in the progeny of the individuals in "whom it first appeared, and is perhaps gradually communicated
by intermarriages to a whole stock or tribe. This, it is Qbvious, can only happen
in a long course of time.’
“ We beg leaye to fix your attentión on this vital point. It is a commonly received error
that the influence of a hot climate is gradually exerted on. successive generations, until one
species of mankind is completely changed into another ; a dark shade is Oppressed on the
firsth and transmitted to the secònd; another shade is added to the third, which is handed
down to the fourth ; and so on, through successive generations, until the fair German is
transformed, by climate, into the black African !
• “ This, idea is proven to be false, and is abandoned by the well-informed writers of all
parties.- A sunburnt cheek is never handed down to succeeding generations. The exposed
parts of the body alone are tanned by the sun, and the children of the white-skinned Euro-
♦peans in New Orleans, Mobile, and the West Indies!, are born as fair as their ancestors, and
would remain so, if carried back to a colder climate. <;The same may be said of other
acquired characters, (except those from want and disease.) They die with the individual,
and are no more capable of transmission than a flattened head, mutilated liqab, or tattooed
skin. We repeat, that this fact is settled, and challenge a denial.
“ The only argument left, then, for the advocates of the unity of the human species to
fall back upon, is that of ‘ congenital' varieties or peculiarities, which are said to spring up,
and be transmitted from parent to child, so as to form new races.
py Let us pause for a moment to illustrate this fanciful idea. The Negroes Of África,, for
example, are admitted not to be offsets from some ..other race, which have been gradually
blackened and changed in moral and physical type by the action oficlimate ; but it is asserted
that, * once in the flight of ages past/ some genuine little Negro# or rather many such, were
born of Caucasian, Mongol, or other light-skinned parents, and then have turned about
and changed the type of the inhabitants of a whole continent. So in America : thè countless
aborigines found on this continent, which we have reason to believe (see-Squier’s work)
were building mounds before the time of Abraham, are the offspring of a rape changed by
accidental or congenital varieties. Thus, too, old China, India, Australia, Oceanica, etc.,
all owe their types, physical and mental, to congenital or accidental varieties, and all are
descended from Adam and Eve ! Can human credulity go farther, ,or Human ingenuity
invent any argument more absurd ? Yet the whole groundwork-of a common origin for
some nine or ten hundred millions of human beings, embracing numerous distinct types,
which are lost in an antiquity far beyond all records or chronology, sacretTor profane, is
narrowed down to this * baseless fabric.’
“ In support of this argument, we are told of the Porcupine family of England, which
inherited for some generations a peculiar condition of the skin, characterized by thickened
warty excrescences. We*are fold also of the transmission from parent to child of club feet,
cross eyes, six fingers, deafness, blindness, and many other familiar examples of congenital
peculiarities; But these examples merely serve to disprove the argument they are intended
to^sustain. Did any one ever hear of a club-foot, cross-eyed, or six-fingered race, although
such individuals are exceedingly common? Are they not, on the contrary, always ^wallowed
up and lost? Is it not strange, if there be any truth in this argument, that no race has
ever been formed from those congenital varieties which we know to occur frequently, and
yet races should originate from congenital varieties which cannot be proved, and are not
believed, by our best writers, ever to have existed ? No one ever saw a Negro,¿Mongol, or
Indian, born from any but his own species. Has any one heard of an Indian child born
from white or black parents in America, during more than two centuries that these races
have been living here? Is not this brief and simple statement of the case Sufficient to
satisfy any one, that the diversity of species now seen on the earth, cannot ¡be accounted
for on the assumption of congenital or accidental origin ? If a doubt remains, would it fifót
be expelled by the recollection of the fact that the Negro, Tartar, and white man, existed,
with their present types, at least one thousand years before Abraham journeyed to Egypt
as a supplicant to the mighty Pharaoh ?
“ The unity of the human species has also been stoutly maintained on psychological
grounds. Numerous attempts have been made to establish the intellectual equality of the
dark races with the white; and the history of the past has been ransacked for examples,
but they are nowhere to be found. Can any one call the name-of a full-blooded Negro who
has ever written a page worthy of being remembered? ”
The avowal of the above views drew down upon us, as might have
been expected, criticisms more remarkable for virulence of hostility,
than for the scientific education of the critics. 'Our present volume
is an evidence that we have survived these transient cavils; and while
we have much satisfaction in submitting herein a mass of facts that,
to the generality of readers in this country, will he surprising, we
Would remind the.theologist, in the language of the very orthodox
Hugh Miller1 (Footprints of the Oreatof), that
“ The. clergy, as a class, .suffer themselves io-linger far in the rear of an intelligent and
accomplished laity. Let them not shut their eyes to the danger w iich is obviously coming.
The battle of the evidences of Christianity will have, as certainly to be fought on the field
of physical science,»as it was contested in the last age on that of thp metaphysics.”
The Physical history of Man has been likewise trammelled for agfes
by arbitrary systems of Chronology; more-especially by that of the
Hebrews, which is now'Considered, by all competent authorities, as
altogether worthless beyond the time of Abraham, and of little value
previously to that of Solomon; for it is in his reign that we reach
then last positive date. The abandonment of this restricted system
is a great point, gained; because, instead of being obliged to crowd
an immense antiquity, embracing endless details, into a few centuries,
we are now free to classify and arrange facts as the requirements of
history ami science demand.
It is now generally conceded that there exist no data by which we
can approximate the date of man’s first appearance upon earth; and,
for aught we yet know, it may be thousands or millions of years
beyond our reach. The spurious systems, of Archbishop Hsher on the
Hebrew ¿Text, and of Dr.- Hales on the Septuagint, being entirely
broken down, we turn, unshackled by prejudice, to the monumental
records of Egypt as our best guide. Even these soon lose- themselves,
not in the primitive state of man, but in his middle or perhaps modern
ages; for the Egyptian Empire first presents itself to view,, about
4000 years before Christ, as that of a m'ighty nation, in full tide of
civilization, and surrounded by other realms and races already
emerging; from the barbarous stage, f
In order thaf a clear understanding with the reader may be established
in the mllojving pages, it becomes necessary to adopt some
common standard of chronology for- facility of reference.
An . esteemed/correspondent, Mr. Birch, of the British Museum,
apty observes to us in a-private letter—“Although I can see what is