time to which historical testimony extends, the distinguishing
characters of human races have been constant and undeviating,
it would become a matter .of great difficulty to' reconcile this
conclusion with -the 1 inferences already obtained from other
considerations. A difficulty of this nature is indeed, if I mistake
not, experienced by many persons when they advert to
the general question which I have undertaken to investigate.
It is a very prevalent opinion, that the. diversities of human
races are. permanent and subject to little, if any, change,
and whatever reasons may present themselves in favour of the
unity of-species-in mankind, their weight is overbalanced by
that consideration. Such d oubts cannot be cleared up unless it
can be determined whether that opinion is well or ill-founded.
In the hope of arriving at some conclusion on this question,
I shall now enter on an investigation of the physical history
of particular races of men or families of nations.
I have already shown, that it is altogether hypothetical to
divide mankind, as many have done, into a fcw particular
classes or groupes of nations resembling each other in phyy
sical character, and to assume that such groupes constitute
races or lineages, the members of which are always allied to
each other in descent more nearly than to tribes of different
physical peculiarities. I shall avoid all attempts to distribute
the human family into different departments upon any conjectural
principle, and shall proceed in a geographical arrangement
to examine the phenomena which present themselves
in the population of different regions of the worlds This way
of dividing the subject is the only one that is free from all
objections on the ground of propriety already pointed out; it
has also another advantage of no slight importance. By arranging
the facts observed in a geographical order, we have an
opportunity of more correctly marking the influence of physical
agencies in the developement of varieties in breeds, or
in the origination of new or diversified races. But, in order
to estimate the extent of these^ agencies, it is not enough to
compare with each other the productions of. different climates
and the climates themselves, as measured simply by relative
distances from the poles or from the equator. Many other
elements must be taken into the calculation, if we would form
a correct-idea of the*’influence merely physical conditions.
Such-1 Conditio^® arfef o#td$£vCry different under the same latitudes!
It ^as>ibtl^;^^pT0p<5Sted "by in a memoir
ont|!hefcltvatiUnS^'and other local circumstancesf of different
° f 'external agents
on the nattufe pf 'Prgadizecbhfe'Mg^p Thefpibblem appeared
to 1 him ^§fy but-' h e undertook, in a work " in
which he had long been employed, ©ftiftlC^'^Essai sur l ’His-
toire;^^ priucipales Races d ^ l’Esp^e' HumainP/’P to-demon-
strate, -that “ vafiotiia \%olfstd^atljbh3 tMipfaMed iTby him, in
connexion with the^*inquiry above are 'Capable of
-throwing^light on phenomena worthy o f ith^Ml^^fc^attention
o f naturalists.” if It maybe questiptfed^hether, at the period
when this work was- announced, ■ either dhe history pf human
raeesptor the physical* geography .of different'^puntries, was
sufficiently advanced to render such an inquiry, practicable to
any satisfactory result; but mue^informatiori/'hahs bedtf acquired
in both of these . departments,"of knowledge, since the
time- gjtl, Lacepede, and many qdebiflohs have been,.elucidated
which were, at that, period, involved? in doubt. I shall consider
i this- subject nearly in the same poferts o f view in which
it was contemplated by the writer above mentioned; and, as
I investigate the natural history of different^ilC^Sf‘pf: men,
I shall endeavourdo ascertain what" are the mPst remarkable
features in the physical geography of each region, and what
relations the origin and developement pf: varieties in families
or tribes may bear to all these local- conditions-.
The inquiry above mentioned will comprise the whole range
of physical causes and their effects. The influence of moral
agencies upon human races is a distinct consideration; these*
however, will be found by their importance;to deserve an
equal degree of attention.
It must be observed, that this investigation referring to the
* “ Des hauteurs et des positions correspondantes des principales montagnes du
globe, et de l’influence de ces hauteurs et de cës' positions- sur' les habitations des
animaux,* par . Lacépède.’| ||Annales du Muséum d’Histoire,:S$aturelle, tom. ix.
p. 303.
T I have never heard that such a work actually made its appearance from the
hands of M. Lacépède.