^# ^ rt'^ i /- .. •/. o^\. Srom t^e fet6tatg of (profeBBor ^amuef (gltifPer in (^emoti? of 3ubge ^amuef (gtifPet QSrecftinrtbge ^reeenfeb 6g ^amuef (tttiffer QSrecftinribge feong fo f ^ £i6rarg of (Princeton C^eofogtcaf ^enttnarj^ 5k ii" ^ ^ ^-^^ %S-MS^ M ^" ^^'^^^^?1a r-*^ jTM '-«,,;.'iu «!, ^ ^ ¥ w^ Wr-' ' ' £'^^^ «p ■■^#«' A' i/^ljg^^^HAJi^ ^^ ^' r^^l^C^^^r^ *^ y"3 AN ^ 11.^ V^-^^ r CAUSES OF THE VARIETY OF COMPLEXION AND FIGURE IN THE HUMAN SPECIES. TO WHICi: ARE ADCEDy Animadversions on cei'tain Remarks made on the first edition of this Essay, by Mr. Charles White, in a series of Discourses delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester in England. ALSO, Strictures on Lord Kaims' Discourse on the Original Diversity o^ Mankind. AND AN APPENDIX, y BY SAMUEL STANHOPE SMITH, D.D. L L.D. President of the College of New-Jersey ; and Member of the Americaji Philosophical Society. THE SECOND EDITION. ...ENLARGED AND IMFHOVRD, J^E W-BR UJ\rS WICK: PUBLISHED BY J. SIMPSON AND CO. AND WILLIAMS AND WHITING, NEW-YORK, £. DEAUBy firinter. 1810. District of New-Jersey, ss. Be it remembered, that on the twenty-sixth day of No* vember, in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Josiah Simpson and Churchill Houston of the said disti'ict, have deposited in this ofiice the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit, " An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species. To which are added, Animadversions on certain remarks made on the first edition of this Essay, by Mr. Chiirles White, in a se- ries of Discourses delivered before the Literary and Philoso- phical Society of Manchester in England. Also, Strictures on Lord Kaims' Discourse on the Original Diversity of Mankind. And an Appendix. By Samuel Stanhope Smith, D.D. L.L.D. President of the College of New-Jersey ; and INIcmber of the American Philosophical Society. The second edition — En- larged and improved." In confoi nAtjr tr. the act of the Con- gress of the United States, entitled, an act for the cncoxirage- ment of leurnmg, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ; and also to tlie act, entitled, an act, supplementary to an act, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints. Robert Boggs, Clk. of the District of New-Jersey. To the American Philosophical Society held in Phi- ladelphia, for promoting Useful Knowledge. Gentlemen, Jl he substance of the following Essay wtis, in consequence of a duty devolved by you upon the Author, pronounced in the form of an oration, before your very respectable body on the 27th of February in the year 1787. As you were pleased to express your satisfaction with it, and it has been received with a considerable j>ortion of public favour both in America and Europe, I have been encouraged, in the midst of my other nu- merous and indispensable avocations, to turn my attention late- ly to enlarge cai,y fceliiig'3 only in a kiixl of howling. 167 Isles, that the Towtows, or common class of the peo- ple, who are the laborers, and, consequently, much exposed to the influence of the sun in fulfilling their tasks, antl who, besides, are nourished with a less succulent and abundant provision of food, than the Arees, or dominant class, are also inferior in their stature, not so handsomely formed in their persons, and considerably darker in their complexion. As is natural, however, from their habit of carrying- heavy burdens, they are, in general, more firmly knit in their joints, and stout in their limbs. If, in England, as is said, there exists not so great a difference in personal appearance between the high- er, and the lower classes of society as in other coun- tries of Europe, it is to be ascribed to the liberty en- joyed under the British constitution, and to the more general diffusion of wealth among the people, which lessens, in some measure, the distance between the ranks of their nobles, and their commons. SciencCj and military talents open the way to the highest dis- tinctions in that nation. The peculiar institutions, genius, and pursuits of the people favor, in an un- usual degree, the acquisition of wealth by the lowest orders of citizens. And these not being prohibited by the laws, or customs of the nation from aspiring 168 to matrimonial connexions with the highest ranks, the different classes are frequently seen to be vari- ously blended together. Often you find in citizen* the beautiful figure and complexion of the noblest blood ; and in noble houses tlie coarse features form- ed in lower life. In America we have not the distinction of patri- cian and plebeian ranks. And the frequency of migration, in a new and extensive country, has not suffered any peculiar habits of life or local manners, deeply to impress a distinctive character on the peo- ple of any state. Great equality of condition in the citizens of the United States, similarity of occupa- tions, and nearly the same degree of cultivation, and social improvement pervading the whole, have pro- duced such uniformity of character, that, as yet, they are not strongly marked by such differences in the expression of the countenance, the composition of their features, or generally in their personal proper- ties, as, in other countries, mark the grades be. tween the superior and inferior orders of the people. And yet there are beginning to be formed certain habits of countenance, the result chiefly of manners, which already serve, to a certain degree, to distin- guish the natives of some of the states from those of 169 others.* Hereafter, doubtless, they will advance into more considerable, and characteristic distinc* tions. If the white population of America affords us less-r conspicuous instances, than many other nations, of that variety of countenance, and of personal beauty or defect arising from diversity of rank, and refine- ment in society, the blacks in the southern states afford one that is highly worthy the attention of phi- losophers. The field slaves are, in comparison with the do- mestics, badly fed, clothed, and lodged. They live together in small collections of huts on the plantations on which they labor, remote from the society and ex- ample of their superiors. Confined, in this manner, to associate only with tliemselves, they retain many customs of their African ancestors. And pressed with labor, and dejected by servitude, and the hu- * In some of tlie New England states, for example, we re- mark, in the body of the people, a certain composed and seri- ous gravity in the expression of the countenance, the result of the sobriety of their domestic education, and of their moral and religious, their industrious and economical habits, v.hich pretty obviously distinguishes them from the natives of mesS of the states ui the southern portion of the Union. w 170 miliating circumstances in which they find them- selves, they have little ambition to improve their per- sonal appearance ; and their oppressed condition con- tributes to continue, in a considerable degree, the deformities of their original climate. The domestic servants, on the other hand, who remain near the persons", and are employed within the families of their masters, are treated with great lenity, their ser- \ice is light, they are fed and clothed like their supe- riors ; insensibly, they receive the same ideas of ele- gance and beauty, and discover a great facility in adopting their manners. This class of slaves, there- fore, has advanced far before the others in acquiring the regular and agreeable features, and the expres- sive countenance, which can be formed only in the midst of civilized society. The former are, gene- rally, ill shaped. They preserve, in a great degree, the x\frican lips, nose, and hair. Their genius is dull, and the expression of their countenance sleepy and stupid. The latter frequently exhibit very straight and well proportioned limbs. Their hair is often extended to three and four inches, and, sometimes, to a greater length. The size and form of the mouth is, in many instances, not unhand- some, and sometimes even beautiful ; the composi-^ 171 iion of their features is regular,* their capacity good^ aiid their look animated. Another example of the power of society in form- ing the countenance is well known to all those who are acquainted with the savage tribes spread along the frontiers of these states. Among them you fre- * The features of the negroes in America, especially of those who reside immeciidtely in the famiiies of their masters, have undergone a great change, while the complexion is not yet sensibly altered. The form and expression of the counte- nance, and composition of the features being principuliy uffect- ed by the state of society, are constantly receiving some mod- ification from that cause, to improve the negro visage. But the rays of the sun which requii'e, in our climate, the gi'eatest care to prevent theni from darkening the fairest skin, may be sufficient, in the exposed condition of the slave, to prevent a skin already black from becoming fair. The countenance of the domestic slaves of the third and fourth race, and, in many instances, even of the second, affords a striking example of the influence of the state of society upon the features. And there is reason to believe that, if these people were perfectly free, and were admitted to all the civil privileges of their masters, they would, in a short period, have few of the dis- tinctive traces of their African ancestors remaining, except their complexion. In the state of New-Jersey, where the hardships of slavery are scarcely felt, we see great numbers of negroes who have the nose as much raised from the face, the forehead as well arched, and the teeth as perpendicularly set in their sockets, as the whites. Some negroes I see daily in Princeton and its vicinity who have the nose turned with ». iiandsome aquiline curve. 172 quently meet with persons who haAC been taken captive in infar.cy from Anglo-American families, and grown up in tlie habits of savage life. These deRcendents of the fairest Europeans universally con- tract such a resemblance of the natives, in their countenance, and even in their complexion, as not to be easily distinguished from them ; and afford a striking proof that the differences in physiognomy, between the Anglo-American, and the indian de- pend principally on the state of society.