codicum, quoties generalius accipitur, quod specialius debuit intel-
ligi.”* The most rigid criticism has demonstrated, beyond the possibility
of disputation, that all the nations and tribes mentioned in the
Pentateuch, are included strictly within the so-called Caucasian race,
and that the writer probably never heard of (as he certainly never
mentions) any other than white men. This discussion, even to the
limited extent to which it has gone, has called forth much bitterness;
not on the part of sincere students of the sacred text, but of that
prêtraille which, arrogant in the direct ratio of its ignorance, substitutes
clamor and denunciation for reason, and casts the dirt of opprobrious
epithets when it has no arguments to offer. But already this
advantage has arisen from the agitation : — that some preliminary
points at least may he considered settled, and a certain amount of
scholarship may be demanded of those who desire to enter the discussion
; thus eliminating from it thé majority of persons most ready
to present themselves with noisy common-place, already ten times
refuted. The men who, in the middle of the nineteenth century, can
still find the ancestors of Mongolians and Americans among the sons
of Japhet, or who talk about the curse of Canaan in connexion with
Negroes,f are plainly without the pale of controversy, as they are
beyond the reach of criticism. There is, even in some who have recently
published books on the subject, such a helpless profundity
of ignorance of the very first facts- of the case, that one finds no
fitting answer to them but—-expressive silence ! To endeavor to raise
such to the dignity of Ethnologists, -even by debate with, them, is
to pay them a compliment beyond their deserts. They have no right
whatever to thrust themselves into the field,—the lists are opened for
another class of combatants. Therefore they cannot be recognised.
With Dante,
“ Non ragionam di lor ; ma guarda, e passa ! ”
It was impossible for Morton, in the prosecution of his labors, to
avoid these exciting questions. We have his own assurance that he
early felt the insuperable difficulties attending the hypothesis of a
common origin of all races. He seems soon to have abandoned, if
he ever entertained, the notion that ordinary physical influences will
account for existing diversities, at least within the limits of the popular
short chronology. There are two ways of escaping this difficulty—
one by denying entirely the competency of physical causes to produce
the effects alleged ; and the other to grant them an indefinite period
for their operation, as Prichard did in the end, with his “ chiliads
* Op. cit., p. 163.
f The Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race, examined on the Principles of Science,
by John Bachman, D. D. Charleston: 1850. pp. 291-292.
of years,” for man’s existence upon earth. Morton inclined to the
other view, mainly in consequence of the historical evidence he Had
accumulated, showing the unalterable permanency of the characteristics
of race, within the limits of human records. But he was
slow to hazard the publication of an opinion upon a question of so
great moment. He preferred to wait, not only until his own conviction
became certainty, but until he could adduce the mass of testimony
necessary to convince others. This extreme caution ‘characterized
all %is literary labors, and made his conclusions always
reliable.* A true disciple of the inductive philosophy, he labored
long and hard in the verification of his premises. With an inexhaustible
patience he accumulated fact upon fact, and published
observation upon observation, often apparently dislocated and objectless,
but all intended for future use. Many of his minor papers are
mere stores of disjointed data. More than once, when observing his
untiring labor and its long postponed result, he has brought into my
mind those magnificent lines of Shelley :
Hark! the rushing snow !
The sun-awakened avalanche ! whose mass,
Thrice sifted by the storm, had gathered there
Elake after flake, in heaven-defying minds
As thought by thought is piled, till some great truth
Is loosened, and the nations echo round,
Shaken to their roots^’as do the mountains now.f
In fact, he had an eye, in all his investigations, to the publication at
, some future period of a work on the Elements of Ethnology, which
should contain the fully ripened fruits of so many years of toil. Of
this project he speaks in some of his letters as “ perhaps an idle
dream,”" but one for whose realization he would make many sacrifices.
For it he reserved the complete expression of his ethnological
doctrines. This consideration, and his extreme dislike of controversy,
made him particularly guarded in his statements. Constitutionally
averse to all noisy debate and contention, he was well aware also that
they are incompatible with the calmness essential to successful scientific
inquiry. Nothing but an aggravated assault could ha»ve drawn
from him a reply. That assault was made, and, as I conceive, most
* In a letter of Prof. 0 . W. Holmes to Dr. Morton, (dated Boston, Nov. 27th, 1849,) I
find the following,passage, so just in its appreciation of his scientific character, that I take
the liberty of quoting i t :—
“ The more I read on these subjects, the more I am delighted with the severe and cautious
character of your own most extended researches, which, from their very nature, are
permanent data for all future students of Ethnology, whose leader on this side the Atlantic,
to say the least, you have so happily constituted yourself by well-directed and long-continued
efforts.”
t Prometheus Unbound, Act II., Scene 3d.
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