gradual “ expansion of brain,” through successive educated generations. Created with
the fullest “ expansion,” they only awaited opportunity to practise it. But, what has been
the history of the dark races ? When the stream originating in old Oriental civilization
bounded across the Atlantic, instead of emulously drinking of its glorious waters, the aborigines
of America have succumbed beneath its eddy, as though it exhaled an epidemic
pestilence.
The Black-African races inhabiting the South of Egypt have been
in constant intercourse with her, as we prove from the monuments,
during 4000 years; and yet they have not made a solitary step towards
civilization—neither will they, nor can they, until their physical
organization becomes changed. With our verbal reservations about
the term “ Caucasian,” [supra, p. 247,] the following paragraph, from
the trenchant pen of T heodore P a r k e r , speaks incontestable truths:—
“ The Caucasian differs from all other races: he is humane, he is civilized, and progresses.
He conquers with his head, as well as with his hand. It is intellect, after all, that conquers—
not the strength of a man’s arm. The Caucasian has been often master of the
other races—never their slave. He has carried his religion to other races, hut- never
taken theirs. In history, all religions are of Caucasian origin. All the great limited forms
of monarchies are Caucasian. Republics are Caucasian. All the great sciences are of
Caucasian origin; all inventions are Caucasian; literature and romance come of the same
stock; all the great poets are of Caucasian origin; Moses, Luther, Jesus Christ, Zoroaster,
Budha, Pythagoras, were Caucasian. No other race can bring up to memory such celebrated
names as the Caucasian race. The Chinese philosopher, Confucius, is an exception
to the rule. To the Caucasian race belong the Arabian, Persian, Hebrew, Egyptian; and
all the European nations are descendants of_the Caucasian race.”
It is vehemently maintained, that mankind must be of common
origin, because all men are endowed with more or-less of reason, with
some moral sense, and are impressed with the idea of responsibility
to a Supreme Being; but the very statement of such proposition carries
with it the conviction that it is simply an hypothesis, unsupported
by facts. Ho line can be drawn between men and animals on the
ground of “ reason,” and more than one of the savage races of men
possess no perceptible moral or religious ideas.
If the Bible had been so construed as to teach that there were, from the beginning,
m a n y primitive races of men, instead of one, the psychological grades would doubtless have
been regarded by everybody as presenting the plainest analogies when compared with the
species of inferior animals. It would have been allowed at once, that beings so distinct in
physical characters should naturally present diversity of mental and moral traits. All the
species of equidte exhibit certain habits and instincts in common, whilst differing in others.
Amongst carnivora, the felines— such as lions, tigers, panthers, leopards, lynxes, cats —
present a nmty of moral and intellectual character, so to say, quite as striking as that displayed
by the human family; and, scientifically speaking, there is just as much ground,
at this point of view, for saying that all the felines are of one “ species,’’ as all the various
types of mankind.
Nor can any valid argument be drawn from credence in a God, or in a future state.
There exists among human races not the slightest unity of thought on these recondite
points. Some believe in one God; the greater number in many: some in a future state,
whilst others have no idea of a Deity, nor of the life hereafter. Many of the African, and
all of the Oceanic Negroes, as missionaries loudly proclaim, possess only the crudest and
most grovelling superstitions. Such tribes entertain merely a confused notion of “ good
spirits,” whose benevolence relieves the savage from any fatiguing illustration of his gratitude
'and an intense dread of “ bad spirits,'’ whom he spares no clumsy sacrifice to propitiate.'
Did space permit, I could produce historical testimonies by the dozen, to overthrow
that postulate which claims for sundry inferior types of men any inherent recognition of
Divine Providence — an idea too exalted for their cerebral organizations: and which is
fondly attributed to them by untravelled or unlettered “ Caucasianswhose kind-hearted
simplicity has not realized that diverse lower races of humanity actually exist uninvested
by the Almighty with mental faculties adequate to the perception of religious sentiments,
or abstract philosophies, that in themselves are exclusively “ Cauoasian.”
Men and animals are naturally imbued with an instinctive fear of death; and it is perhaps
more universal and more intense in the latter than the former. Man not only shudders
instinctively at the idea of the grave, but his mind, developed by culture, carries
him a step further. He shrinks from total annihilation, and longs and hopes for, and believes
in, another existence. This conception of a future existence is modified by race and
through education. Like the pre-Celt® of ancient Europe, the Indian is still buried with
his stone-headed arrows, his rude amulets, his dog, &c., equipped all ready for Elysian
hunting-fields; at the same time that many a white man imagines a heaven where he shall
have nothing to do but sing Dr. Watts’ hymns around the Eternal throne.
It matters not from whatever point we may choose to view the argument, unity of races
cannot be logically based upon psychological grounds. It is itself a pure hypothesis,
which one day will cease to attract the criticism of science.
In a Review by G eo. C ombe of Morton’s Crania Americana,®5 may
be found a most interesting comparison of tbe brains of American
aborigines with the European. Comparisons of any two well-marked
types would yield results quite as striking. A few extracts are all we
can afford from an article that, commanding the respect, will excite
the interest of the reader.
“ No adequately-instructed naturalist doubts that the brain is the organ of the mind.
But there are two questions, on which great difference of opinion continues to prevail: —
1. Whether the size of the brain (health, age and constitution being equal,) has any, and if
so, what influence, on the power of mental manifestations ? 2. Whether different faculties
are, or are not, manifested by particular portions of the brain.”
I helieve that all scientific men concede that brains below a certain
size are always indicative of idiocy, and that men of distinguished
mental faculties have large heads.
“ One of the most singular features in the history of this continent is, that the aboriginal
races, with few exceptions, have perished, or constantly receded, before the Anglo-Saxon
race; and have in no instance [not even Cherokee] either mingled with them as equals, or
adopted their manners and civilization.”
“ Certain parts of the brain, in all classes of animals [says Cuvier 666 ] are large qr small,
aocording to certain qualities of the animals.”
“ If then there be reason to believe that different parts of the brain manifest different
mental faculties, and if the size of the part influence the power of manifestation, the necessity
is very evident of taking into consideration the relative pro p o rtio n s o f different p a r ts
o f the brain, in a physiological inquiry into the connection between the crania of nations
and their mental faculties. To illustrate this position, we present exact drawings of two
casts from nature; one (Fig. 353) is the brain of an American Indian; and the other
(Fig. 354) the brain of an European. Both casts bear evidence of compression or flattening