout the World, at- testing the Temptation and Fali of Man by the Instrumentality of a Serpent-Tempter, by the Rev. John B. Deane, F. S. A., &c, Lond. 1833, p. 474; and the Doctrine of the Deluge, by Harcourt, 2 vols. Faber's Horoe Mosaicae, vol. 1, ch. 3, 4, and 5, pp. 41-195. Truth of Christianity Demonstrated from existing Monuments, Sculptures, Coins, and Models, by John Murray,, F. S. A , &c. See also Guyot's Earth and Man, pp. 277, 280.
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character, — and yet entirely independent and separate from sacred history, is beyond all possible explanation.*
That mankind should agree in any two of these numer- ous facts, was as improbable as three to one. That they should spontaneously agree in six, would be as improbable as seventeen hundred to one ; and that they should concur in all without an original unity* of knowledge and of interest is a supposition absolutely incredible, involving millions of millions of chances against it. It is, in short, impossible. And while therefore there may be difficulties in the existing phy- sical condition of men against the doctrine of the unity of the races, there are difficulties millions of times greater in number and in force in the traditional condition of man, against the doctrine of the diversity of the races."]*
* See illustrations in Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 3, Appen- dix and Preface by Schlegel, p. xxxii., &c. ; and xix.
t As it regards the American Indians, see Wiseman's Lectures, p. 84.
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CHAPTER XVII.
THE UNITY OF THE RACES PROVED FROM THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF ALL MEN, THE ADAPTATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ALL MEN, AND THE TRUTH OF THE MO- SAIC RECORDS.
Religion is the magnet of humanity, binding together in one united body all the races of men. Ex infinita societate generis humani.
The word religion seems emphatically to express the reciprocal bond or obligation of men, as created beings, to God our Creator, and to each other as fellow-creatures, or creatures of the same God. — Richardson's Dictionary.
We proceed to remark that the religious opinions and char- acter of all men is* another, and in itself an overwhelming proof of the unity of the human races.
Religion implies such a spiritual nature in man as leads him to the belief of a superior power or powers governing the world, and to the worship of such power or powers ; of a future state of existence, and of that state as one of re- wards and punishments ; of man's accountableness to God ; and of the necessity, in order to please Him, to practise moral as well as religious duties. In this religious nature
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we find man's peculiar and pre-eminent distinction exalting him above all lower animals, and elevating him to an equality with angels.
Now in this characteristic of the human species, all men are alike distinguished. Among those who differ most from each other there is no difference in this respect. All are religious beings. All believe in the existence of some supe- rior power or powers, whom they fear and reverence. All perform religious rites and offer sacrifices and prayers. All have a consciousness of moral accountability, a knowledge of good and evil, a sense of guilt and misery, a fear of death, and a dread of retribution. This proves that all men have sprung from a common root of bitterness, while it determines, also, the necessity of an atonement — " a sacrifice for sin."*
All the races of men have their priests, their supersti- tions, their creeds. A sufficient outline may, therefore, be drawn from the various records which have been preserved to establish an original identity as to the great facts of reli- gion, and a common correspondence as to many funda- mental convictions. f It is true all possess their peculiar characteristic mythologies. These, however, in all cases, like the poetical pictures of the Greeks and Hindoos, bear an evident relation to the local features and physical con-
* See this point urged in Murray's Truth of Christianity Demon- strated, ch. 9, p. 229. Faber and Outram on the Origin of Sacrifice. Magee on the Atonement.
t See Gray's Connection of Literature and the Sacred Writings. Lond., 1819. Vol. l,ch. l,and passim.
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dition of the regions where they were invented.* Hence the mythology appears the latest developed, and the most fluctuating part of all religions, and therefore the diver- gence of the mythologies proves nothing against the deduc- tions of those religions from a common source.")* Such an original and common source is made necessary to account for the existing and past religious views of men, both from the essential similarity in their rites, ceremonies, and dei- ties, and also from the fact which a comparison of religions and investigations of the oldest sacred books discover, that the nations commenced with a purer worship of Cxod — that the magic influence of nature upon the imaginations of the human race afterwards produced polytheism, and at length entirely obscured the spiritual conceptions of religion in the belief of the people, whilst the wise men alone pre- served the primitive secrets in the sanctuary. Such are the conclusions of the learned Schlegel respecting all nations. £
Sir William Jones has established the same positions by an exhibition of the original identity of the religions of Egypt, India, Greece, and Italy, and from the comparative purity of their earliest faith. §
Dr. Prichard has proved that " the same fundamental principles are to be traced as forming the groundwork of religions, institutions of philosophy, and of superstitious ob-
* See Wordsworth's Greece, Introduction, t Schlegel in Preface to Prichard's Mythology of Egypt, p. 30. X Schlegel p. 29-30, and Ethnological Journal, No. 5, p. 153-156. § Works, vol. 3, on the gods of Greece, &c.
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servances and ceremonies among the Egyptians and several Asiatic nations.'** The " almost exact parallelism which I have traced between the Egyptians and the Hindoos, even in arbitrary combinations, which present themselves in al- most numberless examples, it is impossible to explain," he says, M without the conclusion 1 have adopted. "f
And as it regards the numerous tribes of Indians who inhabit this New World, and who have been supposed by many to be distinct and separate species, Mr. Squier in his valuable work on the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, { has these remarks from Dr. McCulloh : " If we are not mistaken in assigning a religious origin to that large portion of ancient monuments, which are clearly not defen- sive, nor designed to perpetuate the memory of the dead, then the superstitions of the ancient people mtist have exer- cised a controlling influence upon their character. If again, as from reason and analogy we are warranted in supposing, many of these sacred structures are symbolical in their forms and combinations, they indicate the prevalence among their builders of religious beliefs and conceptions, corres- ponding with those which prevailed among the early nations of the other continent, and which in their elements seem to have been common to all nations, far back in the traditional period, before the dawn of written history."
In an elaborate paper on the Hindu Tabernacle, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the unity of all Ori-
* Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, etc., roy. 8vo.,Lond. 1838, p. 11. t P. 364.
t Phil, and Antiquarian Researches, p. 225.
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ental religions and deities is very learnedly pointed out. Whether, it is said in conclusion, we look at the correspond- ing traits of character in Moloch and Kali, in Baal-peor and the Chiun of Amos ; at the mutual assumption of either sex by Siva and his partner ; at the term Mother being applied to the latter, and also to the Succoth-Benoth (Astarte or My- litta) of the Assyrian, Phoenician, and other nations ; at the cow's horns (so called) of Assyria, and the crescent of India; at the young virgins who made a sacrifice of chastity to the Succoth-Benoth of antiquity, and to the consort of the Oriental Siva ; at the use made of the regular female votaries of both systems ; at their mutual assumption on certain occasions of the male attire ; at the lion as belonging to the goddess of Assyria, and also to her of India ; to the festival of Shach or Saca, and to that of Satti or Sakti, in regard to the lascivious way in which it was conducted, and the peculiar garments worn on that occasion ; at the term Salambo being the name of the one goddess, and also of the other; at its true meaning, in reference to a mountain where they mutually dwelt; at the Baal-peor of Assyria, the Osiris of Egypt, the ®a\\6s of the Greeks, the Priapus of the Romans, and the Lingam of the Hindus (worshipped now in the temples of the East), — we see some of the most strik- ing coincidences, which never could have been the result of any thing but the identity of their origin."*
Mr. Wait also, in a work justly regarded as pre-emi- nentlly learned, entitled Jewish, Classical, and Oriental An-
* In vol. for 1838, art. vi, p. 87.
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tiquities, containing illustrations of the Scriptures, and classi- cal records from Oriental sources,* arrives at the following conclusions : " Thus have we exhibited a parallel between the Jewish, the Oriental, and classical writings, (although the necessity of more diffusely elucidating many particu- lars in the subsequent volumes, has caused the omission of several coincidences in this,) and notwithstanding the anti- quity of the Egyptian hierarchy, we have shown that the Israelitish institutions are not to be referred to their school, but rather to the patriarchal remains, remodelled and en- larged, at the delivery of the law at Mount Sinai. It has also been proved, that whatever the Law of God might have possessed at the time of its promulgation, in common with the Idolaters, these particulars did not originate with the latter, but belonged to the religion of the Patriarchs, and after the general defection in the Plains of Shinar, were made articles of faith by the builders, as they fixed them- selves in their respective settlements, from whence arose the strong resemblance that subsisted between the different schools of the Polytheistioal system, and the coincidences which we have remarked between them and the Mosaic law.f
The same inquiry Dr. Prichard has pursued in refer- ence to the African and negro races, by an elaborate deve- lopment of their religious opinions and practices, and then concludes respecting all the varieties of men.
* By the Rev. Daniel Guilford Wait, L. L. D. B. S. A. S. Cam- bridge, 1832. t See p. 295.
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• If we could divest ourselves of all previous impres- sions," he says,f " respecting our nature and social state, and look at mankind and human actions with the eyes of a natural historian, or as a geologist observes the life and man- ners of beavers or of termites, we should remark nothing more striking in the habitudes of mankind, and in their man- ner of existence in various parts of the world, than a refer- ence which is every where more or less distinctly perceptible to a state of existence after death, and to the influence be- lieved both by barbarous and civilized nations to be exer- cised over their present condition and future destiny by invisible agents, differing in attributes according to the sentiments of different nations, but universally believed to exist. The rites every where performed for the dead, the various ceremonies of cremation, sepulture, embalming, mummifying, funereal pomps and processions following the deceased, during thousands of successive years in every re- gion of the earth — innumerable tumuli scattered over all the northern regions of the world, which are perhaps the only memorials of races long extinct — the morais, pyramids and houses of the dead, and the gigantic monuments of the Poly- nesians— the magnificent pyramids of Egypt and of Anahuac — the prayers and litanies set up in behalf of the dead as well as of the living, in the churches of Christendom, in the mosques and pagodas of the East, as heretofore in the pagan temples, — the power of sacerdotal or consecrated orders, who have caused themselves to be looked upon as the inter-
* Researches, vol. I, pp. 175, 176.
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preters of destiny, and as mediators between the gods and man — sacred wars, desolating empires through zeal for some metaphysical dogma — toilsome pilgrimages performed every year by thousands of white and black men, through various regions of earth, seeking atonement for guilt at the tombs of prophets and holy persons, — all these and a number of similar phenomena in the history of nations, barbarous and civilized, would lead us to suppose that all mankind sympathize in deeply impressed feelings and sentiments, which are as mysterious in their nature as in their origin. These are among the most striking and remarkable of the physical phenomena, if we may so apply the expression, which are peculiar to man, and if they are to be traced among races of men which differ physically from each other, it will follow that all mankind partake of a common moral nature, and are therefore, if we take into account the law of diversity in psychical properties allowed to particular spe- cies, proved by an extensive observation of analogies in na- ture to constitute a single tribe."
Again, in his last work, Dr. Prichard says,* " We con- template among all the diversified tribes, who are endowed with reason and speech, the same internal feelings, appeten- cies, aversions ; the same inward convictions, the same sen- timents of subjection to invisible powers, and more or less fully developed, of accountableness or responsibility to un- seen avengers of wrong and agents of retributive justice, from whose iribunal men cannot even by death escape. We
* Nat. Hist, of Human Species, pp. 545, 546.
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find every where the same susceptibility, though not always in the same degree of forwardness or ripeness of improve- ment, of admitting the cultivation of these universal endow- ments, of opening the eyes of the mind to the more clear and luminous views which Christianity unfolds, of becoming moulded to the institutions of religion and civilized life ; in a word, the same inward and mental nature is to be recognized in all the races of men. When we compare this fact with the observations which have been heretofore fully established, as to the specific instincts and separate psychical endowments of all the distinct tribes of sentient beings in the universe, we are entitled to draw confidently the conclusion, that all human races are of one species, and of one family."
Here then we have another class of facts in the history of our race for which, as in the case of traditions, our oppo- nents are bound to account. They are facts. Their exist- ence is a fact. They are as much facts as the color and other peculiarities of extreme varieties of the race. They are also constant facts — facts invariable and immutable. If therefore physical facts stand in the way of the unity of mankind and demand solution, so do these moral facts stand in the way of a diversity of races, and refuse any possible explanation except upon the supposition of an original unity of the human family. There are therefore difficulties on both sides of this question. But as we have found that the presumption is altogether in favor of the doctrine of the unity of the race, we must therefore believe, that however unaccountable, these physical differences are variations which have sprung up from some cause or causes, in a race originally one.
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In connection with the previous argument, it may be stated in the next place, that not only are all men similar in their moral and religious constitution, but also in the perfect adaptation of Christianity to their nature, and the perfect similarity with which all — in proportion to their ability and opportunity — are affected by it.
Christianity is a remedial system. It implies the exist- ence of danger and disease — of guilt and depravity. It im- plies the love of sin and aversion to holiness, and the conse- quent necessity for a divine influence to " work in man to will and to do," before he can either receive the truth in the love of it, or feel it in its power and efficacy. It implies further, that even when proclaimed and pressed upon the attention of men, while " many are called few will be chosen," because " they will not submit themselves to the righteousness of God."
Now just such is the actual impression made by the gospel on all men. And as in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, Jew or Greek, barbarian or civilized, bond or free, black or white, Caucasian or negro ; — and as in its view all are one and there is no difference before God, " the whole world being found guilty before Him — so it is also true that all men every where treat this gospel alike. To all that believe it is the wisdom and power of God to salva- tion, while to all that perish, — to all that neglect or disbe- lieve or make light of it — it is foolishness. In all men there is the same enmity to the truth and the same stumbling at its difficulties. In all, there is the same consciousness of its awful variety. In all, there is the same appreciation of its
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simple doctrines " commending themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." And in all by whom it is believed, the gospel produces the same holy and heavenly results. The negro therefore is just as sensible of his need of the gospel, just as unwilling to believe and obey the gos- pel, and just as truly changed and sanctified by it when he is converted, as the white man. In proportion to his know- ledge, means, and opportunity, he is not a whit less suscep- tible to the power of every truth and principle of the gospel, and to the saving and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. To say otherwise is to give the lie to every man's experience — to the experience of every minister and mem- ber of every Christian denomination in every part of the country, and of the world,— it is to deny that the sun shines in the heavens.
The equal adaptation of Christianity to every human being, and the equal susceptibility of every human being to the gospel, is therefore another and demonstrative evidence that as in Adam all died, and as in Christ all are made alive, r God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth."
" The Christian principle is therefore universal : it em- braces the whole human race. It proclaims its grand truths independent of localities ; it is as suitable for China as for Britain — for Siberia as for the South Sea Isles. This gives it a distinctive character from all other systems of religion. It exercises its influence over the human heart and outward condition of mankind irrespective of climate and physical circumstances. It has God for its object, and the universe
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I
for its theatre. It cheers the path of man in the desert, and produces moral order and domestic happiness in the most savage wilds of nature. There is nothing too rude that it cannot polish — nothing too stupid that it cannot enlighten. It pours riches and honor, and comfort and intelligence, on every spot of the earth's surface where its voice is pro- claimed."
We are thus led before concluding this chapter, to men- tion another corroborative argument, by which the testimony of Scripture as to the unity of the race is made conclusive, and that is the authentication given to its record of man's common origin by a mass of evidence which is perfectly irresistible.
Let it then be borne in mind that there was every thing to favor the certain knowledge of the truth respecting man's origin and history at the time of Moses. The duration of human life, which connected Adam and Moses by a few links, rendered the transmission and knowledge of the facts as certain then, as if conveyed now by a father to his chil- dren.. There is no monument or knowledge of any people prior to those whose history the Bible gives from Adam to Moses, while the time it allows for the establishment of na- tions, would have been fully adequate to the propagation, diffusion, and establishment of the human race.* The pro- tracted period to which the lives of men were then extended, also allowed more scope for the operation of those causes,
I ♦ " : ;• .
* See Sir W. Jones's Wks., vol. 3, p. 191. The particular chrono- logy to be adopted, the Bible, we have seen, leaves open for discussion.
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whatever they are, which influence the form and features of men, so that the peculiarities dependent on these causes would then become more complete and permanent, espe- cially when we remember the universal custom then preva- lent, of adhering to one family in forming matrimonial alliances.*
Universal history, traditions, monuments and language, corroborate therefore the Mosaic records in a most surpris- ing manner.f Thus says Sir William Jones, " On the pre- ceding, supposition that the first eleven chapters of the book, which it is thought proper to be called Genesis, are merely a preface to the oldest civil history now extant, we see the truth of them confirmed by antecedent reasoning and by evidence in part highly probable, and in part certain; but the connection of the Mosaic history with that of the gospel by a chain of sublime predictions unquestionably ancient, and apparently fulfilled, must induce us to think the Hebrew narrative more than human in its origin, and consequently true in every substantial part of it, though possibly ex- pressed in figurative language, as many learned and pious men have believed, and as the most pious may believe with- out injury, and perhaps with advantage to the cause of re- vealed religion. If Moses then was endued with superna- tural knowledge, it is no longer probable only, but absolutely certain, that the whole race of man proceeded from Iran, as
* Sumner's Records of Creation, vol. 1. pp. 370, 371. Genesis 24 and 28.
t See Sir Wm. Jones, ibid. pp. 191-197. Murray's Truth of Chris- tianity demonstrated from ancient Monuments, Coins, etc. 12
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from a centre, whence they migrated at first in three great colonies, and that those three branches grew from a common stock, which had been miraculously preserved in a general convulsion and inundation of the world."
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CHAPTER XVIII.
THE UNITY OF THE RACES PROVED FROM EXPERIENCE, AND FROM KNOWN CHANGES WHICH HAVE OCCURRED AMONG THE DIF- FERENT RACES OF MEN.
Whatever may be their tints, their souls are still the same. — Robinson.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. — Shakspeare.
There are operations in nature which, to the limited powers of man, are full of mystery ; we have, however, before us both the causes and ef- fects— the power of God and the evidence of his works, but we are unable to trace all those links in the great chain which binds the creatures of earth to the throne of Omnipotence.
Is there then, it may be asked, any thing in actual experi- ence, experiment and observation, to oppose this doctrine of the unity of the human race which has been thus variously corroborated ? Have any of our fellow-men been found in- capable of instruction and improvement in a degree commen- surate with their previous and long continued degradation ? Have any been found incapable of language, of speech, of song, of music, of poetry, of oratory, of wit, of humor ? Have any been found impracticable in the various arts, trades,
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and manufactures and agricultural employments, or incapa- citated for learning and practising them ? Has it been found absolutely impossible to impart to any race of men the arts of reading and writing ? Or are any wanting in the cunning artifice and fraud which characterize fallen man ; or in that power of deception which enables man to wear the mask of hypocrisy and appear religious, upright, and kind, when un- godliness, dishonesty, and perfidious cruelty rankle in the heart ? " These," says Dean Miller, " are the same in every age and climate, since the transgression of our first parents ; and the identity of the common stock from which the human race has descended is, perhaps, as clearly evinced by the manifest similarity of the depraved dispositions of the mind, as by the concurrence and agreement of those bodily marks and distinctions which are pointed out by natural historians as essentially constituting particular classes of beings."
Most assuredly no man can hesitate in giving an an- swer to these inquiries who has been familiar with that race in whom we in these Southern States have most interest. In all these respects they are found — in contrast to the lower ani- mals,— capable of instruction, improvement, and useful skill. They can acquire and practise various useful arts.* They can imitate, if they cannot equal, other men in the vices as well as in the virtues of human character. And as it regards their present inferiority, circumstances in the social and po- litical condition of many portions of this race in Africa have
* See a full exhibition of the facts relating to these attainments in art, in Lawrence's Lect.,pp. 337 — 340, and Blumenbacb.
ft
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been pointed out, which are thought sufficient to account for their ignorant and degraded condition.* It is to be remem- bered also, that all the inhabitants of Africa are not alike in any one particular, either physical, mental, moral, social, or political. f They show differences in complexion, in civil- ization, and in talent, and perhaps there is no race in the world which, if subjected to the same hapless condition for the same length of time, would not be found equally de- graded.^:
A long succession of ages under such influences would stereotype hereditary dulness and stupidity, and render the most enlightened people obtuse. Of this even Lord Karnes gives striking examples,^ to which may be added the cases of the Dutch in S, Africa, the Hispanio-American at Para- guay— the Lusitanio-American in Brazil, and the English in N. S. Wales. || We may again also refer to the con- trasted character of the inhabitants of England and Ireland. In the fifth century Ireland was the source of literature, philosophy and learning to England, to Scotland, and to Eu- rope. Of the inhabitants of Great Britain, Mr. Martineau of Liverpool says : " Taken one by one, even now, they pre-
* See Encycl. Brit., art. Negro.
t Dr. Wiseman, pp. 135—139; and Encycl. Brit., vol. 17, p. 78; and Lawrence's Lect., pp. 365—387, and 232, 239, and 336—340. t Encycloped. Brit., art. Negro.
§ See Smith's Essay on the Variety of Complexions in the Human Species, pp. 47, 48. 2d Am. ed.
|| See Delafield's Antiquities of America, pp. 120, 123.
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sent only harmonious varieties of a single type ; and the fact that the Scottish people are of the very same race, yet differ from the Irish more widely than ourselves, is enough to show that the imaginary difficulties of lineage are pliant under the discipline of events. Yet though made by birth of the same blood, set by nature within the same latitudes, led by conversion to the same religion, we have been brought by social agencies into a contrast of condition, to which the world presents no ancient or modern parallel. You might travel from Siberia to Normandy, and scarcely find such extremes to compare as Tipperary and Middlesex. If a shapeless cabin were cut out of the Galtee hills, and set down in the court of the London Exchange, it would be too true a type of the human differences which have been permitted to separate these provinces. Europe presents no poverty lodged in such holes, fed with such meals, clothed in such rags, cheerful under such hopeless privations, as you find in the one ; no wealth so solid, no comfort so established and diffused, no habits of order so fixed, no provision for the fu- ture so anxious and abundant, as in the other. England is known over the world as the extreme of opulent civilization ; Ireland as the outcast of hungry wretchedness. Along the great rivers of every continent, on the bays of every pro- ductive coast, in the isles of every rich archipelago, British factories rise, and bills of exchange speak for us a few tell- ing words ; on the same spot appears a slouching figure, with a stick and bundle, and careless speech, never far from a blessing or a curse ; whose aspect publishes our shame. The genius of his country is like a mocking spirit to ours.
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Full of the wild fire of life, rich in the unwrought elements of humanity, quick to passion, mellow in affection, deep in humor, he flies over the earth, to track the sedate and well-dressed genius of England, and spread out the sha- dow of mendicancy in the train of its sumptuous advance. ' Ha ! ha V says the laughing spirit, 6 go where you will, you old impostor, and I'll be with you, and sit at your door, and men shall look on me and on you ; for the face of us two can tell no lies.' And so on along the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, on the railways of France and Germany, it is published, that England — with unrivalled resources, with indomitable perseverance, with faculties for governing unsurpassed even by ancient Rome, with a people abhor- rent of oppression and detesting slavery, with a constitution practically free, and a religion singularly earnest — cannot, with centuries at its command, organize the barbaric ele- ments it rules, and reduce the beggary of a nation at its gates."
The degradation of the African and other similar races, is not. therefore, an anomalous fact, even in the history of races of men capable of the highest civilization, and in their condition and circumstances it was unavoidable. The Afri- can races we have also shown are not incapable of improve- ment, from any want of physical development. There is nothing in their brain or in any other organ of the mind which renders such advancement impossible.*
Many indisputable examples of at least comparative taste, talent, genius, erudition, and military prowess, in this very race, either in the bud or in the fruit, are sufficient to
* See ch. iii — v.
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prove, in the language of a quaint writer, that " the negro, like the white man, is still God's image, though carved in ebony. "*
Dr. Bachman has a chapter in illustration of the fact of "the improvements in the skull and physical developments of the African race.5' " Our experience," he says, " has produced a conviction that the African race is capable of making considerable advance. Whilst we are free to ad- mit that the negroes cannot, either in our country or in any other, be transformed without amalgamation into a white race, we do not, however, accord with the views of those who represent them as having undergone no change either in form or skull since their introduction jnto our country. We have for many years had passing before our eyes innu- merable evidences to convince us that this is not the fact. Whilst we perceive no change either in color or hair, we are fully satisfied that even in the maritime country of Ca- rolina there is, in form, in feature, and especially in skull, a very striking departure from the original type. We still have some hundreds of native Africans remaining in South Carolina, some of whom present the tatoo received in Africa. They belonged to tribes that were the progenitors of our ne-
* Blumenbach collected a Library of works written by Negroes.
See also Dr. Good's Book of Nat., vol. 2, p. 99 ; and on pp. 98 — 100, he mentions some of the cases referred to.
Chambers of Edinburgh has published a Tract containing illustra- tions of the same fact. Sharp also published an 8vo. vol. on the intel- lectual powers of Negroes. See also Dr. C. C. Jones, of Georgia, on the Instruction of Negroes.
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groes. They present in their thick lips, the curvature of the leg, the projection of the heel, the narrowness of the fore- head, which is generally wrinkled, and in the thickness of the lower jaw, such striking peculiarities when compared with our »ative negroes of unmixed blood that have been born in this Country and are but three or four generations re- moved from their African forefathers, that we have for many years past been in the habit of detecting their origin at a glance. We may, however, state one fact without the fear of contradiction. If the cast of the skull of an African, from the rich collection of skulls in the cabinet of Prof. Morton, and labelled 6 Negro of whose history nothing is known/ and which is staring us in the face while we are penning these lines, is the true African type, then our negro race in the South has unquestionably presented a most remarkable improvement in the skull. We do not doubt that this cast is an exact copy of the original, — it also bears a character- istic resemblance to the figure of the skull of a negro in Lawrence.* We have, however, compared this cast with more than fifty skulls of native-born negroes, and in all but one, which resembled it very closely, and with whose origin we are unacquainted, there were most marked differences, and very wide departures."
