altered in nothing since they were described by the earliest writers; nor have
three thousand years made any difference in the skin and hair of the Negro. In
like manner the characteristic features of the Jews may he recognised in the
sculpture of the temples of Luxor and Karnak, in Egypt, where they have been
depicted for nearly thirty centuries.*
This identity of physical characteristics, preserved through numberless
generations, and often under very dissimilar circumstances, has occasioned various
speculations in respect to the origin of the human family. The prevalent belief is
derived from the sacred writings, which, in their literal and obvious interpretation,
teach us that all men have originated from a single pair ;f whence it has been
hastily and unnecessarily inferred, that the differences now observable in mankind
are owing solely to vicissitudes of climate, locality, habits of life, and various
collateral circumstances.
Without attempting to pursue this intricate question in detail, we may
inquire, whether it is not more consistent with the known government of the
universe to suppose, that the same Omnipotence that created man, would adapt
* See Description de l’Egypte, Tome II, pi. 6, and Tome III, pi. 40.
t “ That the three sons of Noah overspread and peopled the whole earth, is so expressly stated
in Scripture that, had we not to argue against those who unfortunately disbelieve such evidence, we
might here stop: let us, however, inquire how far the truth of this declaration is substantiated by
other considerations. Enough has been said to show that there is a curious, if not a remarkable
analogy between the predictions of Noah on the future descendants of his three sons, and the actual
state of those races which are generally supposed to have sprung from them. It may here be again
remarked, that, to render the subject more clear, we have adopted the quinary arrangement of
Professor Blumenbach; yet that Cuvier and other learned physiologists are of opinion that the
p r im a ry varieties of the human form are more properly but three, viz: the Caucasian, Mongolian,
and Ethiopian. This number corresponds with that of Noah’s sons: assigning, therefore, the
Mongolian race to Japheth, and the Ethiopian to Ham, the Caucasian, the noblest race, will belong
to Shem, the third son of Noah, himself descended from Seth, the third son of Adam. That the
p rim a ry distinctions o f the human varieties are but three, has been further maintained by the erudite
Prichard, who, while he rejects the nomenclature both of Blumenbach and Cuvier, as implying
absolute divisions, arranges the leading varieties of the human skull under three sections, differing
from those of Cuvier only by name. That the three sons of Noah who were to ‘ replenish the
earth,’ and on whose progeny very opposite destinies were pronounced, should give birth to different
races, is what might reasonably be conjectured. But that the observations of those who do, and of
those who do not believe the Mosaic history, should tend to confirm its truth, by pointing out in
what these three races do actually differ, both physically and morally, is, to say the least, a singular
coincidence. It amounts, in short, to presumptive evidence, that a mysterious and very beautiful
analogy pervades throughout, and teaches us to look beyond natural causes, in attempting to account
for effects apparently interwoven in the plans of Omnipotence.”—Murray, Encyc. o f Geog. p. 255.
him at once to the physical, as well as to the moral* circumstances in which he
was to dwell upon the earth ? It is indeed difficult to imagine that an all-wise
Providence, after having by the Deluge destroyed all mankind excepting the
family of Noah, should leave these to combat, and with seemingly uncertain and
inadequate means, the various external causes that tended to oppose the great
object of their dispersion: and we are left to the reasonable conclusion, that each
Race was adapted from the beginning to its peculiar local destination. In other
words, it is assumed, that the physical characteristics which distinguish the different
Races, are independent of external causes.
Such appear to have been the primitive distinctions among men: but hostile
invasions, the migratory habits of some tribes, and the casual dispersion of others
into remote localities, have a constant tendency to confound these peculiarities; and
the proximity of two races has uniformly given rise to an intermediate variety,
partaking of the characters of both, without being identical with either: these are
called mixed races.
The grouping of mankind into Races, has occupied the ingenuity of many of
the best naturalists of the past and present century; and here again we observe
that diversity of opinion which is so frequent in human researches. Linnaeus
referred all the human family to five races, viz: the American, the European, the
Asiatic, and the African, and individuals of preternatural conformation. The
Count de. Buffon proposed six great divisions, viz: 1, The Hyperborean or Laplander,
which embraces the Polar nations.—2, The Tartar, which includes the
eastern and central nations of Asia.—3, The Southern Asiatic, which embraces
the South Sea Islanders.—4, The European.—5, The Ethiopian.—And 6, The
American. At a subsequent period Buffon reduced the races to five, by grouping
the Laplanders with the Tartars, inasmuch as he regarded the one as a degenerate
branch of the other.f
More recently Professor Blumenbach, of Gottingen, to whom this department
of science is under great obligations, has adopted the arrangement of Buffon;
changing the names, however, of some of the divisions, and assigning, with much
greater accuracy, their geographical distribution. Thus, the Laplander and Tartar
of Buffon constitute the Mongolian variety of Blumenbach; the Southern Asiatic
of the one corresponds to the Malay of the other; and the European and Caucasian
represent the same people in both arrangements.
The system of the celebrated Cuvier is still more elementary, for it proposes
Genesis, IX, 25, 26, 27. t Sonnini’s Buffon, XX, p. 120, &c.