Negro-land, from their savage state-; the modern experience of the
United States and the "West Indies confirms the teachings of monuments
and of history; and our remarks on Crania, hereinafter,
seem to render fugacious all probability of a brighter future for these
- organically-inferior types, however sad the thought may he.
There is abundant evidence to show that the principal physical
characters of a people may he preserved throughout a long series of
ages, in a great part of the population, despite of climate, mixture of
races, invasion of foreigners, progress of civilization, or other known
influences ; and that a type can long outlive its language, history, religion,
customs, and recollections. The accession of new people multiplies
races, but it does not confound them: their numbers are increased
by those which the intruders introduce, and also by those
which they create by commingling ; hut all these incidents, nevertheless,
still leave the old type in existence.
Tn tracing, at this late day, ancient types of men, we shall, of necessity,
meet chiefly with those of great and powerful nations, that have
been able to maintain themselves, more or less inviolate, through a
thousand difficulties, by their force or knowledge. Small and feeble
fractions of humanity have generally been swallowed up and obliterated,
like the G-uanches of the Canary Isles. The world now advances
in civilization more rapidly than in former times, and mainly for the
substantial reason that the higher types of mankind have so increased
in power -that they can no longer he molested by the inferior; nor,
arguing from the past and present, can we doubt that a time must
come, when the very memory of the latter will survive solely on the
page of history. The days of the aborigines of America are numbered
; no victorious Tartar-hordes will ever set foot again on European
soil; and the white races, or Iapetidæ, have commenced the
career of Oriental conquest, and already “ dwell in the tents of Shem.”
Examinations of Roman history throw important light on this
subject. The Empire was crushed by successive hordes of barbarians ;
but still their numbers, compared to the population of Italy, have been
much overrated. The human waves of Visigoths, Vandals, Huns,
Herules, Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Normans, rolled successively into
Italy;; and yet, it may be asked, what vestiges remain, in Italy itself,
of these barbarian surges ? The first three passed over it like
tornados. The two next, within a short time, had to contend with the
Goths, and were expelled from the country ; and of the whole conglomerate
mass, but small fragments were left, too insignificant materially
to influence the native Italic types. Thé Lombards, on the
contrary, remained, and have implanted their name on a portion of
Italy. The Normans were numerically but a handful. Gaul changed
its government and name under the Franks ; however, the army of
Clovis was small; while William the Conqueror subjugated England
with 60,000 men: hut, as if to illustrate our axioms of the indelibility
of type and the vigor of the white race, not a head in Christendom
that, legitimately, wears a crown—not an individual breathes in whose
veins flows blood acknowledged to be u royal, but traces his or hei
genealogy to this'Norman colossus, W il l iam th e C onqueror I 42
Such are some of the great conquests of European antiquity that
have considerably affected the condition of men and things, but
which, notwithstanding, have not produced much alteration in the
type of the conquered people. Some mixture of types is still seen —
here and there the alien 'races “ crop out,” but the indigenous thousands
have swallowed up the exotic hundreds.
Conquests are often merely political, resulting in territorial annexation
or in tributary accessions, where little or no mingling of races
takes place. Other examples there are, where the conquerors continue
to .pour into a country from time to time, and thereby greatly influence
* native types. I t is thus that the Saxons, taking possession of England,
have perpetuated their race: but it is ever the higher type that
in the end predominates.
“ The ignorant Turk, yon say, subjected without difficulty the intellectual and lettered
Greeks ; the ferocious Tartar iiandcuffed the polished and. learned Chinese; the violent
Mongol hent under his scimetar the head of the studious Brahman; the Vandal, finally,
ravaged Rofne and Italy, then the centre of European civilization. Take care not to accuse
the sciences of a humiliation entirely due to despotism, which alone degrades and debases
human hearts. Certainly, no one exposes his life to defend a government he abhors and
despises. * * * Perhaps a new vanquisher may be more generous; he cannot, at any rate,
display-himself more atrocious and more cruel than those monsters, in their infamies.” 43
Creative laws, as we have said, work by myriads of ages. Six centuries
have not elapsed since Turks, Tartars, and Mongols, appeared
in "Europe. The Vandal had already disappeared. At every point
of the European continent, the remnants of these Central-Asiatic
swarms are melting away before the higher Caucasian types, wherever
complete subserviency to the latter does not suspend the extermination
of the former. Were it not that politics are eschewed in the present
volume, events of the past five years might supply signal examples.
In characterizing types, M. Edwards justly regards form,and size
of the head, and the traits of the face, as most important: all other
criteria are delusive and changeable; suph as hair, complexion.,
stature, &c., though not to be neglected. Even these are less mutable,
we think, than M. Edwards supposes. There are many examples of
complexion %and hair resisting climates for centuries, -without the
slightest alteration; and, in fact, we know of no authentic instance
where a radical change of complexion or hair has been prod ‘iced.44
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