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.