In another chapter, after giving an examination of the measurements of the brain made by Dr. Morton, Dr. Tiede- man and himself, Dr. Bachman says : — " Thus the negro skull was less than the European, but within one inch as large as those of the Persians, Armenians, and Caucasians,
* Nat. Historian, pi. 6. 12*
\
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and three square inches larger than two branches of the Caucasian race, the Indostanic and Nilotic. These tables, which we have presented in the figures of Professors Tiede- man and Morton, will satisfy us of the futility of any attempt to divide the races of men into different species from the size of the brain. There were nine cubic inches difference in the average measurement, between the skulls of the English and Irish, and only four inches between the mean of sixty-two African skulls and six native Irish. The largest African skull was ninety-nine, and the largest Irish only ninety-seven. This proves that a negro skull contained more brains than that of the largest Irishman, but it does not hence follow that he possessed more sense. The former had probably a larger frame than the latter. * * * There appears to have been a constant change going on in the crania as well as in the character of many nations. If we select the extreme types of any of the races, we will see a wide difference ; but if we look among individual forms, we will, in many instances, find it difficult to determine to which race they belong. Among many skulls of negroes and Europeans, which are now before us, we find some where the two races approach each other so nearly, that it requires much attention and a practised eye to distinguish between them ; and were we to give the white color and straight hair of the Caucasian to some of the skulls of the negro, the most practised anatomist and physiologist might be easily deceived."
" Indeed," to use the words of Agassiz, " the facilities, or sometimes we might rather say necessities, arising from the varied supplies of animal and vegetable food in the
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several regions, might be expected to involve, with his cor- responding customs and modes of life, a difference in the physical constitution of man, which would contribute to fiugment any primeval differences. It could not indeed be expected, that a people constantly subjected to cold, like the people of the North, and living almost exclusively on fish, which they cannot obtain without toil and peril, should pre- sent the same characteristics, either bodily or mental, as those who idly regale on the spontaneous bounties of tropi- cal vegetation."*
" It was at one time supposed that the anatomical in- vestigations of Fleuren had resulted in proving, from the marked and permanent differences in the cuticle existing under the integument of the white man and negro, that they were composed of different species. At a subsequent pe- riod, however, these structures in the tegumentary organs were investigated by the aid of the microscope, by Heule, Schwann, Purkinje, Simon, and several other professors of anatomy and physiology in Germany." " At the period of our visit to Berlin," says Dr. Bachman, " Dr. Heule and others were activel}' engaged in these investigations. These researches led them to the conviction, that the cells con- taining the black pigment under the skin of the African ne- gro, resembled very closely a structure containing dark color- ing matter in the diseased or dead bodies of white men. They also discovered that freckles, red blotches, &c, on the skin of white persons, had their several origins in the pig- ment cells which gave these peculiar discolorations to the
* Zoology, pp. 180, 181.
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skin. As far as these investigations have been referred to in any of the scientific works published in Germany, that have come to our knowledge for the last ten years, there appears to be a unanimous conviction, that the organical differences between the skin of the negro and white man, or any of the races, were utterly insufficient to afford even an argument in favor of a plurality in species.5'
" What there was or now exists in the climate of inter- tropical Africa to give to the inhabitants in the different lo- calities of those regions, such great diversity in the shape of the head, the expression of countenance, and structure of hair, is just as difficult for us to conceive, as for our oppo- nents to explain why in the same country the hog has be- come black — the sheep has lost its wool, and put on a cover- ing of black hair, and the dog, as well as some breeds of pigs, have become naked, or why it is that a variety of the com- mon fowl (Gallus morio) is not only black in color, but has the comb, wattles and skin dark purple, and the periosteum of the bones black ? When these phenomena in the lower orders of animals shall have been fully accounted for by our opponents, they will have afforded us some lights by which we will be enabled to explain the causes of difference in human forms and complexions."
Dr. Prichard, Mr. Pickering, and Hamilton Smith, are of opinion that the African was the primitive form and race of man, and that all the others are divergences from this earliest type ; while Dr. Bachman thinks the probability in favor of the supposition that the primitive form and color was intermediate between the African and white races, and
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that these are therefore variations equally removed from the original.*
But it is asked, why do we not see changes from black to white races actually arising at the present time ?
u The races," says Dr. Bachman, " are already estab- lished, and as far as experience in other departments of the animal creation affords us light on these subjects, varieties once formed, may produce other varieties, or they may sink into degeneracy and perish, but they cannot again be brought back to the races from which they originated, — no breeds of cows, horses, swine, or birds, have ever reverted back to the original forms; we can scarcely doubt that this pheno- menon will be the same in the races of men. New countries and climates may produce varieties among them, but their progeny, even though they be removed to the homes of their predecessors, never revert back to the original variety. Like slreams that flow onwards, like fragments of rocks broken from precipices, like metals changed by the chemist's art, they exist in other forms, — they enter into other combina- tions, but never return to their original sources.
" If this answer is not satisfactory to our opponents, we would ask them in return — can you without an amalgamation convert the Shetland pony, the Carolina tackey, or the dray horse, into the form of the wild Tartarian horse by any mode of feeding, training, or emigration ? Can you bring back the Durham cow to the Bos taurus ? the merino, or the large-
* See Prichard's reasons, given Lond. Quarterly Review, Jan. 1850, p. 19. Pickering on the Races, p. 305, for his reasons. Hamilton Smith, as quoted ; and Dr. Bachman, pp. 155, 156, &c.
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tailed sheep to the Ovis aries ? — the Carolina hog to tlie wild boar ? — the large Bremen goose to the original lag goose ? — the Aylesbury or the East India duck to the original Anas boschas ? — the powter or the fan-tailed pigeon to the origi- nal rock-dove ? — the golden pippin to the wild English crab ? — the sickel pear to the wild iron pear ? — or the cauliflower to the wild brassica, in ten thousand years? Permanent varieties put on the characteristics and tenacity of species.
" We perceive, then, that there are operations in nature which are constantly going on before our eyes, at which man may cavil, but for which no process of reasoning can enable him to assign a satisfactory cause : whilst we are groping in the dark, her laws are still uniform and operate in the same unvaried manner, from the humblest plant and the minutest insect up to reasoning man, the highest order in our world."
But there is another answer to this inquiry, and that is found in the fact that in the primitive age of the world, geo- logical and climatal conditions conspired with the adaptation of man's constitution to produce great changes, and to origi- nate and perpetuate such modifications.
It was an ancient opinion that man is a microcosmus, an abstract or model of the world. " This much," says Lord Bacon, " is evidently true, that of all substances which na- ture has produced, man's body is the most extremely com- pounded : for we see herbs and plants are nourished by earth and water ; beasts for the most part by herbs and fruits ; man by the flesh of beasts, birds, fishes, herbs, grains, fruits, water, and the manifold alterations, dressings,
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and preparations of the several bodies before they come to be his food and aliment. Add hereunto, that beasts have a more simple order of life, and less change of affections to work upon their bodies : whereas man in his mansion, sleep, exercise, and passions, hath infinite variations ; and it cannot be denied but that the body of man, of all other things, is of the most compounded mass."
To pronounce on the physical powers of the antedilu- vians and postdiluvians by a reference to our own short- lived existence, and from our present laws and condition of the earth, would be as wise as to argue from the existing facts of the material world with its manifold incrustations and decompositions, to a strictly analogous state of things in all past ages.*
Hamilton Smith gives numerous facts at great length to show that there are evidences " of a great atmospheric change in relation to man after a diluvian cataclysis," by which regions once adapted to the negro stock were adapted to different races.f He shows, therefore, the former greater mildness at the north pole, and the narrowness of Behring's Straits. In illustration of this, the conclusion of Professor Edward Forbes, respecting the origin and diffusion of the British Flora, may be cited, from his Survey Memoir on the connection between the distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Islands, &c, p. 65. " L The flora and fauna, terrestrial and marine of the British islands and seas, have originated, so far as that area is con-
* See Hamilton Smith, pp. 217, 218, and 265. t See also Dr. Bachman, p. 302.
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cerned, since the meiocene epoch. 2. The assemblages of animals and plants composing that fauna and flora did not appear in the area they now inhabit simultaneously, but at several distinct points in time. 3. Both the fauna and flora of the British islands and seas are composed partly of species which, either permanently or for a time, appeared in that area before the glacial epoch ; partly of such as inhabited it during that epoch ; and in great part of those which did not appear there until afterwards, and whose appearance on the earth was coeval with the elevation of the bed of the glacial sea, and the consequent climatal changes. 4. The greater part of the terrestrial animals and following plants now in- habiting the British islands are members of specific centres beyond their area, and have migrated to it over continuous land, before, during, or after the glacial epoch.
" The Alpine floras of Europe and Asia, so far as they are identical with the flora of the Arctic and sur-Arctic zones of the Old World, are fragments of a flora which was diffused from the North, either by means of transport not now in action in the temperate coasts of Europe, or over continuous land which no longer exists."*
There is, therefore, nothing, as Dr. Bachman says,f un- reasonable or unscientific in the supposition that the consti- tutions of men were so organized, that in those early times before the races had become permanent, they were more susceptible of producing varieties than at a later period,
* See in Humboldt's Cosmos, p. 363, vol. 1. See also Lond. Quarterly Review, Jan. 1850, p 18, col. 1, American edition, t p. 202.
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after their constitution had attained to the full measure of its development, beyond which there would at every step be a greater difficulty either in advancing or returning.*
There is one other objection which may be noticed under this chapter founded upon the case of the Dokos, the Bush- men, and other tribes who are alleged to be without lan- guage and the other essential characteristics of man.
Now in reply to this objection, we remark in the Jirst place, that the whole of our present knowledge of the Dokos is founded upon the most imperfect evidence.*)" Secondly, we remark that even if the Dokos or any other tribe could be shown to be destitute of the attributes of humanity, this would only prove either that they were not human beings, or that they had sunk to a condition of barbarism lower than that of any other race, but it would in no degree affect our general argument. %
But thirdly, we remark, that in the case of the Bushmen full experiment and observation have proved that men may descend to such a depth of degradation as to appear beyond the pale of humanity, while originally of the same race with more civilized tribes. This will appear from the following facts respecting the Bushmen given by Dr. Prichard in his last publication. J
It has been supposed that the Bushmen are a race of men distinct from the Hottentots. This opinion was founded
* On this argument, see the Ethnological Journal, No. 3, pp. 147,
148. Macculloch's Proofs of the Attributes of God, vol. 3, p. 480,481.
t See Dr. Prichard's Nat. History, Appendix, 3d edit. X Do. do. , do. pp. 593-604.
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on the difference of their manners, on the supposed un- tamable character of the Bushmen, and, most of all, on the fact, that the Hottentots do not understand the language of the Bushmen.
Others, who suppose the two nations to be of one stock, imagine that the hordes of Bushmen owe their existence to the hardships which were inflicted by the European colo- nists of South Africa on the Hottentots. The herdsmen of that race are supposed to have been plundered by the Dutch settlers near the Cape ; and after losing their cattle and all their property, to have been driven into the wilderness to subsist on such food as they could acquire by the chase, and the rude arts of the most abject savages. Neither of these opinions is well founded, as it has been fully proved by the researches of an able and well-informed traveller, who has made a long abode in South Africa, and was engaged by the Colonial government to undertake a long journey of investi- gation in the interior of Hottentot-land and Kafiristan. From Dr. Andrew Smith's accurate information, we are convinced that the Bushmen are of the same race as the Hottentots, and originally spoke the same language. They have been separated, however, from the pastoral Hottentot from a very distant period, and do not owe their destitute condition to the robberies inflicted on their forefathers by European colo- nists, though their numbers have been augmented from time to time by the resort of outcasts from various conquered and reduced tribes to the wandering hordes in their vicinity.*
I have been assured by Dr. Andrew Smith, who has not
* Prichard, pp. 593, 594.
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yet given to the world a full account of the results of his extensive observations on South Africa, that almost every tribe of people who have submitted themselves to social laws, recognize the rights of property and reciprocal social duties, and have thereby acquired some wealth and have formed themselves into a respectable caste, are surrounded by hordes of vagabonds and outcasts from their own commu- nity, or have them in their own vicinity ; that these hordes are ever gathering accessions from the predatory parties of neighboring tribes, or even of more distant bodies of people. Their haunts are in the wilderness and in the fastnesses of mountains and forests, and become the resort of all who, from crimes and destitution, are obliged to retire themselves from the abodes of the more industrious and honest and thriving of the community. Such are .the Bushmen of the Hottentot race. But a similar condition in society produces similar results in regard to other races ; and the Kafirs have their Bushmen as well as the Hottentots. But the people known to the Cape Colonists, are merely the outcast Hotten- tots. There are likewise vagabonds belonging to the Bech- uana nation, who are called by the latter people Balalas. The wild outcasts who are scattered over the Kalahaie De- sert, are known by the title of Bahalahaie. These, like the Balala, consist of the paupers and outcasts from different nations and the neighborhood. " They all stand," as Dr. A. Smith assures me, " in the same relation to the Kafirs as the Bushmen to the Hottentots.55*
The fact of a tribe of people in a better condition, and
* Prichard, p. 595 and 596.
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looking upon themselves as of higher caste and dignity, having in its vicinity hordes of a lower state, a sort of ma- lechehas, or a " mixed multitude/' descended probably from refugees and outcasts, and more or less mingled with foreign- ers and vagabonds from various quarters, is a thing likely to have occurred in other parts of the world besides South Africa ; and the supposition of its existence may tend to ex- plain many phenomena in history or ethnology. In India, for example, it cannot be doubted that many a tribe of ob- scure origin living beyond the limits, or on the outskirts of civilized communities, owes its existence, in a great part at least, to the shelter which woods and fastnesses and moun- tainous tracts afford, from time to time, to persons whose character and habits of life are such as to unfit them for the observation of laws, and for submission to regal and priestly ordinances. Many writers on Indian history have attributed this origin to the Bhils and Goands, and other tribes of the mountains, who display but slight differences in physical character and language from the people of the plains.*
The language of the Bushmen is merely a dialect of the Hottentot idiom, spoken by all of that race. This is the de- cided testimony of all late travellers, though the differences of words collected in vocabularies are so great as to have given rise at one period to a different opinion. The people of some hordes speak much like the Namaaquas ; others use the same words with different pronunciation ; a third party, as we are assured by Dr. Andrew Smith, vary their speech designedly by affecting a singular mode of utterance, and
* Prichard, p. 598.
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adopt new words with the intent of rendering their ideas un- intelligible to all but the members of their own community. For this last custom a peculiar name exists, which is — " cuze cat." This is considered as greatly advantageous to the tribe in assisting concealment of their exploits and designs.
The modified dialect is more or less understood by
the- population belonging to each Bushman tribe, but not to the Hottentots, or those who know only the common lan- guage of the race. The clapping noise occasioned by the various motions of the tongue, which is characteristic of the Hottentot language, is particularly of frequent occurrence among the Bushmen, who often use it so incessantly as to make it appear that they give utterance to a jargon consist- ing of an uninterrupted succession of claps. The dialects of the Bushmen thus modified, are not generally intelligible to the Hottentots, though it is observed, on the other hand, that such Bushmen as live on friendly terms with the Hottentots in their neighborhood and associate with them, acquire such a modification of utterance that their language is perfectly understood. The fact that a savage nation is thus known to modify its speech purposely for the sake of becoming unin- telligible to its neighbors, is by no means unimportant in regard to the history of languages. It is impossible to say how many of the apparently original diversities of human speech may have derived their commencement from a simi- lar cause, and from the voluntary adoption of a new jargon by some small separate community. The clapping articu- lation of the Hottentots may have originated wholly from this habit.
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The present abodes of the Bushmen are scattered through the whole of the extensive plains lying between the northern boundary of the colony, the Kamiesberg range of mountains, and the Orange river. In former times they were more widely spread, and are said to have occupied many districts within the boundaries of the colony ; as the barren districts between the Olifaut and Groene rivers and the great Karoo, as well as the country on the Camptoes river. The popu- lation is thinly spread, especially at particular seasons of the year, or when the supply of game is scanty. In situations where nature is liberal of productions readily applicable to the support of life, small communities exist ; where food is scanty and defensive, it is rare to find more than one or two families in the same place. Little inter- course exists between them except when self-defence, or an occasional combination in some marauding expedition under- taken in the hope of booty, brings them into contact ; and some mischief is apprehended by the colonists when it is known that many Bushmen have formed their Kraals in the same neighborhood.
They are constantly roving about from one place to an- other, in quest of a precarious subsistence. Hence they bestow but little labor on their temporary dwellings. They erect a shelter of bushes for the night, or rest under mats suspended on poles ; or dig holes in the ground, into which they creep. Their clothing is principally a kaross or loose mantle of sheep-skin, which is a garment by day and a co- vering by night. They carefully besmear their skin with fat, as a protection against the parching effect of the heat
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and wind, and, like other savages, they are fond of orna- menting their hair, and ears, and bodies, with beads and buttons, shells, and teeth, and other barbaric decorations.
In physical characters, the Bushmen differ little from the Hottentots in general. Dr. Andrew Smith declares that they are certainly not inferior in stature to the other Hotten- tots. Among the latter there are individuals of every growth, and those travellers who have given us the most striking de- scriptions of the Bushmen were probably less acquainted than this intelligent writer with the other Hottentot tribes. We are told by Mr. Leslie, who has described the Bushmen of the Orange river, that, small in stature as the Hottentot race is, they are in that quarter less than elsewhere. He adds that they seldom exceed five feet. This, however, indicates no great difference,- or at least not more than may well be attributed to scanty sustenance, beginning from childhood, and continuing through many generations.
We are assured by Mr. Bunbury, who had better oppor- tunities than most travellers for observation, that the Hot- tentots are a very diminutive race. He declares that the majority of those in the Cape corps, at least of the new levies, are under five feet in height, and by no means strong.
Their hands and feet are small and delicate, in which particular they differ remarkably from the negroes,*
Although the wild tribes of the Hottentot race display ferocity apd all the other vices of savage life, yet we have abundant proof that these people are not insusceptible of the blessings of civilization and Christianity. No uncultivated
* Prichard, pp. 600, 601, 602.
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people appear to have received the instructions of the Mora- vian missionaries more readily than the Hottentots, or to have been more fully reclaimed and Christianized. In one of my former works, I have taken pains to collect the most authentic accounts of their change of condition ; and to com- pare it with that of other nations, who in later times have received the blessing of conversion to the Christian religion.*
We may further illustrate the hasty ignorance with which conclusions are drawn adverse to the truth of Scrip- ture by a reference to a race of strange people in the in- terior of Ceylon, known by the name of Veddahs, or " wild men of the jungle."
These savage foresters, when discovered, had no houses or villages. When the season was dry, they roamed in the woods, and slept under the trees, and even on high among the branches. But in the wet season they crept into caves, or lay under the shelter of rocks. Their beds were a few leaves, and they had nothing more on them than their neigh- bors the beasts, except a small piece of cloth around the waist, and a few arrows.
These poor creatures never cultivated the ground for food, but lived upon roots and wild honey ; though some- times they fed .on lizards, monkeys, and other animals they found in the forest. They looked very wild ; their hair was loose, rugged, and burnt brown by the rays of the sun.
A traveller once met with an old Veddah, and asked him to bring his family that he might see them. The Ved- dah said they would not come, for they had never seen a
* Prichard, pp. 603, 604.
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white man ; they would sooner meet a savage beast than see one. But after the promise of a gift, he went to seek for them. In a little time, loud shrieks were heard : the wild man was forcing his wife and children along, and they were crying out with terror. When they came nigh and saw the traveller, they again cried aloud and rushed into the thicket. After a long time, the man contrived to bring his wife, daughter, and little son to the spot ; and when the gentleman held out his hand to the boy, he was so terrified that he ran, shrieking, into the jungle with the swiftness of a deer.
The father was asked where he slept. " On the trees," he replied. "But where do your wife and children sleep t" " On the trees." " But how can they climb ?55 " It is their nature.55 " What do you eat ?55 " Such things as we can get.'5 " What religion are you ?55 " We do not know what you mean.55 " Where do people go after death ?55 " We do not know.55
These wild men had no knowledge of God. If they had any religion, it consisted of worship offered to the devil. When any one of their number fell ill they made a "devil dance,55 and offered cocoa-nuts and rice to the wicked spirit who they suppose afflicts them. They had no knowledge of hours, nor names for days : indeed they were sunk in the lowest state of ignorance and misery.
These wild men of the jungle, however, are immortal beings, and have souls to be saved or lost. They are sin- ners, and need a Saviour. And has any thing been done for them ? Yes, missionaries have already been among 13
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them, and God has blessed their labors to these poor crea- tures. They have been taught to build houses, and plant rice ; to clothe their bodies, and live like human beings. The school-house has been built ; the Sabbath is kept holy ; many have been baptized, and now meet for prayer, and to praise God ; and there is reason to hope, that a good number have found peace with God, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.*
Christianity, the religion of God, who is the Father of all, and of all the nations of earth whom He has made of one blood, is therefore the infallible test and " experi- ment," as the Apostle expresses it, of the common humanity of all men.
In 1846, says Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, after the Evan- gelical Alliance had closed its sittings in London, " I left the baths of Albisbrun, and went into the Grisons to see some friends. On the steamboat of the lake of Zurich, I found myself in the midst of a crowd of strangers ; but I soon no- ticed two persons whom I took to be Quakers. I believed that there would be, doubtless, between them and me some points of friendly relation: I addressed them, and soon found in them two Christians, — sincere, enlightened, lovely. We travelled together two or three days, and we enjoyed all that time true Christian union. I remember well the mo- ment of our parting. We were on the mountain, not far from the ancient and beautiful convent of PfefFers. To the right the path descended towards the Grisons, and the Via
* Religious Tract Society, 56 Paternoster Row (122) ; and Prichard, p. 251.
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Mala. To the left, a road opened towards the Tyrol. My course was along the first ; my friends were to take the other. We were in the deep gully of a ravine. A moun- tain-stream falling behind us, crossed our road, and then made a second fall immediately below. Some boulders of rock, rolled together without order, formed a sort of bridge. We were seated on these stones : one of these Friends, who had been an advocate, and was now a minister in his com- munity, grasped my hand at the moment when we were about to part, and, without saying a word, knelt down on one of the fragments of rock. I knelt down beside him. After some moments of profound silence, during which no sound was heard but the calm and majestic fall of the wa- ters, my friend began to pour forth his soul unto God. He prayed for me as if he had been one of my oldest friends, or my own brother. I had unfolded to him some of the wounds of my own heart ; he asked the Lord to heal them. I have seldom enjoyed an hour of such entire Christian union. We rose, and parted.55 Such is the magnetic power of true Christian love, when once shed abroad in the heart.
In a visit paid to the missionary-stations of South Africa, a few years ago by Mr. Backhouse, one of the Society of Friends, he came to the Bassuto country. That excellent missionary, Mr. Moffat, had travelled to this part in former times, and had awakened a spirit of hearing among the people ; but it was then occupied by a French Protestant missionary, who had been the means of doing much good among the people of Moshesh, a celebrated chief of this country.
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When the people were assembled, with some neighbor- ing chiefs, among whom was his own father, Moshesh ad- dressed them in the following words : — " Rejoice ye, Mocare and Mocatchani, ye rulers of cities, rejoice ! We have all reason to rejoice, on account of the news we have heard. There are a great many sayings among men ; and some are true and some are false : but the false have remained with us, and multiplied. We ought, therefore, carefully to pick up the truths we hear, lest they should be lost in the refuse of lies.
" We are told that we have all been created by one Be- ing, and that we all sprang from one man. Sin entered into man's heart when he ate the forbidden fruit, and we have all got sin from him. These men say that they have sinned, and what is sin in them is sin in us, because we came from one stock ; and their hearts and ours are one thing."
To give one further illustration, there were two heads of African tribes ; one of whom was named Kama, a chief among the CafTres ; and the other Morocco, who was a Be- chuana chief. A missionary went to Kama, and settled among his people : another Christian teacher went to the tribe of which Morocco was the Chief. Some years passed away, when it so happened that these two Africans came to the same place to sleep, at a distance from their homes. When Morocco heard that his enemy was in the house where he was to rest for the night, he did not like at first to enter the doors ; but as evening came on, he went in with his attendants, and sat himself on the opposite side of the room to that where the other chief had placed himself. For
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some time they looked at each other in silence. At last the CafFre chief thought, " Why should I be silent when I have found the mercy of God, and I have nothing but love in my heart to all mankind ?" He then said to Morocco, " Do you know the reason why you and I have met together in peace in this room ? You have left your spear at home, and I have left mine ; and we are now sitting together as friends in the same room." Morocco said, " No, I cannot tell the reason ; but it is true you are sitting there, and I am sitting here, and we are sitting as friends.5' Kama then said, " The reason is this : the missionaries have come into our country with the word of God. And that word teaches us, that al- though we may differ from each other in color and language, and may live in different countries, yet we are of one blood, and are all fallen into sin. But there is one Saviour who died for us all, and one way of salvation, and one Spirit to teach us that way, when the word is preached. This word has been preached to us CafFres ; and much as we loved fighting before, we see now it is a bad thing, and we have left it off. The word of God has conquered our hearts, and we are now at peace. If it had not been for this word, our meeting to-day would have been very ugly indeed : either your spear would have come into my heart, or mine might have gone into your heart ; one of us must have fallen.5' They then took off the rings from their arms, and exchanged them in token of peace and friendship. After this, they shook hands, and joined in prayer together; and were greatly delighted in talking about the great change which the gospel had made, in stopping war and bloodshed, and in producing peace and joy.
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At another time some Caffre chiefs thus spoke to some missionaries, who had gone among them, at the risk of their lives, to lead them to be at peace : — " The object of your visit is good, it is worthy of the children of God, yea, it is very good ; so good, that it is a wonder you never thought upon it before. War never did, and never can, make a country right. We thank, we greatly thank ; we have not words to thank enough."
In another part of the world, the warriors took the handles of their spears, and of them made the rails which guarded the stairs leading up to the pulpit in the house of God.
Thus when Jesus was born, the angels sang, " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men ;" and wherever the gospel is known it teaches lessons of love and mercy. It tells of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that this was obtained by His death on the cross, to take away our sins.
Of such illustrations of the attractive and uniting influ- ence of the religion of Christ, we might present innumera- ble instances. In such expressions of feeling — of their joy in laughter, and their sympathy in tears — and which are common to all colors, races, and communities of mankind, civilized or savage — we have proofs of identity stronger than all reasoning.
To our great poet, whose philosophy alone would have made him immortal, even had it not been conveyed in im- mortal verse, we owe a line, which far more happily ex- presses our meaning : —
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u One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
It is this " one touch of nature," testified in tears and other expressions of sympathy, which decides the question of the unity of the human species to the common feeling of man- kind, as assuredly as the other proofs commend it to the observation of the naturalist, or the reasonings of the philo- sopher.*
* London Quarterly Review, Jan., 1850.