^ * The resemblance between these captives and the native savages is so strong as sensibly to strike every observer. Be- ing taken in infa.ncy, before the ideas and habits of civilized so- ciety could have made any deep impressions upon them, and spending that tender and forming age in the solitude and rude- ness of savage life, they grow up with the same apathy of coun- tenance, the same lugvibrious wildness, the same swelling of the features and muscles of the face, the same fonu and atti- tude of the limbs, and the same characteristic gait, which is a great clevc.tion of the feet, with the toe somewhat turned in. Exposed without covering, to the constant action of the sun, and of the weather, amidst all the hardships of the savage state, their colour tends to a coppery bi own. — This example affords another proof of the greater ease witli which a dark colour may be stained on a skin originally fair, than effaced from it. The causes of colour arc active in their operation, and, entering in- to the substance of the skin, soon make a durable impression. "White is the original ground on which this operation is receiv- ed. And the M'hitcness of die skin is to be preserved only by 173 The College of New-Jersey, a few years ago, fur- nished a counterpart to this example. A young in- dian, about the age of fifteen, who had been brought from his nation five or six years before, was study- ing the latin and greek languages in the institution. carefully protecting it from the action of these causes. Protec- tion has merely a negati~oe influence : applied, therefore, to a skin already discoloured, it will be slow in producing any change towards white as long as the smallest degree oi fiositlve agency is suffered from the original causes of discolouration. And, as the skin I'ctains with great constancy impressions once received into its substance, all the dark shades of the complex- ion will be very long retcdned. That period of time, therefore, which would be sufficient, in a savage state, to change a fair complexion, to the darkest hue which the climate can impress, ■would hardly remove one shade from a black colour. Unless, then, the climate be such as to operate very great changes on the mternal constitution of the body, and to alter the whole state of the secretions, as well as to defend it from the fervid action of the sun, the negro colour may, by the exposure and hardships of a poor and servile condition, be rendered per- petual. In what page of the essay has a certain annotator in the edi- tion of Rees' Cyclopaedia published by Bradford & Co. in Phi- ladelphia, found it asserted, that the negro complexion has hitlierto become sensibly lighter in America ? If he has any candor, and possesses, in any degree, the information which ought to distinguish a man who presumes to be an arnotator on that work, he will be ashamed of the indiscretion and incor- l-ectness, to give them the softest names they will bear, of, some of his remarks imder the title, Complexion. 174 And from carefully observing him during the greater portion of that time I received the most perfect conviction that, if the Anglo-American, and the in- dian were placed from infancy in the same state of societ}-, in this climate which is common to them both, the principal differences which now subsist between the two races, would, in a great measure, be removed when they should arrive at the period of puberty. This young savage had been too far advanced in the habits of his people, before he was in- troduced into civil society, to render the experiment compleat : for, all impressions received in the ten- der and pliant state of the human constitution before the age of seven years, or, at the utmost, of nine or ten, are usually more deep and permanent than those made in any future, and equal period of life. A perceptible difference still existed, at the time of his return to his tribe, between him and his fellow stu- dents, in the largeness of the mouth and thickness of the lips, in the elevation of the cheek bone, in the darkness of the complexion, and the contour of the face. These differences had sensibly diminished from the period of his coming to the college : and they appeared to be diminishing the faster in pro- |>ortion as he lost that vacancy, and lugubrious wild- 175 ness of countenance peculiar to the savage state, and began to acquire the agreeable expression of civil life. The expression of the eye, and the soft^ ening of the features in consequence of new ideas and emotions, which had taken birth since he came into society, removed the chief distinction, except that of the complexion, which had been visible origin- ally between him and his companions. Less diiFer- ence existed at length between his features and those of his fellow students than we often see be- tween persons of the same nation.* After careful and minute attention, and comparing each feature with the cori'espondent feature in many of his com- panions, the difference was very small, and some- times haixlly perceptible ; and yet there was an ob- * The complexion of this young lad was not of so dark a cop- per as that of his native stock, which could be easily discerned by the stain of blushing in his cheek which is never perceived in those dark coloured tribes. The difference of these effects, however, in them and m him, I ascribe rather to tlie pains used by those savages to increase the darkness of their natural hue by filthy paints, and other means, than to any influence in the change of his manner of living to remove any of the natural shades of the indian colour. But he added nothing to them, while the savages, by their exposure to the injuries of the weatlier, and the hardships of their state, with other causes- vhich have been mentioned, are continually increasing them.- 176 vious difference in the whole countenance, created I believe principally by the impression which the complexion, in combination with the other varieties made upon the eye. A few comparisons conduct- ed in this way would result, I am persuaded, in the conviction that the varieties among mankind are much less considerable than, on a slight inspection they appear to be. Each single trait or limb, when examined apart, exhibits no difference from the com- mon properties of the species which may not easily be accounted for. Particular varieties are small. It is the result of the whole, taken in at one impres- sion, which appears difficult to be explained. The combined effect of many minute particulars appears great, and, at the first view, unaccountable. And we have not patience, or skill, it may be, to divide this sum into its least portions, and to perceive, in that state, how easy it is of solution. Under the head of the state of society are com- prehended diet, clothing, lodging, manners, govern- ment, arts, religion, agricultural improvements, commercial pursuits, habits of thinking, and ideas of all kinds naturally arising out of this state, infin- ite in number and variety. If each of these causes be admitted to possess, as undoubtedly they do, a 177 small influence in forming the character of the coun- tenance, the different combinations and results of the whole must necessarily seem great, and, united with the effects of climate, which have been alread} in some degree explained will afford sufficient princi- ples on which to account for all the varieties that ex- ist among mankind. Another cause of the varieties arising out of the state of society will be found in the power which men possess over themselves, of producing consid- erable changes in their figure and appearance accord- ing to any standard of beauty which they may have framed. Each nation differs from others as much in its ideas of beauty as in personal appearance. A Laplander prefers the fiat, round faces of his dark skinned country women to the fairest beauties of England. Whatever be the standard which any people have formed to themselves, there is a general effort to attain it ; and it is every where pursued with more or less ardor and success in proportion to the advantages which men possess in society^ and to the estimation in which beauty is held. To this object tend the infinite pains taken in so». ciety to compose the features, and to form the atti- 178 tudes of children. This is the end of a large portion of the arts of polished life. How many drugs are sold, and how many applications are made for the improvement of beauty ? How many artists of dif- ferent kinds live upon this idea of beauty ? If chil- dren learn to dance it is chiefly in order to improve and to display their beauty. If they acquire skill in the use of the sword, it is more for the purpose of improving personal beauty than for defence. If this general effort for appearance sometimes leads the decrepid and deformed into absurdity, and produces fantastic characters among the young, it has, how- ever, a great and national effect in forming the counte- nance, not less than the attitudes and movements of the person. Of its effect in creating distinctions among nations in which different ideas of personal beauty prevail, and different means are employed to reach them, wc may frame some conception from the differences that take place in the same nation, in which similar ideas exist, and similar means are used to form the person, only in various degrees. What a difference between the soft and elegant tints of complexion generally seen in women who move in the higher cu'' cles of society, and the coarse ruddiness of the vul 179 gar ! — between the uncouth features, and unpliant limbs of an unpoUshed rustic, and the complacency of countenance, the graceful figure, and easy air and movement of persons in cultivated life ! — between the sliaped and meaning face of a well bred lady, and the soft and plump simplicity of a country girl ! —We now easily account for these varieties which have become familiar to the eye, because we see the operation of their causes. But if we should find an entire nation distinguished by a composition of feat- ures resembling the one, and another by the contrary, they would have as fair a tide to be ranked under dif- ferent species by certain philosophers as the Ger- man, and the Tartar. The general countenance of Europe was, probably, more various several centu- ries ago than at present. The diiferences, which arise out of the state of society as their