the quality nor the color of the hair in any country, or among any people, is so uniform or so permanent as to constitute it a specific distinction between them; on the contrary, we have seen that, like the complexion of the skin, it varies greatly both in its texture and in its huc, according to habits and external physical circumstances.

From all that has been said in the preceding pages we are warranted, then, to draw these two conclusic.s First, that the differences observed in the form of the skull, in the color of the skin, and in the quality of the hair, of the various races of men, do not justify, much less prove, the assertion that they have proceeded from distinct origins; Second, that these differences all may be accounted for by the prolonged influence of geographical positions, of elevation above the level of the sea, of the dryness or dampness of the atmosphere, and of savage or civilized habits of life.

We now advance to lay before the reader evidence of a more positive character that all mankind are of one species, and descended from one and the same stock.

POINTS OF IDENTITY IN THE RACES.

THOUGH the various Races of Man, in their outward appearance, differ in many respects, as we have just seen, yet in their organization, in their bodily functions, and in their mental and moral faculties, they are found alike in every essential particular. In all respects they exhibit the usual tests of specific identity; and we offer as our first argument for the unity of mankind that

1. The human Race exhibits no organs, or functions, or

· features, by which any certain or definite lines can be drawn dividing them into distinct species. This is evident from the fact that there is the greatest possible diversity among capable judges on this point. Virey divides them into two races, Jacquinot into three, Kant into four, Blumenbach into five, Buffon into six, Hunter into seven, Agassiz into eight, Pickering into eleven, Bory St. Vincent into fifteen, Desmoulins into sixteen, Morton into twenty-two, Crawfurd into sixty, and Burke into sixty-three. This diversity of judgment among eminent naturalists plainly shows that the human varieties are so closely related and graduate so insensibly into each other that no clear distinctive characters can be discovered between them. This Mr. Darwin pronounces "a most weighty argument against treating the races of Man as distinct species." "Every naturalist," says he, "if of a cautious disposition, will unite all the forms which graduate into each other as a single species; for he will say to himself, that he has no right to give names to objects which he cannot define."

2. The great Laws of the Vital Functions are the same in all the varieties of Man. The periods and duration of life, the economy of the sexes, and the phenomena of parturition and reproduction are constant and uniform in all the races. In the extreme of age and in the average duration of life, under similar circumstances as to climate and mode of life, there is no difference. This is true, also, of the period at which the body attains its full development; of that at which the capability of reproduction is first manifested in the female, and of that

which it ceases.

The slight differences which are

observable as to these particulars among the several races are not greater than among individuals of the same race or nation under similar climatic influences. The term of gestation, which is one of the most definite of all the periodical phenomena of life, and which frequently dif fers widely in two species nearly allied to each other, is exactly the same in every one of the human races.

3. The human races, without exception, are fertile one with another, and produce offspring equally fertile, "inter se,” which is held to be a leading test of specific identity. The proof of this is abundant in every quarter of the globe. In our own country we have every shade of admixture between the Whites and the Blacks, between the Whites and the Indians, and between the Indians and the Negroes. In Brazil we behold an immense mongrel population of Negroes and Portuguese and Indians. In Chili, and other parts of South America, we see the whole population, consisting of Indians and Spaniards, blended in various degrees. In many parts of the same continent we meet with the most complex crosses between Indians, Negroes and Europeans; and such triple crosses are regarded as the severest test of the mutual fertility of the parent individuals. In Australia and Tasmania we encounter a mixed breed between the aborigines and the European settlers. In one island of the Pacific we find a small population of mingled Polynesian and English blood; and in the Viti Archipelago a population of Polynesians and Negritos crossed in all degrees. Analogous cases may be found in South Africa, in India,

in China, and, in fact, wherever different races have come in contact for any length of time. Here, then, we have the most decisive test, and have it too in all forms and degrees, that the various races of mankind are of cne species and of one blood.

4. All the Races of Man possess the same Intellectual Faculties and the same Moral Sense. On this point we find in the Edinburgh Review the following concise and lucid remarks:-"We find in the lowest tribes of humanity as in other races, unequivocal indications of the same moral and intellectual nature as that which the most civilized races of men exhibit; these indications becoming more obvious, the more complete our knowledge of their habits, not merely of action, but of thought. We can trace, in short, among all the tribes of the globe the same rational human nature-the same capacity for generating abstract ideas, and thus arriving at general principles, which is a distinguishing attribute of Man. So, again, we discover in all of them the same elements of moral feeling; the same sympathies and susceptibilities of affection; the same conscience or internal conviction of accountableness, more or less obscurely developed; the same sentiments of guilt and self-condemnation, and the same desire of expiation. These principles take very different forms of expression, even in civilized life; much more, therefore, ought we to be prepared for finding nothing more, even among the best specimens of uncivilized barbarism, than the mere rudiments of a higher understanding and of a nobler moral nature, than that which they have at present reached.

But the rudiments are there; though not always in the same degree of forwardness for being moulded to the institutions of a more regular society; for the development of the intellectual powers under a rational education; and for that growth of the moral and religious sentiments which Christianity is pre-eminently fitted to promote in every mind that opens itself to its benign influence.

"The aborigines of Australia were long supposed to be at the bottom of the scale of humanity, not merely as regards their physical condition, but to be deficient in their intellectual and moral faculties, and to want even the rudiments of any religious impression. More intimate acquaintance with them, however, has fully proved the fallacy of such statements. It is remarkable, too, that they possess many singular institutions, more resembling those of the North American Indians than of any other nation known to us. One great obstruction to the improvement of their social state we are told consists in the great complexity of their landed tenurethe perverted ingenuity of which would do credit, it is said, to the genius of an astute lawyer.

"It has been frequently said that the Hottentots differ from the higher races in their incapacity to form or to receive religious ideas. This, however, is by no means true. Though the early endeavors to introduce Christianity among them met with the same obstinate resistance as has been the case in almost every similar instance, yet it is a memorable fact, that when the attempt was perseveringly made and rightly directed,