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CHAPTER XIX.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES PROVED FROM THE INSENSIBLE GRADATIONS OF THEIR VARIETIES, AND FROM THEIR ANA- LOGY TO WHAT TAKES PLACE IN OTHER ANIMALS.
To none man seems ignoble but to man. — Young.
We might select thousands of the Caucasian race that are inferior to thousands of the more intelligent Africans. As the deficiency in the former would not prove that they were not Caucasians, so a lower grade of general intellect would not exclude the negro from the species to which we belong. — Dr. Bachman.
In a former part of this volume it has been shown that the negro or black type of man was not always degraded.* That nations which would now be regarded as being as different from each other as the negroes are from the white race, were once identical, and that others, from a long residence in new countries, and a total change of circumstances, have been essentially modified in color, form, shape, and charac- ter— this is beyond doubt, as Dr. Wiseman has fully demon-
* See ch. ii. — v., & Triplicity, vol. ii. p. 301.
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strated.* The Hindoos differ from us in color and shape, and yet they are proved linguistically to be from the same original stock/)* The Abyssinians are perfectly black, and yet certainly belong by origin to the Semitic family, and consequently to a white race.J The natives of Congo, the Toulahs, and other tribes in Central Africa, are per- fectly black without a sign of negro features. || The people of Mahass again have the black color, and the lips of the negro, but not the nose or the high cheek-bone. § The" de- scendants of Europeans in India have totally changed their color, including Persians, Greeks, Tartars, Turks, Arabs, and Portuguese. IT The skulls of the white -settlers in the West Indies differ sensibly in shape from those in Europe, and approach to the original American configuration.** The
* Lecture 4th, passim, p. 129, &c.
t Do. p. 133.
t Do. do.
|| Do. p. 136, 137.
§ Do. p. 139.
IT Wiseman, do., do. " India," says Bishop Heber, " has been always, and long before the Europeans came hither, a favorable theatre for adventurers from Persia, Greece, Tartary, Turkey, and Arabia, all white men, and all in their turn possessing themselves of wealth and power. These circumstances must have greatly tended to make a fair complexion fashionable. It is remarkable, however, to observe how surely all these classes of men, in a few generations, even without any intermarriage with the Hindus, assume the deep olive tint, little less dark than a negro, which seems natural to the climate." f The Por- tuguese," he adds, " have, during a three hundred years1 residence in India, become nearly as black as Caffres"
** Do. do., p. 140.
13*
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common people among the Arabs are blacker, their hair more woolly and crisped, and their bodies more low and slender than their chiefs, who are better provided for.
Among our American Indians we find every variety of form and color. Humboldt, speaking of the fair tribes of the Upper Orinoco, sa \ s, " The individuals of the fair tribes whom we examined, have the features, the stature, and the smooth, straight black hair which characterizes other Indians. It would be impossible to take them for a mixed race, like the descendants of natives and Europeans, and they are neither feeble nor Albinos.5' Dr. Morton informs us of other races of Indians that are black : " The Charruas, who are almost black, inhabit the fifteenth degree of South latitude, and the yet blacker Californians, are twenty-five degrees north of the Equator." " Here then we have the while transparent coloring matter, as well as the black pig- ment, existing in tribes that Dr. Morton asserts are positively composed of only one and the same race. It cannot fail, therefore, to be satisfactory, at least to him, that color can- not be regarded as essential in the designation of a species, since he quotes and endorses the views of Humboldt, in reference to white races of Indians, points out to us a race almost black, and then another still blacker (which would be a little blacker than a coal could make them), and all these according to his essay are of one race, originating on our continent."
Dr. Morton also shows that the apparently opposite races of civilized and barbarous tribes are connected together by
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intermediate tribes so gradually divergent that they cannot be assigned to either extreme.*
The same is true of the African nations. We see, in- deed, an astonishing difference, when we place an ugly negro (for there are such as well as ugly Europeans), against a specimen of the Grecian ideal model ; but when we trace the intermediate gradations, the striking diversity vanishes. " Of the negroes of both sexes," says Blumen- bach, " whom I have attentively examined, in very consi- derable numbers, as well as in the portraits and profiles of others, and in the numerous negro crania, which I possess or have seen, there are not two completely resembling each other in their formation ; they pass, by insensible grada- tions, into the forms of the other races, and approach to the other varieties even in their most pleasing modifica- tions. A Creole whom I saw at Yverdun, born of parents from Congo, and brought from St. Domingo by the Chevalier Treytorrens, had a countenance of which no part, not even the nose, and rather strongly marked lips, were very strik- ing, much less displeasing ; the same features with an Euro- pean complexion would certainly have been generally agreeable."
" We are, therefore," says Dr. Bachman, " obliged to confess that we have not much faith in those lines of demar- kation which naturalists have assigned to the several races of men, since there are scarcely two of them that agree, and since, moreover, there would be more varieties that
* Inquiry, p. 15.
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t
could not conveniently be forced into either race, than in the individuals that compose the races themselves."*
The different races of men are thus connected together by insensible shades through which they seem to blend into another.")" This gradation is found not on^ly among the different races, but even among those of the same race. Thus in the same Polynesian race, while some are hardly distinguishable from a negro tribe, allied -through insepa- rable links to the negroes of Africa, others depart so far from it, as to approximate in symmetry of form in the body and skull, as well as in color, to the natives of Europe. And in these gradations we trace a corresponding scale of civilization.
The existence of such gradations, almost from one ex- treme to the other in the same race, is not peculiar to these tribes. The Malays exhibit a similar variety.
The Jew of the same race is at this day perfectly dis- tinguishable from the Europeans that surround him, though West and other eminent artists have found it impossible to characterize him by any particular distinctive traits. This permanence of physiognomy, says the Quarterly Review, "is evidently traceable to a surpernatural cause which pre- vents the usual modification of features, in order to accom- plish an important object. Into this it is not our province now to enter, yet we cannot help remarking that the Jew is
* See Essay, p. 164, &c.
t Wiseman, p. 147, 148, &.c. ; their intercommunication and gradual approximation is here illustrated ; and see also p. 197, 206, 210, 221 — 225.
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a witness, not of one truth, but of many truths. Marvel- lously does he illustrate the consistency of the original unity of man with the most extensive diversity. His features have been cast in an eternal mould, but his color is depend- ent on outward causes. Natural law is forbidden to ope- rate on the one, but left to take its course with the other. A fixed physiognomy declares the unity of the people, while their diversity of complexion as distinctly manifests the in- fluence of the climate. Every shade of color clothes with its livery the body of the Jew, from the jet black of the Hindoo to the ruddy white of the Saxon. The original in- habitant of Palestine was doubtless dusky skinned and dark haired, but the cooler sky and more temperate air of Poland and Germany, have substituted a fair complexion and light hair. On the other hand, the scorching sun of India has curled and crisped his hair, and blackened his skin, so that his features alone distinguish him physically from the native Hindoo. On the Malabar coast of Hindos- tan are two colonies of Jews — an old and a young colony — separated by color. The elder colony are black, and the younger (dwelling in a town called Mattabheri) compara- tively fair, so as to have obtained the name of " white Jews." The difference is satisfactorily accounted for by the former having been subjected to the influence of the climate for a much longer time than the latter.
Thus, also, even in the Caucasian race, as Hamilton Smith allows, there is every variety of color, from the pure white down to melanism nearly as deep as a genuine negro.* The
* Nat. History, p. 368, 378, 379.
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Gipsies we may here likewise mention as an instance of a tribe which, proved by its language to be of Indian origin, has lost much of its original configuration, and particularly the olive color of its country, by living in other climates.
" Thus," adds Prichard, " even the smallest varieties once produced, are never again obliterated ; and yet not therefore are they marks of independent origin. Even families may transmit them, and the Imperial House of Hapsburg has its characteristic feature. And whence arises this indelibility, by natural processes, of varieties by natu- ral processes introduced ? This should seem to be one of the mysteries of nature, that we may in any thing compel her to place her signet, but we know not how again to force it off. Man, like the magician's half skilled scholar, so beautifully described by the German poet, possesses often the skill whereby to compel her to work, but has not yet learnt that which may oblige her to desist."*
"We have thus," says Dr. Wiseman, "seen it well established: first, that among animals acknowledged to be of one species, there have arisen varieties similar to those in the human race, and not less diverse from one another. Secondly, that nature tends, in the human species, to pro- duce varieties in one race approaching to the characteristics of the others. Thirdly, that sporadic varieties of the most extraordinary sort, may be propagated by descent. Fourthly, that we can find sufficient proofs in the languages and in the characteristics of larger bodies, or entire nations compared, of their transition from one race to another. Fifthly, that
* See also Lawrence, p. 206, 226, 304, 305, 307, 308, 309.
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though the origin of the black race is yet involved in mys- tery, yet are there sufficient facts collected to prove the possibility of its having arisen from another, particularly if, in addition to the. action of heat, we admit that of moral causes acting upon the physical organization."
To what we have said on this point we will add the very pregnant remarks of Captain Fitzroy, of the Royal Navy, and Governor of New Zealand, in his Essay on the early migrations of the Human Race.* " In the course of years spent in various quarters of the world, I have had opportu- nities of leisurely considering people from all the principal countries. I have read much of what has been written, during late years, on the subject of their resemblance*, or their difference ; and the conclusion which I have been obliged to come to is, that there is far less difference be- tween most nations or tribes (selecting two for the compari- son), than exists between two individuals who might be chosen out of any one of those nations or tribes, color and hair alone excepted."
Before dismissing this argument, we would again observe that it is to the neglect of this gradation of the different races of men, the tendency to regard the extreme varieties as distinct species has in great part arisen. The numer- ous gradations found among all the different races, among
* Narrative of the surveying voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. ii., p. 642. On the gradations of men and the sophistical argument founded on looking at extreme varieties, see also an old article in the learned Bryant's Work on the Truth of the Christian Religion. Lond. 1810. 3d edition. " Of the Negroes," p. 245, &c.
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portions of the same race, and among individuals of the same tribe, state, and even family, form an insuperable ob- jection to the notion of specific difference. There is not, in fact, one of the bodily differences of the Senegal negro and the model of European beauty, which does not gradually run into that of the other by such an imperceptible variety of shades, that no physiologist or naturalist is able to draw a line of demarkation between the different gradations.* In fact, the real sum of all the varieties observable amongst mankind is by no means so great as the apparent, nor are they more striking or uncommon than those which so many thousands of other species of organized beings — and who are* not exposed to any thing like the same causes tending to produce ihem as in the case of manf — exhibit before our eyes.
In their Report on the Life and Works of Blumen- bach, the French Academy of Sciences remark: " The third rule of Blumenbach is the foundation of science itself. We limit ourselves to the comparison of extremes. But the rule of Blumenbach requires us to pass from one extreme to the other, through all the intermediate parts, and through all the possible shades. The extreme cases seem to divide the
* Encycl. Brit., vol. xiv., p. 201 and 203, and Dr. Wiseman, p. 147, 149, &c.
j" Every kind of climate, habits, food ; for while each species of ani- mals, inferior to man, is mostly confined to a limited region, and to a mode of existence that is simple and uniform, the human races are scat- tered over the whole face of the earth, under every variety of physical circumstances, in addition to the influences arising from a moral and in- tellectual nature. See also Lawrence, p. 352.
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human race into distinct races — the gradual shades of varia- tion, the intermediate links, make all men of the same blood."
Dr. Lawrence, after a very full and careful investiga- tion of this subject, gives us the following statement : " In features as in color, the different races (he here refers to all the races) are connected to each other by the most gentle gradation; so that although any two extremes, when con- trasted, appear strikingly different, they are joined by nume- rous intermediate and very slightly different degrees ; and no formation is exhibited so constantly in all the individuals of one race, as not to admit of numerous exceptions."
If, therefore, among all other organized beings separate species do not pass into each other by insensible degrees, it follows that all the races of men must be of one and the same species.*
We are thus led to call attention, distinctly, as another ground of confirmation, to the argument derived from ana- logy. Analogy, we are aware, cannot prove the fact of the unity of the human family, but it can meet, and answer, and set aside objections founded upon difficulties and differ- ences, by showing that these occur equally in other depart- ments of the kingdom of nature. For if difficulties and dif- ferences not less in degree, and the same in kind, are found in other departments of nature, where a unity of species is admitted, their existence among men cannot prove any di- versity of species among them. This argument, which has
* See Prichard's Res., vol. ii., p. 341, 342, and 345, and Carpenter's Physiology, p. 84, and London Quarterly Rev., January, 1850, pp. 14, 16, and 17.
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been so elaborately presented by Dr. Prichard, and to which we will only advert, would apply first to the origin of the human family. It has been shown in both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, that while tribes of the most simple structure are spread in the present time, and appear to have been originally diffused over the most distant regions, races of a higher and more elaborate organization exist only in places to which, it is generally obvious, but always proba- ble, that they may have obtained access from some particu- lar spot, apparently the local centre and primitive habitation of the tribe. Hence we derive each tribe among the higher and more perfectly organized creatures, whether locomotive or fixed, whether animals or plants, from one original point and from a single stock. We are a fortiori, at liberty to apply this conclusion to the instance of the human species, or to infer that the law of nature, otherwise universal or very general in its prevalence, has not been in this case trans- gressed, where such an exception would be of all cases the most improbable.
The argument from analogy will also apply, in the se- cond place, to the dispersion of the human family from one centre. It is not self-evident that many families of the same species were not created at first to supply at once with hu- man, as well as with other organized beings, various regions of the earth. This, indeed, is improbable, when we take into account the almost universally rapid increase of living species, and the surprising efficacy of the means every where contrived by nature, both for their multiplication and
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dispersion, which would seem to be superfluous, or at least much greater than could be requisite, on the hypothesis that a multitude of each tribe existed from the beginning.
But, thirdly, this argument from analogy will also apply to the variations in the human family. As our space will not allow us to present any details, we cannot do better than give the inferences deduced by Prichard upon this subject.
1. That tribes of animals which have been domesticated by man, and carried into regions where the climates are dif- ferent from those of their native abodes, undergo, partly from the agency of climate, and in part from the change of exter- nal circumstances connected with the state of domesticity, great variations.
2. That those variations extend to considerable modifi- cations in external properties, color, the nature of the integu- ment, and of its covering, whether hair or wool, the structure of limbs, and the proportional size of parts; that they like- wise involve certain physiological changes or variations as to the laws of the animal economy ; and lastly, certain psy- chological alterations or changes in the* instincts, habits, and powers of. perception and intellect.
3. That these last changes are in some cases brought about by training, and that the progeny acquires an aptitude to certain habits which the parents have been taught ; that psychical characters, such as new instincts, are developed in breeds by cultivation.
4. That these varieties are sometimes permanently fixed in the breed so long as it remains unmixed.
5. That all such variations are possible only to a limited
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extent, and always with the preservation of a particular type, which is that of the species. Each species has a defi- nite or definable character, comprising certain undeviating phenomena of external structure, and likewise constant and unchangeable characteristics in the laws of its animal eco- nomy and in its physiological nature. It is only within these limits that deviations are produced by external circum- stances.
To take a particular illustration, Blumenbach has com- pared man with swine, between whom there is in many re- spects a very wonderful analogy. " Now no naturalist," he affirms, " has carried his skepticism so far as to doubt the descent of domestic swine from the wild boar.* All the va- rieties, therefore, through which this animal has since dege- nerated, belong with the original European race to one and the same species ; and since no bodily difference is found in the human race, either in regard to stature, color, the form of the skull, or in other respects, as will presently appear, which is not observed in the same proportion in the swine race, this comparison, it is to be hoped, will silence those skeptics who have thought proper, on account of those varie- ties of the human species, to admit more than one species."
" In pursuing the argument," he says, " the whole dif- ference between the cranium of a negro and that of an Eu- ropean, is not in the least degree greater than that equally striking difference which exists between the cranium of the wild boar, and that of the domestic swine. I shall then add
* See also Dr. Lawrence, p. 250.
m '
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that the swine in some countries have degenerated into races which, in singularity, far exceed every thing that has* been found strange in bodily variety amongst the human race."
From these facts, Blumenbach concludes, that as it is absurd to maintain that the vast variety of swine have not descended from one original pair, so it is not less unreason- able to contend that the varieties of men constitute so many distinct species.
On the contrary, while the numerous gradations found in each point of difference forms " an inseparable objection to the notion of specific difference among men," these analogies drawn from the animal kingdom, nearly demonstrate that all the differences among men are only variations among the species.
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CHAPTER XX.
RESUME OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES, AND OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.
" Proximi Gallis, et similes sunt; seu durante originis vi; seu procurrentibus in diversa terris positio coeli corporibus habitum dedit." — Tacitus.
" Our argument is physical, our method strictly inductive, and our reasoning cumulative "
We must here pause, and gather up our argument. We have shown that the unity of the human races has always been regarded as an established and indisputable fact ; — that on this question, as a doctrine taught in Scripture, and involving its truth, all Christians of every denomination, age, and country, have agreed ; — that it has been received as a fact by many of the most eminent and learned scholars, naturalists, physicians, ethnographers and historians ;— and that as there is thus every presumption in favor of this doc- trine, they who deny it must prove that it is not true by positive and incontestable evidence — evidence which they do not even pretend to adduce.
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But we have gone further than was thus necessary, and have shown that every mark which has ever been laid down by naturalists to distinguish one species of animals from another prove, when applied to man, that all the varieties of the human family are of one species. We have shown that, while all other animals of different species naturally remain separate and distinct, and when constrained to unite, produce a hybrid and sterile breed, — the progeny of all the races of men under every possible amalgamation are neither hybrid nor sterile. We have shown that the two thousand lan- guages of men are found to reduce themselves to a few families, and these families to one primitive stock from which they must all have originated, and that all the races of men must, therefore, have proceeded from one common parentage. We have shown that all history confirms this conclusion by tracing to one original, oriental source, all the nations of the earth so far as their history is known, and by recording facts which will account for the peopling of this country from the same original sources. We have shown that there are traditions, customs, manners, and peculiar habits and practices, found among the aboriginal inhabitants of this and all other countries, which are in a most wonder- ful manner corroborative of the early records of the Bible, and which prove that all nations must have derived them from the same original source, while as yet the human family was undivided. The testimony of the Bible to the original unity of the human race is therefore the only the- ory which can account for these facts which every where exist, and which are infinitely more difficult to explain than
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any physical differences in the color and form of men. We have shown further, that in the great distinguishing characteristic of man in his highest elevation, that is, in his moral and religious feelings, there is, and ever has been, a most evident, and — on any other hypothesis than the unity of the race — an unexplicable identity both in sentiment and practice. And while this is true of all the traditional and polytheistic religions of mankind, it is pre-eminently true that the religion of the Bible, in all its doctrines and duties, is equally adapted to all men, and produces the same effect upon all men, both when it is received and when it is re- jected. We have shown that the record of Scripture, in which the original unity of the human race is taught, is antecedent to all other records, is contradicted by no other, that it records facts, and allows time, sufficient to explain all the difficulties in the case, and that it is confirmed by vari- ous evidences, which prove that, beyond all controversy, " its witness is true." We have shown that all experience, observation, and experiment, concur in demonstrating, that while the lowest races of men possess essentially the same faculties, impulses and capacity for instruction, improvement, and art, which characterize, the highest, the subjection of the highest existing races of men to the same causes of degrada- tion which have operated upon the lowest, and for the same period of time, would reduce them to the same condition of ignorance, superstition and brutality. While, therefore, it is true that the original stock from which the negro races sprung was not always degraded, it is also historically true that transformations have taken place in the color, form, and
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character of portions of the light-colored races. And while there is an apparently impassahle gulf between the lowest human beings — (and of these there are many lower and less developed than the negroes) — and the highest, yet when we venture upon the inquiry we find no separate and defined boundaries of races,' but a gradual and imperceptible transi- tion from one variety to another, and a combination of vari- eties in 'color, form, skull, and intellect, existing among every separate race of men. Finally, we have shown that the analogy founded upon the working of the same laws, upon the same animal nature, and under the government of the same God, proves that the dispersion of the human family with all its varieties, from the same parent family, is in accordance with what is known and admitted to be the case in regard to many plants and animals, in which we find multiplied and permanent varieties of the same original species. All anatomical, physiological, chronological, and historical difficulties are found, therefore, to exist as forcibly in regard to these as in the case of man, and can be as satisfactorily met in the one case as in the other. And what analogy thus proves to be certain in the case of the same species, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, history attests in regard to the human race.*
It will be seen that most, if not all the leading charac- ters which distinguish particular human families or races,
* See Prichard's Researches into the Nat. Hist, of Man, vol. v., pp. 547-552, and for the full proof the entire work, and also his other works.
14 *
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have been known to originate, and having once been intro- duced, have continued to appear under circumstances favor- able to their propagation. In some instances such physical peculiarities have become permanent and typical of particu- lar tribes through a long series of generations, approximat- ing to the character of specific distinctions. Transitions from one physical character to another strikingly different, have sometimes taken place suddenly, or in a single genera- tion, as in the occasional appearance of the xanthous variety among the dark-colored races in elevated situations or in cold climates. In more frequent examples such changes have been brought about in many successive gradations, as in the deviations which are noted among negro and Polyne- sian tribes in Africa and in the Oceanic countries. It must be observed, moreover, that the changes alluded to do not so often take place by alteration in the physical character of a whole tribe simultaneously, as by the springing up in it of some new congenital peculiarity, which is afterwards propa- gated, and becomes a character more or less constant in the progeny of the individuals in whom it first appeared, and is perhaps gradually communicated by intermarriages to a whole stock or tribe. This, as it is obvious, can only hap- pen in a long course of time.
The unity of the human race, therefore, forms a central point, towards which all the lines of possible argument which could bear apon the subject, converge — a focus which is made bright and dazzling by the light collected from every possible source — a grand fact in the history of our race to which heaven and earth alike bear witness.
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To these arguments in positive proof of the unity of the human race, and to the irresistible presumption by which the doctrine is sustained, what is said in reply ? Is any history produced, sacred or profane, which proves an origi- nal difference of species in the human family ? Nothing of the kind.
Is any people pointed out who are destitute of any one mark which has ever been laid down by any accredited na- turalist for the certain distinction of species ? We emphati- cally answer — None. " Man," says Agassiz, " although a cosmopolite, is subject, in a certain sense, to this law of limitation. While he is every where the one identical spe- cies, yet several races, marked by certain peculiarities of features are recognized ; such as the Caucasian, Mongolian, and African races, of which we are hereafter to speak."
What then are the objections on which the rejection of this truth is based ? A difference in color, in hair, in skull, in the pelvis, in the heel bone, in the length ofthe fore-arm, the position of the head, the web of the fingers, and in intel- lectual power.*
But do not similar, as great, and even greater differences than these, exist among other animals, who are nevertheless acknowledged, and indeed known to be, of one and the same species ? They undoubtedly do.f And do not similar and
* Dr. Neill in the American Journal of Medical Science for January, 1850, pp. 78-83, points out also some difference in the occipital and su- perior maxillary bones.
t Dr. Goode (Book of Nature, vol. 2, pp. 85,86), says: "But the
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even greater differences sometimes arise and perpetuate themselves under favorable circumstances, among men of the same family, country, and race ? This also is un- doubtedly true. But are we not bound to produce evidence to prove that the negro and similar races were originally like the white race, and to show how and when the change took place ? Undoubtedly we are not. For if, as we have seen, the presumption is altogether in favor of the original unity of the race, then we must conclude that unless the contrary can be demonstratively proved, these varieties took place at some time and from some causes, and have been perpetu- ated according to the order of nature.
But while not under any obligation to show how or when these changes in the human family occurred, we have given undeniable historical evidence for the original unity of the human family, and incontrovertible evidence for the present unity of all the varieties of the human race.
What then are the motives . by which men are actuated,
question still returns — whence, then, proceed those astonishing diversities among the different nations of mankind, upon which the arrangement now offered is founded.
The answer is, that they are the effect of a combination of causes ; of which some are obvious, others must be conjectured, and a few of which are beyond the reach of human comprehension ; but all of which are common to other animals as well as to man ; for extraordinary as these diversities may appear, they are equally to be met with in the varieties of several other kinds of animals that can be proved to have been pro- duced from a single species, and in one or two instances from a single pair.
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who deny the unity of the human race ? This it is not for us to determine beyond what parties may reveal in their writings, in their arguments, or in their conduct. Such motives may be purely scientific. They may be the result of prejudice. They may arise from partial views and ex- clusive professional experience. They may be founded wholly on that pride of race which will not, as one said to us, believe the white and black races to be of one species, though heaven and earth should unite in the demonstration of the fact. Or finally, these motives may spring from a de- termination to employ this instrumentality to undermine, and,
...
if possible, to destroy the plenary inspiration and authority of the Bible. And when we hear men ridiculing the plenary inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, and the idea of a miraculous production of these varieties, while they by mul- tiplying species or original pairs indefinitely, multiply the occasions for such miraculous agency, we must regard them as being actuated not by opposition to the unity of the races, but by hatred to that Word which was " all given by in- spiration of God."
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4*
CHAPTER XXL
THE THEORY OF A PLURALITY OF ORIGIN IN THE RACES OF MEN UNPHILOSOPHICAL.
Genuine science consists in the knowledge and application of relations ; which relations, when once ascertained in the modes respectively proper to them, are not liable to be disturbed. — Isaac Taylor.
True philosophy secures for each department of science the most abso- lute independence of every other within its proper limits. — Isaac Taylor.
Inductive — that sound, and humble, and sober philosophy — will never consent to a principle of sure and authoritative guidance to be sub- verted by any difficulty. — Chalmers.
The theory of a plurality of species and of origin in the present races of men, we regard as unphilosophical, and I contrary to right reason.
It is unphilosophical, because it builds a towering conclu- sion upon a narrow and insufficient foundation. The data necessary to form a just and proper conclusion are as yet few and partial. Even as it regards human skulls and bones, all the collections as yet made are very defective, while the osteology and physiology of the various races of animals has received scarcely any attention. To deduce a
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general and positive conclusion, therefore, from such data, is altogether premature and unwarrantable.*
The two extremes, also, of the human race are selected, to the absolute oversight of all the intermediate races by which these extremes are connected together, and from these isolated examples a general conclusion is drawn; whereas, no physiologist or naturalist is able to draw a line of demar- kation between the different gradations, or to estimate the sum and effect of all as exemplified in the extremes.
