which, time Egypt had already existed for many centuries as a powerful
empire, home along on full tide of civilization: and, let us ask, what
trace of an Asiatic type does the reader perceive in these hoary likenesses
? How distinct, physiologically, are these heads from the royal
portraits of the Hew Empire! Does not the low, elongated head; the
imperfectly-developed forehead; the short, thick nose \ the large, full
lip ; the short and receding chin'; with their tout-ensemble, all point to
Africa as th« primeval birth-place of these people ? When, too, we
look around and along this ancient valley of the Nile at the present
day, and compare the mingled types of races, still dwelling where
their fathers did —the Fellahs, the Bishariha, the Ahyssinians, the
Nubians, the Libyans, the Berbers (though they are by no means identical
among each other), do we not behold a group of men apart*from
the rest of human creation? and all, singularly and collectively, inheriting
something in their lineaments which clusters around the type
of ancient Egypt ? A powerful and civilized race may be conquered,
may become adulterated in blood; yet the type, when so widely
spread, as in and around Egypt, has never been obliterated, can
never be washed out. History abundantly proves that human language
may become greatly corrupted by exotic admixture nay, even
extinguished; but physiology demonstrates that a type will survive
tongues, writings, religions, customs, manners, monuments, traditions,
and history itself.
Dr. Morton’s voluminous correspondence with scientific men
throughout both hemispheres is replete with interest, exhibiting as it
does so many charming instances of that philosophical abandon, or
freedom from social rigidities, which characterizes true devotees to
science in their interchanges of thought. There is ione epistle among
these, that almost electrified him301 on its reception, bearing date
“Alexandria, Dec. 17, 1848.” It is invested with the signature of a
voyager long “ blanched under the harness” of scientific pursuits;
who, as Naturalist to the Hnited States’ Exploring Expedition, had
sailed round the world, and beheld ten types of mankind, before he
wrote, after exploring the petroglyphs of the Nile:
“ I have seen in all eleven races of men; and, though I am hardly prepared to fix a
positive limit to their number, I confess, after having visited so many different parts of the
globe, that I am at a loss where to look for others.” 302
Qualified to judge, through especial training, varied attainments,
and habits of keen observation that, in Natural History, are preeminent
for accuracy, the first impressions of the gentleman from
whose letter to his attached friend we make hold to extract a few
sentences,(preserving their original form,) are strikingly to the point:
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