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Show 004 DISTINCTIONS OBSERVABLE AMONG "Wore it posbiblo," wroto tho vigorous oxpungor~11 of o. dognutticrtl work which of erst tried to nphold, cntcgoricrtlly, tho "unity of tho hnman species"-" Woro it possible for nn individual to ~trtin nccoss to o. siturtt,ion sufTioiontly commanding, nne! to bo indued with optics sufficiently pow •·ful, to tako, o.t once, o. clco.r and discriminating smvcy of tho whole oartu-could ho tuns obtain an accuro.to o.nd distinct view of tho o.ppenranco n.nd sensible ohnraotor of everything existing on its surfaco-divor. itios of colour, form, dimension, o.nd motion, with t\11 other oxtornal properties of mo.ttor-woro such an ovont possible, one of tho most curious rtnd interesting objoots tho.t would attract our spectator's t\ttention, would bo, the variety diacove1·able in the complexion and feature, the figure and stature oj the l111man race. In ono section of tho globe, be would behold o. people lofty o.nd woll-proportioncd, elogo.nt, 1tnd gmcoful; aud in ttnothor, not f~tr romoto, 11. dcscr·iption of men diminutive, dofor·mod, unsightly, and n.wkward. Hero would rise to view a nation with flowing locks, a. woll-archod forohor~d, strnight nnd finoly-modollcd limbs, and o. complexion composed of tho carnation and tho lily; thoro, n race with frizzled hair, clumsy o.nd gibbous cxtromitios, u rotronting foroholid, rmd IL skin of ebony. In one r·ogion ho would bo cltn.rmod with a. gonoro.l prominence nnd boldness of fonturo, nn o.ttmctivo symmetry, a liveliness of air, and n, vigor of expression, in tho humrtn countenance; while in nnothor, ho would be disgusto(] by it.~ flatness, vncaucy l\nd dulness, olfondod with its irregularity, or shocked nt its frorceness. lletwoon those sovoml extremes would npponr a multiplicity of intormedinte gmclations, constituting collectively nn unbr·okon olrain, and, manifesting at onco tho simplicity yet diversity of tho opemtions of the Deity, in peopling tho co.rtlt with hnmo.n inhabitants." After refuting, point by point, every postulate advanced by his scholaslic but unscientific author, and exposing the sophisms through which each is supported, Dr. Caldwell remarks on tLc doctrine itself: "Its principles, if o.dmittod to their full extent, would lend to results which our author would be himself tho first to cleprccnte. 1'hey would provo unfrionclly iu their oporn.tion to tnomlity nud religion, and oven subvorHivo of tho dignity of man and tho oruor nntf harmony of tho phy~ical world. 'l'hoy o.ro c!tlcull\ted to favor a system of levelling rtnd oonsolidrttion which would reduce to tiro same &pecics rnn.oy n.oimo.ls tbo.t rtpportnin, in ron,lity, to different genera. Dy their aoductivo and pernicious influence wo might be gmdually Jed to a belief in tho original identity of oven tho white mrm himsell', tho golok [llylobates Uoolook 1] ot· wild man of tho woods, and tho largo Omng-outang; so npparently incousidorable o.re tho shades of difference between thom, when their systems ar·o n.nn.lyzod, 1.md their individun.l fer~turcs and limbs attentively compnred with onch other. When examined, however, nnd compared in their genom! result, their dissimilttritios arc so numerous and striking, ns to constitute insupornblo objections to such n. monstrous hypothesis. Wo bocomo at once convinced by tho evidence before us, that difforencos so wide and radicn.l, could never have been produced by tho ngcncy of 1\ny common causes now in operation on onr globe; but that tho beings marked by them belong to rnccs origino.lly and immnto.bly distinct. Suc/1 precilltly is tlte case i11 relation to the different races of mm." "It oowrcmn.ins to bo sa.ld," continuos tho profound physiologistDF.SMOur.rNs,m "whether, in cnch of those ro.ces, of those species, mon wore children of tho ortrth whereupon history perceives them from times the most obscure; or, if, corning in similo.r likeness from one 671 Oriticum-Ji'or the Portfolio (Philadolphifl, 