1364
VARIETIES OF MANKIND.
line has now been given, may be stated as
follows : —
1. The extremest differences from each other,
or from a common stock, presented by the
races of Mankind, in regard alike to physical,
physiological, and psychological peculiarities,
are not greater in degree than those which
are known to arise amongst other species of
animals possessed of a similar adaptive capacity,
under the influence of changes in external con¬
ditions ; and they differ only in degree, not in
kind, from those of whose origin in a change
of external conditions, in the case of mankind,
we have adequate evidence.
2. In whatever mode the types of the prin¬
cipal varieties are selected, they are found to
be connected by intermediate or transitional
gradations ; the descendants of each principal
stock exhibiting, in a greater or less degree,
a capability of approximation to the characters
of others.
3. There is nothing in these diversities,
therefore, to justify the erection of specific
distinctions among the different races of Man¬
kind ; and, whilst a probability of the unity
of their original stock may consequently be
said to exist, all scientific evidence points ta
the conclusion, that, if the original stocks were
multiple, they must have had attributes es¬
sentially the same.
4. The supposition of a number of distinct
“ protoplasts,” one for each principal region
of the globe, is not required to account for the
extension of the human family over its area,
and it does not afford any assistance in ac¬
counting for the phenomena of their existing
distribution ; since each principal geogra¬
phical area contains races of very diversified
physical characters, the affinity of whose lan¬
guages makes it next to certain that they must
have had a common descent.
5. The evidence of philological research
decidedly tends to the conclusion, that such
affinities exist between the earliest known
stocks of the principal groups of languages
now and heretofore in use, as can only be
reasonably accounted for on the hypothesis of
their common origin, and the consequent ra¬
diation of the whole species from one centre.
What that centre is likely to have been, is a
legitimate object of inquiry ; and the follow¬
ing, which have long been regarded by the
author as the most probable deductions from
modern Ethnographical research in relation to
this subject, are now submitted with additional
confidence, on account of the confirmation
which they have received from the most recent
investigations, and, in particular, from their
conformity with the arrangement which Dr.
Latham’s linguistic researches have led him
to adopt.
The stock from W’hich the globe was ori¬
ginally peopled, is probably more nearly repre¬
sented at this time by the Turanians of High
Asia than by any other ; and some part of
that region was probably their primary seat.
It is among the Mongols and their allies, that
that combination of physical attributes which
is best adapted to the exigencies of a nomadic
life, and that constitution which renders a
nomadic life a necessity of their nature, most
characteristically present themselves. The
bodily system of these people possesses a
vigour and adaptiveness, which enables it to
flourish under all the diversities of climate to
which their wandering propensities conduct
them ; and they can accommodate their mode
of life, without any great departure from their
characteristic nomadism, to a great variety of
external circumstances. Moreover, the geo¬
graphical relations of High Asia make it the
most central spot on the whole globe, for the
radiation of Man to every corner of the ha¬
bitable world ; its connections with all other
lands are such as are possessed by no other
region ; while its climate is so intermediate
between that of the frigid and that of the
torrid zones, that the passage into either is
without any violent transition ; and, as a
matter of fact, we find that, while the Tungu-
sians and Ugrians have carried the Turanian
stock to the shores of the Polar Sea, a Tartar
tribe has made itself master of China, and
governs the whole of the south-east of Asia,
even to the Indian Ocean. This à priori ar¬
gument, however, would be worth very little,
if we did not find it in correspondence with
the very curious fact, that the most ancient
inhabitants of nearly every part of the globe
are connected with the nations of High Asia,
more or less closely, by affinity of language or
of physical characters. This we have seen to
be the case, not merely with the Seriform
stock of Southern Asia and the Hyperborean
and Peninsular Mongols of the north and
north-east, but also with the aboriginal people
of Northern and Southern Europe, with those
of the Caucasus, and with the first settlers of
the Indian Archipelago. Not less complete
is the transition to the American nations; for
whilst, on the one hand, the Esquimaux forms
the link of connection, agreeing in physical
character with the Hyperborean Mongols, and
in language with the mass of the proper Ame¬
rican nations, increased acquaintance with the
languages of the latter, and with the languages
of the Northern Asiatics, has confirmed the
suggestion long since made, that they are con¬
structed upon a plan essentially the same;
the tendency to agglutination, which is less
manifested in the more immediate descendants
of the parent-stock, being most fully carried
out in its offsets, the Euskarian of the Basque
provinces, the languages of the Peninsular
Mongolidæ, and the American tongues. The
only region regarding which there is not the
same amount of evidence, is Africa. But we
have seen reason to regard the whole group
of African nations as connected, through the
Semitic stock, with the Asiatic races ; and all
the knowledge recently acquired of the lan¬
guage of Ancient Egypt*, together with all the
information gained by Major Rawlinson and
* See the memoir by the Chevalier Bunsen, “ On
the results of the recent Egyptian Researches in
reference to Asiatic and African Ethnology, and the
Classification of Languages,” in the Reports of the
British Association for 1847.