principal cause are, insensibly wearing away in proportion as, in the progress of refinement, the manners and ideas of the European nations are gradually approximating one standard. But the efiect of a common standard of beauty, and the means employed by our own countrymen to form their persons after this ideal model are, through the influence of custom, and general example, often little observed. The means 180 used by other nations, who aim at a dift'erent ideii, attracting more notice by their novelty, will, there- fore, furnish us with more striking examples. Many of the nations beyond the Indus, as well as the Tartars, from whom they have derived their ori- gin,* universally admire small eyes, and large ears. They are at great pains, therefore, to compress their eye- lids at the corners, and stretch their ears by weights appended to them, or by drawing them fre- quently with the hand, and by cutting their rims, so that they may hang down to their shoulders, which they consider among the highest ornaments of their persons. — For a like reason, they extirpate the hair from their bodies ; and, on the face, they leave only a few tufts here and there, which they * It is probable that the countries of India and China, con- sidering the pleasantness of those inviting climates, were ori- ginally inhabited before tlie regions of Tartary. But, the fre- quent conquests to which they have since been subject, parti- cularly, the northern pr.rts of India, from Tartarian tribes, have changed the habits, ideas, and persons of the people even more, perhaps, than Europe was changed by the barbarians who ovcr- I'an it in the fifth and sixth centuries. The present population of Northern India is, in effect, Tartarian, onlychcUiged to softer features, and better proportioned persons, by a milder climate., and a more improved state of society. 381 shave. ^ The Tartars often extract the whole hair of the head, except a long and thick tuft on the crown which they braid and adorn in different forms. — Sim- ilar ideas of beauty with regard to the eyes, the ears, and the hair, and similar customs among the abori- ginal tribes of the greater portion of North- America are no inconsiderable proofs that this division of the continent has been peopled from the north-eastern regions of Asia.f In Greece, Arabia, and other * The inhabitants of New Zealand, according to Mr. Fors- ter, although they do not extirpate their beards with tweezers, yet cut their faces, and mai'k them witia such scars, tlirough a preposterous idea of beauty, or manliness, as destroy a great part of the hair. t The celebrated Dr. Robertson, in his history of America, deceived by the misinformation of hasty, or ignorant observers, has ventured to assert that the natives of America have no hidr on the face, or tlie body ; and, like many other philosophers, has set himself to account for a fact which does not exist. They do not differ in this respect from the rest of the human r^ ce. Dr. Blumenbach, through a similar error in his information, sup- poses that their hair is very thin, and in small quantity. Ou the other hand, the hair of our native Indians, where it is not care- fully extirpated by art, is both thick and long. But cureless travellers seeing their smooth fuces, and bald heads enquired no farther into the cause, but represented the fact as proceeding from a natural debility of constitution and consequent defi- ciency of this excrescence. Similarity of customs, of complexion, and countenance be- 182 parts of the East, large eyes are esteemed beautiful ; and in these countries they take extaordinary pains to increase their aperture. In many parts of India they flatten the foreheads of their children in infancy by the application of broad plates of lead. In China they compress the feet of .female infants by tight •bandages. Among many of the barbarous tribes of tween the North-American indians, and north-eastern Asiatics, gives strong indications of a common origin. The South- American continent, particularly on the western side, gives no less striking proofs of its having been peopled from the islands of the Great South Sea ; as they were peopled originally from the South of Asia. The inhabitants of the southern portion of the Farther India are evidently of Malayan origm. And the same people you trace from that continent through a succession of islands tiil you approach the western side of America ; whence a population of the same, or very similar character ap- pears to have spread from Peru and Chili along the Oronoco, and the different tributaiy streams of the Maragnon. And here accordingly you meet with various triljes of indians of handsomer form and featui'es than those of North -America, and not unlike, in their appearaiice, many of the islanders of the South Sea. — Remotely, however, these people have all, probably, the same origin. The Malays are of Tartar race, improved by the mild climate of Southern Asia. These, pass- ing through the equally mild climates of the Pacific ocean ap- pear to have reached America in that direction ; while North- America has received her population from Tai'tary through the rougher climates of Siberia. — Other parts of this continent may have received many accidental emigrants cast upon its shores, in a long succession of ages, from different portions of the Old 185 Africa, and in the northern regions of Asia they en- deavour to assist the influence of the climate by usin£^ violence to flatten the nose of every infant in order to mould it after their capricious idea of beau- ty. The American Indians study to render the na- tural darkness of their complexion deeper by dis- colouring paints and unguents : and all savages es- teem certain kinds of deformity to be perfections; and strive to increase the admiration of their persons by heightening the vvildness of their features. I might proceed, in this manner, through every country on the globe, pointing out the many arts which are practised to reach some favorite idea of the human form. Arts which insensibly, in a long course of time, produce great and striking consequen- ces,* and which, although commonly supposed to World. The nations from which they parted may have been. civiUzed ; but arriving in a new world, without skill to return, or to hold any intercourse with their ancestral seats, and press- ed by their immediate wants, and the difficulties of procuring subsistence in an uncultivated wilderness, from any source ex- cept from hunting, they would soon lose the knowledge of all other arts, and their posterity would necessarily become savages. * National ideas of beauty may often have their source in Uie tendencies of the clunate, and the natural influences of so- 1^4 aiFect only- the person who uses them, are not with- out their influence on posterity. — The process of na- ture in this, is as little known, as in all her other works : but the fact cannot have escaped tlie obser- vation of those who have paid a careful attention to her operations. Every considerable change of cch> lour, feature, or figure which has grown into a habit of the body, or indicates any important alteiation in the general action of the system is liable to be trans* itiitted, along with other constitutional properties, to olTspring. The coarse features of laboring people^ created by great hardships, and exposure to the in-, juries of the weather, we often see imparted. The broad feet of the rustic, spread out by often tread-, ing the soil barefooted ; and the large hand and arm, formed by constant labor, arc often discernible in children. The increase, diminution or change of any other limbs, or features, resulting from arts, or national habits which aim at forming the person after any peculiar ideal model may, in like manner^ oiety ; and often in some unaccountable caprice : but. whether derived from the one source, or the other, they wiil ever hslve tipowcrlul effect in formhio- the attitudes, the dv, tlie cou.po- silIdu of-tiie features, and the whole aspect of the person. IS* became hereditary.* The inferior animals afFord many examples to prove the existence of this liutu* ral law. The figure, the colour, and many other properties of the breed of horses are easily changed, by those who have skill in raising them, according to almost any reigning taste. And thty are equally susceptible of deterioration by neglect, or bv im* proper treatment. Out of the same original stocky the Germans, who are settled in Pennsylvania, raise large heavy horses for the draught; the Irish in the same state, by a different mode of treatment, raise such only as are much smaller, and lighter in their form. By competent skill, and the application of propef pains, or, on the other hand, by neglect, or ignorance, the races of all our domestic animals may be almost infinitely varied. Human nature being much more pliant than that of most other animals, and being af- fected by a much greater number of minute causes, according to the state of society in which men are placed, is susceptible, also of a much greater variety of changes from their operation. And among these • Is this more difficult to be conceiyed, or less ^Torthy of credit than that constitutional tendency to certain diseases which, it is now acknowledged by all physicians, may be ren- dered hereditary I X 186 causes, that which I have mentioned of an imaginary standard of the human form, or of the perfection of social manners, is not the least influential. It is for this reason, perhaps, that in different districts of the United States, in which emigrants from Holland, or Germany, or France, have fixed their residence, in ssuch numbers as, hitherto, to have been able, in a great measure, to preserve their original habits, and manners, and, consequently, their peculiar ideas of personal beauty, grace, or propriety of conduct, they retain also a strong resemblance of the primitive stocks from which they are descended. Whereas those who have not limited their intercourse to the circle of their own countrymen, but have mingled freely with the Anglo-Americans, and have adopted their manners, and habits of thinking, have contract- ed such similitude to tliem in their persons, and fea- tures that it is now not easy to distinguish from one another, people whose ancestors were discriminated by most obvious national characteristics. When once any general and standard idea of the beauty of the human pertoa is established in any na- tion, connexions in marriage will be greatly infiuenc* ed by it. And tlicse will contribute, in no incon* siderabie degree, to perpetuate, or to modify the n^ 187 tional countenance.