Equally unphilosophical and narrow is it to draw a con- clusion as to specific differences from varieties in man, as if he were the only animal in nature, and then to determine that differences which are found every day in the same ac- knowledged species of other animals, must be regarded as proofs of a different species among men. "All such dis- tinctions," says Dr. Goode, " are upon too narrow a scale, and perhaps too much dependent upon particular circum- stances for an admission into the lines of a broad and origi- nal demarkation," and " some of the differences on which stress are laid are," adds Dr. Goode, so "superficial, that we may, without descending to a pun, gravely assert them to be not more than skin-deep."^
This theory is, therefore, unphilosophical, because differ- ences as great in reference to the shape of the skull, the size of the brain, and mental endowments, are found to exist among individuals and families of the same nation, as
* See Dr. Bachman, pp. 34 and 217. t Vol. ii., p. 92.
i
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between the Caucasian and other races,* and because, to say the least, there are cases of many individuals among genuine negro tribes, whose characteristics in all these re- spects fully attain to the standard of the European man, and greatly excel many who belong to that race.f A di- versity in the same characters which are possessed in com- mon, and in various degrees by all the races, cannot prove a difference, but must determine a unity of species, especial- ly when it is borne in mind that variety and not uniformity is the law of nature, and that it is also the law of nature to transmit and perpetuate such varieties when they are once originated.^:
Genuine negro races are found not only in Africa, but also in Australia, in Van Diemen's Land, in Polynesia, and elsewhere, and found, too, in commixture with other races. § It is, therefore, most unphiiosophical to suppose that this race in Africa is of a different species, since it is more diffi- cult to account for the spread and amalgamation of this race with the others, than to admit that they have all pro- ceeded from an original stock among whose branches this variety has arisen.
According to the present views of life, as held among physiologists, it is not a principle independent of the body, and by which the phenomena of life are governed, but is
* Dr. Morton's Inquiry, p. 11. t Prichard, vol. iii., p. 187, and Goode, ii., p. 85. • X See Prichard, vol. i., p. 216, 241, and 242.
§ Fitzroy's Voyage, vol. ii., pp. 644, 645, and Russell's Polynesia, pp. 31, 43, 44.
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itself a property of matter, or the state of action peculiar to matter, when organized.* But if matter when organized has the power of preserving its existence as a perfect struc- ture,— if it is then able to counteract the ever-operating in- fluence of chemical and physical laws, and to resist the injurious effect of external agencies, — how can they who believe these things, so utterly opposed to all our conceptions of matter, doubt the power of this organization to adapt itself to varieties of condition, so as to produce all the differ- ences we see, both among men and among the lower animals.
This theory is unphilosophical, because, while every thing in the conditions and habits of men would lead us to expect among them greater diversities in form, structure, and endowments, than among the lower animals or plants ; these variations are in reality far less than what have cer- tainly taken place among them in species unquestionably the same.f
This theory is unphilosophical further, because, while the races of some animals which are believed to be of one species, have been as distinctly marked and as completely separated from the earliest periods to which historical evi- dence extends, as they are now ; the same difficulty in re- gard to the varieties of man — if, indeed, we have not re- moved it to a great extent — is made a ground for denying
* Todd's Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology, p. 141, Art. Life. • t Ibid, p. 371, vol. i., and also pp. 372 and 97 ; and Goode, vol. iii., p. 97.
14*
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#
the unity of the human races; although in this case the causes of variation are incalculably greater than in the case of the lower animals.*
It is admitted that we cannot explain the method by which, according to any natural laws, the varieties among men or animals could have arisen. But the difficulty is not greater respecting man than other animals. " What there was," says Dr. Bachman, " in climate or the constitution of the animal that first produced the short-legged otter sheep in New England, which has also recently originated in Great Britain from a flock of common sheep, no one can tell, but it has now become a permanent race. From the account given us in the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, by Col. Humphries, it appears that it is a small animal, weighing about forty-five pounds, with loose articulations, crooked forelegs, resembling those of the otter ; naturalists have given it the name of Ovis Ancon ; so tenacious are its characteristics, that when united with the common breed, the product resembles either one or the other of the original variety.
How, again, we might ask, did the large dray-horse origi- nate in Flanders from the common breed ? We can onlycon- jecture that several individuals of this variety appeared in that low country favorable to its production ; these multi- plied more rapidly than the original breeds, and finally gained the preponderance. The race, however, was formed and perpetuated. How has it happened that the deer in our
* See Lawrence, p. 376.
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*
swamps is long-legged, and those on the high land stouter and shorter-legged, and that in the Hunting Islands, between Sa- vannah and Charleston, they are not one half the size, and yet possess large horns, and that in these several localities all the other varieties have disappeared ? Here there was no human intervention, yet the effect was produced by unknown natural causes. Why is it that the cattle in Opelousas, in Western Louisiana, have without a change of stock, within the last thirty years produced a variety of immense size, with a peculiar form and enormous horns; like the cattle of Abyssinia 1
It is known that the most wonderful variations in height, form, and defects, have arisen among men, and that by in- termarriage these might be perpetuated. Let us then sup- pose, says Dr. Lawrence,* that the porcupine family had been exiled from human society, and been obliged to take up their abode in some solitary spot, or desert island. By matching with each other a race would have been produced, more widely different from us in external appearance than the negro. If they had been discovered at some remote pe- riod, our philosophers would have explained to us how soil, air, or climate, had produced so strange an organization ; or would have demonstrated that they must have sprung from an originally different race ; for how could they acknow- ledge such bristly beings for brothers ? There is also a race of spotted men in Mexico, of whom Mr. Poinsett saw a regi- ment of six hundred strong. And yet this race of men have
* Lect. p. 307. See also, pp. 305, 308-310.
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originated in modern times. The effects, therefore, of some external causes acting upon the capacities of organized be- ings so as to produce great and permanent varieties, are be- fore our eyes, in every country, and in regard both to man and other animals ; and it is therefore most unphilosophical to make such diversities a foundation for original specific distinctions.* Our ignorance on this point is analogous to that which exists respecting many other subjects ; for, says Locke,f the workmanship of the allwise and powerful God, in the great fabric of the universe, and every part thereof, farther exceeds the capacity and comprehension of the most inquisitive and intelligent man, than the best contrivance of the most ingenious man doth the conceptions of the most ig- norant of rational creatures.
The negro is by no means the lowest link in the chain of humanity.^: Suppose, however, he were. As man is an animal, he must in all his variations resemble animals ; and this he must do in some one of his varieties more nearly than in all the rest. But does this prove that the variety in which this greater resemblance occurs, is less man than the others ? It does not, unless we adopt the absurd logic which would argue, that since of all the varieties of swine the common pig more nearly resembles a horse than any of the others, therefore the common pig belongs to the species of horse, or ceases to be a pig.§
* See Dr. Bachman, p. 180-182.
t Hum. Mind., B. hi., ch. vi. §9.
t Lawrence, p. 385-340, &c., &c, 384, 387.
§ See Lawrence, p. 384.
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This theory is unphilosophical further, because it multi- plies causes without necessity. From the wonderful diffu- sion of vegetables, and other facts, Linnseus laid down the aphorism, that " in the beginning God created one pair only of every living species which has a diversity of sex." " I venture," says Sir William Jones, f< to produce a shorter and closer argument in support of this doctrine. That na- ture, of which simplicity appears a distinguishing attribute, does nothing in vain, is a maxim of philosophy ; and against those who deny maxims, we cannot dispute ; but it is vain and superfluous to do by many means what may be done by fewer ; and this is another axiom received into courts of ju- dicature from the schools of philosophers. We must not, therefore, says our great Newton, admit more causes of na- tural things, than those which are true, and sufficiently ac- count for natural phenomena. But it is true, that one pair at least of every living species must at first have been cre- ated ; and that one human pair was sufficient for the popu- lation of our globe in a period of no considerable length, (on the very moderate supposition of lawyers and political arith- meticians, that every pair of ancestors left on an average two children, and each of them two more,) is evident from the rapid increase of numbers in geometrical progression, so well known to those who have ever taken the trouble to sum a series of as many terms as they suppose generations of men in two or three thousand years. It follows that the Author of Nature (for all nature proclaims its divine Author) created but one pair of our species ; yet had it not been (among other reasons) for the devastations which history has
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recorded, of water and fire, wars, famine, and pestilence, this earth would not now have had room for its multiplied inhabitants."
Such then, says Prichard, are the causes by which the varieties of" men may be accounted for. Although I have acknowledged my entife ignorance of the manner in which these operate, I have proved that they exist, and have shown by copious analogies, that they are sufficient to explain the phenomena. The tendency, under certain circumstances, to alterations of the original color, form, and other properties of the body, and the law of transmission to the offspring, are the sources of varieties in man and animals, and thereby modify the species. Climate, food, way of life, in a word, all the physical and moral causes that surround us, act, indeed, powerfully on the individual, but do not change the offspring, except in the indirect manner just alluded to. We should, therefore, openly violate the rules of philosophizing, which direct us to assign the same causes for natural effects of the same kind, and not to admit more causes than are sufficient for explaining the phenomena, if we recurred, for the pur- pose of explaining the varieties in man, to supernatural causes.
Again, this theory is unphilosophical, because geology, which is a science founded on induction, admits, and requires us to admit, that it has been a part of the order of things that a divine and superhuman power should be exercised from time to time, in securing the creation and destruction of successive races of organized and vegetable beings ; and because, there- fore, there is nothing contrary to the order of nature, if God
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thought it best to produce all the present varieties of the human family from one original stock. And as we have shown that this is the teaching of Scripture, both historically and doctrinally, the whole force of that science of historical criticism by which the truth, inspiration, and authority of the Bible are made undeniable, demand our faith in the sin- gle origin of all men, however unaccountable may be the means by which their existing diversities were brought about. To yield an implicit faith to this doctrine, therefore, is the dictate and requirement of true reason and sound philosophy, and to withhold it, is to substitute our own experience for the knowledge and testimony of God. On this point we are happy to adopt the language of Doctor and Professor Cald- well. "We are," says he, "the simple, unassuming Chris- tian. We honestly state the differences of physical man as we find them, acknowledging our incompetency to explain them, and referring their production to the power of God. To that power we set no limits'. We do not say that it must have operated in this way or in that — by secondary causes, or by its own proximate agency. It is enough for us to know that it has operated wisely, although in a way which we profess not to understand."
This theory is, therefore, unphilosophical, because, while it rejects all supernatural and miraculous causes, it actually multiplies the admitted necessity for such interpositions of almighty power. In the theory of an original unity, it is believed that God, in creating the ancestral human pair, en- dowed human nature with the capacity of producing perma- nent varieties. Whereas, on the theory of a diversity of
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races, a distinct and repeated creation by miraculous power is made necessary, not only to account for the original ances- tors, but for every new variety which may be found to exist.
The creation of the first human pair, says Dr. Bachman, as well as that of all living animals and plants, it must be admitted by all who are not atheists, was a miraculous work of God. No combination of atoms, or any gradual eleva- tion of lower animals into higher orders — according to the absurd theory of La Mark, who used arguments to show that the human race was derived from the monkey,— could ever have produced man in any other way than by miraculous power. If, then, other species of men had to be formed, suited to other climates, it would of course have required a similar miracle in this new creation. It is true, God was fully able to do this and infinitely more, but do we any where discover that he has ever resorted to these means where the same results are known to be produced by stamping on the race already created a constitutional power to produce these permanent varieties ? It must be observed, that it was not necessary to hurry these races into existence at an earlier day than that in which the different varieties progressively appeared and peopled the world. God might have created the first progenitors of our race millions of ages earlier than at the time when they actually appeared, and if he so con- structed the human constitution, that it would by its own or- ganization be capable of producing varieties that were to become permanent in their characters, the effect would be produced by a natural process — varieties of men would
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be formed without a miracle. We all admit that the first pair of cow, of horse, of sheep, of swine, was a miraculous creation, but if it was a part of their nature to produce the endless varieties which we daily meet with, then surely the production of these varieties is not miraculous, but a natural operation.*
This theory is unphilosophical, therefore, not only be- cause it interferes with the established order and constancy of the laws of nature, in order to account for every variety among men by a fresh miraculous creation, but also because it destroys the uniformity of these laws, by making God cre- ate different species of men, who by intermixture are all to produce other species, when among all other animals no two distinct species have ever been found capable of propagating other species.
Besides, these species, when thus created, have been found scattered abroad over portions of the earth to which they were not originally adapted, and there producing varie- ties even more striking than the original species ; and thus we are required to believe that the differences among men could have arisen only from the supernatural power of God, and yet to believe, at the same time, that greater differences are the result of mere natural causes. f
This theory is further unphilosophical, because it not only argues from present effects, but also from the assumption that there were no causes in operation thousands of years ago, but what exist now ; whereas geology, as well as the
* See Dr. Bachman, pp. 37, 38, 242, 249, 256, 257, 266, 272, 275. + See Do., p. 39.
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analogy of all science, would lead us to the conclusion that there were then causes in operation not now acting, and by which " impressions meant to be permanent and character- istic, were then more easily communicated and more indeli- bly stamped."*
This theory is unphilosophical, because it leads to ab- surdity. For if the differences among the human race are specific and not accidental, then we are led to a multiplica- tion of species wherever such differences are found. This would break up families, cities, and countries, into original and independent species, while they, nevertheless, bear every presumptive or certain proof of a common origin. f Where then is the limit to be placed to the multiplication of human species ? The number is incalculable, and beyond all scientific analysis.:): All criteria of species are destroyed. Natural science is thrown into chaotic confusion, and all other sciences are to be undermined in order to sustain an infidel hypothesis.
But again, this theory is unphilosophical, because it is based exclusively upon the physical and external differences among men, and arbitrarily, and most unscientifically ex- cludes the ethnographic, the mental, the moral, the histori- cal, the geographical, and the social condition of men, and the
* Dr. Wiseman pursues this argument ; see pp. 144 — 147, and our previous authorities.
t See this argument well presented by Archbishop Sumner in Re- cords of Creation, vol. 1, pp. 372—377 ; Goode, vol. 2, pp. 76—78 ; Law- rence on Man, p. 166 ; Faber's Dissertations, pp. 289, 290.
X See admitted in the Ethnological Journal, p. 532.
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other grounds upon all of which combined the determination of this question can alone be properly made.* This theory- is, therefore, unphilosophical, because it excludes valid testi- mony in its decision of the case. Anatomy and physiology are not the only sciences, nor the phenomena presented to the observation of the senses, the only facts in existence. There is a science of history, a science of geology, a science of ethnography, a science of zoology, a science of natural history, a science of intellectual and moral distinctions, and a science of religion, and in rightly determining this ques- tion, THE FACTS AS WITNESSED TO BY EACH OF THESE SCI- ENCES, must be taken into consideration. Who are ana- tomists, and what is anatomy, that they should refuse to receive any testimony respecting matters to which testimony undoubtedly applies, from any other science than their own? These sciences are all peers of the realm of reason, and it will not be borne that one should lord it over any other. And when all these sciences — which are, to say the least, upon a par with anatomy — testify to the original unity of the human race, it is preposterously absurd for it to assume the tone of a dictator, and command silence and passive ac- quiescence in its dictum.
Of what conceivable use or value, says Dr. Wardlaw,f are all the investigations and reasonings of philosophy, if not
* See Dr. Morton's Crania Americana, p. 4.
t Christian Ethics, 3d ed., London, 1837, pp. 11, 12. We urge the study of the entire first Lecture on the Province of Philosophy and The- ology.
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for the ascertaining of truth ? And in order to arrive at truth, is it not the proper business and the imperative duty of the philosopher to leave no quarter unexplored where evi- dence of any description can be found ; nothing whatsoever unexamined that promises to throw even a single ray of light on the subject of his inquiry, one solitary beam on his path that may contribute to guide him to a right result ? Can any thing be more irrational, more unworthy of a mind that is really honest, and in earnest in its desires after truth, than for him who professes to be in pursuit of it to allege, re- specting any source of information or department of evi- dence, that he has nothing to do with it ? No man of sound principle and enlightened judgment, will ever sit down satis- fied with a conclusion whi^h he knows to have been formed on a partial investigation, or so long as there remains unex- amined any accessible quarter whence such information or proof may be derived as may possibly shake its stability — nay, for aught he knows, may even demonstrate its fallacy, and constrain its rejection. Every thing, without exception, should be regarded as pertaining to the province of the gen- uine philosopher, that holds out any promise of conducting him to truth.
The application of these general principles will be al- ready apparent. In the Bible, we possess a document, by whose contents a great variety both of facts and sentiments are materially affected. It professes to be of the remotest antiquity, and of the very highest authority. Suppose, then, that by his own process of argumentation, a philosopher has arrived at a particular conclusion respecting the truth or
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falsehood of some fact or opinion. You say to him — " I find something very different from your conclusion in the state- ments of this book." He answers with all imaginable cool- ness— " It may be so ; that does not come within my legiti- mate range ; it belongs to the province of the divine. It is his business, the best way he can, to make out the con- sistency of the statements of the Bible with the decisions of philosophy. If there be a discrepancy, it is unfortunate ; but I cannot help it : the harmonizing of the two lies not with me, but with him." But why so ? What good reason is there, why the onus of finding a principle of reconciliation should be made to rest entirely on the theologian ? We cannot consent to this. We cannot quiescently permit phi- losophy to assume so lofty a bearing ; to take her own deci- sions for granted, and with the port and tone of a self-suffi- cient superciliousness, leave the divine to make what he can of their inconsistency with his Bible. We cannot allow the authority of this document to be thus unceremoniously left out of the account. We insist upon it, that on every point respecting which it delivers a testimony, the proofs of its authority, or of its want of authority, are amongst the evi- dences, on that point, which every lover of truth — that is, every true philosopher — should feel himself under impera- tive obligation carefully to examine. As the philosophy is of no sterling worth that conducts not to truth ; if the au- thority of the document can be established, and the verity of its statements consequently ascertained, then it becomes, on all matters of which it treats, the only philosophy ; unless we are determined to dignify with this honorable appellation a
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system of falsehood. If any man is prepared to avow, that he would prefer a falsehood, as the result of one process of inquiry, to truth, when ascertained by another ; then may he, consistently, leave out of his investigations the evidences on which the claims of this document rest. But should we call such a man a philosopher ? It were a miserable mis- nomer ; inasmuch as no procedure could be more thoroughly unphilosophical than to refuse any light, be it what it may, that promises to conduct to what is the sole end of all ra- tional inquiry.
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CHAPTER XXII.
THE THEORY OF A PLURALITY OF ORIGIN IN THE RACES OF MEN UNCHARITABLE.
" Thus deeply rooted in the innermost nature of man, and even enjoined upon him by his highest tendencies, the recognition of the bond of humanity, becomes one of the noblest leading principles in the history of mankind" — Humboldt.
" There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" — Epistle to the Galatians.
But the theory of a diversity of original races in the human family is uncharitable as well as unphilosophical. It is con- trary to that universal love prescribed by Christianity, and enforced by reason. This charity gives the benefit of a doubt even to the accused and guilty, and always leans to the side of mercy, and the claims of the poor and the help- less. Instead of debruting it would exalt, and instead of asking, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" it would see in every man the image of God and the features of a brother.
This, therefore, is to some extent the character of our laws and of public opinion at the South in reference to the
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colored race, " the first law of slavery being," as Judge O'Neill expresses it, " that of kindness from the master to the slave."*
This theory, on the contrary, makes might right, misery a crime, and malformation and defect a curse. It excludes from the great brotherhood of humanity, the claims of phi- lanthropy, the blessings of civilization, and the unspeakable benefits of Christianity, an indefinite multitude of those who bear the image and declare the dignity of their heavenly parentage, s*o that no man can tell when or where humanity either begins or ends.f And were this theory to become general, instead of those ameliorations proposed by Judge O'Neill^: in accordance with the wishes of his fellow citi- zens, and of the late Governor of S. C, how would our laws and practices be adapted to the treatment of brutes and not of persons according to the vagaries of some ethical (!) profes- sors. ||
* Judge O'Neill's Digest of the Negro Law of S. C.,pp..l8, 19, 20,21,22,23.
t Do. do. do. pp. 6, 8, &c.
X Do. do. do. pp. 12, 18, 22, 23, &c.
|| While on this subject we may notice the current opinion out of the slave-holding States, that slaves are held in law and treated in practice as chattels, i. e., as things and not as persons. On this point we offer two quotations from the Southern Presbyterian Review.
1. "In the Tenth Commandment we have a divine solemn recogni- tion of rights of property : * Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbor's. 9 Do you find yourself without things, that is, poor ? See that you do not even wish in your heart to have your neighbor's things, however abundantly the sovereign but righteous Lord of all may have
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We might, therefore, say of this theory with Dr. Law- rence, that it is as false philosophically, as the moral and political consequences to which it would lead are shocking and detestable.
bestowed them upon him in contrast with yourself. The same divine Commandment sanctions even the right of property in a human being, and thus gives warrant to our rights of authority as slave-holders. The Lawgiver says, 1 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's/ Does the almighty God then count slaves as human cat- tle 1 Is the slave a mere thing 1 Far from it ! He is an immortal man, but has a human master by God's appointment, and that master has a right of property in him — has a right in his services which no other man can innocently covet. Nay, the slave himself must not covet or take what belongs not to himself. But on the contrary, it is said to him, ' Art thou called being a slave, care not for it.' (1 Cor. vii. 21.)
" The doubt is what it (not expressed in the Greek) means ; several very eminent commentators quoted in Pool's Synopsis, and also Usher and Neander say, ' liberty :' but Chrysostom, Jerome, Theodoret, Isi- dorus, Pelusiota, QEcumenius, Photius, and Theophylact explain ' it ■ by f slavery ' ; and this sense, it must be confessed, suits the context admirably ; et /cat commonly signifies not ' if but ' although.' See Cramer's Catena in Epist. Paul. 5, 1, p 141, for some of these authori- ties. Chrysostom mentions that others took the verse quite the oppo- site way, and Saverianus, his contemporary, appears to have done so. Cramer, 1. c."
2. The essential characteristic of slavery is the right of the master to the labor of the slave for life, or as long as he is physically able to labor. This constitutes it slavery. This circumstance, that the right of the master extends through the life of the slave, and this only, is the specific difference between that and hired labor, or the bondage of 15
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There are but two motives assigned by Dr. Lawrence for the adoption of this theory (as he himself calls it) of Voltaire — "the fear of being allied to the monkey tribe, or
minors and apprentices. This is that " property in man " about which so much indignant eloquence has been evoked from the lips of un- thinking zealots. The right of one man to the labor of another is confessedly just and lawful in the case of hired operatives, minors and apprentices. And it can never be shown that the mere circumstance that this right extends over the whole time of life, converts it into a sin and outrage. If I may lawfully possess a claim to the service of another for a year, there is evidently nothing in the relation itself to make it unlawful to hold such a claim for a longer time. The right of the master to the labor of the slave for life is all the property he has in him. Neither the soul nor the body of the slave is the property of the master. It is not so in fact, or in law. I can maim, burn, eat, or kill the body of my ox, for that is my property. But I can do neither with the body of my slave ; if I do, the law of the land arrests and punishes me as a trespasser on the rights and property of another. By the laws of the South, the slaves are regarded and protected as persons, and not as things, the outcries of blind philanthropy to the contrary notwithstanding — not as persons having all the rights of white men, but yet as persons, as men; whom to maim is a felony, and to kill with malice aforethought is murder in the first degree. What our laws hold and treat as a chattel, or thing, is the right to the slave's labor. This is of course a species of property, the tenure of which must necessarily be regulated by law. Man's wisdom has divided property into the two classes of real estate and personal property, or chattels personal, with different laws for the regulation of each. In defining, therefore, the nature of property in slaves, our laws simply refer it to the second class, — or declare that it shall be regulated by the laws which regulate personal property. This is a very different thing from treating them as brutes and things. The law of Louisiana classes this pro-
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the wish to degrade the African below the standard of the human species in order to justify his barbarous and unjust treatment," and Southern men " ought to be the last to subject their institutions to imputations so deeply injurious to human- ity, so atrocious, and to impiety so blasphemous."*
This theory, however, has been adopted and widely diffused upon the very ground of its apparent justification of inhumanity to man. " There are, therefore,5' says Pri- chard,f " writers in the present day who maintain that the human family does not comprehend the uncivilized inhabit- ants of remote regions ; and that Negroes, Hottentots, Esqui- maux, and Australians, are not, in fact, men in the full sense of that term, or beings endowed with like mental facul- ties as ourselves. They maintain that the ultimate lpt of the ruder tribes is a state of perpetual servitude ; and that if, in some instances, they should continue to repel the at- tempts of the civilized nations to subdue them, they will at length be rooted out and exterminated, in every country on the shores of which Europeans shall have set their feet. These half-men, half-brutes, do not belong to what M. Bory
perty with real estate, and subjects it to the same regulations ; and it would be just as reasonable to say that treats them as dirt, or bricks and mortar. It is true that our laws in their phraseology speak of the " slaves," and not of the simple right of the owner to their labor ; but this is for the sake of convenience, and the whole tenor and spirit of our legislation prove that slaves themselves are regarded as per- sons, and the right to their labor only as personal property, or a thing. * See Lawrence, pp. 383, 384.
t Nat. Hist, of Man, pp. 5, 6. See also Carpenter's Physiology, p.
77.
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de Saint- Vincent terms the " Race Adamique" They were made to be the domestic slaves of the lordly caste, under whose protection they are susceptible of some small improve- ment comparable to that which is attained by our horses and dogs. Nor is it easy to prove any of these conclusions un- reasonable if only the principal fact be what it is assumed to be. If the Negro and the Australian are not our fellow- creatures and one family with ourselves, but beings of an inferior order, and if duties towards them were not contem- plated, as we may in that case presume them not to have been, in any of the positive commands on which the moral- ity of the Christian world is founded, our relations to these tribes will appear to be not very different from those which might be imagined to subsist between us and a race of ourangs. In the story of a pongo slaughtered by some voyagers in the Indian Archipelago, an account of the cries and gestures of the animal in its mortal agony, so like the expressions of human sufferings, was read not without pity, and persons censured the wanton commission of an outrage for which there appeared no adequate motive. But the capturing of such creatures with the view of making them useful slaves, even if some of them were occasionally des- troyed in the attempt, would be scarcely blamed. We thus come near to an apology for the practice of kidnapping, and to show that it cannot be much more criminal to des- troy such creatures when they annoy us than to extirpate wolves or bears; nor do they strongly reprobate the conduct of some white people in our Australian colony, who are said to have shot occasionally the poor miserable savages of that countrv as food for their dogs."
