XIV ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
Section 2. Examination of the question, whether the physical
characters 6f human-races are ill Africa
permanent, or liable to variation—What instances
of such deviation can be proved plf#;
have taken place............................... .............. 340
Section 3. General observations on the intellectual faculties
of the African nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Notes and Illustrations.... . . ................................... ............%&i
RESEARCHES
INTO TH E y
1’IIYSICAl. HISTORY OF MANKIND.
INTRODUCTION.
General Statement of the Inquiries which form, the Subject
of the following Books*
In the »preceding part this work. I have endeavoured to
deriveiargumfents from^tnariy. general facts in the history of
organized? beings that might tend to elucidate the relations
of different human racesr'to each other. These. arguments
were principally: considerations founded on an extensive
survey of analogies, and their , evidence was partly negative,
and, in parti of a positive kind. I have endeavoured to
show, that no remarkable instance of variety in organization
exists among human races?*-which a parallel may not
be found in many of the inferior tribes; and, in the second
place, that all human races coincide in regard to many particulars,
in which tribes of animals, when specifically distinct,
are always found to differ. . How far I have been successful
in illustrating these relations, and whether the facts which
I have brought forward are sufficient to establish the conclusions
which I have drawn, my readers have been enabled to
determine. It now remains for me to investigate the nature
of organic diversities in mankind in a diffeEfht way; and,
by .inquiring into the history of particular tribes, to ascertain,
if possible, how far. the characters of these tribes have been
permanent, or in what respects they may have-been subject
to variations; If it should be found that, within the period of
VOL. ii. ■4 •. ■" HI , b