* If men, in the union of the eexes, were as much under control as some of the inferior animals, their persons might be moulded, in the course of a few generations, to almost any stand- ard, making due allowance for the influence of cli- mate, and the necessary operation of other causes which may be connected with it. But left as these connexions commonly are, to the momentary pas- sions, the tasteless caprice, or the gross interests of individuals, they are more anomalous in their effects. There is, however, a common idea which men in- sensibly to themselves, and almost without design pursue. And, in general, they pursue it with more or less success in proportion to the rank and taste of the different classes in society, where accident does not, as too often happens, throw beauty into the arms of deformity, or where, in others, they are governed in forijiing this connexion by interest ever * Perhaps the power of hnagination in pregnant women, which must pe always strongly affected by the national charac- ter of countenance, may deserve some consideration on this subject. Formerly, the imagination of women was supposed by naturalists to possess a degree of influence in this case which was not justified by the facts relied on to support it. But I am inclined to believe that, at present, opinions have been canied t-o an extreme on the other hjind. 1&8 void of taste. The superior ranks, with few excep* tions, will generally excel, in the beauty of their form ;md complexion, not only because they enjoy, in a higher degree, other advantages which have been al- ready pointed out as contributing to this end, but because they have it more in their power to form connexions in marriage among the most beautiful of the sex. The Persian nobility, who are of Tartarian origin, have, in consequence of their removal into a more favorable climate, and their having adopted the manners of a civilized people, acquired juster ideas of the perfection of the human form than they possessed in their primitive seats. Hence, being led to seek the most beautiful women in marriage, they have exchanged the harsh features, and dispro- portioned figures of their Tartar ancestors, for a stat- ure tall, and elegant, and a form and expression of countenance noble and commanding. The Turkish families of fortune have, in like manner, improved the physical character of their race. And if we may ascribe any truth to the portraits drawn by the Ro- man historians of the ancestors of the present nations of Europe, we must acknowledge that the refinement pf manners, and the improvements in the state of so- ciety, which have been introduced in modern times 1^9 among their descendents, have contributed also to produce a proportional improvement in their fea- tures, and their persons. Nothing can exceed the pictures of barbarism and deformity given us by these writers, of the ancient German and Gothic nations ; whereas no nations, perhaps, have ever surpassed the posterity of these rude people in personal beauty. Such examples tend to shew how much national varieties may depend on the state of taste re- sulting from the condition of society, and the progress, or decline of civilization and the arts. They shew, likewise, how much the human race might be improved in personal, as it is acknowledged it may be in mental qualities, by proper cultivation. Of all people the ancient Greeks appear to have best understood how much it is in the power of manners to improve the beauty of the human per- son, and to increase the vigor of the human constitu- tion. To these ends were directed many of their customs, a large portion of their legislative wisdom, and even of the philosophy of their schools, and the whole system of their athletic exercises. And it has been conjectured, not improbably, that the fine liv^ ing models exhibited in that country to statuaries and painters became a primary cau^e oi the high 190 perfection to which the arts of sculpture and paint- ing arrived in Greece. Hitherto among ahnost all people, not only matrimonial connexions, but all means of improving the human form, have been abandoned, in a great measure, to accident, and the caprice of individuals. Persons of elevated and noble rank have usually had it more in their power than others to select the beauty of nations in mar- riage ; and thus, while, without system or design, they gratified only their own taste, they have gener- «lly distinguished their order as much by elegant proportions of person, by fine features, and a noble expression of countenance, as by their prerogatives in society. And the tales of romance which ascribe superlative beauty to their princesses ; and the fic- tions of poets, which distinguish their kings and princes by the dignity and manly beauty of their persons, are not to be imputed solely to venality, and a base disposition to flatter the great, but have a real foundation in nature.* And the usual strain * The justness of these observations will be less perceived in the United States in which so great an equality prevails among the citizens, and tlie poorest enjoy comparative ease and plenty, than in Europe where so Avide a distinction exists be- tween the highest and tlie lowest grades of society. — They arf of figurative language, which, in order to be just-, must be borrowed from nature, strongly supports this remark : a princely person, and a noble thought, are ordinary figures of speech. Mental capacity, which is as various as the human physiognomy, is equally susceptible of improve- ment, or deterioration, from the state of society, and corroborated, however, by relations formerly referred to in Ci.pt. Cook's observations on the inhabitiaits of most of the islands which he visited in the South Sea. In remarking on tiiose of the isUmd of Owyhee, he suys, "The same superior- ity which is observuble m the Hrees (or nobles) through all tlie other islands is found also here. Those whom we saw, are, wit'aout exception, perfectly well formed ; whereas, the lower sort, besides their general infeiiority, are subject to all the variety of make taid fitrure that is seen in the fiopulace of otliei* countries." Cook's 3d voyage, book 3d, chap. 6th. These are the remarks of a plain, but most judicious man, who had. tio theory to support, and was not biased by the opinions of any political party. Such is the deference paid to beauty, and the sentiment of superiority witli which it inspires the beholder, tliat, te this quality, probtibly, docs the body of princes and nobles collec lively taken, in any country, owe great part of their influence over the populace. Riches and magnificence in dress and equi- page produce much of their effect in procuring respect, by giving an artificial beauty to tlie person. How often does his- tory remark that young princes have attached their subjects, and generals their annies by extraordinary beauty of person ? A.d young tmd beautiful queens have ever been followed and wrved With uncommon enthusiasm^ 192 the manners and pursuits, which ma)'- form the cha- racter of any people. The body and mind have such reciprocal influence upon each other, that we often see certain peculiar powers or tendencies of the rational faculty intimately connected with ci r uin corporeal forms. And whenever the moral, not kss than the physical causes, under the influence of which any people exist, have produced any visible eflfect on the form and expression of the countenance, they will also be found proportionally to affect the opera- tions of the mind. The Boeotian countenance was as dull and phlegmatic as the genius of tlie people : and though Boeotia and Attica were in the vicinity of each other, and inhabited originally by the same race, the distinction between BcEotian and Attic wit is not to be ascribed solely to national prejudice, but had a real foundation in the different characters of the two people. And the proper source of a distinc- tion so striking and important is to be sought rather in the state of society and manners in those repub- lics, than in the BcEotian air to which it has been sarcastically attributed by ancient writers. By the alteration of a few political and civil institutions, Thebes might have become Athens, and Athens Thebes. Different epochs in society unfold differ- 193 ent powers of the human mind. Poetry, eloquence, and philosophy seldom arrive at their highest per- fection together ; not because the mind of man does not at all times possess the same endowments from nature, but because, in the progress of society, new objects arise, and new combinations of ideas are formed which call into exercise dift'trent facultie s of the soul. If as just and true a picture of the per.- sonal as of the mental qualities of men at these dif- ferent epochs, could be preserved to posterity we should, probably, find as great variety in the one as in the other.* The coarsest features, and the harshest expression of countenance, w ill commonly be found in the rudest states of society. And the mental capacities of men in that condition will ever be proportionally weaker than those of nations who have made any considerable progress in the arts of civilization.! They become feeble through want * Of this, the example, which I have bcfoi:e produced of the ancient Germans, and the present nations of Europe, affords a striking proof. t The exaggerated i*epresentations which we sometimes re- ceive of the superior ingenuity of men in savage life, are usu- ally the result of inconsideration. Savages are the svil)jects of eulogy for the same reason that we admire $ monkey,— that is, a 194 of objects to employ them, and through defect of motives to call forth their exercise. The rudeness of their manners is calculated to quench the first sparks of taste which might be struck out by the grandeur of the objects, and the wild beauty of the scenes which surround them ; and even the gross- ness and filthiness of the food of most savage tribes, and their ignorance of the arts of preparing it so as to render it most nutritious and salutary to the human constitution, tend to blunt their genius. And the Hottentots, the Laplanders, and the people of Tierra del Fuego are the most stupid of mankind for this, among other reasons which have formerly been sug- gested, that they approach, in these respects, the nearest of any people to the brute creation.