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Show 4GO TilE MONOGENISTS AND ing of varieties, much less of distinct .s~ccics; but raLh~r as oif~ring 11umb rlcss representations of the d1ifercnt for~s. wlnch au. ~deal typ can be made to assume under e~posuro to d1~crcnt con.dJLlons. 1 bcli vo that that idonl type may st1ll be rc ogmsed, oven m cases tlw,t offer, wl1cn compared together, complete discordances; and t~at, if such an illustration be pcrmisAiblc, it is like a general cxpl'OSSlOn in alg bra, which gives rise to different results, according as we assign difl'crcnt values to its quantities; yet, in every one of these results, the original expression exists." . . My own aspirations, tempered by dear-bought expcrJCnco m human speculation on the unknown, no long r rise, nov rthclcss, above tho historical stand-p int; and, therefore, with regard to the third category, before propounded, viz.: "C.-Unity as a moeal or metaphyRical doctrine," -I feel, with Jefferson, "a decent respect for tho opinions of mankincl," 101 and, consequently, place before the reader thoit· humanitarian sentiments rather than my own. Aud hero it is tl1at tl1c soul-inspiring thoughts of the IIumboldts-which truly "puisont leur charmc dans la profondour des sentiments," 162 basing their high moral value on their touching eloquence -rival St. Paul's eulogia of "love," 153 in boundless charity towards all mankinJ. "Without doubt," says Alexander von IImnboldt, "thoro arc fttmilics of peoples more susceptible of en !Lure, more civilized, more cnlightcnccl; hut there are none more noble than others. All are equally made for libe1·ty, for that libe1·ty which, in a. state of.socicty but litLlc advanced, appertains only to the individual; hut wl1ich, among those nations called to tho enjoyment of veritable politit·al institutio11s [nndcr tho royal House of Brandcllbul'gh ?] is tho right of the whole community." lM 'rhcn "tho idea of l1umanity" is beautifully developed by his brother William-" This is what tends to break down those barriers which prejudices and interested motives of every kind have erected between men, and to cause humanity to be looked upon in its ensemble, without distinction of religion, of nation, of colol', as one great brotherhood, as a single body, marching towards one and the same goal, the free development of the moral forces. 100 * * * Rooted in the 1 ~1 Tlte Declaration of Ji1dependmce of tho United Stnlos of Amorico., 11. D. MDCCLXXVI. m Oosmo8, Fr. od., I, p. 481. ~~Not "cho.rity," which is copied from tho carita8 of St. Jerome's Vulgate,· but tho Greek or1gmnl dyarr~.-SuAttl'll'S New Te8tamCIIt, from Gdosbo.ch's text; pp. 828-4.-lat Ep. to the Corinthians, XIII, 1-18. lM Oosmos, Fr. od. (suprn, note 1); I, p. 480. 166 lbid, P~· ~80-1; Sabino trnnslntos, from tho Ocrmnn, "tho froo development of their moral fllcultJOS (I, p. 856): Ott6 t•onderR, "tho unrootmincd dovolopmont of their physical powers" (1, P· 8ii8)-sic! Tho original text is in W. von H.'s Katoi-spraclle, III, p. 426. THE POLYGENISTS 4Gl depths of human natul'c, commanded at the same time hy its most sublime instincts, this beneficent and fraternal union of the whole species becomes one of tho grand ideas which preside over tho histol'y of humanity." Possibly in tho future. I cannot find tho practice of such "icloa" by any nation but ol<l Olceanic Utopians in the past. I have resided years in Africa, Europe, anU. America, months in Asia; and i ndividual experience only enhances, to my mind, the virtue of this hw through its exceptions. A mo.re sternly-philosophical explanation of the moral unity of maukind is that put forth by Agassiz. It somehow accords mor' closely with my reason; not less, I am fain to hope, with my social aspirations than the prclaudcd citation from Cosmos. "We have a right to consider the questions growing out of men's physical relations as merely scientific questions, and to investigate them without reference to either politics or religion. "There arc two distinct qncstions involved in the snbjcct whieh we have under discnssion,-the UnHy of Mankind, and tho Diversity of Origin of the IIuman Races. These arc two distinct questions, having almost no connection with each other, but they are constantly confounded as if they were but one. * * * "Are men, oven if the diversity of their origin is established, to be consic1:el'cd as all belonging to one species, or arc we to concl~dc that there are several difl'crcnt species amo.ng them? 'rhe Wl'ltor has been in this respect strangely misunderstood. Because he has at one time said that mankind constitutes one species, and at another time has said that mou did not originate from one common stock, he has been represented as contradicting himself, as stating at one time one thing, ancl at another time another. lie would, therefore, insist. upon this distinction, that the unity of species does not involve a unity of m·igin, and that a dit•ersity of origin does not involve a plw·aUty of species. Moreover, what we should now considol' as the characteristic of species is something very diffcl'cnt from what has fonnerly been so considered. As soon as it was ascertained that animals f1i11cr so widely, it was found that what constitutes a species in c:rta~n type~; is somethincr very clifrcrcnt from what constitutes a spceJCs 1u othcl' typos, and ~hat facts which provo an iU.ontity of species in some animals do not prove an identity or plurality in another group. * * * "The immediate conclusion from these facts, howevct·, i.s the distinction we have made above, that to acknowlcdg a uHity in mankind, to show that such a unity exists, is not to aU.mit that men have a common origin, nor to grant that such a conclusion may be justly |