8d series, vol. iv., l 814; nrtiolos 1 find 4, pp. 8-9, 863-4)-of "An Essay on tho onuses of tho Vnrioty of Complexion and Figure, in tho Human Species, &c., &c. Dy Sumuol Stanhope Smith, D. D. LL.D., &o., &c." I owe a.cquaintn.noo with this most powerful argument to tho favor ofMI'. Ooorge Ord, President of tho Aco.d. of Nat. Sciences; who informs me that it was written in on.l'ly lifo by one sinoo eminent in medico.! a.ncl otbnologioo.l questions-tho late Dr. CHAttr.ES Cunw}JLL. 1.'hose papers are a.n cnlrtrgomont of a previous critique published in tho Nortli American Review, July, 1811. m Race1 llumaine1, 182G; pp. 166, 168. VARIOUS GROU!:'S OF li!JMANITY. (30.) n~d tho Ro.mo native country, they became diversified nccording to the novolt f 1 o.lunnto; of which tho influence, singly, or united with that of a supposed sidCI·:nloro:~:~ tton: would ~hus hrtvo tm~~formed children of one and tho same fathcr,-creating there some uogroes, !loto some Kom·thnos, yonder some Finns, hither some Mongols, &c.* * * l(uces nnd s.p~ctcs, overywhor.c that they romo.iu pure and without mixture, prosorvo invm·inblo ull ~he tl~rts, nil the pl•ys1cal cho.racters wl1ich tho first observers saw in them, o.nd that the rnd~brtnbl.y possessed fr~m tho very beginning. Their alteration is everywhere the produ~ of wto;m1xturo, tho :uston between hotorogoncous populations. Climate nnd nil tho inlluonces ongcudcrod by 1t lrnvo nlono no hold, whether upon tho form of tho body and f on ~ho color of tho s~<in, or upon that of tho l1air and its no.turo. ~'hoso cnusos posscs:c:·n~r 1~ shght power, •ts wtl~ bo seen in the following book, on tho color of tho skin in cortni~ uco~ .. ln ~II those nnxturos. Uroro does not either result indifferently n mco.n of expression of tu:uts oi onch ro.co. Ordmndly, ono dominates tho other." ~enyin"', ther~forc, with Dr. Caldwell, that climatic changes of lat1tudc or long1tudc have bad any permanent influence upon the race-character of tl1c human skin; and recognizing, with DeRmonlins and ~orton, no known canses subsequent in action to the Crcato,.'s colormg of each race, but direct amalgamation,-othcrwiso intermixture between difl-orcnt types-as explanatory of the endless gradations of color now beheld in humanity throuO'hout the world· it follows that, according to my conception of the ~rimitivo state ~f mankind in each zoological province of creation, the shades in coloration of the skin, eyes and hai1·, must have been less numerous than appear at the .prcs?nt day after so many thousand years of intcrminglings an.d. m1grat1?ns. What may have been the exact primordial, or abo~ ·J~mal, cu.tJCular. color of each type; into how many or Jww few ~1stwc.t natwnal tmt~ they miO'ht be resolved, thct·c seems to be (outSide of tho comparatively small area covered by the carth'A hislol'ical nations), no means now of ascertaining; although some plausible conclusions arc attainable through induction. In any case, the histori al pcrmm:cnco o~ many colors being determined through monumental an~ wnttcn ev1dcncc for. 3000 to 4000 years, we may fairly challenge obJectors to produce evHlcncc that other unrecorded shades did not exist ~ontcmpornncouAly. EO'yptian monuments, Hebrew ethnology, Assyr1an sculptures, Greek and Roman iconograpl1y, Chinese annals, Mexican and Pcrnvian antiquities, with many ancient descriptions of personages or nations,073 combine to establish, in each geographical centro, that the peoples within and arouud it presented the same coloration as thci t' descendants at this day,-alll::ttcr variations being satisfactorily accounted fol' through phenomena produced by physical amalgamation between subsequent intruders and tbc primitive stocks. 'J'hus, for instance, thCI'O ar now two very distinct colors seen among the Israelites; one ex cc<lingly dark, sallow, with black eyes and hair; the other, fair even to pallor, with light blue or hazel eyes, aud mAll those positions aro now proved, 1 take it, in tho present volume. |