* certain resemblance of the actions of men in civilized societj' which was not expected froan the rvideness of their condition. There are doubtless degrees of genius among savages as well as among civilized nations : but the comparison should be made of savages among themselves, and not of the genius of a savage, with that of a polished, people. * The descendents of the African race in America are, be- yond all doubt, more ingenious, and capcble of acquiring any new art, th:m those who have grown up to maturity in the sava- gism of Africa. Wliether they will ever become as susccpti- feie of improvement as the vvnitc races, whxch has been stienu- 195 The effects of savage life upon the human counte- nance are, in many respects, so peculiar as to merit a more minute illustration. Civilization creates some affiiiity in the countenances of all polished na- tions. In proportion to their improvement in the arts, and to the progress of science among them there is a characteristic and common expression, which re- sults from the similarity of the operations of the mind, and of the subjects about which these opera- tions are emp'oyed. But savages in every region are usually distinguished by a countenance so dull and stupid, when not excited into ferocity by hostile and revengeful passions, as to induce many writers to re- gard them as an inferior grade in the descent from the human to the brute creation. Civilized nations inhabiting chiefly the temperate latitudes, and sava- ges, except in America, only the extremes of heat and cold, these differences in point of climate, comr bined with those arising out of their state of society, have produced varieties of aspect so great as to ap- pear unaccountable to those who have only superfi- ously denied by several writers, and, in particular, by Mr. Jefir, ferson in our own country, will be a subject of consideration hereafter. 196 cially attended to this subject. It is not unworthy of being remtirked, however, that the real sum of these varieties, when examined separately, is not so great as the apparent, when taken in at one view. In the latter case, the eye, contemplating at a single glance, not only the variety presented in each feature, but tlie relations of that feature to every other, and to the whole ; and each new relation producing some mod- ification in the appearance of the countenance, the eiitire sum of these combinations surprizes us by its magnitude. — For example, even a small change in the eye, will produce a striking alteration in the ap- pearance of the whole countenance ; because it pre- sents to us, not singly the difference which exists in that feature alone, but all the differences arising from the several combinations of that feature with every other feature in the face. In like manner, a change in the complexion presents, not its own difference alone, but a much greater effect, the result of a simi-. lar combkiation. If both the eyes and the complex- ion be changed in the same person, each vaiuety affecting the whole system of the features, the union of the two results will be productive of a third incomparably greater than either. If, in the same way, we proceed to the lips, the nose^ the 197 cheeks, and to every single feature in the visage, each produces a multiplied effect, by its separate re- lations to the whole, and the entire result, like the product of a geometrical series, is so much beyond our first expectation that it confounds common ob- servers, in their attempts to explain the cause, and will sometimes embarrass the most discerning phi- losophers till they turn their attention, in this man- ner, to divide, and combine effects. To treat this subject fully it would be necessary, in the first place, to ascertain some general expression of countenance which every where belongs to savage life ; and then, as there are degrees of more or IcaS rudeness in the state of savagism, as well as of re- finement in civilized society, it would be necessary . to distinguish the several modifications which each degree makes in the general aspect ; and, in the last place, to consider the varieties, almost innumerable, which arise from combining these general features with the effects of climate and of other causes already mentioned. 1 shall endeavour merely to draw the gen- eral outlines of the human countenance as it is form- ed by the wildness and solitude which commonly pre- vails in the savage state. And, in this portrait I shall take my type chiefly from the American savage. 198 His eye, in his ordinary state of tranquillity, is vacant and unexpressive — the whole composition of his countenance, is fixed and stupid, with little vari- ety of movement in the features — over this unmean- ing ground is thrown an air of wildness and melan- choly. — The face is somewhat dilated at the sides — its muscles are lax — ^thc mouth and lips large — and the nose, in the same proportion, depressed. In order to explain this picture, and to point out the causes which concur to create it, let it be observ- ed that the expression of the eye, and of the whole countenance depends, almost entirely upon the objects with which we are surrounded, the impressions which they make upon the mind, and the reflections and emo- tions they excite. The natural scenery of a country, the occupations, habits, religion, science, govern- ment, manners, of a people, all have their separate influences in forming the national character, and ex- pression of face. The justness of this observation is verified by many facts which are daily presented to us in society. How often do we preccive a distinctive character of countenance impressed upon certain re- ligious sects by the peculiar habits and tenets of their profession? Those who practice certain mechan- ical occupations, and the professors even of the more 199 liberal arts, are often distinguishable by some pecu. liarities of aspect, as well as of manners. Every thought that passes through the mind traces its cha- racter, in stronger, or weaker lines upon the visage; and total vacuity of thought leaves in it only the ex- pression of stupidity. The infinite variety of ideas and emotions created in civilized society, contribute to give great variety to the lines of the face ; at the same time, each class of citizens is liable to be marked by some distinctive expression resulting from their habits and occupations ; while each indi- vidual will be characterized by some singular, and personal traits according to his genius, educatioa and pursuits. Between savage and civilized socie- ty, therefore, there will be all the difference which can arise from thinking, and want of thought. And savages ^vill have all that uniformity among them- selves, in the same climate, and country, which nat- urally arises from vacancy of mind, and the want, especially of all the delicate emotions, which are so varied in society. A vacant eye, and unmeaning countenance, approaching, in some regions, espe- cially under the extremes of heat and cold, almost to a look of idiotism, seem to reduce the savage, in Ijis aspect, many degrees nearer to the brutes, than '200 the civilized man. The solitude in which he Hves renders him dull, and gives him an appearance of melancholy. He seldom speaks, or laughs. Soci- ety rarely enlivens his features. When not engaged in hunting or in war, having no object to rouse him, he will often sit for hours in one posture, with his eyes fixed to a single point, and his senses lost in sombre, and unmeaning reverie. These solitary feelings, and melancholy emotions, serve to cast over his visage, which other causes render fixed, and un- expressive, a sad and lugubrious air. The ^\ild scenes of nature around him impress some resem- blance of themselves on his features ; — and the pas- sions of war and rage, which are almost the only ones that occupy the mind of a savage, frequently mingle with the whole an aspect of brutal ferocity.* * The inhabitants of most of the small islands in the great Southern and Pacific oceans form an exception to this general character of the savage countenance. Prevented, by their iso- lated state, from engaging in perpetual hostilities with neighbor- ing and warlike tribes, like the continental savages, and several of those of the larger isiands,they are distinguished by an air of mildness and complacency, which is much increased in conse- quence of their easy and social manner of living. And this is greatly promoted by the mildness of tlieir climate, and the abund.ince of simple and nutritious food spontaneously suppli- ttd bv thti)' soil. 201 Paucity of ideas, solitude, and melancholy contri- bute likewise, in no small degree, to form the re- maining features of a savage countenance, — a mouth large, and somewhat protruded, a dilatation of the face, and a general laxness and swell of its muscles. The active exercise of thought, and the inter- course of refined society, induce a tension, and ac- tion in the muscles of the face which serve to give it a greater elevation towards the middle. But the vacant mind of the savage leaving these muscles lax and unexerted, they swell into larger dimensions, dilating themselves more towards the sides, tlian ris- ing towards the center of the face. Hence, perhaps, that plumpness of feature, and roundness of visage, or departure from the oval figure, which we so often find in young persons, and especially young women, who have been bred in the retirement of the country.