1316
VARIETIES OF MANKIND.
can be attained, the practical question is at
once and completely settled, we shall apply
Fig. 805.
' Tasmanian female. (From the “ Atlas du Voyage
de VAstrolabe.”')
What, then, is the true zoological relation¬
ship between these different races, so dissi¬
milar in colour, features, bodily conformation,
stature, habits of life, and moral and intel¬
lectual cultivation ? Have we any ground to
consider them as distinct species ? or are we
to regard them as varieties of one and the same
species ? Are the fair Circassian and the jet-
black African, the olive Malay and the red
American, the dusky New Zealander and the
florid Saxon, all of one original stock ? Did
the Patagonians, whose average height is
nearly six feet, spring from the same parents
with the pigmy Bosjesmans, whose usual
height is under five, that of the females rarely
much exceeding four ? Are the fat, blubber-
fed, flat-visaged Esquimaux even most distantly
related to the lean, date-eating, hatchet-faced
Arab ? “ Does the Bosjesman, who lives in
holes and caves, and devours ants’ eggs,
locusts, and snakes, belong to the same species
as the men who luxuriated in the hanging
gardens of Babylon, or walked the olive-grove
of Academe, or sat enthroned in the imperial
homes of the Caesars, or reposed in the mar¬
ble palaces of the Adriatic, or held sumptuous
festivals in the gay salons of Versailles ? Can
the grovelling Wawa, prostrate before his
fetish, claim a community of origin with those
whose religious sentiments inspired them to
Sile the prodigious temples of Thebes and
lemphis, to carve the friezes of the Parthe¬
non, or to raise the heaven-pointing arches
of Cologne ? That ignorant Ibo, muttering
his all-but inarticulate prayer, is he of the
same ultimate ancestry as those who sang
deathless strains in honour of Olympian Jove,
or of Pallas Athenè ; or of those who, in a
purer worship, are chanting their glorious
hymns or solemn litanies in the churches of
Christendom ? That Alfouro woman, with
ourselves to the search for it, as fully as our
present limits permit.
Fig. 806.
Aramanga youth. (From a portrait in Dr. Picker¬
ing’s “ Natural History of Man.” )
her flattened face, transverse nostrils, thick
lips, wide mouth, projecting teeth, eyes half
closed by the loose swollen upper eyelids,
ears circular, pendulous, and flapping ; the
hue of her skin of a smoky black, and, by
way of ornament, the septum of her nose
pierced with a round stick some inches long,
—is she of the same original parentage as
those whose transcendent and perilous beauty
brought unnumbered woes on the people of
ancient story, convulsed kingdoms, entranced
poets, and made scholars and sages forget
their wisdom ? Did they all spring from one
common mother ? Were Helen of Greece, and
Cleopatra of Egypt, and Joanna of Arragon,
and Rosamond of England, and Mary of
Scotland, and the Eloisas, and Lauras, and
Ianthes, — were all these, and our poor
Alfouro, daughters of her who was ‘ fairest of
all her daughters, Eve ? ’ The Quaiqua or
Saboo, whose language is described as con¬
sisting of certain snapping, hissing, grunting
sounds, all more or less nasal,—is he, too, of
the same descent as those whose eloquent
voices ‘ fiilmined over Greece,’ or shook the
forum of Rome, or as that saint and father of
the church surnamed the ‘golden-mouthed,’
or as those whose accents have thrilled all
hearts with indignation, or melted them with
pity and ruth, in the time-honoured halls of
Westminster ?”*
This question is capable of being considered
under a great variety of aspects. There are
many very excellent persons, who think it
quite sufficiently answered by the authority of
the Scriptural narrative, and who maintain that
to this authority all opposing considerations
* From an Introductory Lecture, entitled “ Our
Institution and its Studies ; ” by Dr. J. A. Symonds.
Bristol, 1850.