sented to us in the different races of men, Scripture offers the testimony of that God who "made of one blood all the nations of the earth," that all were originally one, and constrains them, therefore, as they would not be found making God a liar, to lay hold of the supernatural cause it presents to their belief; yea, and however humiliating it may be to the pride of human philosophy, to embrace it as a mystery, or in other words, an inexplicable verity. But of this in our

next.

CHAPTER VII.

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN RACES CONCLUDED.

The degree of evidence for any proposition is not to be learned from logic, nor indeed from ANY ONE DISTINCT science; but is the province of whatever science furnishes the subject matter of our argument.— ARCHBISHOP WHATELEY.

Many events are altogether improbable to us, before they have happened, or before we are informed of their happening, which are not the least incredible when we are informed of them.-MILLS' LOGIC.

THE origin of the varieties of the human races is not connected by any natural or logical necessity, with their original unity. The fact of their original unity may be infallibly certain, while the time and manner of their variations are enveloped in undiscoverable mystery. To many philosophers, we have seen, these varieties appear to be the result of natural constitutional organization, in connection with the natural laws of external nature and social condition operating through a long series of ages.

To those whose opinions we have already adduced in favor of this conclusion, we would add the following remarks from the elaborate work of Dr. Carpenter.

"From the foregoing survey of the phenomena, bearing

upon the question of the specific unity or diversity of the Human Races, the following conclusion," says this writer, may be drawn:—

"1. That the physical constitution of man is peculiarly disposed, like that of the domesticated animals, to undergo variations; some of which can be traced to the influence of external causes; whilst others are not so explicable, and must be termed spontaneous.

"2. That the extreme variations which present themselves between the races apparently the most removed from one another, are not greater in degree than those which exist between the different breeds of domesticated animals, which are known to have descended from a common stock; and that they are of the same kind with the variations which present themselves in any one race of mankind, the differ. ence of degree being clearly attributable, in the majority of cases, to the respective conditions under which each race exists.

"3. That none of the variations, which have been pointed out as existing between the different races of mankind, have the least claim to be regarded as valid specific distinctions; being entirely destitute of that fixity, which is requisite to entitle them to such a rank; and exhibiting, in certain groups of each race, a tendency to pass into the characters of some others.

"4. That, in the absence of any valid specific distinctions, we are required, by the universally-received principles of geological science, to regard all the races of mankind as belonging to the same species, or (in other words)

as having had either an identical or similar parentage; and that this conclusion is supported by the positive evidence afforded by the agreement of all the races in the physiological and psychological characters, that most distinguish them from other species, and especially by the ready propagation of mixed breeds or hybrid races.*

"It cannot," he adds, "be doubted, when the known history of the domesticated races is fairly considered, that a change of external circumstances is capable of exerting a very decided influence upon the physical form, upon the habits and instincts, and upon various functions of life. The variations thus induced, extend to considerable modifications in the external aspect, such as the color, the texture, and the thickness of the external covering; to the structure of limbs and the proportional size of parts; to the relative development of the organs of the senses and of the psychological powers, involving changes in the form of the cranium; and to acquired propensities, which, within certain limits, (depending it would appear on their connection with the natural habits of the species,) may become hereditary.

"Again, we should expect to find these varieties in external circumstances, together with the change of habits induced by civilization, (which is far greater than any change affected by domestication in the condition of the lower animals,) producing still more important alterations in the physical form and constitution of the human body, than those effected in brutes by a minor degree of alteration.

Carpenter's "Principles of Human Physiology,” pp. 90, 91. Philadelphia, 1847.

And it may be reasonably anticipated, that, as just now explained, there would be a greater tendency to the perpetuation of these varieties, in other words, to the origination of distinct races, during the earlier ages of the history of the race, than at the present time; when in fact, by the increasing admixture of races which have long been isolated, there is a tendency to the fusion of all these varieties and to a return to a common type."*

To these authorities we may add the views of Dr. Dowler. "It may be affirmed," says he, "with considerable probability, that cultivation changes even the organization, developing, for example, the anatomy, increasing the nutri-. tion, the sensibility, the adaptive powers, and the energy of the whole nervous system, especially of its inter-cranial portion."†

The same views have been very recently and ably presented by Mrs. Somerville in her elaborate work on Physical Geography, in which she devotes a full chapter to the consideration of the various causes by which such diversities of race have been produced in the human species, which she believes to have been originally one and the same.

"No circumstance in the natural world," says this writer, "is more inexplicable than the diversity of form and color in the human race. It had already begun in the antediluvian world, for there were giants in the land in those days.'

Carpenter's "Human Physiology," p. 81.

+ On the Vital Dynamics of Civil Government, in New Orleans Medical Journal, May 1849, p. 708. See also Dr. Daniell in Prichard's Nat. Hist., p. 612, 3d ed.