* Grief peculiarly affects the lips by distending them, and giving them a swoln appearance. Soli- tude, gloom or melancholy, in proportion to the de- * And may not the superior advances made in society, and the arts, in Europe, with the superior vigor and energy of the human character in that quarter of the world, be one reason of the greater elevation of the European above that of the Asiatic countenance ? A A 202 grec in which they prevail are found to be attended u iih a like efFtct. Where they naturally arise out of the state of society, therefore, and when they operate from infancy, and are seldom counteracted by the more gay and vi^'id emotions created in polished life, the effects will, at length, become considerable. The lips of a savage, will, from these causes, gene- rally be large, and in a less or greater degree, thick and protruded. The nose aifects, and is affected by other features of the face. The whole system of the features is so connected, that, if one be remarkably enlarged, it is commonly accompanied with a proportional diminution of some other, A prominent nose is generally joined with a thin visage. On the other hand, a broad face, thick lips, and elevated cheek bones, are no" less commonly accompanied with a certain depression of the feature of the nose. It seems as if the extension of the nerves in one direc- tion restrained their growth in another.* Savages, * By a small experimert on ourselves, we may render this effect obvious. By a protrusion of the lips, or by cn\.wirg down the m-outh at the corners, we shi.ll perceive u stricture on the nose, thixt, in an age when all the features are peculiarly soft and pliant. wcuUl seViSibly tci d to depress it. And, continu- ed throu^li tue whole of life. weulU iix it bnmovubly in tliyt habit. 203 therefore, have this feature commonly more flat, and sunk than civilized nations. This, however, is not to be regarded as the entire €ause of that extreme flatness which prevails on part of the coast of Africa, and in Lapland. Climate, probal^ly, enters there for part of the effect ; and is aided by an absurd sense of beauty which prompis the natives to de- press it by art.* The preceeding observations tend to account for some of the most characteristic and distinguishing features which prevail in savage life. To these I might have added another general reason of the pecu- liar wildness and rudeness which marks them in that state of society. The feelings of savages, when they deviate from tht ir usual apathy at home, are mostly of the uneasy kind ; and to them they give an un- constrained expression. Hence will naturally re- sult a habit of the face extremely uncouth ; as we see a similar negligence among the vulgar contribute * Whether the flatness of the African nose be the effect of climate, or of the manner of living-, certain it is, that ;miong the posterity of tlie Africans in America, wh,o are placed in easy ancl comfortable circumstances, we frequently meet with this feature not only raised like that of the Anglo-American, bu beautifully turned. 204 to heighten that disgusting coarseness which so many other causes concur to create. I have now briefly examined the effects of cHmate, of various modes of living, and states of society upon the complexion, and figure of the human spe- cies. — And in this examination we have seen that the pliant nature of man is susceptible of m.any changes from the action of the minutest causes : and the action of these causes habitually repeated through a sufficient period of time, can create, at length, the most conspicuous distinctions among people origin- ally the same. The effect proceeds, increasing from one generation to another, till it arrives at that point where the constitution can yield no farther to the power of the operating cause. Here it assumes a permanent form, which constitutes the character of the climate, or the nation. It is frequently asked on this subject, Vvhy, unless there be an original difference in the species of men, are not the natives of all climates born, at least, with the same figure and complexion? To such enqui- ries it is sufficient to answer, that it is for the same reason, whatever that may be, that other resemblan- ces of parents are communicated to children. Ex- perience demonstrates that figure, stature, complex- 205 ion, features, diseases, and even powers of the mind may become hereditary. To those who find no dif- ficulty in acknowledging that these properties may be communicated to offspring according to the estab- lished laws of nature, the transmission of the climat- ical or national difierences among men, of which we have treated, can contain nothing which ought to appear supernatural, or incredible. — If it be enquir- ed, why, then, a sun burnt face, or a wounded limb, is not, by the same laws, if they exist, trans- mitted to posterity ? we may justly reply, that these are only partial accidents which produce no change on the interior structure and temperament of the con- stitution. It is the constitution which is conveyed by birth. And when any change becomes incorpo- rated, into the system, so as, in any considerable degree, to affect its organization, or the state of its secretions, it then becomes communicable to off- spring along with all other constitutional properties? I proceed, now, to consider the exceptions exist- ing in different regions of the globe which seem to stand in opposition to the principles maintained in this essay. I begin with recalling an observation which I have formerly made, that these exceptions are neither so 206 aunierotis, nor so important as they have been re. presented to be, by inaccurate travellers, and by credulous philosophers. Even Buffon is not alto- gether free from the charge of credulity, who only doubts concerning the relations of Struys, and other prodigy-mongers, who have filled the histories of their voyages with marvelous tales, the fruit of de* liberate falsehood, or of ignorant surprize. Noth- ing can appear more ridiculous and contemptible than philosophers, like maids and nurses, retailing, with solemn faces, the stories of monsters, and en- deavouring to find some cause of their existence in the mysterious operations of nature.* * Buffon who describes the inhabitants of the Ladrone islands as being, in general, of a stature superior to the men of other countries, thinks it not improbalile that giants may have been seen there. And the sa,me author admits the story of the existence of a people in New Holland without teeth. Lord Monbodo, in his treatise of the origin of languages, See. whimsically enough, supposes that mankuid originally had tails; and that they lost this brutal excrescence only in conse. quencc of the progress of civilization. And he believes that there are some nations who yet retain this mark of affinity with tlie inferior tribes of animals. Sir Waiter Raleigh speaks of a people in Guiana without necks, whose eyes, or rather, whose eye, for it is said that they have only one, is in tlie upper part of the breast. Other writers have described certain hordes of Tartars in a similar stile. The necks of these Tartars are. 207 In America, perhaps, we receive such tales with more incredulity and contempt than the people of most other nations ; because we see, in such a strong light, the falsehood of similar wonders, said to exist in this continent, which, a few years ago, were re- ported, and believed, and made the subjects of many philosophical disqliisitions, in Europe. We hear every day the absurd remarks and false reasonsing-s of foreigners on almost every object which comes under their observation in this new region. They judge of things, of men, and of manners under the in* fiuence of habits and ideas, framed in a different cli«' mate, and a different state of society. They pro- Hounce concerning all things according to the ac» companiments which similar facts would have in their own country : without examining, like true philosophers, the causes of the differences created ia the actions of men, and manners of nations, by diver- sity of situation. They infer general and erroneous conclusions from single and mistaken facts, viewed through that prejudice which previous habits always form in common minds.* — Note^ see next page. naturally extremely short. And the spirit of travelling prod- j,5y has sometimes uiidertaken to annihilate tliem. 208 Since America has become better known, we find no canibals in Florida, — no men in Guiana who have their heads sunk into their breasts, — no martial Am- azons. The giants of Patagonia have disappcar- * It reqviires a more minute and accurate attention, and a greater portion of reflection, and the true spirit of pliilosophy than is possessed, or exercised by ordinary travellers to judge with just discrimination of men and things in foreign countries. Countries are described from a single spot, manners from a single action, and men from tlie first man that is seen on a for- eign shore, and him, perhaps, only half seen and at a distance. Hence America has been represented by different travellers as the most fertile or the most barren region on the globe. Navi- gators to Africa who have visited only the shores of the Gambia or the Senegal speak of the spreading forests, and the luxuri- ant herbage of that arid continent. Surprize occasioned by an uncommon complexion, or composition of features, or a stat- ure a little above or below the ordinary standard, has distorted, and increased or diminished tlie size of the people of different nations beyond all the proportions of natui-e. Such judgments are similar to those which a Chinese sailor who had accident- ally been thrown on Cape May, or Cape Hatteras, would form of the United States; or would form of Great-Britain or of France who had seen only the suburbs of Dover, or of Calais. Besides the limited sphere of observation of siuch a traveller, he would naturally see every thing with astonishment, or with dis- gust, which would exaggerate or distort his representation. He would see each action, that might occur to his observation, bv itself, v.'itliout knowing its connexions ; or he would give it in his imagination tiiose connexions which it would have in his own country. A similar error led Capt. Cook, in his first voy- age to form an unfavorable opinion of tlie modesty and chas- 209 ed. And the same fate should liave attended those of the Ladrone islands to whom BufFon, after Gemelli Carreri has been pleased to give an imaginary exis- tence. Tavernier'b tales of the smooth and hairless tity of the women of Otaheite, which his after experience taught him to ooirect. Many such fiilse judgments are to be found in almost every writer of voyt;ges or travels. The Ame- rican savages have often been represented by European writers as fiigid towards the sex because they seldom avi.il themselves of the opportunities almost constantly offered by their state of society, to violate the chastity of their females. And, on the other hand, they ai'e sometimes