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Whilst, therefore, to use the words of Humboldt, we maintain the unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the depressing assumption of superior and infe- rior races of men. There are nations more susceptible of cultivation, more highly civilized, more ennobled by mental cultivation than others, but none in themselves nobler than others. If we should indicate an idea which throughout the whole course of history has ever more and more widely ex- tended its empire — or, which more than any other, testifies to the much contested, and still more decidedly misunderstood perfectibility of the whole human race — it is that of estab- lishing our common humanity — of striving to remove the barriers which prejudice and limited views of every kind have erected amongst men, and to treat all mankind, without reference to religion, nation, or color, as one fraternity, one great community. Thus, deeply rooted in the innermost nature of man, and even enjoined upon him by his highest tendencies, the recognition of the bond of humanity becomes one of the noblest leading principles in the history of man- kind.*
" The advocates in the South of a plurality of races should, therefore, be on their guard, lest by the adoption of this theory, the enemies of their domestic institutions should have room to accuse them of prejudice and selfishness, in desir- ing to degrade their servants below the level of those crea- tures of God to whom a revelation has been given and for whose salvation a Saviour has died. The fact that nature has stamped on the African race the permanent marks of
* Humboldt's Cosmos, pp. 368, 369.
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inferiority — that we are taught by their whole past history the lesson of their incapacity for self-government, and that the Scriptures point out the duties both of masters and ser- vants, should be sufficient to dispel every improper motive in an unbiassed search after truth alone."*
Christianity alone can properly adapt the feelings of the heart to the varying characters and condition of our fellow- men, and constrain us in whatsoever state they are to " ren- den unto them things just and equal," to " do unto them as we might rightly expect them to do unto us were our rela- tions changed and thus to lose that " secret uneasiness which would threaten to grow unto disgust " in beholding the stupidity and barbarism of the tropical man, " in pity still more profound, and in'the charity of a Christian heart. "f
* Dr. Bachman, p. 8.
t See Guyot,pp. 230,231.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
THE THEORY OF A PLURALITY OF ORIGIN IN THE RACES OF MEN INEXPEDIENT, AND UN- CHRISTIAN ; AND CONTRARY TO THE NE- CESSARY CLAIMS OF THE HISTORICAL EVI- DENCE OF SCRIPTURE.
Nor should the physiologist, on the other hand, in any stage of the in- vestigation, and more especially at this time, when we are only collecting materials on which a theory is in future to be founded, feel himself authorized to bend the Scriptures to his peculiar views, and deny their inspiration, and consequently their authority in all those passages which are opposed to his particular theory. — Dr. Bachman.
Man should not distort Holy Writ to suit his notions of right and wrong. — Dr. Nott.
Da fidei, quad fidei sunt, so as not to attempt to draw down or submit the mysteries of God to our reason ; but contrariwise, to raise and advance our reason to the divine truth. — Bacon.
In ascertaining or deciding upon the harmony of any two systems or productions, it is evidently requisite, for the just and accurate pro- secution of the inquiry, that we should possess a full and exact knowledge of each, at least to the extent of those points on which
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we compare them, else we shall of necessity come to rash and un- founded conclusions, and find discrepancies that exist in our own misguided and erroneous conceptions rather than in the objects that we place at variance with each other.
But in the next place, the theory of a diversity of races is impolitic on the part of South American citizens, and of all true Christians and philanthropists.
This theory would be very inexpedient and suicidal to the South in the maintenance of her true relations to her co- lored population. It would be so, because it is novel. It was never known or thought of by their fathers. The colored or negro race has been providentially among them for two cen- turies and a half, and during all that time they have been uniformly recognized as fellow-beings ; as having the same primeval origin, the same essential attributes, the same moral and religious character, and the same immortal destiny. The obligation to treat them as such, and to provide for them religious instruction, has always been theoretically ad- mitted both legally* and socially,*)* and has been in a con- stantly increasing measure practically discharged. The doctrine of the unity of the race has been the uniform and settled opinion of this country both by common and statute law, and also by universal public opinion, both Christian and general. Colored persons are declared to be " persons
* See The Negro Law of S. C. of Judge O'Neill, 1848, pp. 12, 44, 18, 11,23,42, 24.
t See Dr. Jones' work on the Religious Instruction of Negroes, Sa- vannah, 1842, part i., Hist. Sketch, pp. 99, 100.
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WITH MANY RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES CIVIL AND CRIMINAL."*
They are protected from labor on the Sabbath.-)" Religious meetings for their special use are authorized and regulated and the only question in our recent discussions was, whe- ther this authorized instruction should be altogether the same as that given to the white population, or of a more special and appropriate character.
The introduction in the South, therefore, of this novel theory of a diversity of races, would be a declaration to the world that its institutions could no longer rest upon the basis which has always been hitherto assumed, and that this theory has been adopted for mere proud, selfish, and self-aggrandiz- ing purposes.
This theory is further impolitic to the South, because of its immoral, anti social, and disorganizing tendencies. It would remove from both master and servant the strongest bonds by which they are united to each other in mutually beneficial relations, and which restrain both from licentious, immoral, and cruel purposes. It would dethrone conscience, and destroy for ever those religious sentiments which are the most powerful motives to peace, contentment, industry, and every good and virtuous action, and the essential elements of that righteousness which alone can distinguish and exalt any people. Our Southern country, instead of being a com- munity where all the social and kindly sympathies of hu- manity are constantly in exercise, would, were this theory
* Negro Laws, &c, &c, p. 18j § 11. t Do. do. p. 21, § 28.
X Do. do. p. 24, §47.
15*
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acted out, become a scene of agrarian contest between ava- rice and cunning, power and hatred, cruelty, and revenge.
Neither would this theory be less dangerous in its bear- ing upon all the interests involved in the proper and Scrip- tural course to be pursued towards that slave population which, by the providence of God and the coercive and mer- cenary policy of Great Britain, has been intrusted to her management. God is in this whole matter. God is making the wrath, and covetousness, and injustice of man to praise Him. He is bringing light out of darkness, and good out of evil, and causing this institution to work together for the equal benefit both of master and servant in all their rela- tions to one another.
The relation now providentially held by the white popu- lation of the South to the colored race is an ordinance of God, a form and condition of government permitted by Him, in view of ultimate beneficial results.* The Christiani-
* Many writers have dwelt on the wisdom and goodness of God in the varieties of men as the result of a constitutional capacity for change, adapting them to every variety of condition, and securing the population of the earth and the cultivation of all its productions for the advance- ment and happiness of society. See Macculloch's Proofs of the Attri- butes of God, vol. 1, pp. 305, 306; and vol. 2, pp. 13, 14. Kirby's Treatise, pp. 45, 46. Prout's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 203.
" The ways of God, says Dr. Bachman, are dark and inscrutable to man — he converts evil into good, and often causes the wrath of man to praise him. If Africa is ever destined to become civilized and Christian- ized, the first dawn of light to all human appearances has been reflected on her from the Southern States of America. On the other hand, if the negro, by his constitutional adaptation to labor in situations where we
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zation as well as the civilization of the colored population is at stake, and woe is unto the South if she neglects her high and holy mission ! God's authority, God's word, and God's will, and not the applause or the condemnation of men, must be her rule of action ; and, like Luther, she must do neither more nor less than these require and permit. So long, therefore, as these make it to appear the duty of the South to perpetuate the present relations of master and ser- vant, for the mutual and best interests of loth parties, she must do it as unto the Lord. She cannot act otherwise, — and only when she is led to believe otherwise, will she be led with equal promptness to obey the dictates of duty.
But let this novel theory prevail and become general, and this whole question be cut loose from the restraints and authority of the Bible and of our common humanity, and then the only question will be, " What will be most for mere selfish interest, popularity, or worldly applause ?" And hence we find Dr. Nott, both in his work and in his commu- nication to the American Association, declaring, " The time must come when the blacks will be worse than useless to us. What then ? Emancipation must follow, which, from the
would find only disease and degeneracy, contributes to our wealth and comfort, then is he also our benefactor, and hence we will mutually have reason to bless the wise provision of Heaven in so constructing the hu- man frame in the various races of men, that they in their several grada- tions can mutually benefit each other, by cultivating every soil, the pro- ducts of which are so necessary to the support of man, and by this means binding together the whole human family in one bond of universal de- pendence and brotherhood. " See also ch. x., p. 205, &c.
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lio-hts before us, is but another name for extermination."* Again, he says,f " We will take occasion here to remark, that no one respects the rights of man more than ourselves ; that no one detests slavery, or loves that beautiful abstrac- tion, Liberty, more than we do. We will go further, and say, that we are willing to lay aside all personal considera- tions, and devote our life and feeble powers to the cause of emancipation, whenever it can be shown that the condition of the negro is to be improved by this course."
Such is, and ever will be, philosophy and mere sentimen- tal philanthrophy. It depends not upon principle, but upon the pride and fashion of popular opinion. The philanthro- py of the Bible, however, is based on principle. It looks out out upon all the interests at stake, and at all the re- lations sustained by its objects, both to God and to each other. It determines what shall not be done, as well as what shall be done. It restrains, while it deepens human sympathy. It reprobates all " rose-water philanthropy,'' as Carlyle calls it, and enforces what is just and right at every sacrifice. And in all cases it does to others that — all that — and only that — which in similar providential circumstances, and with a single eye to the best temporal and eternal inter- ests of the parties concerned, it might justly and righteously expect to be done to it at the time and in the manner indi- cated. This is the equal and impartial rule of Heaven — the golden rule of Christ — and the rule which philosophy and mere impulsive and narrow-minded, selfish, and fierce phi- lanthropy perverts, and altogether misunderstands.
* Lectures, p. 18.
t Do., p. 20.
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But, to proceed : this theory is impolitic to the South, be- cause it rests, as we have seen, upon the most partial, and un- philosophical, and inconclusive reasoning, and arrays against it conscience, Christianity, science, and the great majority of the people. It would therefore create among themselves — and in reference to the very subject on which of all others there ought to be the greatest union — discord and division, antagonism and strife ; since where God's word and authority are at stake, all who believe in it as the word of God, " must contend earnestly." Now this theory is necessa- rily infidel. It is in open and direct opposition to the testi- mony of the Bible. It overthrows not only Moses, but the prophets and apostles also, and thus undermines the Scrip- tures as a divine record, both of doctrines and of duties. It was for this purpose the theory was introduced by Voltaire, Rousseau, and Peyrere, and it is for this purpose it is wielded by Paine, Drake, Dr. Nott, and others. Neither is this in- fidel tendency obviated by admitting that the Bible is in part inspired, and in part human and erroneous. For if this the- ory is adopted, it is left to every man to decide according to his own notions and desires, what is, and what is not re- vealed. There would be no common standard of truth and duty, and we would be driven to and fro like storm-tossed and anchorless vessels upon the shoreless billows of an un- charted sea. Neither will this tendency be prevented by allowing the Bible to be inspired, but only addressed to the Caucasian race of men. For the testimony of the Bible to the unity of the race is not found in any one or in any few passages, but in all its doctrinal and practical teaching, so
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that if limited to any one race, it must be proved self-contra- dictory.
We deny also that this question can be rationally decided without a reference to the Bible. " Suppose even," to use the language of Dr. Wardlaw,* " that on an extensive survey, and a minute inspection of the various tribes of men on the sur- face of the globe, there are found, as is the case, appear- ances both for and against the ordinary belief of a common original stock. Suppose, if you will, the appearances on the two sides of the hypothesis to be even nearly on a balance, and to leave some little room for hesitation and skepticism. In this posture of the case, here is a document, which, in the most explicit terms, affirms the common origin ; and which proceeds throughout upon the assumption of God's having " made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the whole earth." Without intending, in the least degree, to lay any interdict on philosophical investigation, to put a stop to the continued collection and comparison of facts, and the free and unembarrassed discussion of whatever these facts may seem to indicate, my simple affirmation is, that the authority of this document is fairly entitled to be exam- ined upon the question — nay more — that it is not only so entitled, but that the man who professes to be actuated by a sincere desire to ascertain the truth, does not act consistently with his profession, so long as he refuses or neglects such examination. I am not now assuming the authority of the document, and attempting to silence philosophy by an appeal
* Dr. Wardlaw's Chr. Ethics, p. 14-16.
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339
to divine testimony ; all I contend for is, that its claim to authority be fairly investigated ; that the competency or in- competency of the witness be ascertained ; that his preten- sions be not set aside without inquiry. He may, on the one hand, be found unworthy of confidence, or on the other, his deposition may be so attested as to render it credible, ma- terial, and even decisive. But whichsoever of these may be the result, the question at issue has not, we affirm, been frilly, impartially, and in the true spirit of philosophy, investigated, if the pretensions of the witness be not candidly inquired into, and the credit due to his testimony correctly apprecia- ted : — and on this principle the entire evidence, in all its va- riety, of the genuineness, the authenticity, and the divine inspiration of this document does come, not legitimately only, but imperatively and indispensably, within the range of inves- tigation belonging to this question : there being nothing more pregnant with folly, than summarily to discard, without a deliberate and rigid examination of his character and cre- dentials, any guide who promises to lead our steps to the oracle, where doubts may be settled, and truth satisfactorily learned. One question in this investigation is, Has the hu- man family proceeded from one centre and stock ? Now this is a question of historical evidence. Such evidence is admitted in tHe case of all other animals. Shall it be ad- mitted in the case of man, or not ? Our opponents say not. We affirm that it must, and that by all but infidels it will.
11 If the Bible then is true — and has it yet been proved untrue ? — the sole object of investigation comes to be the meaning of the language in which the intimations of the Di-
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vine Oracles are conveyed. It must come to this. The questioning of any of their discoveries, as contrary to reason, and inconsistent with otherwise ascertained principles of truth, is then out of place. It ought to have been introduced in the investigation of evidence. The present assumption is, that such investigation is over, and has terminated in the decision that the book is divine. In these circumstances we must take high ground in behalf of Revelation. Philosophy and theology stand in this respect on a widely different foot- ing. The philosopher, as I have already said, having arriv- ed at his conclusion, would, with all possible sang froid, leave it to the theologian to reconcile that conclusion with the dictates of his Bible. But, on the supposition of this Bible having been ascertained to be from God,
' The sempiternal source of truth divine/
we must not only modify, but precisely reverse this position, unless we would exalt the wisdom of the creature above that of the Creator. So far from its belonging to the divine to harmonize the discoveries of this inspired document with the dogmata of the philosopher, it is incumbent on the philoso- pher, unless he can fairly meet and set aside the proofs of its inspiration, to bring his dogmata to the test of the docu- ment. What the divine has to do — and this we admit to be incumbent upon him — is to make good the authority of his standard ; and having established this, to elicit with clear- ness its decisions. To insist upon its being his province to reconcile these decisions with the contrary decisions (if such there be) of the philosopher, would be to assert the superior
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decisiveness of philosophical conclusions to that of divine in- timations. We should be unfaithful to our God, and throw a disparaging insult on his name, were we thus to consent that the wisdom of 6 the only wise,' should make its obei- sance to the chair of human science ; or were we to admit that he has left his word with less conclusive evidence in its behalf, than that by which the wise men of this world can vindicate the dictates of their own sagacity."*
The logic of modern philosophy, says Isaac Taylor, I mean true philosophy, secures for each separate department of science the most absolute independence of every other, within its proper limits. To the operation of this very law is to be attributed that remarkable intercommunity, accord- ance, and harmony of purpose, which characterize and au- thenticate the philosophy of the nineteenth century. No such harmony has heretofore been seen, except when en- forced by tyranny. There have, indeed, been times when Aristotle and the Pope have kept the peace in the world of mind by declaring that so and so could not be true, and must not be taught. But these times have gone by, unless, indeed, the new philosophy is to revive a similar despo- tism.
This question then, of the Unity of the Races, can never be determined by any one science. The attempt to do this
* Dr. Ward law, ibid. On the relative position of Scripture and Sci- ence, see Lord Bacon. Works by Montague, vol. i., pp. 259-264. Scott's Refutation of Combe, ch. xi. Kennedy on Nature and Revelation, ch. xi. London Quarterly Review, Jan., 1850, p. 4. Buckland's Bridgewa- ter Treatise, vol. i., pp. 19 and 439. Lectures on Infidelity, pp. 128-138.
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will not be borne in this age of enlightened knowledge. They who put forward such claims transcend their limits and those of a just philosophy. It is a rule, " auctoris aliud agentis parva auctoritas." " The authority of an author is not to be pleaded on points beyond his capacity and pro- vince.5' Of such Lord Bacon's remark is often true, that they are ill discoverers who think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea. We are not unwilling to submit this subject to the decision of men of science in all the branches bearing- upon it. But we cannot leave it in the hands of the medical profession, and to their exclusive deter- mination. " The doctrine of the unity of the plurality of the races," to use the language of Dr. Bachman, " is not an indispensable part of medical education. Our professors of surgery and anatomy are not necessarily expected to be 'na- turalists. Even the celebrated Owen, the most eminent of comparative anatomists, while he gave the most careful dis- sections, and pointed out those anatomical differences by which genera and species either approached to or departed from each other, seldom ventured either on naming or describing a species. Anatomy and physiology are only branches of a science which the naturalist is obliged to study, and he accordingly, after giving the aid which his department could afford, left the designation of species, es- pecially of recent animals, to the naturalists to whom it more legitimately belonged. Among our physicians not one in a thousand has devoted himself to any branch of natural science, nor can we conceive that this, although desirable, is positively essential to his profession. The legitimate duty
I
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* of the professor is to impart instruction in regard to the ana- tomical and physiological organization of man, and to point out all those variations which are found to exist in indivi- duals or races. How far the doctrine of the plurality in the races is openly taught in any medical school in Ame- rica, we are not prepared to state ; but we have no hesita- tion in saying, that if in the present stage of our knowledge on this subject, and the scanty materials we have now on hand in our country, such an attempt, even by insinuation, or in whatever way it may be disguised, should be made, it would be foreign from the humility and modesty which are the characteristics of true science ; and more especially since nearly the whole of the Christian world regard this as a grave subject, in which higher and immeasurably greater interests are involved. Favorable as we have ever been to the fullest investigations in science, and unwilling as we are to shackle the human mind, we are, nevertheless, not insensible to the fact that errors in science imparted to the naturally skeptical minds of the young, exercise an import- ant influence on the conduct and happiness of after life. The American mind thus far is cast in a religious mould ; public sentiment as at present constituted, when led to sup- pose that any of its institutions are undermining the founda- tion of higher hopes, may be compared to the ripples of the sea acting with slow but sleepless force on the base of a pyramid, which will gradually be worn away with every re- turning wave, until the foundation can no longer support the superstructure, and it is at last prostrated to the earth by a breath of air, although it may have been as firmly planted as the pillars of Hercules."
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But it may be said that the theory of the diversity of races does not deny the moral and immortal character of those who are degraded from our own species. But if this is not denied but admitted, then the inexpediency of adopt- ing this theory is the more apparent, since it gains nothing, and loses much. For if all are moral and immortal beings, then all are men, — all are liable to the same destiny — and all are entitled to the same deference and regard, in accord- ance with their circumstances and relations to us, and to one another. Unless, however, all men have descended from Adam by ordinary generation, they cannot, according to the Bible, have any part or lot in the great salvation.
As it regards the position of those who live in our southern country, and who are therefore called to exercise the high and responsible duties of rulers and masters towards a por- tion of their fellow-men, their interest and their happiness alike concur in enforcing upon them the repudiation of all other grounds upon which to sustain and direct their course than those found in the divine word ; — in the divine ordi- nance of government ; in the natural and necessary ine- quality of ranks and enjoyments ; in the undoubted divine recognition and regulation of the servitude of the Old and New Testament times ; in the connection with the Church of God — in all ages and countries from the beginning of time, — of those who were masters and servants, and who as such were in favor with God and man ; — in the undoubtedly pro- vidential disposition of their present lot as dwellers in our southern country; — in the general rules by which, through the institution of slavery, the mutual benefit of all parties
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may be promoted both for time and for eternity ; and in the constant opportunities afforded under this system for the exercise of every duty of humanity, and of every grace of Christianity.
Here is a rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail, and on which if the South stands firmly, endeavoring to do what is right and proper both towards God and her servants ; giving to them what is just and equal, and secur- ing in every way their moral and religious welfare, they may have peace with God — peace in their own hearts, and quiet- ness and assurance for ever.
And as the apostle employs the doctrine of the unity of the human races as an argument for the manifold wisdom of God, as displayed in the diversity of men adapted to all con- ditions and situations, let us by faith receive and apply it, for the confidence of our own hearts in His goodness and wisdom. Above all, let it work in us that charity towards all men of which Christ is the exemplar, and his gospel the spirit, the message, and the source. In Christ Jesus all men find their centre as the Saviour and the representative of all. " And truly," to use the eloquent words of Dr. Wiseman,* " when we see how He can have been followed by the Greek, though a founder of none among his sects, — revered by the Brahmin, though preached unto him by men of the fisherman's caste, — worshipped by the red man of Canada, though belonging to the hated pale race, — we can-
* Lectures, p. 155. See the powerful argument for the divine origin of Christianity, from the character of Christ, pp. 154, 155.
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not but consider Him as destined to break down all distinc- tion of color, and shape, and countenance, and habits ; to form in himself the type of unity to which are referable all the sons of Adam, and give us, in the possibility of this moral convergence, the strongest proof that the human species, however varied, is essentially one."
"All the nations of the earth," adds Guyot,* "must unite together in spirit by the bonds of the same faith, under the law of the same God. This is the lofty goal to which henceforth all human societies ought to aim. The world hears the unity and brotherhood of all human kind , pro- claimed, without distinction of nation or of race — the true principle of humanity. This is the leaven that is to leaven the whole lump ; it is upon this new basis that humanity, recommencing its task, goes on to build a new edifice."
" The privileged races have duties to perform propor- tioned to the gifts they possess. To impart to other nations the advantages which constitute their own glory, is the only way of legitimating the possession of them. We owe to the inferior races the blessings and the comforts of civiliza- tion ; we owe them the intellectual development of which they are capable ; above all, we owe them the gospel, which is our glory and will be their salvation ; and if we neglect to help them to partake in all these blessings, God will some time call us to a strict account.
" In this way alone will the inferior races be able to come forth from the state of torpor and debasement into
* Guyot, pp., 243-245.
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which they are plunged, and live the active life of the higher races. Then shall commence, or rather rise to its just proportions, the elaboration of the material wealth of the tropical regions for the benefit of the whole world. The nations of the lower races, associated like brothers with the civilized man of the ancient Christian societies, and directed by his intelligent activity, will be the chief instruments. The whole world, so turned to use by man, will fulfil its destiny.
" It is in this great union, foretold alike by the order of nature and by the gospel, humanity will have its special functions, and that we shall find the solution and the defini- tive aim of all the physical and historical contrasts which we have been studying. Every thing in nature is arranged for the accomplishment by man of the admirable designs of Providence for the triumph of the good ; and if man were faithful to his destination, the whole world would appear as a sublime concert of nature, all the nations blending their voices into a lofty harmony in praise of the Creator.*"
* Guyot, pp. 288, 306, 308. Hamilton Smith is also of opinion that there are present changes " evolving the mysterious problem of human fusion into one great family, led by one religious system, trained to the sciences and literature of Europe." — p. 218.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
LATEST VIEWS OF PROFESSOR AGASSIZ, AND HIS THEORY TESTED.
Dogmatism in matters of Science is just as reprehensible as in ques- tions of religion.
Pride of opinion and arrogance of spirit are entirely opposed to the humility of true science.
Where we find all the same properties, we have reason to con- clude there is the same real, internal constitution from which those properties flow. — Locke.
While the Christian looks to this faith chiefly as a future good, even the skeptic should befriend it as a present good, and the sound philosopher as both. — Lacon.
As Professor Agassiz has undoubted and most deserved pre- eminence as a Naturalist in all the lower departments of animals, his opinions upon all questions touching the order of nature in these departments, and the consequent analogy from which to argue in the case of man, are of great impor- tance. And as he has been led to commit himself as the champion of the theory of an indefinite number of original and separately created races of men, and to claim for his support the authority of Scripture, we devote a separate
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chapter to the consideration of his views and their claim to any alteration in our own position.
I. We will in the first place show the apparently irre- concilable and contradictory statements of Professor Agassiz.
1. In 1845, in an article published in the Swiss Re- view on the Geography of Animals, he uses the following language : " There exists, then, a real difference between the inhabitants of the different continents, and the remark- able coincidence which we have just pointed out between their primitive allocation ; and the limitation of the fauna in these same continents, shows us clearly enough that their diversity ascends to the same primordial cause. But has this diversity the same origin ? Has it the same signification with man as with (the inferior) animals ? Evidently not. And here is again revealed the superiority of the human race and its greater independence in nature. Whilst (the lower) animals are of distinct species in the different zoological nces to which they belong, man, notwithstanding the diversity of his races, constitutes one only, and the same species, over all the surface of the globe. In this respect as well as in so many others, man seems to us to form an exception to the general rule in this creation, of which he is at the same time the object and the end.*
Here it is affirmed, 1st, that all animals have their limited natural provinces; 2d, that within these provinces they are of distinct species ; 3d, that man, on the contrary,
* An account of the geographical distribution of animals, by L. Agassiz ; extracted from the Swiss Review, Neufchatel. 16
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is of one only species, and yet of different races, and that he alone is cosmopolite ; and 4th, that all these arrangements are the result of a primordial cause.
2. In the year 1846, while in Charleston, Mr. Agassiz declared before the Literary Club that he believed in an indefinite number of original and distinctly created races of men, and this opinion he based upon the fact, that all other animals were created in classes or groups within certain provinces, and adapted to them, and that in accordance with this analogy we were constrained to believe man to have been created in many different climates. He stated it also as a fact, that man could not exist except within these natural climates, as for instance in the tried case of the Esquimaux.
On this basis, it will be seen, man is made to be of dif- ferent orignal races on the ground of an analogy to the other animals, while in the former statement he is made "of one only and the same " species, and therefore pre-eminent and distinguished from the other animals, — " an exception to the general rule in this creation of which he is at the same time the object and the end."
3. In his work on the Principles of Zoology, published in 1840, Mr. Agassiz defines species to be " the lowest term to which naturalists descend, if we except certain peculiar- ities generally induced by some modification of native habits, such as are seen in domestic animals." " The species," he adds, " is founded upon less important distinctions, such as color, size, proportions, sculpture, etc."*
* Introduction.
