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Show 404 THE ~IONOGENTSTS AND of many erudite papers-amidst all kinds of scientific facilities for which I feel prond to acknowledge myself ucbtor to himself and many of his coli agues (MM. D'Avezac and Alfred Maury cspcci~ lly), favored me, <luring my foueth sojourn in France, 1854-5, w1Lh a set of their Society's "Bulletins." 1~ perusing lately their instmctive debate on the problem-" What are the d-istinctive cltamcterist-ics of tlte white and blaclc races? Wltat a1·e tlte conditions of association between tltese races?" 2 I was led to opon an anteecd nt No.; 3 wherein, after alludiuo- to Cosmos-" M. Vivien (do Saint-MarLin) observes how, in tho crlract quoted from M. do Humboldt, that which this illustrious writer terms the native unity of tlte human species, docs not seem to imply as mi()'ht be thought, tho idea of descent from a single pair. M.' de lill~boldt himself, it is trllc, docs not declare himself, as respects this, in a manne1· altogether expli cit. But the opinion of those eminent men upon whose authority her lies, and of whom ho cites tho words, is, on the contrary, cxpt· ssed in the most formal manner. "'~urn an race?, says J ohannos Mu.llcr,4 in his 'Physiology of Man,. are .tho (dtvcrsc) forms of a smglo species, whose unions rcmam fm1Lful, and which perpetuate themselves throuo-h o-enera-t. 'l'h . 6 6 ton. o! arc not spe01cs of one genus; because, if they were, up.ou. crossmg5 they would become sterile. But, to know whether cx1sLmg .ra~cs of m~n descend from one or from many primitive mcu-tlus 1s that wbtch cannot be discovered by experience.' " M. Vivien continues with extracts from the parao-eal)h that heads C . b my essay. crtam typographical lacunre, however, induced a refer-once to llumboldt's complete work; and tho readiest accessible at tho moment bar peue<l to be 0T'l'E's English translation, "from the Germau." 6 . ~ Bu~~etin de la Soc. Etlmol. de Par~, Tome I•., annco 1847; "S6auoos du 28 avril au 9 Jmllet, p. 60 scqq.-(Vido onto, PuLSZKY's chapter, pp. 188-102) ald., nnn6e 1846, pp. 74-6. ' P!tysiol. de.t l!fenachm, Dd. II, S. 768, 772-4 :-nnd Kosmo8, Fr. od., I, p. 426, and p. 678, noto 88. Compnro SADIN.!l's translation of this passage (I p. 862-3) "LJ 0····'·' (f, p. 864). 1 WI l UI'J 8 • 6 '!'his doctrine now scorns to bo B non-sequitur, aftor Morton's rosonrchos upon hybridity. Conf., ns ~he fir~t document, "Uybridity in animals and plants, oonsidorod in roforonco to tho quoshon of lho Unity of tho IIumnn Spocios"-Amer. Jour. of Stience and Arts, vol. III, _2d series, ~~47. l'ho substnnoo of Morton's IBter publications, in tho "C!ta1·/tsto11 il[edtcal Journal, mny bo consulted in "Types of Mankind " 1864 ll72 410. d tl h . b , • ' pp. ' . nn JOY a_vo ~moe ~en enlnrgcu, by Da. NOTT, in IIorz's translation (Moral and Intellectual .Drvcmty of haw, Philndclphin, 12mo., 1856: Appendix D, pp. 4.78-604) of o.rt of tho first volume of DY. GODINEAU. p 1 Cosmos: a Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. Harpers' American ed., Now York, 1860, I, pp. 864.-5 TilE POLYGl~NISTS. 405 To my surprise, several passages (sometimes in tho letter, but oftener in the spirit) did not cotTcspond with the extracts qnoted by M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, from the F1·ench edition of "Cosmos." To the latter I tllmcd. A glance changed surpl"ise into suspicion, which further collation soon confirmed. llaving thereby bc<'ome considerably cnlightcnc<l, mys lf, upon the animus and tho litomry fidelity with which foreign scientific wol'ks arc "done into English," for the book-trade of Great Britain and tho United States of America; and inasmuch as sundey theological natmali ts, in this conn try, have lattedy been making very free with II umboldt'A honored name, -estimated as their allthority "par ex cell n ·c" on tho dcsccn t of all the diversified types of mankind ft·om "ADAM and EvE;" it may bo gratifying to their finer feelings, no less than to their nice appr ciation of critical probity, to demonstrate the singular orthodoxy of tho sauant whom we all venerate i.n common. Already, in 1846, when transmitting from , Paris, to the late Dr. Morton, one of tho earliest copies of the F1·enclt edition of" Cosmos," I accompanied it with regrets that the twice-used expression-" Ia distinction desolante des races sup6ricms et des races in f6ricurs" 7 - should have sanctioned tho itT levant introdn •tion of (what others construe as) morbid sentimentalism into studies which Mon·roN and his school were strivino- to restrict witl1in the positive domain of science. llow completely Morton disappro_ved of this unlucky term, bas been happily shown by his biographer-om lamented colleague, Dr. llcmy S. ral.terson.8 But, wltilst fnlly respecting Baron de Humboldt's unqualiiicd opinion-on a doctrine which other gt·eat authorities cithcl' oppose or hold to be at least moot, viz., tlte unity of manlcind-I was riot prepared tor so much of that which CAnLYJ.E styles "flunkeyism" towards Anglo-Saxon popular ct·cdulity (so manfully denounced by Dr. Robert Knox9 ), which both of the Engli h translations of "Cosmos" exhibit . In tho :first place, let ns open that one which "was undertaken in compliance with the wish of Baron von llumboldt." 10 The possessor T Cosmos, Fr. od., p. 480; rope~tted p. 670, noto 42. 8 Types of Jlfanki11d, "Memoir of S~tmuol Ooorgo Mot·ton," p. li-liii. e Of Edinburgh-The Races of )fen: a Jilragment. Phil~tdolphia edition, 12mo, 1860, pp. 11-2, 19, 37, 66, 247-64, 202-ooe might say prmi111. Allownnco mttdo for the ~tgo, ten to fiftoon yotu-s ~tgo, whou tho MSS. scom to lmvo boon written; n.nd diveeting his work of much rash asBortion, h!IHty composition, and some n!ltion!ll or personal ccccntricitios, its author oan snfely bon.st that it cont~tins moro truth upon ethnology than any book of its size in the English tongue . 10 Co8m08, &c. "l'mnslated undor tho supcrintendenoo of Liout.-Col. Edward Snbinc, It. A., For. Soc. R S. ;" London, Murrny, 2d cd., 8vo, 1847; I, "Editor's Prcft\OO; and, for the omi&8iOtl complninod of, p. 368-after tho word •o:xporionoo' (438)." |