represented as licentious be- cause they are seen to lie pi'omiscuously in the same wigwam, or round the same fire. — Both jucfgments are Llse ; and result from prepossessions formed in society. Simplicity or ruther rudeness of manners, and the hardships of their state, more than constitution, or than climate, create that appearance of indifference, on the one hand, which is esteemed an evidence of frigidity ; and give occasion, on the other, to that promiscu- ous intercourse wliich is supposed to be united with criminal indulgence. I^uxury, restraints, arid the manifold arts em- ployed for the purpose, in polished society, contribute to in- flame desire, which is allayed by the coarse manners, and the hard fare of savage life, wherein no studied excitements are employed to awaken the passions. And in the midst of this apparently unrestrained freedom, infinitely fewer violations of female honor and safety take place, than are found under the restraints and excitements of our civilized manners. On a like foundation cowardice has been imputed to the aboriginal natives of America, because they prosecute their wars by strat- agem, — insensibility because they suffer torture with a patience not to be parallelled in any other country, — and thievishness, B B 210 bodies of the Mogul women may be ranked with those which have so long, and so falsely attributed this peculiarity to the natives of America. The same judgment may we form of those histories because a savage, having hardly any netion of property, ex- cept in those things which he has in present occupatioi:, lakes, without scruple, wliathe wants, and sees you do not need. We see, in innumerable instances, in the narrations of tra- vellers, the act of one man, the figure, or stature of the first vagrant seen upon a distant shore, furnish out the character of a Avhole nation. The false and distorted representations of Europei^ns who visit the United States are sufficient to make us distrust the narrations of all foreigners \rho pretend to depict the state and manners of new and distant countries. There is hardly a fact which is not perverted by such men as- Weld and Ashe, and the inferences which they draw from what tliey observe are gene- rally false. They travel without a spark of that philosophic spirit which alone entitles a man to remark on foreign, and especially on new countries. Ashe's distress on tl^.e Alleghany mountains on account of wild beasts which never disturb an •American: his terrors j his disgusts, and his wondeiful de- scriptions of thunder-storms, fire-flies, and snakes ai'e truly laughable ; and almost his whole history equally contemptible and false. The same may be said of a great part of the travels through this country which have been published. Volney who claims to stand in the first ranks of philosophy, writes wiUi ht- tle more accuracy or discrimination than these ignorant Eng- lishmen. One of the customs, he says, of tlie citizens of Phi- ladelphia is universally to indulge themselves in bed for two hours in the afternoon, during which time the streets are abso- lutely deserted. He may have been acquainted with one ov 211 which pretend to describe nations without natural affection, — without any sentiments of religion, — and without moral principle. In a word, the greater part of those extraordinary deviations from the com- mon laws of climate, and of society which formerly obtained credit in Europe, arc found, by more accu- two families in which the ladies gave themselves this indul- gence. The rest of the story he must have dreamed. Because he has seen in some houses in Virginia hot buttered rolls serv- ed up at breakfast, he says all the Americans eat hot paste per- fectly soaked in grease. These are but small samples out of many in which he, and a multitude of others, display their in- veterate prejudice, their inexcusable carelessness, or delibe- rate falsehood. By such writers, nations have been judged to be without any sentiment of religion, because they have not seen temples, and ceremonies. Others have been pronounced to be without natu- ral affection, because one man has been seen to do an act of seeming barbarity — But the nation which appears to have de- parted farthest from tae ordinary laws of human nature, is that of the Giagas, a people of Africa, mentioned by Loi-d Kaims in his laudable attempts to disprove the truth of the Mosaic history. This people, he thinks, must be of a distinct race from the rest of mankind, because, unlike all otliers, they kLI their own children as soon as they are bom, and supply their places by youth stolen from the neighbouring tribes. One would think that even his lordship's zeal for a good CaU«c might have suffered him to refleet, that they could not have continu- ed a separate race longer than till tlie stolen children hui grovm up to manhood An excellent specimen of the easy fJth of infidelity !.^-See Ld. Kaims' prelim, disc, to sketchi^s of the iiiat. of HI an. 212 rate observation, to have no existence. If a few marvelous narrations are still retailed by credulous writers, a short time will explode them all, or shew that the facts have been misunderstood ; and, that when placed in a proper light, they are susceptible of an easy explanation, on the knov. n, and common principles of nature. Leaving such pretended facts, and the inferences to which they have given birth, to deserved con- tempt, I shall now state a few well ascertained phe- nomena which appear to imply a deviation from the laws of climate as they have been laid down in this essay ; and, by the solution of them, endeavour to confirm those laws. In tracing the same parallels round the globe we do not discern in every region placed at equal dis- tances from the sun the same features and complex- ion. In the various kingdoms, and districts of In- dia, and along the northern coasts of Africa, nations are mingled together who are distinguished from one another by very conspicuous differences. The torrid zone of Asia is not marked by such a deep colour, nor by such a woolly substance instead of hair, as that of Africa. And the colour of tropical America is, in general, lighter than that of Asia. 213 The tropical zone of i\fnca is not uniform. The complexion of the western coast is of a deeper black than that of the eastern. It is deeper on the north- ern side of the equator, nearly to the tropic, than in the correspondent parallels on the south. The Abyssinians, in the lightness of their complexion, and the length of their hair, form an exception from all the other inhabitants of that zone. And advanc- ing beyond the tropic towards the South, we find the Hottentots who seem to be a race by themselves ; less black than the inhabitants of the torrid zone ; but in their manners, the most beastly, and in their persons and the fticiilties of their minds, approach- ing the nearest to the brute creation of any of the hu- man species. For the explication of these varieties it is necessary to observe that the same parallel of latitude does not uniformly indicate the same degree of heat, or cold. , Vicinity to the sea, the course of winds, the altitude of lands, and even the nature of the soil, create great variety in the temperature of regions posited at the same distance from the equator. The state of soci- ety in which any people take possession of a new country, has a powerful eifect either in subjecting; them to considerable changes in their aspect, from the opera lion of the various causes which affect the human system, or in enabling them to preserve their original features in opposition to their influences. Every migration, however, will produce some change, either more or less conspicuous, in tlieir ap- pearance. And the combined effects of many mi- grations, such as have been made by the greater part of the tribes of the human race, must have contribut- ed greatly to diversify the aspect of mankind in dif- ferent countries. A nation, for example, which mi- grates to a different climate, will, in time, be impres- sed with the characteristics of its new state. If this Ration should, in some centuries afterwards, return to its original seats, it would not perfectly recover its primitive features, and complexion ; but would re- ceive the impressions of the first climate on the ground of those formed in the second. In a new re. moval, the combined effect of the two climates would become the ground on which would be im- pressed the characters of the third. We perceive here a new cause of endless variety in the human countenance. These principles will serve to explain the causes of many of the differences which exist among the inhabitants of those countries which have been the 215 subjects of most frequent conquests, or have most frequently received foreign emigrants into their terri- tories ; especially, if religion, manners, policy, or other causes, prevent tlie old inhabitants from ming- ling freely, and blending with the new. India, and the northern regions of Africa have been oftener over- run by foreign nations than any other countries oa the globe. And many nations who have not at- tempted conquest, have established colonies among- them for the purposes of commerce, invited by the fertility of the soil, or the riches and variety of its productions. We accordingly sec in these climates a greater mixture of people than is any where else to be found. These foreign intruders have, all been, in a greater or less degree, civilized. They virerc able, therefore, to preserve with some success, in their new situations, the resemblance of their origi- nal and distinctive properties. The Turks, the Arabs, and the Moors, in the North of Africa, — ■ the Copts, the Mamelukes, the Turks, and the Greeks, in Egypt, will always be distinguishable from one another in their figure, and complexion, as long as their peculiar habits, manners, and religious,, or national prejudices are retained, and surround thein with those fences which prevent them from 216 amalgamating, and assuming one national character. And India, and the neighboring islands in the Indian Ocean, will ever be filled wi-th a various race of peo- ple, while their delicious climate, and its rich pro- ductions continue to invite both conquest and com- merce. The climate will, doubtless, create a certain change in the aspect of all foreign nations who re- move thither ; but the