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Show 448 TITE MONOGENISTS AND Serres H3 IIcrdcr Carpenter and many other writers, of more or less note u' pon physi' lorrical. T' o these, although his proper locus stan d~' shot;lu Lc under th~ letter A, may be added Dr. Hal1, 144 tho learned editor of Bohn's London edition of ProKERING's Baces of Man. 146 An eminent and far-travelled naturalist, accustomed to observe facts and weigh evidence equitably, tho latter has maintained stri?t noutmlity in describing tho " eleven races of men" soon by himAclf; and tho best proof of the high value attached to Dr. Pickering's opinion, no less than of his impartiality, is, that passages of his work have been cited by Morton in support of diversity, and by others of tho unity of man kind. There is a third hypothesis to which it is still more difficult to assign a place. Emanating ft·om the schools of transcendental anatomy, none but embryologists are competent to discuss its manifestations. Posited in the language of Dr. Knox, 140 its logical conseC)_ ucnccs would cortaiHly demonstrate an unity of human origins; but upon principles, it strikes me, more disagreeable to thoologcrs than even the establishment of diversity itself I "'Thoro is but one animal,' said Geoffroy,' not many;' and to this vast and philosophic view, the mind of Cuvicr himself; towards the close of lifo, gradually approached. It is, no doubt, a correct one. Applied to man, tho doctrine amounts to this,- Mankind is of one family, one origin. In every embryo is the typo of all the races of 148 Lc Jfoniteu1·, Paris, 8 Fov., 1855; Fouilloton, "Mus6um d'histoiro naturello-Cours d' Anthropologio de M. Sort'os"-" M. Sorros a doclar6 tout d'abord ~os convictions en co qui touche l'unittf humnino. n y croit fcrmcment, ot s'indigno (I) pnrfoiij COJll.!·o ccnx f[Ui osont 61ovor ln-dossus l'omhro d'uno douto." 'fhi~ virtuous indignntion site well on t11o nuthor of Anatomie compartfc du Oerveau dans lea 4. claues des A11imaux Vertdbrcs (l'fl.ris, J 824-sco Atlas, p. 40, figs. 204, 200; and Pl. xiv., figs. 261-6), who, under the head, which he was Hnnhlc to procure, of an "onc6phnlo du lion (folia leo)" drawn a fomth of its size, nctuo,Jiy ~ubHtitutod that of a cat; as some of his malicious colleagues of tho Acnd6mio doe Sciences proved in public session I 11 4 "An AMlytionl Synopsis of tho Nntural History of Man "-London, 12mo., 1851 ; pp. xxvii-xliii- being a sort of rifacimento of "Interesting Facts connected with tho Animal Kingdom, with some rcmorlcs on tho Unity of our Species" (London, 8vo., 1841; pp. 98- 102; indeed, passim top. 200) :-which 11ppropriatoly ends with n snying of" tho preacher, 'Tho blnok man is God's imago like ourselves [I] though onrvod in ebony.'" Docs ho really menn wbnt ho sn.ys? Has be ever thought of tho convarso of this antiqnntod Jewish pt·oposition (Gen. i. 2G)? If so, wo part compn.ny in conceptions of Creative !'ower (see "Types," p. 564): and I loavo our preacher to translate a French commentary -" 'Dieu ere a l' hom me ~elon 1011 ima,qe,' et l' !tom me le lui a bien rendu !" u~ United States Explori11g Expedition, vol. ix., Boston, 4lo., 1848. 146 Races of Men, Phil. ed., 1850; pp. 207-8. For tho contrn.ry nrgumont, see Nouveau ni1cour~ mr z,, Rtvolutio11s du Globe, prtr AJ. Dl1 On. ot P. (trnnslntorM of Lyell's Principles of (leology), Paris, 1886; ii. pp. 80-47-" De Ia permn.nence des Espllces, en d'nutres tcrmos, jnsC]u'il qnol point lea e~pllccs potwont- •llos (\tro modifi6oa ?" THE POLYGENJSTS. 44!) men; tho circumstances determining tl1csc various races of men, as they now, and have existed, arc as yet unknown; but they exist, no doubt, and must be physical; regulated by secondary laws, not changing, slowly or suddenly, the exisling order of things. 'J'hc idea of new creations, or of any creation saving that of living matter, is wholly inatlmissiblc. * * * In cone) usion: tho permanent varieties of men, permanent at l0ast seemingly during tho historic period, Ol'iginato in laws elucidated in pal't by embryology, by the laws of the unity of organization, in a word, by tho great laws of transcendental anatomy." Bctw en Dr. Knox's embryonic suggestions, and tho "development theory" espoused by a previous defender of unity,~<~8 it is not easy to strike tho line of dcmar ation. Certain, however, is it that this brilliant Wl'itcr, whatever may have boon his success, in supplementary editions of his daring book, while repelling assaults upon his accuracy in othct' fields of speculative science, broke down hopelessly when he treated on mankind,- tho authorities cited by l1im being suilicicnt testimony that his reading on ethuology was exceedingly limited; and, still more unfortunately, it is patent that tbrotwh assumption of a single origin for all lhc races of men, he mal cs hnmanity itself an exception to tho so-called law of organic development which his antecedent pages, with singular ing nuity, had endeavored to establish. His ''unity" become., in consequence, a non-sequitur; whereas (without committing mys If to any opinion ou a theory which Agassiz Hu pt·onounccu to be "contrary to all the modern results of sci ucc"), had tho author of "Vestiges" sought, in palroontological discoveries and in historical inductions, for evidences that sundry inferior races of men prcoodod, in epoch, the superior, I will not say that he could, eleven yoat's ago, have proved a now proposition, of which science, even yet, has only caught some glimmorings; but he would, at all events, have satisfied tho requirements of consistency. Yet another monogenistic point of view has been recently prosonted,- to myself, however, not very intelligible. "I do not, thorofore," 160 Wl'itos Dr. Dmpor, "contemplate tho human race as consist- 148 Vestiges of Creation, New York od., 1845; "Hypothesis of tho Development of the Vcgctablo nnd Animal kingdoms;" u.nd, for man, pp. 223-82, oompn.rod with p. 177. 14D Type~ of lllanki11d, "'fho 1mturnl p1·ovinoos of tho Animnl World, and their rclu.tion to tho dili'orcnt types of ]\[an," p. lxxvi :-ropul.JJiijhed in aubstn.noo by Mr. Jnmos Heywood, M. P., F. R. S.; rt~ nn Appendix to vol. If, of his trn.nslation of Von JJoMm'& OenMis, 1855, nnd wilh tho usual mislako of "Hottentot realm" instead of "Hottentot .faulla" (p. 278). I hnvo alrcn.dy given 11 previous instance of this pu.rticulo.r oversight in our reviewers (1upra, note 108); u.s wo proceed, mn.ny others will bo indict1tcd. 100 Jlumrin Pliysiology, Now York, 1856, pp. 1Hl5- 0. 29 |