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Show 4.04 TliE 1\{0NOGENJS'fS AND of many erudite papers-amidst all kinds of scicnti:fic facilities for which I fool proud to acknowledge myself ucbtor to himself and many of his colleagues (MM. D'Avezac and Alfred Maury cspcci~ lly), favored me, <luring my fourth sojourn in France, 1854-5, w1th a sot of their Society's "Bulletins." Rcpcrusing lately their instructive debate on the problem-" What are the d£stinctive cl~m·acteristics of tlte white and black races? Wltat a1·e tlte conditions of association between tltese races?" 2 I was led to opou an antecedent No.; 3 wherein, after alludino- to Oosmos-"M. Vivien (de Saint-Martin) observes how, in the crlract quoted from M. do Uumboldt, that which this illustrious writer terms tlte native unity of tlte l~uman species, docs not seem to imply, as might be thought, tho ulca of descent from a single pair. M. do IIumboldt himself, it is true, does not declare himself, as respects this, in a manner altogetl1er explicit. But the opinion of those eminent men upon whose authority ho relics, and of whom ho cites tho words is on the contrary, expr ssed in the most formal manner. ' ' "' IIuman races, says Johannes Mlillcr,4 in his 'Physioloo-y of Man,: arc .the (diverse) forms of a single species, whose ~1ions r?mam, ;ru1tful, and whi~h pe~petuatc themselves through generation. I hey arc not spec10s of one genus; because if they were up.ou. cross•m g 6 t h cy would become sterile. But, to ' know whether' cx1stmg .ra?es of m~n descend from one or from many primitive men-t?1~ 1s that. wbJCh ?an not bo discovered by experience.' " M. V1v10n contmucs w1th extracts from the paragraph that heads my essay. Certain typogmphica] lacunce, however, induced a referonce to IIumboldt's complete work; and the readiest accessible at tho moment happencu to be OT'l'E's English translation, "from the Gcrman." 0 . ~ Bu~~eti11 de Ia Soc . . Etlmol. de Paru, Tome 1'., ann6o 1847; "S6aucoa du 28 avril au 9 JUlllct, p. 50 ~cqq . -(Vido nnto, l'uLSZKY's chapter, pp. 188-192) ald., ann6o 1840, pp. 74.-6. ' Pltyaiot. dea .Afenacl!m, Bd. II, S. 768, 772-4 :-and Koamoa, Fr. ed., 1, p. 4.25, nnd p. G78, note 38. Compare SADJNE's tmnslation of this passage (I p. 852-8) 'll 0" '"' (I, p. 854.). ' Wl I lb s · ~'l'h'sd t' t b 1, oc t•me now sooms o c n non-uquitur, after Morton's rosetwohea upon hybridit . Con f., as ~ho first docu~ont, "Ilybridity in animals and plants, considered in roforonoo [ 0 tho ques!to~ of tho Untty of tho Human Spocios"-Amer. Jour. of Sr.imce mid Arta vol HI, _2d sorJoR, ~~17. Tho substance of Morton's 11\ter publications, in the "O!t.a;le8to~ Afed1cal Journal, may bo consulted in "Types of Mankind" 1854 pp 872 410. d h have since b 1 u ' • ' · ' · an t ey ])' . con on argo ' by Dn. NOTT, in IIoi·z's translation (A/oral and Jntellectual wmtly of Ram, Philndelphia, 12mo., 1856: Appendix D, pp. 4.73-504) of art f th first volume of DJol OoutNI'lAU. P o e 1 Oo&moa: a Sketch of a Phy~ical Ducription of the U11iver~e. H Now York, 1850, 1, pp. 854_5 arpors' American od., TJIE POLYGENISTS. 405 To my surprise, several passages (sometimes in the letter, but oftener in tho spirit) did not correspond with the extracts quoted by M. Vivien do Saint-Martin, from the French edition of "Cosmos." To the latter I turned. A glance changed surprise into suspicion, which further collation soon confirmed. IIaving thereby become considerably enlightcne<l, myself, upon the animus and tho litemry :fidelity with which foreign scienti·fic works arc "dono into English," for the book-trade of Groat Britain and the United States of America; and inasmuch as sundry theological natnralists, in this conn try, have latterly boon making very free wi.th Humboldt's honored name, -estimated as their authority "par excellence" on tho descent of all the diversified types of mankind from "ADAM and EvE;" it may be gratifying to their finer feelings, no less than to their nice appreciation of critical probity, to demonstrate tho singular orthodoxy of tho savant whom we all venerate in common. Already, in 1846, when transmitting from, Paris, to tho late Dr. Morton, one of tho earliest copies of tho Frenclt edition of" Cosmos," I accompanied it with regrets that the twice-used expression-" Ia distinction desolante des races sup6ricurs et des races infericurs" 'should have sanctioned tho irrelevant introduction of (what others construe as) morbid sentimentalism into studios which MoRTON and his school were striving to restrict within tho positive domain of science. How completely Morton disapproved of this unlucky term, has boon happily shown by his biogeapher-our lamented colleague, Dr. IIonry S. rat.terson.8 Bnt, whilst fnlly respecting Baron de IIumboldt's unqualified opinion-on a doctrine which other great authorities either oppose or hold to be at least moot, viz., tlte unity of manlcind-I was not prepared for so much of that which CAnLYLB styles "fluukcyism" towards Anglo-Saxon popular credulity (so manfully denounced by Dr. Robert Knox9 ), which both of the English translations of "Cosmos" exhibit. In the :first place, let us open that one which "was undertaken in compliance with tho wish of Baron von IIumboldt." 10 Tho possessor T Oo8mo8, Fr. ed., p. 430; ropcatocl p. 570, note 42. 8 Types of .Afankind, "Memoir of Samuel George M01·ton," p. Ii-I iii. 9 Of Edinburgh-The Race8 of Men: a Fragment. Philatlolphia edition, 12mo, 1850, pp. 11-2, 19, 37, Go, 247-54, 292-ono might say pa68im. Allowance m~tdo for the ttgo, ton to fifteen yottrS ago, when the MSS. scorn to lmvo boon written; and divesting his worl< of much rash assertion, ha~ty composition, and some national or por~onnl ooccntl'icitios, its author can safely boast that it contains more truth upon ethnology tho.n o.ny book of its size in the English tongue. 10 Oo&mos, &c. "Translated under the superintondonoe of Liout.-Col. Rdward Sabine, R.A., For. Soc. R. S.;" London, Murro.y, 2cl cd., 8vo, 1847; I, "Edit.or's Profaoo; and, for the omi6sio11 complained of, p. 853-after tho word 'oxporionoo' ( 438)." |
