R E M A R K S - o n t h s
, CAUSES
of Va r i e
t i e s .
T h e fpirit o f love, -and amorous delight.
Grace was in all her Reps; heav’n in her eye,
In every geffure dignity and love.
M i l -t o n .
I cannot think that a man looking up to this inimitable mailer-,
piece, could be tempted to compare it with an ugly, loathfome
ouran-outang ! I f he-Rill in good earneR be o f this opinion, the
whole heavenly fiRerhood o f Eve’s fair daughters ought for ever to
exclude him from their bright circles : and in-cafe he then perfiRs
obRinate, may none but ouran-outangs vouchfafe and admit his
embraces.
T h e next clafs o f writers reprefent the inhabitants o f Greenland;
and thofe o f Senegambia, as beings fpecifically different from'thofe
o f Europe or Tcherkaffia: * and, indeed, i f we are at once to
make a fudden tranfition from the contemplation o f -the faireR
beauty o f Europe to that 5f a deformed negro; the difference is fo
great, and the contraR fo flrong, that we might be tempted to think
them o f a diRinR fpecies : but i f . we-examine the infenfible gradations,
in the form, habit, fize, colour, and feme external differences,
-we lhall find that they are by no means fo widely remote
from each other in the Rale o f beings, as to form feparate fpecies.
Ana-
' tom I . 01“ ' ’ Phil0f°Pl,iC dC ,,hift°ire & ^Encyclopedic, i r . &
Anatomically confidered, they perfedtly agree, in all the material c a u s e s
• _ , , . , , , . - OF VARI -
great parts ot their trame, and even m the particulars o f their Rruc- ETIES-
ture, and uonfeqüéntly' they ' cannot conRitute different fpecies.
For confidering that i f the moR remote tribes o f mankind cohabit
together, they always procreate children fimilar to their parents and
capable o f procreating others, the difference cannot be fo material
; elpecially i f we remark, that by continually repeated marriages
o f a Mulatto (who is the offspring o f a black and a white perfon)
with white perforis, the progeny after each marriage, becomes
fairer and fairer, fo that at lâfl not -the leaR difference is obferv-
able; or that i f the Mulatto marries a black perfon, their off-
fpring is blacker, and after a few inter-marriages the race is reduced
to abfolute negroes : after thefe remarks, I fay it muff become more
and more evident to minds free from prejudice or rancour againR
religion, that atl mankind, though ever fo much varied, are, however,
but of one fpecies. I f therefore this clafs o f antagoniRs, fliould
deny the feripture that veneration, in which it is held by ChriRians,
they cannot, however, refufe it with any colour of juRice, the authority
o f an old hiRoricai account ; and as fuch we find it corroborates
Rrong-ly the above refult-of philofophical enquiry, by telling
ns, that all mankind are defended from one couple.
I f all mankind be of one fpecies, and fprung from the fame original
Rem, how then does it happen that the negroe of' Senegal is- fo
L 1 different