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To this scientific definition of the term species, which is in perfect accordance with the usage of naturalists,* he care- fully and constantly adheres throughout the whole volume, as may be seen by the pages referred to below. f
Let us then turn to page 180, and we find it said of man, that " he is every where the one identical species, yet several races, marked by certain peculiarities of features,5' and on the same page (§ 452) it is shown that such differ- ences are necessarily to be expected from the varieties of food, customs, modes of life, and climate, since these lead to " differences in the physical constitution of man which would contribute to augment any primeval differences."
In this work, therefore, we must regard Mr. Agassiz as coinciding with his views in 1846, and with those which we have advanced in this work, since if the races of men are only "varieties" of " the same species" and man is a " cos- mopolite," and undoubtedly able to adapt himself after a few generations to every change of climate and condition, there is not the slightest difficulty in understanding how from one original central pair, and from one blood, all the nations of the earth have sprung.
4. Not such, however, are the present views of Pro- fessor Agassiz. In his lecture before the Association in Charleston, in March, 1850, on the Classification of Ani- mals, and on other occasions, we understood him to take the ground that this classification, as introduced by Cuvier, etc.,
* See ch. x-xii. of this work.
t See pp. 103, 105, 118, 127, 128, 154, 172, 195, 180, and 201.
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would ere long cease to be founded upon specific distinc- tions, and would be based upon the natural distinctions dis- closed by the comparative development of animals.
In his remarks in the Association, made after the pre- sentation of Dr. Nott's paper against the unity of the races, Mr. Agassiz took the opportunity to publish his opinion on this agitated question. And alluding, perhaps, to this work, which we had submitted to him as far as it had been pub- lished, he further said, that, inasmuch as his opinions on this question had been made a matter of frequent inquiry, he would take this opportunity, once for all, to express his views very distinctly on the subject. He said many mis- takes and some ill feeling had arisen among naturalists from not understanding the grounds of the controversy which were assumed by opposing parties. As a general proposi- tion, he would side with those who maintain the doctrine of the unity of the race, if by the unity of the race be meant nothing more than that all mankind were endowed with one common nature intellectual and physical derived from the Creator of all men, were under the same moral government of the universe, and sustained similar relations to the Deity. It was quite a different question whether the different races were derived from the same common human ancestors. For his own part, after giving to this question much considera- tion, he was ready to maintain, that the different races of men were descended from different stocks, and he regarded this position as fully sustained by divine revelation. The Jewish history was the history, not of divers races, but of a single race of mankind ; but the existence of other races was often
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incidentally alluded to, and distinctly implied, if not abso- lutely asserted, in the sacred volume. Of this last assertion he gave in proof the puerile and trite allegation of Dr. Nott and other skeptics from Voltaire to the present day, that there were other races of men, co-existent with Adam and his son Cain, dwelling in the Land of Nod, and among whom Cain married and built a city. It is well said by the report- er of the Courier, that " the utterance of these opinions by this very eminent naturalist and philosopher, created no little sensation among the members of the Association for the Ad- vancement of Science.5'*
* The reporter adds : " The Rev. Dr. Bachman said he was not dis- posed to discuss the question before the Society. He had just done it through the press; and it was one of those nice and delicate questions which was, in his opinion, less suitable for open debate, by a literary society, before a promiscuous audience, than for deliberate investigation, by the advocates of opposing theories, through the press. He had hoped that" all discussion of the question would be waived in the public meeting in the Society ; but, inasmuch as the learned Professor Agassiz had ex- pressed an opinion on this very delicate question, which would be likely to make a deep impression on many who held his opinions on all re- condite matters in profound respect, he should take occasion, without entering into any argument to sustain his own particular views, which he had done elsewhere, to state simply, that he differed, in toto, from the position assumed by that learned gentleman in reference to this sub- ject, and would refer those interested in following up the inquiry to the more full explanations of his views recently given to the public.
" The Rev. Dr. Smyth, in a speech of much eloquence, expressed his entire concurrence in the views advanced by the reverend and learned gentleman who had just taken his seat. He, also, had devoted to this subject much inquiry. He was an advocate of the strict unity of the
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These views Mr. Agassiz has published in a paper on " The Geographical Distribution of Animals," in the March number of the Christian Examiner.* The object of this pa- per is to show that there is no common centre or several centres of origin, among all other animals besides man, but that they were all created in the localities they naturally oc- cupy, and in which they breed, either in pairs or in multi- tudes, and, therefore, that there was no common central ori- gin for man, but an indefinite number of separate creations, from which the races of men have sprung.
In confirmation of this theory, the learned Professor ap- peals first to Scripture, f and reiterates all we have quoted respecting the Bible. He affirms that it has reference to only one race, that of Adam, while it intimates that Adam and Eve were neither the only nor the first human beings created ; as is proved by the circumstances recorded of Cain.J He also offers various considerations which have appeared to him to sustain his theory.
race, believing with the Apostle, that God had made, of one blood all the nations of men that dwelt on the face of the earth, i. e., he believed, he said, that men had descended from the same common ancestors. He thought any other view of the subject would tend to overthrow the au- thority and defeat the objects of divine revelation."
* This is the organ of the Unitarian community in Boston. See for 1850, p. 118, &c.
t P. 181.
t See pp. 184, 185. " Professor Agassiz," says a Boston Reviewer, " takes the ground that the animals which now inhabit, or have at any time inhabited the earth, did not, as is generally supposed, proceed from one common centre, and from one primitive pair, but, on the contrary,
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In fulfilment of the old Latin proverb, homines amplius oculis quam auribus credunt. and as an ocular and irresisti- ble proof of his theory, Mr. Agassiz has been very ready, and with great reiteration, to point out in the fingers of the negro, a greater degree of web, and thus to demonstrate, by his partial development, the difference of specific character and origin in this race of men.
Such then are the outlines of Professor Agassiz's views on the unity of the human races, and his present — shall we say — unfortunate position.
The object he now aims at is twofold. First, by estab- lishing an analogy in all other departments of nature, to raise an insuperable objection to the doctrine of a common origin of all mankind ; and secondly, by the introduction of a new principle of classification, to show that the races of men must be originally of different origin.
II. We shall first notice his analogy. And on this sub- ject we remark that the force of an analogy seems to be alto- gether misapprehended. An analogy, that is, a similarity in the relations of certain objects, cannot prove any thing con- cerning the real nature, origin, or cause of those objects, since
were created originally in those regions or zoological districts where they are now found, and over the whole extent of the same. These grand zoological districts he makes to be ten or twelve in number, distinctly marked off from each other by specific differences in the several classes or groups of animals which they sustain, and showing also a corresponding difference in their respective fossil remains, indicating that the same gene- ral laws which now govern the distribution of animals, operated also in former and remote periods over the same regions."
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it does not follow that because there is a resemblance, how- ever striking in some points, there must be a corresponding similarity in every other particular. All it can do is to ob- viate objections against the evidence produced for any doc- trine. The plan followed by God in the creation and distri- bution of the lower animals in former and present ages, cannot, therefore, prove that God followed the same plan in the crea- tion and dispersion of mankind, if there are any reasons from the word of God or other sources, for believing that " man is an exception to all other animals." All this analogy could do would be to remove objections against the reasonableness of the doctrine of an original diversity of origin in the human family, in the absence of any positive proof for a different conclusion. In the present case, however, as we do claim to have posi- tive proof both from Scripture and from other sources, that " man is an exception to all other animals" in point of emi- nence, and that he at least in all his races did originate from a single pair, an analogy from the other animals could have no place and no force, especially when the relevancy of Scripture testimony is admitted, and acted upon by Professor Agassiz himself.
But even were an analogy sufficient to prove similarity of origin and of distribution in the case of man and of other ani- mals, we remark that the particular analogy here aimed at has not been completely made out. It is not true, as Mr. Agas- siz has himself shown, that in every successive epoch of na- ture an invariable order of origin and of distribution has been pursued in the animal kingdom, or that the same limi- tations have been always assigned to the provinces of ani-
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mals.* On the contrary, as in every epoch there has been an introduction of new and higher types of animals, so has " the distribution of animals been modified in accordance with the successive changes which the animal kingdom has thus undergone from the earliest period of its creation to the present day.f We are led, therefore, to infer that, " as man came last, at the head of the creation in time as vyell as in eminence by structure, intelligence, and moral endowments,"^ and as " man is an exception to the general rule in this crea- tion, of which he is at the same time the object and the end," the plan pursued in man's origin and distribution would be eminently peculiar, and that, as Mr. Agassiz has forcibly ex- pressed it, " whilst the (lower) animals are of distinct species in the different zoological provinces to which they belong, man, notwithstanding the diversity of his races, constitutes one on\y, and the same species, over all the surface of the globe. "§ The analogy aimed at by Mr. Agassiz, has not therefore been made out. It was necessary, in order to have any weight as an analogy, to show that all other organized be- ings in every epoch have been created " not in pairs, or progenitors, or centres of origin, but in large numbers," " over the whole extent of their natural distribution ;"|| — that they are confined to their zoological provinces ; — and espe- cially, that this has been the invariable order of nature as it
* See the article in Chr. Examiner, pp. 182, 186, 193, 194, 196. t Do., p. 194. t Do., p. 196.
§ A gassiz, as before quoted. || Chr. Examiner, pp. 192, 193. 16*
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regards the higher animals. But this is not proved. The contrary, to an extent sufficient to invalidate the analogy, and the peculiarity of man is also admitted,* and there is, therefore, no force in the attempted analogy, even did we not possess positive proof that it does not hold good in the case of man.
But again we remark on the analogical argument of Mr. Agassiz, that it is employed in erecting a man of straw, and then in pulling him to pieces. The whole object he aims at is, to show the falsity of " the prevailing opinion which ascribes to all living beings upon earth one common centre of origin, from which, it is supposed, they in the course of time spread over wider and wider areas, till they finally came into their present states of distribution."!
Now among what naturalists and men of science this theory prevails we are at a loss to conceive. The theory he denounces is not regarded even by divines of " the strait- est sect" as necessary to the literal verity of Scripture.^ It has been shown in this work — before we were aware of Mr. Agassiz's views — that such a theory is not required by Scripture, and it has nowhere been advanced by Dr. Prich- ard or Dr. Bachman.§ Indeed, this theory of a central
* Chr. Examiner, p. 186, where common centres are admitted to have been the earliest plan.
t Do., pp. 181, 183, etc.
X See Geology and Revelation by Dr. Pye Smith, pp. 94 — 96, Eng. ed. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae, b. iii. ch. 4. Poole's Synopsis Criti- corum on Genesis vh. : 19. ; and Poole's Annotations on the Bible, vol. I, on Gen. vii. 19, etc.
§ Dr. Prichard has a full exhibition of his views on the point in Re-
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origin of all living beings is not at all necessary to the argu- ment for the central origin of the human race. If true, it would only constitute an analogy, and not a proof ; and in view of man's pre-eminence and peculiarity, it would have but little weight even as an analogy. In this whole discus- sion, therefore, Mr. Agassiz has been, so far as the es- tablishment of this question of the unity of mankind is concerned, " fighting uncertainly as one who beateth the air."
But further on this point. It is admitted by Mr. Agassiz, that the fauna and flora, and especially the higher classes of animals, are identical in species "over the icy fields extend- ing around the northern pole upon the three continents which meet in the North, "# that is, where they might easily spread from one common centre both by sea and land ; — that " in the temperate zone," where there is increasing difficulty in the way of such diffusion, 66 we begin to find more and more marked differences between the inhabitants of different continents, and even between those of the opposite shores of the same ocean ;"f and that in the tropical climate, where such intercommunication lecomes most difficult, there is natur- ally an entire difference of species. £ Every thing, there- fore, in the actual arrangement of species over the globe, con- searches, vol. 1, as quoted on this subject — All animals and plants might have been created anew after the deluge.
* Chr. Examiner, p. 202.
t Do., pp. 183 184; and Zoology, pp. 154—175. X See on this subject Dr. Bachman, p. 150, etc. ; and Dr. Prichard, and Lond. Q. Rev., January, 1850, p. 17.
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spires to show that similarity of species argues similarity of origin, according to the established opinions and observations of naturalists, and we can only wonder at the conclusion drawn against this position from difficulties which can easily be explained by the many fortuitous methods of distributing the seed of plants and the ova of animals.*
But still further. It was necessary for Mr. Agassiz to prove that all other animals were created with such special adaptation to their limited zoological provinces that they are incapable of migration and of life in other climates and con- ditions, in order even analogically to draw a conclusion to the same effect respecting man. He does, indeed, affirm, and in language sufficiently plain, that "there is not one spe- cies of animals that is uniformly spread all over the globe," " the universal law is that all animals are circumscribed within definite limits. "f
He argues that such migration in animals is in its very nature impossible, because it would ascribe to animals them- selves, and to the physical agents under which they lived, forethought and intelligence.^: But surely the instincts and sagacity of animals indicate some degree of that intelligence and power in man which he himself allows to be able to overrule the natural limitations of nature, and to secure changes, both as to character and location. § Animals — and especially the higher animals — we affirm, do not act
* See Chr. Examiner, p. 192, etc. ; and Dr. Bacmnan, pp. 251, 268.
t Do. do. pp. 194, 193.
X Do. do. p. 187, etc., and 193.
§ Do. do. p. 193.
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merely " under the pressure of physical causes," but of life, instinct, and a certain degree of intelligence.
But Mr. Agassiz not only argues against the possibility of the migration of animals, but, as we have seen, against the fact. This assertion, however, must, be greatly qualified. Of wild animals what are the definite limits within which are circumscribed the wolf, the bear, the ermine, the otter found in Canada and Florida, the common deer breeding in Maine, Carolina, Florida, and Mexico, the buffalo ranging from the tropics to Great Marten Lake in lat. 63° or 64°, once ranging through the whole United States, and only restricted from the Eastern Continent by a boundless ocean, the wild turkey, and others ? 'All other animals also, so far as they are of value to man, are adapted to become naturalized to every climate, and are, therefore, as truly cosmopolite as man, who equally requires naturalization. The horse, ass, • cow, sheep, goat, hog, fowl, and turkey, breed in the Northern cold, and within the Tropics. Nearly all these have be- come wild in these various regions. Such is the case on all the Western prairies as well as in South America. But their constitution having become adapted both to tropical and tem- perate regions, did not require them afterwards to remove, / and they, even in their wild state, inhabit all these regions. It will also be recollected that domesticated animals have now as wide a dispersion as man himself.
It is therefore just as true of other animals as of man, that under his care they are adapted to become cosmopolite. It is just as true of other animals as of man, that in fact they are cosmopolite, and that from certain primitive centres they
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have been diffused over all parts of the earth to which civil- ized man has carried them. This is also the case with regard to the Negro, the Mongol, and the other races of men. The analogy of nature, therefore, as it regards all the higher animals — and it is surely here alone we can look for any close resemblance to man — is decidedly and beyond all controversy in favor of the doctrine of one original stock as the source of all the human races.*
Finally on this analogy. Is not Mr. Agassiz very in- consistent in making an analogous condition of the lower, and especially of the lowest orders, (of whom alone he claims any special competency to speak with authority, )f a ground from which to draw a conclusion respecting man ?:(: In regard to these animals he argues against the existence of " any cause by which to account for their dispersion beyond the mere (physical) necessity of removing from their crowded ground, to assume wider limits as their in- # creased number made it necessary. "§ He regards them as governed exclusively by "the physical agents under which they live," and as having no will and no fore- thought. || Man, on the contrary, he represents as possess-
* On this subject see Macculloch's Proofs of the Attributes of God. Lyell's Second Visit, vol. i. pp. 228, 229. London Quarterly Review, January, 1850, p. 17, col. 1. Humboldt's Cosmos, p. 363, as quoted be- fore on the fauna of the British Islands.
t See in Chr. Examiner, p. 194.
X Do. do. p. 182.
§ Do. do. pp. 183, 187, 193, 194,202.
|| Do. do. pp. 187 and 193.
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ing all these, and, therefore, as " acting not merely from natural impulses or under the pressure of physical causes, but as being moved by a higher will.75* He admits also in regard to man the necessary power of climate, food, and condition, to effect great changes in form and character.*]" He attributes to man a power adequate not only to secure these modifications in himself but also in the lower animals, in contrariety to the natural and universal law of their being. % We also understood Mr. Agassiz in the Associa- tion as affirming that the laws and characteristics both as to origin and diffusion of every class of animals, must be determined by an examination of the facts respecting each class, and not by any general analogy or rules for deter- mining species. Even, therefore, were all that Mr. Agas- siz assumes as true of the lower- animals really the case, it would afford no presumption in regard to man, who is an exception to them all, the lord of all, and pre-emi- nently distinguished by faculties superior to all.§
If man is cosmopolite, — if species is constant, and de- pends upon the immaterial principle, || — if among the lower animals where there is no will, there are so great and ad- mitted changeSjIT — if even in the case of man such changes are allowed to be the inevitable result of alterations in con-
* See in Chr. Examiner, pp. 193, 194.
t Zoology, p. 180,181.
t See in Chr. Examiner, p. 193.
§ Zoology, p. 181 and 206.
|| Do. pp. xiv. 9,42, 180.
IT Chr. Exam., p. 194.
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dition, food, climate, etc.* — how can Mr. Agassiz consist- ently argue against the single origin and species of man because of differences among the human races which are so trifling in comparison with those in other animals ?f
Besides, even if we allow him his plural centres of cre- ation for the human race, what will it profit his theory ? For, multiply these centres as he will, there, are still varieties — individual, family, and national — among the same races, which are to the very full as difficult o"f explanation as those found among the races themselves.^:
III. So much for the analogy of Professor Agassiz. We will now examine his proposed principle of classification. This principle is the result of the modern science of embry- ology, and is deduced from the regular and invariable order pursued in the gradual development of all animals, from their condition in the germ to the full maturity of their per- fect form. As all animals resemble one another in the earliest transformations, their position in the scale of being is determined by the point at which this development stops, or the extent to which it is carried beyond other species. § There is thus provided in nature itself, an infallible and unchangeable rule for the determination of species, which is destined to work out great and happy results. Mr. Agassiz has therefore laid down certain rules, by which to deter-
* Zoology, p. 181.
t See Chr. Exam., pp. 194, 193, 182.
t See Dr. Bachman, 242, and Lond. Quart. Rev., p. 18, col. 2. § See Zoology, ch. x, &c., and p. 7, § 18-23.
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mine " the arrangement of species according to their most natural relations and their rank in the scale of being," or in other words, " what is that which gives an animal pre- cedence in rank."*
1. The changes which they undergo during the whole course of their development must be considered. f
2. The relative grade of animals is to be appreciated by the comparative study of their development before and after their embryonic period. ij:
3. Animals are distinguished also by the nature of their organization when completed ; in some this being very sim- ple, in others extremely complicated. §
4. An animal is more perfect in proportion as its rela- tions with the external world are more varied, in conse- quence of its more perfect senses and capacity for motion. ||
5. Every separate organ is found also to have every degree of complication and nicety in the performance of its function, according to the rank of the animal ; as for in- stance the nature, size, and position of the brain. IT
6. Affinities or the similarity of purposes and functions, and not analogies or the relation of organs constructed on the same plan, are to guide us in the arrangement of ani- mals.**
|
* See |
Zoology, ch. i. p. 5, &c. |
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|
t |
Do. |
p. 7, § 18, 19. |
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f |
Do. |
p. 7, § 20-22. |
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§ |
Do. |
§ 12. |
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II |
Do. |
p. 5, § 13. |
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IT |
Do. |
pp. 5, 6, § 14-16. |
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#* |
Do. |
p. 6, § 16, 17. |
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7. Another principle which must guide in the arrange- ment of animals, is their relation to the regions they in- habit.*
8. Besides the distinctions to be derived from the varied structure of organs, there are others not less decisive to be drawn from the immaterial principle, since " it is this which determines the constancy of species from generation to gene- ration," and is " the source of all the varied exhibitions of instinct and intelligence. "*|*
9. We must not lose sight of the animal in its rela- tions to creation as a whole, in our cdnsideration of its own organism.
10. The highest end of natural history is gained when we are in this way led to " perceive in creation the execu- tion of a plan fully matured in the beginning, and invariably pursued as the work of a God infinitely wise. "J
Such then is the principle of classification as developed by Mr. Agassiz, and upon which he and his followers predi- cate the infallible disproof of the unity of the human races. Of course, as it regards the unity of the human races, the only application this principle can have, must be to the diversity of the specific characters of men, and not to the plurality of their origin, since upon this latter it can have no bearing. The argument, when analyzed-, must be this : The races of men are proved by these rules to be of different species ; and as this difference has been constant and inva-
* See Zoology, p. 8, § 23. t Do. p. 9, § 26. t Do. p. 10, § 29.
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riable, these specific distinctions must have been primitive, and their origin distinct and different.
Our reply to this argument is twofold. First, this prin- ciple and these rules of classification do not prove men to be of different species. Secondly, this theory does, on the con- trary, prove that all the races of men are " of one only and the same species." The question of origin is thus left to be determined by the rules and evidence appropriate to it.
That these rules of classification do not prove men to T)e of different species, is certain ; because in the order of their development, — in its extent, — in its period before and after birth, — in all the structural organization to which it leads— in the number and relations of all the organs — in all the laws of animal life — in their adaptation to change of climate, food, and condition — in their immaterial, intellectual and moral powers, — in these and every thing which chararacterizes man to be, as Mr. Agassiz allows, pre-eminently superior to all other animals, all men are, and have been proved to be,„ essentially and indisputably alike. We had intended to take up these rules seriatim, and to apply them to all the principles of embryonic development, laid down by Mr. Agassiz. But it is really unnecessary, since no attempt has been made to prove a difference among the races of men as measured by these rules, beyond the fact of a comparatively less development of the fingers, and therefore a greater length of web in the negro hand ; and a similar difference, as alleged by Dr. Neill (though not avowedly for this end), in the edges of the maxillary bones.*
* American Journal of Medical Science, Jan. 1850.
368 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
That Mr. Agassiz should seriously urge this peculiarity in the negro as a proof that they are of a race primitively distinct in origin and in specific rank and character as hu- man beings, has been to very many a source of great amazement.
In the first place, does not Mr. Agassiz himself, as we have seen,* admit the power of climate, food, condition, and the state and activity of the intelligence and the will, — to modify the actual development of men, both as to extent and appearance ? Is it not the doctrine of the ablest physiolo- gists that civilization, with all its concomitant influences, does affect the form and development of the brain, the skull, the features, the passions, and the faculties of men ?f
And would it not, therefore, be an anomaly, a contra- diction to all experience, if in the negro race we did not find, in connection with ages of degradation, an imperfect development, to some extent, in the physical and mental powers? That there are such differences in their actual character and perfection, all must admit ; and that this is what must have been expected under the circumstances of the case, all must be equally ready to allow.
But do these variations in fact amount to any thing like specific distinctions ? If they do, then similar variations in other animals of the higher order must be sufficient for classifying them under different species. But is this done,
* See the opinion of Dr. Prichard, Carpenter, Lawrence, Dowling, &c, quoted in ch. iv. and v. t See in do. and ch. vi.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
369
or can it be done ? Among dogs, who are regarded even by Dr. Morton as of the same species, the Newfoundland race is semi-web-footed to an extent much greater than the negro. There is also a race of dogs in this country with very short tails, and a race of cats without tails at all. There is also a race of fowls in this country who are rumpless and desti- tute of the vertebrae. There is a whole race of hogs with solid hoofs. And in all the domesticated animals we see in various ways the power of altered condition, food, climate, and habits, in modifying form, character, and general struc- ture. We thus perceive that changes, the very same in kind, and much greater in degree, do result from natural causes working upon the constitutional adaptation of the ani- mal organization in all the higher animals, and we are, therefore, led to conclude that, in view of man's admitted cosmopolite character, his power of self-modification,* and the immeasurably greater changes to which, in all his di- versified conditions, he is liable, much greater modifications of form and development might be expected in branches of the same race.
The principles of classification adopted by Mr. Agassiz, do not, therefore, in any degree militate against the specific character, and, therefore, the original unity of the human races. On the contrary, they afford another and very pow- ful criterion by which that unity may be established, since all races of men are found to be conformed in every essen- tial particular to the order of nature in their structural,
* See Agassiz in Chr. Examiner, p. 193.
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physiological, and functional development. They are essen- tially the same as he admits in that immaterial principle on which the constancy of species depends;1 — in the power of will by which they can effect changes ; — in their location, food, employments, and character ;2 — in their embryonic con- dition and transformations; — in the number, variety, and composition of their tissues;3 — in the number, character, and purpose of those large and distinctly limited cavities destined for the lodgment of certain organs, such as the brains, lungs, &c. ;4 — in the well defined and compact form of the organs lodged in these cavities ;5— in the process by which the food is elaborated and digested;6 — in the functions of relation and sensation, and, therefore, in their nervous system, its form, arrangement, and volume ;7 — in the pecu- liar organs which give the sensation of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch ;8 — in the structure and position of the eye, ear, and nose ;9 — in that perception, memory, and reasoning which constitutes intelligence ;10 — in the entire skeleton, which is an essential test of species ;n— in the functions of digestion, circulation, secretion, and respiration;12 — in their teeth, their hearts, their skin, their glands ;13 — in all the peculiarities of the two sexes;14 — in ovulation;15 — in the
1 Zoology, pp. xiv. and 180. 9 Do., p. 24.
2 See in Chr. Examiner, p. 193. 10 Do , pp. 44, 45.
3 Zoology, pp. 15, 16. 11 Do., p. 51.
4 Do., pp. 16, 17. »2 Do., pp. 73, 82, 83.
5 Do., p. 18. !3 Do., pp. 82, 89, 99.
6 Do., p. — " Do., pp. 102, 103.
7 Do., p. 20. 15 Do., pp. 105, 106, 110.
8 Do., p. 22.
I
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 371
gradation of more and more complicated adaptation by which they are distinguished ;* — in the same general ap- pearance ;f — and in all those transformations which pre- cede or which succeed birth. :j: Physically, intellectually, and morally considered, all men, therefore, " every where are the one identical species, yet several races. "§ And hence the result of the application of Mr. Agassiz's princi- ple is to show, that in all respects wherein all men differ from the lower animals, they are precisely alike to one another, and wherein they differ from each other as races, they differ also as nations, families, and individuals. These differences are, therefore, varieties, and not specific distinc- tions. || "Species," says Mr. Agassiz, "is the lowest term to which (in classification) we descend, if we except certain peculiarities. "IT And as all men are of one species, the dif- ferences among them must be variations and not specific distinctions. And hence, also, as the variations of the same acknowledged race, (as the American, and the European, the Mongolian, and the African,) are as great as the differ- ences of these races from one another, and as they all pass into one another by gradual and insensible transitions, these
* Zoology, pp. 121, 125. t Do., pp. 127, 128. t Do- pp. 151, 152.
