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Show 152 EARLY HIST~ RY OF MANKIND. dence, that which physiology and philology.present.s~ems to me decidedly f~vorable to the idea of a swgle ongtn. Assuminu- that the human race is one, we are next called upo~ to inquire in what part of the earth it may most probably be supposed to have origi.nated. ~ne obvious mode of approximating to ~ solu~wn of th1~ q~estion is to trace backward the lines In which the pnnc1pal tribes appear to have tnigrated, and to see if these converge nearly to a point. It is very remarkable that !he lines do converge, and are concentrated about the regwn of Hindostan. The language, religion, modes of reckonina- time, and some other peculiar ideas of the Americans, ar~ now believed to refer their origin to North-Eastern Asia. Trace them further back in the same direction, and we come to the north of India. The history of the Celts and Teutones represents them as coming from the east, the one after the other, successive waves of a tide of population flowing towards the north-V\·est ofEurope; this line being also traced back, rests finally at the same place So does the line of Iranian population, which has peopled the east and south shores of the Mediterranean, Syria, Arabia, and Egypt. The Malay variety, again, rests its limit in one direction on the borders of India. Standing on that point, it is easy to see how the human family, originating there, might spread out in different directions, passing into varieties of aspect and of language as they spread, the Malay variety proceeding towards the Oceanic region, the Mongolians to the east and north, and sending o~ the red men as a sub-vatiety, the European population gmng off to the north-westward, and the. Syrian, Arabian, and Egyptian towards the countries which they are known to have so long occupied. The Negro alone is here unac? ounted for; and _of that race it may fairly be said, that it Is t~w one m.os.t likely to have h~d a.n independent origin, see1ng that tt 1s a type so peculiar In an inveterate black color, and so mean in development. But it is not necessary to t>resume such an origin for it, as much good argument might b·~ employed to show that it is only a deteriorated offshoot of the general stock. Our vie\V of the probable original seat of man ao-rees with the ancient tra~itions of the race. There is 0one among the Hindoos which places the cradle of the human farnily in Thibet · anoth~r makes Ceylon the residence of the first rnan~ Our view is also in harmony with the hypothesis detailed EARLY Hl~TOR Y OF MANKIND. 153 1n the chapter bt>fore the last Acco~~Jing to that theory, we should expect man to have originated where the highest species of tlte quatlrumana are to be found. Now these are unquestionably found in the Indian Archipelago. After all, it may be regarded as still an open question, y-1 whether mankind is of one or many origins. The first human generation n1ay have consisted of many pairs, though situated at one place, and these may have been considerably different from each other in external charac-ters. And we are equally bound to admit, though this does not as yet seem to have occurred to any other speculator, that there may have been different Iines•and sources of origination, geographically apart, but which all resulted uniformly in the production of a being one in species, although variously marked. It has of late years been a favorite notion with n1any, that the human race was at first in a highly civilized state, and that barbarism was a second condition. This idea probably took its origin in a wish to support certain interpretations of the Mosaic record, and it has never yet been propounded by any writer who seemed to have a due sense of the value of science in this class of investigations. The principal argun1ent for it is, that we see many ex~mples of nations falling away from civilization into barbarism, while in some regions of the earth, the history of which we do not clearly know, there are remains of works of art far superior to any which the present unenlightened inhabitants could have produced. It is to be readily admitted that such decadences are common; but do they necessarily prove that there ha~ been anything like a regular and constant decline into thtl! present state, from a state more generally refined ? May not these be only instances of local failures and.suppressions .of the principle of civilization, where it had begun to take root amongst a people generally barbarous ? It is, at least, as legitimate to draw this inference from the facts which are known. But it is also alleged that we know of no such thing as civilization being ever selforiginated. It is always seen to be imparted from one people to another. Hence, of course, we must infer that civilization at the first could only have been of supernatural origin. This argument appears to be founded on false premises, for civilization does sometimes rise in a mannm· clearly independent amongst a hol'de of people |