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Show 4.64 TilE MONOGENISTS AND greatly scandalized tho partisans of the cltain of beings had somebody taught them that, owing to their conception of Nature, they would one day shako hands with the greatest enemies of the Christian religion. This cone 'ption is, in fact, far more within tho logic of pantheism than that of our (notre) [Genevese] religious dogma. "To represent Lho throe realms of nature, as if forming bnt one long series of rings lin ked one with another, a succession of terms which leave no int rval between them-so greatly do tho nuances melt, and transform themselves, tho ones into the others-is, whether one wishes it or repudiates it, whether one knows it or be ignorant of it, to enter inLo Lhe spirit of systems which substitute, for tho thought of a Providential Creation, that of an animate Nature (as Aristotle conceived it),-a Nature which, in its ascenscional efiort, would traverse all the imaginable terms of a continuous progression. "True or falsc,-and this is neither yet tho moment for absolving nor tor condemning H-tho doctrine, which I have just characterized, must have been llOal'iily welcomed by those naturalists who professed, openly, tho autonomy of Nature." I need not beg Dr. Henry IIollard's pardon for classifying his anthropology under letter A; but some sort of an apology seems duo to tho reader for my stereotypical inadvertence, throucrh which a 1 arncd Protestant llolvctian happens to :find his pious sentiments misplaced in that part of this work consecrated to the letter C. A third conception may be gathered from passages of the vast work of Gustavo Klcmrn. 159 My excellent friend, Dr. L. A. Gosse, of Ocncva,11;u pointed Lhcm out to me during our joint studios at tho Museum u'llistoire Naturollo: "It is tolerably indifferent whether mankind come down from one pair or from many pairs; whether some :first parents were scpamtc1y created in America, in Africa, in Asia, and in Europe; or whct1Jer the population of all Lhesc regions <lraws its ori()'in from a single couple: but what is certain is, that there have existed on this earth passive races prior to tho active races, and that these primitive rae H had multiplied considerably before the appariLion of the ]att r." lie enlarges upon tho distinctions between such active and passive 119 All~11tmeine Oultur-Getcltiolltt der Mensc!theit · 1843-52 Leipzig 8vo 10 vola . 1 pp 1116, 210. ' ' ' ., . ' . . 1~ Honorably nnd widely known in medical sciences, Dr. Gosse, whilst fnvoring mo at Part~, 1851-:o, wit~ indices to lmowlougo, ns well o.s infinite other proofs of his goncr0\18 ho~rt, publ~shed hls .orud1tc _Essai BliT lea Dfjormationa Artificicll~a du Ortlne. Our colln born tor, Dr. J. A1tl<en M~1 gs, bo.v 1 ~g und rto.kon its analysis, I gladly loo.vo to him a subject on which tho nature c! my ~tud 1os excl udcs vt\liu opinion. TilE POLYGENISTS. 455 races; deeming these last to have boon tho darker in complexion, and inferior in conformation, aud in their rapidity of growth to have resembled the precocity of tho female sox. lienee, Klemm concludes that-" In studying tlJC manners, usages, monuments, industr·y, organization, traditions, creeds, and bisLory of diflcrcnt peoples, I have become induccJ. to admit, that all humanity ·which forms a whole, like man himself; is scr m·atcd into two halves, corresponding with each other, one active and one passive, tho one masculine and tho other feminine." This theory, novel to most readers of English, may, like other theories, be true or false, according to tho sense in which tho words active and passive, applied to ethnic peculiarities, are comprehended by those who employ thorn. To me their application is uot clear, unless qualified by sLrongcr adjectives; implying tho recognition of supet·ior and of inferior races : and, in such scnRe, M. d'Eichthal'H conception of tho dif±crence between tho White and the Negro types is curious and interesting: 161 "Thus, gentlemen, the debate, although concentrated upon tho African quel:ltion, conducts us to this .fixst conclusion, established, explicitly or implicitly, by tlJe defenders themselves of the two extr me opinions, viz: that the Aft·-ican negt·o t·ac:c has attained its present civil-ization through the influence of tlte white race, notably ft·om the At·abs: that, in order to raise itself to a ltighet· civilization, it has need of a new initiation, impat·ted by tltis same race: tltat, to tlte wltite race, consequently, belongs tlte initiative in the development of a common civilization. It iH very remarkable that Ritter, at the end of Lis work on the Geography of Africa, casting what he calls a t·ett·ospective glance over tho history of this contineJ Jt, arrives precisely at tho same conclusion; which he expresses furthermore in terms of high philo ophical bearing:-' Must it be,' asks tho learned gcocrraphcr, 'that civilization iB to be bronght from the exterior and inoculated, so to say, upon the inhabitants of tho Soodan (Negro-land), because, to judge accoding to tho entire devclopmcut of history, tho others are called upon to give, anJ. these to receiver "Such is, in fact, tho abstmct expression of the normal relation uct.wccn tho black race and the whiLe race; tho one is pas.~ive, th other active in respect to it. * * * '':P!te blade slwws ltimself to us a.~ civilizable [domosLicablc ?], but withou.t tlte initiative faculty in point of civilization.'" * * * "Thus, in the most intimate of their as ociations [sexual intercourse b tween white males and black females], those two races pt·cscrvc tho character wl1ich we have rccogniz d in --- - 101 J)ullrtin de la Soci6t6Etlmologiquc de l'Mis, 'l'omo 1'", A111100 1847; pp. 69-70, 77, 205. 232-4, 239-241. |