§ See London Quarterly Review, pp. 10, 12, 13. |] Zoology, p. 180, and London Quarterly Review, January, 1850, p. 16, col. 2.
H" Zoology, p. 14, &c, &c.
■
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variations could not have been the result of any original and distinct creation of separate races.*
IV. It only remains to notice the views of Professor Agassiz on the Scriptural relations of this question. We fully agree with him in the opinion (which lies, as we think, at the basis of a correct determination of this question, )f that it involves two distinct inquiries. One relates to the origin of the human race, and is, therefore, to be decided by testimony. The other relates to the matter of fact, whether all the races of men are separated by specific dis- tinction or only by variations from one and the same species. This is to be decided by scientific observation and analysis. These two questions are entirely distinct in their whole nature, evidence, and treatment, and are, therefore, scientifi- cally considered, absolutely independent of each other.
Now as a Naturalist, Professor Agassiz had only to do with the latter question, and was in no way required to interfere with the former. We regard, therefore, his agitation of it as altogether gratuitous and uncalled for by any claims or requirement of science. The question of fact might be examined, weighed, and discussed upon the grounds of observation, experiment, and deduction, and the question of origin left to stand or fall upon its own merits. Mr. Agassiz, therefore, must have been very anxious, for some reasons, to give his views on the Scriptural relations
* Mr. Agassiz does not seem to have finally settled his own opinion. See Zoology, p. 204, close.
f See ch. on the twofold nature of this question, ch. ix., and London Quarterly Review, p. 17, col. 1.
THK TJNITV OF THE HUMAN RACES.
373
of this question when he embodied them in a paper on " the distribution of animals," and, to the amazement of every- one, presented them before the Association for the advance- ment of Science.
This course we regard as emphatically unscientific. The absolute independence of the difFerent sciences is the great attainment of our age. Formerly theologians under- took to decide scientific questions, and to interpret scientific facts. But now the arrogance and the intolerance would seem to be changing sides, and scientific observers are to inter- pret and determine the nature of inspiration, and the actual teachings of the Bible. Formerly the scientific world said to the Church, let us alone, and we will let you alone. But having secured the non-interference of the Church they will not let it alone. They transcend the limits of their sphere and functions, and dogmatize upon that with which they have, as men of science, no concern. It was, indeed, a sor- rowful spectacle, when true science was seen descending from her lofty heights, and, clothing herself in the weapons which had been forged in the armory of infidelity by Vol- taire, Peyrere, Rousseau, Paine, and such workmen, waged war upon that divine Word " against which no weapon shall ever prosper," nor even " the gates of hell prevail." How difFerent was the spirit and language of the immortal Locke : " The Holy Scripture is to me, and always will be, the con- stant guide of my assent ; and I shall always hearken to it as containing infallible truth relating to things of the highest concernment. And where I want the evidence of things, there is yet ground enough for me to believe, because God 17
374
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has said it ; and I shall presently condemn and quit any opinion of mine, as soon as I am shown that it is contrary to any revelation in the Holy Scripture."
Mr. Agassiz also confounds altogether the Mosaic testi- mony respecting the central origin and dispersion of the human race, with its allusions to the lower animals, about whom, as we have seen, Scripture makes no definite state- ment which is not capable of interpretation in accordance with the facts of science.* His disproof therefore of one common centre of origin for all the fauna and flora of the globe, in no way militates against the clear and frequent testimony of Scripture respecting the common relation of all mankind to Adam and Christ. It is upon this common rela- tion of all men to the first man Adam, and to the second Adam who is Christ, the whole scheme of divine mercy is founded, and an interest in its unspeakable blessings offered to " every creature in all the world.55 And hence in rejecting these facts, Mr. Agassiz will be regarded by the great body of the Christian world as overturning the very foundations of Christianity itself.
But upon what Scriptural evidence does he rest this de- nial ? We have already adverted in an early part of this volume to the particular facts respecting Cain and Abel, upon which — and upon which alone — Mr. Agassiz founds his amazing declaration that the Scriptures have reference only to the history and destiny of one stock or race, and that they imply the existence of other previous and independent
* Ch. Examiner, pp. 183, 185.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
375
races of men.* On this subject we may, therefore, at this time best employ the language of a recent reviewer of Dr. Nott, whose views Mr. Agassiz seems to have endorsed.
" As to the other points, we can but say that we felt our- selves, as we read them, in the society of Thomas Paine, Rousseau, and Voltaire. In the genealogy of Adam but three of his children, Cain, Abel, and Seth are mentioned by name, and few only of his remoter descendants appear in the record. In the 930 years he walked upon the earth, his family must have been far more numerous than this, and' his other children are expressly alluded to in the words, 6 and he begat sons and daughters/ 6 The mother of all living ? was doubtless 6 a fruitful vine,' and both she and Adam were in the vigor of their lives for a length of years which the postdiluvians knew nothing of. Cain was a married man when he slew Abel, and was then not less, probably, than 129 years of age. Seth, who was appointed by God to occupy the place of Abel, whom Cain slew, was born to Adam when he was 130 years old.f The natural increase of the race of man is extremely rapid when no hindrance is interposed. An island first occupied by a few shipwrecked English in 1589, and discovered by a Dutch vessel in 1667, is said to have been found peopled after 80 years by 12,000 souls, all the descendants of four mothers.^:
" When the Creator undertook to people a world, we may
* See ch. 1 and 11.
t Comp. iv. 17, 25., v. 3.
X Wiseman's Lectures, p. 145.
376
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
suppose that his providence arranged for this end, and no hindrance was allowed to interpose. It is believed that the death of Abel was the first which occurred in the family of man. It is not an unreasonable supposition therefore, as figures will demonstrate, that the family of Adam embraced from 191,000, to 200,000 people, at the banishment of Cain. How many of these adhered to the fortunes of Cain, from whom a large share descended, or whether any, we are not informed, nor are we told when he built his city. If he lived as long as his father Adam, and built it in the closing period of his life, his own descendants born in the land of Nod, i. e. in the land of his fl ighty which the name denotes, were far more numerous than the numbers above mentioned would indicate. The same remarks will also apply to Nimrod. Though he may be, as is said in these Lectures, but of ' the second generation from Ham/ there was abundant time for a population to have arisen on the earth, after the flood, suf- ficiently numerous to build cities and. found kingdoms.* The city Cain built was not probably extraordinary for size, but at first, at least, a mere stockade, 1 earth-work,'3 or 'for- tress.'^ Rome was not built in a day. It was once a ham- let or blockhouse on the Capitoline Mount. It was only the
* See Bedford's Scripture Chronology, and his calculations of the population of the earth in each year from Noah to Abraham.
X " ^pjj Hir, translated city" says Gesenius, is properly " a place of watch or guard" built with a wall or tower as a refuge of the keepers of flocks, an inclosure surrounded by a mound or wall, a nomadic hamlet, a town, a city, often not large, as there were 31 royal cities in Canaan, and 124 in the single tribe of Judah.
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377
' beginning' of the kingdom founded by Nimrod, and the first foundations of Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, of which the historian speaks. With Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, Lowell, Buffalo, and San Francisco before him, the growth of the present generation, it is surprising that Dr. Nott cannot see that it requires but a brief time for places to which emigration tends, to rise to sudden wealth and emi- nence. Kingdoms, too, are often small in their beginning, which afterwards fill half the world with their arts and arms. Nor was it any more difficult for Cain to 1 get out of the presence of the Lord,5 than it is for unbelieving men to do so now. They now absent themselves voluntarily from the house and worship of God, and the society of his people, or having once been numbered among them, may be forcibly expelled. Had Dr. Nott been better acquainted with the phraseology of Scripture, he could have had no trouble in understanding what is said concerning the sons of God, and the daughters of men, in Gen. 6, nor have found any resem- blance in this to the 6 ancient mythologies of India and Egypt.'
" These objections, and others which time does not allow us to touch, are brought forward to show that the Book of Genesis is unworthy of credit, and that, therefore, its ethno- logy is to be rejected. £ Its ethnological details,' he says, ' are devoid of all harmony, are inconsistent with each other, and contradicted by the early history of Egypt, China, India, and America.' To this we can only say, ' If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that dark- ness !' The 10th and 11th chapters of Genesis, are unques-
375
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
tionably the best ethnographical document ot the face of the earth. It more clearly explains the origin of the various important nations of the old continent, than all the writings of antiquity besides. From Josephus down, there has been great uniformity in its explanation : and all soberly -con- ducted antiquarian research, and almost every spadeful of earth thrown out of the buried catacombs and palaces of Egypt and Nineveh, do but tend to confirm it."
We are very sorry to contemplate the present position of Professor Agassiz. He avows, like Dr. Xott. the deepest rev- erence for the Scriptures. u The records of the Bible/' he says.* "'together with human tradition, teach us that man and the animals associated with him. were created by the word of God : 1 the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is and this truth is confirmed by the revelations of science, which unequivocally indicate the di- rect interventions of creative power."
But the Bible will be found equally harmonious with reason and science in teaching the original unity of all the races of men. And as M to describe without rising to the causes, or descending to the consequences, is no more science than simply to relate a fact,'*"t reverence for the Bible will never permit a man of true science to affirm, that upon the historical question of the single or plural origin of the races of men * he will have nothing to do with written revelation, and that if found contradicting its dictates, he cannot help
* Zoology, p. 182 ; and Chr. Ex., p. 135. t Guyot, p. 2.
0 '
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379
it," — much less would it allow him, Prometheus-like, to say- that " science would force its way into the very presence of the Deity, and if possible, find out His plans."
If indeed, as has been said, there is any man who can, with little reason or propriety, remain a skeptic, that man is the naturalist. If the undevout astronomer is mad, no less insane is the infidel naturalist. In the line of his daily studies and investigations, lie the most striking and con- vincing evidences of the being and perfections of God. No sciences have furnished so many and so appropriate facts, illustrative of natural theology, as anatomy and physiology. They have been the great magazine whence writers on that subject have drawn their most effective weapons. " Galen," it is said, e< was converted from atheism by the sight of a human skeleton. The dead man's frame weighed more with him, than the arguments of the living."
Astronomers, geologists, and microscopic observers, says Dr. Pye Smith,* have peculiar facilities for acquiring the most sublime conceptions of the Deity, from their deep, ex- tensive, and accurate acquaintance with His works. Can they gaze at the wondrous mechanism with which they are familiar; can they calculate its workings based upon the most recondite mathematical truths ; can they predict the results on the greatest scale and with infallible certainty ; — and yet cherish no admiring and affectionate thoughts of the Former ? You disclose to the astonished view the animalcules of the living world, or the shells and habitations of those which
* Geology and Scripture, p. 354, &c.
380
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
peopled their proper stations in the long past conditions of creation ; you witness their exquisite beauty, their especial adaptations, and their appropriate places which they fill in the ranks of organized being : and you show us many species, of which millions of the individuals do not weigh a grain : and does not this impress upon you the weakness of skepticism with respect to the doctrines of a Divine Re- demption, as if they gave to mankind, too much importance in the view of the Almighty God ? Your science carries you back to periods of past time, the review of which is overwhelming to even your well-trained understandings : and do you not hence gather a presumption of credibility to the plan arranged from eternity, of holiness and wisdom, for the highest welfare of human beings ?
Did the religion of Dr. Turner, who so long and merito- . riously filled the office of Secretary to the Geological So- ciety, impede his exertions in the field of philosophy ; or in any way depreciate their value? The testimony of his friend Mr. Dale, should be inscribed on the heart of every man of science. " He received the Bible with implicit de- ference ; not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the word of God. Blameless, excellent as he was, to outward appearance, in every relation of life, he knew that he could not abide the scrutiny of one who looked upon the heart ; and he joyfully took refuge in the comfortable doctrine of an Almighty Saviour, one able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.'5
When Dr. Turner knew that death was near, he ad- verted to the perfect calmness of his pulse, and asked,
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES.
381
" What can make it so, at such an hour ? What, but the power of religion ? Who, but the Spirit of God ? I could not have believed (he said) that I could be happy on my death- bed. I am content my career should close." The question was put to him by an anxious relative, " Is not Christ as good as his word V' " Yes (he faltered), quite." And when he had said these words, he fell asleep.
Note.- — On the rules for the classification of animals and the confirma- tion given by these rules to the Unity of the Human Races, see in addi- tion to the argument in this chapter, Reischenberger's Natural History — Elements of Mammalogy, pp. 1-33.
17*
5
*
APPENDIX.
A.
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE OF AFRICA.
The Scriptures are fuller in their statements even in Geography, than any other ancient writings which precede the days of the Greek Geographers, who, in comparison with the Old Testament, are but modern. They are so accurate as to constitute the best guide books to travellers in the countries in which the occurrences of the Scrip- tures took place. In their allusions to the more distant lands to which reference is made they exhibit no error. Where they speak of the distant West, they use the phrase which is translated in our version " the isles of the sea," or " of the Gentiles." The habitable places of the sea would be more in accordance with the original, and will include all countries which must be reached by navigating the sea. India is expressly mentioned in Esther i. 1, and viii. 7, and 1 Mac. viii. 8, and if it did not embrace in their geography the whole of Hindostan, it extended far north of it, over a considerable portion of Tartary into the desert of Cobi. China is evidently intended by the land of Sinim, Is. xlix. 14, and has been called, from an unknown antiquity, throughout southern and western Asia, by the name Sin, Chin, or Jin. Porcelain vessels with Chinese inscriptions have been found in the monuments of Thebes. The Magog of Ezekiel is the country of the Mongolians. The Phoenicians were a bordering and friendly people, and Tyre was not further from Jerusalem, than Augusta in Georgia from Charleston, or Montgomery from Mobile. The nearest inhabitants of Galilee might have gone down of a plea- sant morning to market. All the knowledge of the Tyrian and
384
APPENDIX.
Phoenician navigators, pouring in from Carthage, and their numer- ous colonies, scattered over the islands of the Mediterranean, on either side of it, and beyond the Pillars of Hercules on the African and European coast, was easily accessible to the Jews.
They had resided in Babylon, the great centre of oriental com- merce, had lived in Media under Darius the Mede, and in Persia un- der Cyrus the Great ; many had served in the army of Alexander the Macedonian, and were probably among the invaders of India. They had occupied the central ground passed over by the caravan trade between Persia and India on the one side, and Phoenicia and Egypt on the other. Pefore Paul and the New Testament writers lived, Africa had been circumnavigated by Tyrian sailors under Pharaoh Necho.* Hanno the Carthaginian had explored the coast of Western Africa, Arian made the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, sailing around the coast of India on the east of the Indian Ocean, and down Africa on the west, a voyage which had probably also been often made before by the allied fleets of Solomon, and Hiram king of Tyre. The voyage of Pythias to the North Sea had taken place, and of Nearchus down the Indus and up the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Tigris. The Jews had long been familiar with Egypt. It was no wonderful feat to go there. They had never from Abra- ham to Paul lost their connection with it. From 301 to 180 B. C, the period of the Ptolemies, it was a place of shelter to them. In 153 B. C, Onias built a temple at Leontopolis which was long the rival of that at Jerusalem. At Alexandria they had the most splendid sy- nagogue, with its accompaniment of schools, which existed in the whole world. The geographers Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Strabo, had already gathered from different sources a very consider- able knowledge of the earth and its principal nations. Mela and Pliny were the cotemporaries of the writers of the New Testament. It is impossible that men, living as these writers did, in the very central parts of the civilized world, should be so extremely ignorant of the inhabitants of different countries as Dr. Nott alleges. Espe- cially may we suppose the Apostle Paul, a man of no mean condi- tion, born in a city which, according to Strabo, excelled even Co-
* 616 B. C. This voyage was 2100 years before the Portuguese, under the lead of Vasquez de Gama, doubled the Cape of Good Hope.
APPENDIX.
395
rinth and Athens, and all other cities as a place of education, to have been acquainted with this knowledge then common among men of ordinary intelligence. Now these countries which they actually did know, are inhabited by the principal varieties of the human race. The Caucasian, Mongolian, and Negro, could not be unknown to them. The Mongolian they had seen in their-wanderings towards central Asia, and the Negro must have attracted their attention in Egypt. The Scythians, the prototypes of the modern Tartars, seven centuries before Christ, had invaded southwestern Asia, pushed their inroads as far as Egypt, and left their name in Scythopolis, in the valley of the Jordan. Dr. Nott does indeed struggle hard to show that the word Cush is wrongly translated in our English Bible by the word Ethiopia. And we are willing to admit that the one word is not the etymological equivalent of the other, and that in these modern times the word Ethiopian is not by usage applied to all the descendants of Cush, or Ethiopia to all the countries they in- habit. But it is true that by the ancients, Ethiopia was applied to both Asiatic and African nations. They used the term according to its sense, of nations " burnt black in the face," afios r-qv o\jsiv.
In like manner the name Cush, for which in the translation Ethiopia is substituted, is used in the Scriptures for Asiatic and for African countries. The Cush, in the description of the Garden of Eden, is probably the country east of the Tigris, and north of the Persian Gulf. Chusistan, a portion of Persia, bears the name, and Jonathan, the Targumist, on Gen. x. 6, evidently understands by Cush, an Asiatic people. But it is equally plain that the name Cush is also applied to an African country and people. Indeed so clear is this, that Gesenius and Shulthess have wrongly contended that, in the Scriptures, it is applied to no other. It was a country which lay south of Egypt above Syene, the Meroe of the ancients, and the Abyssinia of the moderns. The Chub of Ezek. 29,* is either the Nubia of modern Geography, or a district called Chuba, still further south. The land of rustling, or clanging wings of Is. xviii. 1, be- yond the rivers of Cush, is evidently the African Ethiopia, including Nubia, Kordofan, and Abyssinia.f Over this country, in the days of Flezekiah, reigned Tirhaka, a King of great renown, who also had
* Ezek. xxix. 10 ; xxx. 6, 9. t Strabo, 15, 6.
386 APPENDIX.
obtained the dominion of upper Egypt. When Hezekiah was threatened by Sennacherib, knowing that the x\ssyrian army was on the way to Egyot,* he. marched to the relief of the Jewish monarch. He is the TapciKos of Manetho, and the TeapKcov of Strabo, and his Figure, name, and the expedition he undertook, and the prisoners he captured, are recorded on the walls of a Theban temple, at Medi- nath Abu, and on the mountain Barkal in Abyssinia.f And in spite of Dr. Notfs contemptuous questioning of the truth of 2 Chron. xiy. 9, it is very evident that Zerah, the Ethiopian, did come down with a "thousand thousand/' i. e. many thousands, on so insignificant a King as Asa.'' He came from Africa, not Arabia ; among his soldiers were Lubim, an African people,! and he had 300 chariots, which were not used by the Arabs in their warfare. 5 The name Cush, too, has been found on the monuments as referring to an African people, as Dr. Xott, with a facility fatal to his argument, p. 140, allows. Indeed, we find it used of the Prince of Ethiopia on a Temple at Beit-e-wellee in Nubia, where the conquests of Rame- ses the Second are found portrayed, under circumstances in which there can be no mistake, for the Ethiopian army, composed of ne- groes, is represented as routed before the chariot of the victor, and negro captives are led bound beside the conqueror. He is then ex- hibited, in another compartment, as receiving the tribute of the con- quered nations, consisting of gold, panthers' skins, tusks of ivory, logs of ebony, long-horned oxen, bears, lions, giraffes, elephants, brought by a numerous procession of negroes : Egyptian Scribes are taking
* Herodotus.
t Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, i. pp. 140, 337 ; Roscellinj, Mon. ii. tab. 8.
X2 Chron. xvi. 8; Comp. 12: 4.
§ In the invasion of Judah in the days of Rehoboam, by Shishak [Sheshonk], King of Egypt, in which he took Jerusalem and the u fenced cities of Judah," a vast army of Lubim, Sukkiims, and Cushites follow- ed him. These Sukkiims are in the LXX. the Troglodytes, whom Strabo, L. xvii. 1, and Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi. 29, 34, place in Meroe, and Ro- senmuller* identifies with the Shangalla, a negro race in Abyssinia. The victories of Shishak over Judah-melek-kah, " King of the country of Judah'' are sculptured on the monuments at Karnak.
* Alterthumskunde, in. 353.
APPENDIX.
3S7
an account of the tribute : then he is pictured as investing " the royal son of Kush" with the vice-regal power over this subjugated country, his name and title being written in hieroglyphics over his head.* On the same is an address to the conqueror, " Beneath thy sandals is Kol, the barbarian land, Kush (Nigritia) is in thy grasp." Mr. Gliddon informs us, that by the name Kush " the Egyptians ex- clusively designated the negro and Berber race in hieroglyphics," and though he denies that this name can be identified with the Cush of Scripture, we beg leave to differ from him. We have traced the Scripture use of the word to the country south of Egypt, inhabited in part by the Berber and negro varieties of men. We have now monumental evidence, by his own admission, that the same word is applied to the full negro of Nigritia, thus connecting him with other Cushites, with Ham and with Noah. If the KHeM of the monu- ments is the Ham of the Scriptures, and the Kanana of the monu- ments is the Canaan of the Scriptures, why is not the monumental Cush also the Cush of the Bible, extending westward over central Africa and including the negro race ?
Thus signally does the effort to prove the Cush of Scripture, always to refer to a Caucasian race, fail of any solid foundation. Thus impossible is it to prove, in the face of facts, that the sacred writers were unacquainted with the negro variety of man. Josephus knew something of this country of Ethiopia, for he represents Moses, while yet in Egypt making war, as a general serving under the Egyptian rule, upon Ethiopia, and subduing the people. The negro, too, had been fully described by Herodotus nearly five cen- turies before Christ, who became acquainted with him in Egypt, and afterwards found a colony of the same black skinned and woolly haired people in Colchis, on the shores of the Euxine. When Jere- miah then asks, " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard
* " The royal son of Kush, or Ethiopia, Amounemape-t, son of Poeri, the truth-speaking." Gallery of Antiqq. from the British Museum, by S. Birch, part ii. p. 96. " Kush, barbarian country, perverse race, being," says Mr. Gliddon, " the Egyptian designatory name and title of Negroes prior to B. C. 1690." Anc. Egypt, p. 24, 26, 27, 59 ; Comp. Rossel- lini, iii. 1, 277 ; Champollion, Eg. et Nub. i. Planch, xi. xv. xvi.
388
APPENDIX.
his spots ?" he as truly referred to the negro as a well known va- riety of men. as he did to the leopard as a well known variety of the feline race. That he should be ignorant of them, when they con- stituted to some extent the armies of Egypt, which were often con- tending with their natural enemies, the Babylonians, on the terri- tories of the Hebrews, is beyond belief. So numerous were the negroes in the armies of Sesostris, that Herodotus seems to infer that the Egyptians themselves were /xeXa^poes, " a black skinned," and ovXorpLx^s, a woolly haired people. It will be remembered, too, that Jeremiah spent the last days of his life in Egypt, whither he fled after the fall of Jerusalem, with the miserable remnant of his people.
In the original migration of nations, intercourse must have been kept up for a length of time between the migrating hordes and the parent stock, even as it is now. Commerce was rife over nearly the whole of the ancient world, as it is at this day. Many a Jew had seen the negro in Egypt. His ancestors had seen the temple at Karnac, perhaps, when it was building, and he had stood wondering in the Ramesium ages before Champollion was born. In countless things in which moderns are ignorant, the ancients were wise. The sacred writers, then, did know the principal varieties of the human race, were acquainted with the Mongol, the Caucasian, and the Negro, the varieties of men most unlike each other, and did notwith- standing affirm all nations of the earth to be of one blood, and to have descended from Noah, the second founder of the family of men, and from Adam, the first progenitor. Dr. Nott knows that this is the representation of the Scriptures, hence his inconsistent zeal, on the one hand, to destroy the belief of men in the integrity and inspira- tion of the word of God ; and on the other hand, to force upon the divine word an interpretation, on the supposition that its declara- tions are true, which will suit his preconceived theories. A sad addition to the numerous proofs literature contains of the unhistoric spirit and easy faith which skepticism inspires. — Presbyterian Re- view for Jan, 1850.
APPENDIX.
389
B.
ADAPTATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE NEGROES.
We make some admirable extracts relating to this topic from the report of the S. C. (Methodist) Conference Missionary Society, pre- sented at their late meeting in Camden : —
" In this good work your Missionaries have, with scarce any excep- tion worth mentioning, been seconded by the cordial support of the proprietors, and by their continued and handsome donations to the Missionary Treasury. Thus there is given before the face of the world, a practical and emphatic contradiction to the oft repeated slander, that the slave of the Southern plantation is considered and treated as a mere chattel — a thing and not a man — stripped of ethical character and moral responsibility. Who would ever dream of en- couraging and praying for such a class of labors as your mission- aries perform, unless he were prompted by a sense of duty to the souls of his dependents, and by the force of high moral and religious considerations ?
These missionary operations have incidentally thrown light upon an ethnographical question which is attracting attention in various quarters of the scientific world. They have demonstrated, that whatever causes may have led to the deterioration of the African race in the scale of civilized nations, and whatever inferiority of mind and position may belong to it, when compared with other varie- ties of the human family, it nevertheless belongs to that family, in the highest human capabilities — those of religion. The adaptation of Christianity to the understanding and moral sentiments of the negro has been fully tested. A long continued experiment has shown that the " gospel of the blessed God " — our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is suited to him ; comes down to his conscience ; makes its eternal sanctions felt in his inner life ; gives him the pro- mise of pardon for his sins, the helps of the Divine Spirit for his in- firmities, consolation for the troubles of the present life, and hope of the life everlasting of the world to come. While the idle fig- ment of equality in outward condition, has been exploded, and while
390
APPENDIX.
it has pleased a wise Providence to stamp the ineffaceable traces of inequality upon the states and fortunes of mankind, the true philoso- phy of man's nature has been ascertained by the process which has developed his relations to God and futurity ; shown his capabilities for religion ; his possession of moral sense, reason, and responsi- bility, and proclaimed his inalienable title to a participation in that gospel which the divine Head of the church commanded to be preached to every creature.
" It is these religious aspects of the case, which concern the Church of Christ, and which fix the attention and aim of this Mis- sionary Society. The soul of the plantation negro, if he belong to the human race, is a priceless gem ; the cost of its redemption was the blood of the great Sacrifice for sin ; and its inalienable right is the gospel, which, in accordance with its own great charter, is preached to the poor. Here we stand on solid ground.
As it regards the results of Foreign Missions generally, it is estimated that the number of missionaries who have been sent out to heathen nations within the last fifty years, is two thousand. During this time, upwards of 7,000 native assistants have been employed in teaching and preaching the gospel. About 4,000 churches have been organized, whose aggregate members amount to nearly or quite 250,000. Three thousand missionary schools have been established, embracing 250,000 children; and all this where, fifty years ago, there was not a single scholar, a single church, a single convert, or a single missionary. The Scriptures have been published in two hundred languages and dialects, and may be read in languages spoken by six hundred millions of the inhabitants of the globe.
The Rev. William Hoffman, Principal of the Missionary Insti- tution at Basle in Switzerland, and a Professor in the University of that town, has lately published a volume of Lectures (in German) upon Missions. At the close of his first lecture he thus addresses those opponents of the cause who would taunt the Missionary la- borer with ' want of success.'
Some may say, ' What have your Missions effected ? In truth, little enough : It is not worth the while to make fruitless attempts with increased means.' To this I answer : Do you mean to say that the Apostles labored in vain? At the close of the first century of
APPENDIX.
391
the Christian era, the number of souls converted to the Gospel was estimated at half a million ; and at this time, the close of the first half century of combined Evangelical efforts in the Missionary field, the number of baptized heathens may be stated at half a million at the least ! I admit we have no Apostles for helpers, — nay, that the la- borers are frequeutly half-educated persons and unlearned brethren ; but to make amends, our Missionary host amounts to one thousand and upwards, and of these, I am warranted in saying, that you may select one tenth, who divide the gifts of one of the apostles among themselves, and do the work of that one.
C. 1
ADDRESS BEFORE THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA. By Dr. John Barratt, of Abbe- ville, S. C. Charleston, 1850.
"This Address," says the author, " is in performance of a task not congenial to the habits of our profession." Thirty-three years ago he came to this country " fresh from the land of Wilberforce, with prejudices in favor of universal brotherhood," but " the evidences here presented to his senses were paramount ;" " his faith in the doctrines of original unity melted in the light of revelation," and he was filled with the spirit, not of wisdom, but poetic inspiration, and gave utterance to these sublimely prophetic words :
" And I said, if these are brothers. how changed From white to black, from lank to curly hair, With flattened nose, retreating forehead, Short chin, and uncouth thickened lips, As if fancy and nature had combined To mar the godlike form and face of man."*
From such a revelation we might have expected either an autho- ritative declaration of the truth on this question, or an independent
* The Address is closed with a poem of at least equal beauty and sublimity.
392
APPENDIX.
and convincing demonstration. But the spirit of revelation left him, and amid darkness and perplexity he is content as a blind man to fol- low the blind.
His house is very towering, but it is built upon the sand. An analogy is the sum and substance of this proof : " Every isolated por- tion of the earth's substance is found to have a flora and a fauna of its own," so that probably some fifty such regions could be recognized with species entirely dissimilar, where they could not have originated from other sources, as in the tropics. His theory, therefore, and his argument, are the same as those of Professor Agassiz; and to our re- marks upon them we refer our readers. We will only add here one practical test of the validity of the argument drawn from the apparent differences in men, which, to come within the scope of his analogy at all, must be regarded as specific.
It must strike every reader of this address that there are great apparent differences in its style. Here and there are found passages which would apparently indicate a different origin from the rest. But are they really so ? When the respected author gives it to the world as his, we have in this a positive testimony, relying upon which we can at once believe in the unity, in the face of all apparent proofs of a diversity of origin. In the same manner when our author, thirty- three years ago, saw for the first time the great apparent differences among God's human creatures, he was led to the conclusion that these must have had a different origin. But in this case, as in his own, we have a declaration from the author of them all, and that too far more explicit than his own, that " God who made the world and all things therein, and giveth to all life and breath, and all things, hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Shall we then believe the Author, or our own hasty impressions ? For our part, we had far rather be found guilty of de- nying the identical origin and authorship of all the sentiments and paragraphs of this Address, than the identical origin in " one blood," of all the races of men.
To this alternative Dr. Barratt, however, has not driven us. He claims to be a Christian, and he feels a deep reverence for the re- vealed word of God, and as from this " arises his objection to an appeal to the Bible to support or condemn any hypothesis or theo- ries (?) of nature," we cannot believe he will call God a liar, in order
APPENDIX.
to maintain an inconsequential inference from an imperfect and alto- gether misplaced analogy. He will no longer, therefore, pervert and profane Scripture by speaking of the negro race as still " maintain- ing his integrity" that is, his color, or of the Israelites as God's " pe- culiar people," on account of physical peculiarities. Far better for Dr. Barratt to maintain his integrity as a Christian, and believe as he appears to do, (see p. 43,) that " man was not diversified in his original creation, the law of physical change, and moral fitness being passed on the Babel throng at the dispersion, to occupy the earth's dissimilar surface." On this basis we are happy to assure him fc< there is no tendency to skepticism, but on the contrary, it is nature har- monizing with revelation."
D.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
On the tradition of Noah and the flood as found in the fable of Osiris and Menes, see Noland's Egyptian Chronology, p. 389, &c, &c. On the traditions of Joseph in the account of Hermes as the reformer of the Calendar, do., p. 402.
This subject will be seen discussed in a comprehensive and in- teresting manner in Barrington's Treatise on Physical Geography. New-York. 1850. pp. 294—310.
See also a valuable presentation of the Unity of the Human Races as founded on Natural History, in Reischenberger's Natural History, Elements of Mammalogy, pp. 28-31.
On Egyptian Mummies as connected with this subject, see Prich- ard's Natural History, pp. 576-583 ; 3d edition.
394
APPENDIX.
I
E.
REVIEW OF NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN IN THE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW FOR APRIL, 1850.
This is substantially an outline of the work of Mr. Van Amringe, alluded to in this volume. In accordance with that author, the Re- viewer takes the Scriptural account as correct, and feels, therefore, bound to believe that all mankind descended through Noah from a single pair. He believes, therefore, that the present diversities of the races are the result of " the interposition of the Almighty in changing one type into another," and that Dr. Nott has overlooked all the evidence bearing upon this point.
Like Mr. Amringe, he admits, that in contrariety to the law of the animal kingdom, every known fact proves an original single centre of distribution or creation of man in Asia, and " that there is no analogy between man and animals which can assist us to classify man, or to understand his history."
When, therefore, these writers make the present differences among men specific, they controvert the unvaried usage of Natural- ists, who have never hesitated to regard admitted unity of origin as conclusive proof of unity of species; and when they make social and political differences, which can be otherwise accounted for, cri- teria of species, they transcend all the just limits of natural science. Neither can it ever be shown that polygamy, the low condition and barbarous treatment of woman, and the substitution of lust for love, are peculiar to the lower races of men, since they have prevailed among many branches of the Caucasian race, and are found practi- cally to characterize many of the most civilized and christianized nations.
The whole enormity of unchristian inference practically conse- quent upon the theory of a diversity of races of men, is perpetrated by these writers when they declare that the differences among men " cannot be changed by advanced civilization, or any other means" — "that the philanthropic world for the last fifty years (by missionary
APPENDIX.
395
efforts) has been proceeding entirely upon a false assumption " — and " that the effects of these efforts is to degrade the white species, and to destroy the dark species," whose destiny it is to be " finally swal- lowed up."
This is nothing short of an impeachment of the truth, a rejec- tion of the authority, and a Cain-like denial of the charity of the Bible, which makes every man the keeper of his brother man, and the guardian of his dearest blessings.
SCRIPTURAL INDEX.
Genesis.
CHAP.
1: 5,8, 10,26. 1 : 26, . 1 : 26, 28, 1: 28, 1: 1-11, 2: 5, 2: 23, 3: 15, 3: 15-24, 3: 23, 4: 2, 9-203 5: 1, 5: 2, 5: 3, 5: 8,9, 6: 2, 9: 6, 9: 6-9, 9: 18, 19, 10th & 11th, 10: 6, 10: 11, 10: 25, 10: 32, 11: 6, 11: 2,9,
3: 15,
1: 26,
5: 1,
9: 6,
PAGE. I
Preface & 20 \ Preface & 20 Preface & 19 I . 23
26;
Preface & 19 !
21
. 21 20 19 19
20, 19 20 20 214
. 20 19
. 20 24
. 377, 378 . 385 . 26 25 . 25 214,25 26 48 49 49 49
Deuteronomy.
CHAP.
32: 8,
32: 8,9, .
16: 32, 27: 16, 31 : 35,
Numbers.
18
21 21
20
1 Chronicles.
1: 19, .
14: 9, 16: 8,
1: 1,
8: 7,
10: 12, 27: 3,
2: 4, 11: 4, 12: 1,2,1 14: 2, 68: 31, 87: 4, 45: 5,
12: 7,
2 Chronicles.
Esther.
Job.
Ecclesiast.es.
398
SCRIPTURAL INDEX.
Proverbs.
CHAP.
8:31, .
52: 5,&c, 51: 12, . 45: 14, .
Isaiah.
Matthew.
28: 18,20, 19: 24, ■
16: 15, 16, 1 : 18, .
1: 23,
17:26, .
Mark.
Luke.
Acts.
PAGE.
64
21 43 43
14
42
14
48
48
14
Romans..
CHAP.
5: . . 1: 14, 1-3,
6: 23, & v: 12, 5: 19, .
1 Corinthians.
15: 45, . 15: 22, . 11:7, .
Galatians.
3: 19, .
James.
3: 9,
2: 11,14,
Hebrews.
PAGE,
20,21 44 47 47 47
19
47 49
48
20
48
V
GENERAL INDEX,
Abel, death of, 22. Adam, meaning of, 16,
■ and dam, difference between,
16.
proper name of the race, 20.
signification as an appellation,
20.
why called the first man, 17.
a model, type, or species, 19.
reason for the creation of, 19.
color not known, 45.
specific character of, 49.
Aborigines of Hindustan were a
black race, 61. Abyssinians, a mixed race, 70. Agassiz, Principles of Zoology, 51.
his views, p. 100, 101, 131.
his present contradictory views
and his theory reviewed, ch.
xxiv.
Ai/xa (blood), meaning of, 16.
how used by Horner, 16.
how used by Sophocles, 16.
Ainslie, Sir W., M. D., 96.
Africa, power of the climate in changing black, 264.
African race, the primitive, 264.
Alexander on Isaiah, 44.
Africa, knowledge of by the an- cients, and Bible, ch. ii, and 386, &c.
Africans, their color and hair how accounted for by the ancients, 37.
African skulls and brain, size of, 76, 77.
various races of, 285, 287,
292.
Africa, the centre and origin of the human family, 45.
languages of, 209, &c.
Africa and India, connection be- tween, 57.
Africa, Scriptural knowledge of, Appendix, note A.
Amalgamation of races, 136, &c.
American races, origin of, 94.
languages, 206, 213,217,218.
races, variety of, 286.
Amringe on Natural Hist, of Man, 394, 395.
Analogy, proof for Unity from, 293, &c. 355—364.
Ancients, supposed origin of, 15.
A ncient Universal Hist., 28, 32, 35.
Ancient and Mediaeval Geog., 36.
Animals, how created, 48, 19.
Apuleius, quoted, 35.
Arguments for Unity, resume' of,ch. xx.
Arminians, tradition of, 53. Asiatic Researches, 55. Authorities in favor of Unity, 125
—135, 139. against the Unity, 136.
Bachman, Dr., on the Unity, &c.,
17, 45, 72, 97. Barratt, Dr., Address of, reviewed,
App. N. C.,p. 391. Barrington on Physical Geography,
quoted, 393. Belzoni's plates, 37. Bible, claim to be heard on this
question, 319,338, &c,
400 GENERAL INDEX,
Bible, See Scripture. Bibliotheca Sacra, 37. Black races once civilized, 53, 54, 55. why they remain permanently
so, 265. Blumenbach, 69, 292. Boudinot's Star in the West, 71. Brande's Cyclopaedia, 96. Brain, difference between that of
man and all other animals, 50. British Encyclopedia, 70, 71. Bryant's Ant. Mythology, 54, 27,
339, 244. Buddha, description of, 55. Bunsen, quoted, 221. Burckhardt's Travels, 40. Burton's Excerpta, 37. Bushmen, origin of, 269, &c. language of, 272, &c.
Caldwell, Dr. and Prof., views of,
46, 76,114. Cain — difficulties explained, 21 , 22,
23,375,376,377. Callimachus in Jovem, 27. Calmet's Diet. Art. Ammon, 34,
35, 38.
Caldwell's (Dr.) Inquiry, 46, 76.
Carpenter, Dr., quoted p. 104.
Central origin of all animals and plants not taught in the Bible, xxiii. 374.
Christ, kingdom of, 43.
incarnation of, 48.
Christianity, adaption of to all men, a proof of their unity, 250, 252.
the test of unity, 278, 283.
Chronology ; the Bible does not ne- cessarily determine the particular chronology, nor is this essential to the question of unity, 31, 111, 234, 235, 252.
Civilization the primitive state of man, 53, 231, 235.
former, of the Black races, ch.
iv, v. and vi.
Classification of animals, principles of, and its proof of unity of, 364, &c. and ch. x. — xii.
Coleman's Mythology of the Hin- dus, 55.
Copt, origin of the term, 68. Copts, characteristics of, 67, 68. Cuvier, quoted, 238. Cush, name for negro, on the
Egyptian monuments, 386, and
ch. ii., &c, 39, &c, Cushites same as Ethiopians, 34,
385.
how employed by Jeremiah,
40.
employed in Scripture to de- note other nations than the Afri- can, 41, 385, &c.
Deane, quoted, 239.
Degradation of white races, 257,&c.
Delafield's Antiq. of America, 32,
71,218, 238, 257. Democratic Review, review of, 394. Differences between the present and
former conditions of the earth,
267—269. Dokos, 147, 269. Dowler, Dr., quoted, 107. Drake's Book of the Indians, 47, 72.
Egypt — called Chemia,34.
Egyptians, as described by Aristo- tle and Herodotus, 63.
Egyptians, physical characters of, 65, 66, 69.
Egyptian language analogous to the African idioms, 66.
Egyptian skulls, character of, 66,
Eisner Obs., 15.
Elephanta, cave of, 56.
Encyclop. Britannica, 23.
of Geog.,29.
England's (Bishop) Works, 72.
Epiphanius Oper., 26.
Ethiopia, countries included under, 36.
name anciently given to, 34.
Sallust's account of, 36.
Ethiopians, how distinguished, 35.
Strabo's description of, 35.
Homer's description of, 35.
descended from Chush or
Cush, 38. so called from their Ophite
deity, 63.
GENERAL INDEX.
401
Ethnol. Journal, 34, 35, 37, 40, 45,
55, 62, 68, 69, 231,237 Eusebius's Chron., 27, 35. Euterpe, 40.
Eve, so called because, 21. Experience, argument from, for the
unity of races, ch. xviii. Exploring Expedition, 37.
Faber's Origin of Pag. Idol., 27, 32, 238.
authorities given by, 28, 29.
Faber's Diss., 42.
origin of Sacrifice, 242.
Fairholme's Scripture Geology, 36.
Father Lewis de Froes, Ambass. Mem., 62.
Fichte's Education of the first hu- man pair, 53.
Flood— Bible doctrine of, 31, 32.
Foreign Missions, results of, 389, 390.
Garamantes, nation of, 36. Genealogy, design of Scripture, 32. Gliddon, skeptical views of, 110,
111, 146. God, represented in Scripture as, 21. Goode's Book of Nature, 15, 23 Goodman, Dr., quoted, 225, 303. Gradations of the varieties of men,
their insensible character a proof
of unity, ch. XIX. Gray's Connection of Sacred and
profane Literature, 32, 242. Guyot's Earth and Man, 32, 46, 70,
82, 227.
Ham, doom pronounced upon, 24.
descendants of, 25, 26, 33.
Harcourt, quoted, 239. Harris's Man Primeval, 20, 53. Heathen writers on the tripartite
allotment, 27. Herodotus, 32, 39, 63. Heber's Narration, 56. Heeren's African Nations, 97. Herschel, quoted, 85, 87. History, testimony of, to the Unity,
ch. xvi. 223, &c Homer on the tripartite allotment,
27.
, Homer's Od., 35. I Humboldt, W. V. quoted, 226. Humboldt in Delafield, 72. Humboldt's Personal Travels, 81. Hunter's Archaeologia, 56. ( Hybrids, argument for the Unity, from the infertility of, ch. xiii. 187, &c.
Iran, race of man descended from, 26.
Inhabitants of the earth of mixed blood, 45.
Irish of Ulster, 77, 78.
Inexpediency of the theory of a plu- ral origin of men, ch. xxiii.
Japhet, promise to, 24.
Japan, the idols and temples of, 54.
Jews, various colors of, 288.
Johnes's Philological Proofs of the Unity of the Race, 53.
Jones, Sir Wm. on the truth of the Mosaic record, 26, 55, 57, 253.
on the Characters and Sculp- ture in India, 57, 243.
Josephus's Antiq., 38.
Kennedy's Nature and Revelation, 79.
Kirby's Habits and Instincts of Ani- mals, 32, 116.
Kitto's Bib. Cycl. Art. Man, 20, 24, 25.
Art. Cush, 35.
Klaproth, quoted, 214.
Knobel, 44.
Knox, Dr. F. R. S. E., 100. Koran, The, views of, 115, 124.
Language, the universality, nature, and connection of, a proof of the Unity, ch. xiv. 199, &c.
differences of human and ani- mal, 199.
Law of downward progress, 78.
Lawrence's Lectures on Man, 47, 55, 64, 83, 88.
Locke, reverence for the Bible, 373.
Leibnitz, quoted, 86.
London Quarterly, 47.
Lowth and Jortin in Mant and Doyly's Bible, 42.
402
GENERAL INDEX.
Libya, general appellation of Af- rica, 37.
Lyell, Mr., Second Visit to U. S.,76. Geology, 234.
Mackenzie's, Capt. Colin, descrip- tion of Buddha, 55.
Madden's Travels in Egypt, 68.
Man, different and distinguished from all other animals, 19, 20, 50, 155-170.
Man, a religious being, 50, 57.
of twofold constitution, 51, 52,
superior to all other animals,
50, 165-170.
in what respects all the races
of men are alike, 166, 170, &c, 173, &c.
first condition of, one of civil- ization, 53 and 231-235.
causes for varieties in, 292.
Malays, their origin, 59.
MantelPs and Lyell's Geology, 17, 234.
Materialism, danger of falling into, 52.
Maurice's Indian Antiquities, 54.
McCulloh, Dr., quoted, 244
Menes, the same as Noah, 28.
Modern Universal History, 78.
Moore's Hind. Panth, 28.
Morton's, Dr., Opinion of Egyp- tians, 34.
Various works of, 37.
Crania Americana, 46, 55,
58, 67, 68, 74.
his theory and position, 112.
« of hybrids, 189, &c.
Mosaic history, the truth of a proof of Unity, Preface, and 252, &c.
Mpongwee language, 71.
Murray, John, F. S. A., 239,422.
Neill, Dr., quoted, 303.
Negroes, adaptation of Christianity
to, Appendix B. 389. represented in the paintings
of the Egyptians, 39. belonged to the armies of Se-
sostris and Xerxes, 39. Negro race the most ancient, 57.
Negro race, their religious belief, 71 .
earliest records of, 74,
cause of their degradation,
74, 259.
natural capacity of, 256, &c.
improvements in, 260, &c.
not the lowest, 312.
New Testament on the Unity of the race, 13-18.
Nimrod, primitive dominion of, 29.
Noah, sons of, 23.
prophecy of, 24.
division of the earth by, 26.
same as Menes, the progeni- tor of the Egyptians, 28.
same as Fohi of the Chinese,
28.
Nolan's Bampton Lectures, 24, 32, 34, 35.
Nott's, Dr., Lecture, Appendix, 34, 47.
Theory of Creation, 47.
Nubians, character of, 70.
Objections to the Unity of the hu- man races enumerated, 303.
the motives which lead to
them, 305.
Oceanica, original inhabitants of, 73.
Old Testament on the unity of the race, 18, and Preface.
O'Neill's (Judge) digest of the Sla- very Law, 324, &c.
Opponents, motives of, 305.
Origin of the varieties of the human species, ch. vi. and vii.
may be accounted for by natu- ral causes as many think, 88 — 109.
may be accounted for by su- pernatural causes as many think, 109—116.
may be accounted for by both
natural and supernatural causes combined, 116 — 119.
Osiris of the Egyptians represented black, 54.
Outram, quoted, 242.
Owen, Prof, quoted, 194
Pantheism, danger of falling into,
52.
GENERAL INDEX.
403
Peleg, meaning of, 25.
Penny Cyclopaedia, 37, 38.
Pharaoh's daughter, her color, 64.
Phaeton, fable of, 37.
Phut, memorials of, 37.
Pickering on the Races of men, 36,
39, 45, 53, 58, 64, 72, 74, 78, 230,
238.
Plurality of origin in the human races, motives leading to this the- ory, 305.
this theory unphilosophical,
ch. xxi.
this theory uncharitable, ch.
xxii.
inexpedient, ch. xxiii.
infidel in its tendency, preface,
ch.viii., 337.
Plutarch de Iside et Osiride, 34.
Powell's connection of Science and Religion, 32, 85.
Presumptive arguments for the uni- ty, ch. viii., 121, &c.
Prichard,46,62,73,75.
Prichard's Researches, 32, 56, 71, 72, 84, 89.
Prichard's Natural History of Man, 23, 59, 65.
Prophecies concerning Ethiopia, 43, 44.
Prout's Chemistry, &c, quoted, 95.
Raleigh's, Sir Walter, Hist, of the World, 23.
Redford's Scripture Verified, 239.
Reischenberger quoted, 381, 393.
Religion defined, 241, 242.
Religious Character of all Men a proof of unity, ch. xvii.,241, &c.
Roget's, Peter, Animal and Vege- table Physiology, 50.
on the Brain of Man, 49.
Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of, 244, 345.
Scientific character of this question
defined, 147. Scripture relations to this question
and to other sciences different,
85, 142 148, 372, &c. review of its teaching, 119.
Scripture knowledge of Africa, Ap- pendix, Note A.
teaching of, on Unity, 42, 43.
evidence of the Unity of the
human races, 14, 31.
use of Cush and Ethiopia, 38,
39.
Shem, promise to, 24. Schlegel, 243.
Science, irreverence of false, 379. Scientific character and limits of
the question of Unity, ch. ix.,
374, 375. Science, true and pious, 380,381. Simson, Dr., after Josephus's Chron.
35.
Sinim is China, 43.
Slaves not regarded as property in the South, 324, 325.
Slave Law of South Carolina, char- acter of, 324, 332, 333.
Slavery does not make men chat- tels, 324, 326, 333, 324.
gives rights and privileges to
the slave, 332, 323.
secures religious privileges to
the slave, 333.
an ordinance of God's pro- vidence, 334.
its rule and standard, 335, 344.
when it will be abolished, 335,
336.
Smith, Hamilton, Nat. His. of the Human Species, 23, 28, 45, 53, 58, 59, 68, 69, 71, 73, 76, 78.
Smith, Dr. S. Stanhope, quoted, 95.
Smith's, Dr. Pye, Geology and Scripture, 32, 47, 53.
Smith's Patriarchial Age, 32, 53.
Smith's, Dr. S. S., Essay on the Variety of Complexion in Man, 53, 257.
Smith's, Franklin, Origin of Amer.
Indians, 71. Siamese idols figured like Negroes,
54.
Spring, Dr., quoted, 203. Species, different senses of the word, 152, &c.
Zoological, sense of, 155-160.
does not in itself determine
origin, 148-151.
404
GENERAL INDEX.
Species has, however, been so re- garded by naturalists, 155, 160, 161, 181.
unwise to alter this established
meaning, 150, &c, 180, &c.
nature and philosophy of, 152,
&c , ch. x., 181-86.
twofold proof of man's Uni- ty, 186.
all the races of men proved to
be of one species, ch. xi. 164, &c, and ch. xii., 173, &c.
criteria of, as given by God,
49.
Stanley's Chaldee Phil., 28. Stackhouse's History of the Bible, 23, 32.
Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae, 17, 239.
Stoic's theory of the production of
men, 15, Strabo, Lib., 35.
Sumner's Records of Creation, 23,
53,293, 319 Summerville, Mrs., quoted, 107. Syncellus, 35.
Unity of the Human Races, 13. the foundation of all human
obligation, 44. Authors in favor of, 125, 135,
139.
Authors opposed to it, 136.
involves every interest of so- ciety and of Scripture, 122-125, 144, 146, &c.
difficulties involved in the disr
cussion, 148, &c.
Unity proved from the unity of spe- cies, ch. xi. and xii.
their fertility and the infer-
tility of hybrids, ch. xii.
the nature, universality, and
connection of languages, ch. xiv. and xv.
history and tradition, ch. xvi.
the religious character of all
men, the adaptation of Christi- anity to all, and the truth of the Mosaic Record, ch. xvii.
experience and known chang- es, ch. xviii.
their insensible gradation from
analogy, ch. xix., &c, 355, 364.
the opposite theory unphiloso-
phical, ch. xxi.
uncharitable, ch. xxii.
Unphilosophical nature of the theo- ry of a plural origin of the races of men, ch. xxi.
Uncharitable nature of this theory, ch. xxii.
Unscientific to mingle the Scrip- tural and the Zoological ques- tions involved in the Unity, 373.
Varieties, nature of, as distinguished from species, 162, 163, 176.
greater in other animals than
in man, 176, &c.
Virgil, jEn.,'31, 73.
Volney's Travels in Syria, 64.
Voltaire's Works, 41.
Zoroaster on the Triple Division,
28.
ERRATA.
The reader is requested specially to correct the following mistakes : — Page 101, note, for Ethnol. J. read Eight Dissertations. Page 132, 2nd line from bottom, for scalp read scalpel. Page 147, 2nd line, for received read viewed.
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