difference in the degree of this change according to their different habits, and im- provements in the social arts ; and the various com- binations of the effects of the climate with the origi- nal characters of the respective people, will always . maintain among them important and conspicuous distinctions. Along the coasts of the great peninsula of the hither India are scattered the remains of the colonies of many nations who in different ages have held commercial intercourse "with those fertile regions. There ai'e found the ruins of ancient and magnificent structures, which demonstrate that this rich, popu- lous but unwarlike country, has, in former periods, suffered the most cruel and desolating ravages by . hostile invaders, the remnants of whose armies have, probably, long since been blended with the primitive inhabitants, or formed separate tribes in the midst of 217 of them ; all which have contributed to multiply the differences of aspect presented to us among that various j^eople. The northern portion of the hither India, and the farther India down to the southern extremity of the peninsula of Malacca, have often been the theatre of Tartar conquests. And in the mass of their population, and particularly in the phy- siognomy of the Malays^ we evidently discern the basis of the Tartar countenance now overlaid with the softer feature of the lower x\sia : as the countenance of the North American aboriginals is no less evidently the Tartar feature rendered more coarse and harsh by passing through colder climates, and by a more savage state of society.* * I had not long since a striking proof of the visible resem'- blance between the figure, countenance, and whole appearm.ce of the Malay, and the American mdian. Mr. Van Polanen late minister from the late republic of Holland to the United States, and afterwards holding a high office at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the island of Java, on his i-eturn from tlie East, fixed his residence iii Princeton. He brought with him. two Malay servants. As they were one day standing in his door, there happened to pass by two or three Indians belonging to a small tribe which still holds some lands within the state of New-Jersey. When they approached the door the attention of each party was strongly arrested by the appearance of the other. They contemplated one another with evident marks of 218 Another variety which seems to form an excep- tion from the principles hitherto laid down, but which, when fairly examined, will be found to con- firm them, is seen in the torrid zone of Asia which is not marked by so deep a colour as that of Africa ; and the inhabitants have universally long, straight hair instead of wool. The African zone is, almost throughout its whole extent, a field of burning sand, which augments the heat of the sun to a degree that can hardly be conceived of by the inhabitants of the temperate latitudes. The Asiatic zone, on the other hand, consists chiefly of water, which, absorbing the rays of the sun, and filling the atmosphere with a refrigerating vapour, renders the winds that fan its numerous islands, and narrow peninsulas compara-^ lively temperate. The principal masses of its lands lie nearer to the northern tropic, than to the equa- tor. In the summer season the chief winds that blow CTirprize. And, by their signs and gestures, discovered their mutual astonishment at seeing such a likeiiess to themselves. •—Every person, indeed, who sees these Malays, and is ac- qu^nted with the countenance of our native Indians, is forcibly struck with the resemblance.— The chief difference between them is, that the features of the Malays are more soft, the cheek bone not quite so much raised, and the outline of the fficc somewhat more circular. 219 reach them after having deposited their greatest heats in those vast oceans which wash their shores on every side. In the winter, on the other hand, they return in their annual course, from continents which tlie sun has long deserted.* The next apparent exception from our principles we discover in Africa itself. This continent, like * The monsoons are found to blow orer the whole Asiatic zone, taking their course in the two periods of the year accord- ing to the relative position to the sun of tlie great bodies of lan"4 which influence their direction. In the first edition of this essay, misled by the information of some navigators Avho had visited many of the larger islands in the Indian seas, I supposed there was a race of negroes inhab-- iting the interior of the island of Borneo, as well as of some others of those vast insular countries, bearing a considerable resemblance to the negroes of Africa. More accurate infoi'i mation has convinced me that the natives, although black, have more of the Indian than the African feature, and like the fomiey also, their hair is lank and long. The middle regions of those great islands, are very elevated and mountainous ; and are, consequently, more temperate than the coasts, which are now almost universally inhabited by descendents of the Malay tribes, who, in some former period, hiwe conquered the level country, and driven the aboriginals, who appear to be of Indian descent, into the hills, where they have become savage.. — That they were not originally savage I conclude from those rennins of Indian magnificence, and mouuments of the Hindoo supersti- tion, which are still discernible in several of the isUmds, in those parts, from which the aboriginals, now tlie savage inhabitants #f tlie movmtainous tracts, have been expelled.- 220 Europe and Asia, contains many varieties created by the same causes, vicinity to the sun, elevation of the land, the nature of the soil, the temperature of winds, the manners of the people and the mixture of nations who, at different periods and in a state more or less civilized, have established themselves within it, either by conquest, or for the purposes of trade. But the two principal varieties of complexion which prevail from the northern tropic, or a little higher, to the Cape of Good-^ope, are the negro, and the Caffre. The Caffre prevails chiefly towards the southern angle of the peninsula, and along the south- eastern side, distinguished, however, by several va- rieties of shade, occasioned by the causes v/hich have been already suggested. The negro, which is the blackest colour of the human skin, prevails over the greatest portion of the region between the tro- pics, but becomes of a more jetty hue as we ap- proach the Avestern coast. The cause of the great difference between the eastern and western sides of Africa will be obvious to those who consider the course of the tropical winds, and ihe extreme heat they must collect from the immense tract of burn.^ ing sands which they traverse in passing over that continent, in those latitudes where it spreads itself 221 out to the greatest breadth. The winds under the equator, following the course of the sun, reach the eastern coast after blowing over the Arabian and In- dian seas ; where the countries of Aian, Zanguebar and Monomotapa, receive their breezes gready tem- pered by that vast expanse of waters. But arriving at Guinea, and the neighbouring regions after hav- ing traversed three thousand miles of sand heated by a vertical sun, they glow with an ardor unknown in any other portion of the globe. And these coun- tries, lying in that part of the zone where the con- tinent is widest and consequently hottest, the natives are distinguished by complexion of a deeper jet, and by more deformed features than those on the south- ern side of the equator, on the coasts of Congo, An- gola, and Loango. The intense heat which, in this region, produces such a prodigious change on the human constitution, equally affects the whole race of beasts, and of vegetables. All nature bears the marks of a powerful fire. As soon as the traveller leaves the borders of the few rivers ^vhich flow through this tract, where he sees a luxuriant vege- tation, the effect of moisture combined with heat, he immediately enters on a parched and naked soil which produces little else than a few scrubby busheSj 222 -and dry and husky plants. And the whole interior, as far as it has been explored, is represented to be a desert of burning sand which often rolls in waves before the winds.* The negro therefore, is not changed in a greater degree, from the Caffre, the Moor, or the European, than the laws of climate, and the influence of manners, as they have been already illustrated, might lead us to expect. In passing above the river Senegal we enter on a lighter shade of the negro colour ; after which, as we advance towards the North, and before we arrive at the kingdom of Morocco, we find the darkest cop- per of the Moorish complexion. But all this tract is filled with various tribes of wandering Moors and Arabs, and often with a mixed breed, the offspring of unions formed between these, and the native blacks, among whom the negro complexion pre- dominates ; but their features bear a greater resem- blance to tliose of the Moors, and make some ap- proach to the European face. When we leave the torrid 2: one, proceeding to the South, we soon ar- * Bufifon speaks of a nation in the center of Africa, the Zuingcs, who, the Arr^bian writers say, are often ahiiost entire- ly cut off by hot winds that rise out of the surrounding deserts. And in the desert, the ajicient Syrtis, the traveller is fi'equently ' buried btn:^ moist earth, and a temperate sky. And the natives, in- habiting perpetual shade, and respiring in the refrig- erating and grateful effluvia of a fresh and rich growth of vegetables, enjoy a moderate climate in the midst of the torrid zone. These facts tend to shew that, as far as heat is concerned in the effect, the complexion of the Ame- rican, must be much lighter than that of the Afri- can, or even of the Asiatic zone : and the mildness of temperature which prevails over such a vast ex- tent of country contributes, in no inconsiderable degree, to tliat uniformity of countenance which is thought to be peculiar to the aboriginal tribes of America, but which is the result chiefly of that uni- form state of society in which they almost all exist. Except the Peruvians, and Mexicans, and a few smaller tribes in the southern continent, the whole are sunk nearly to the same condition of savagism. Destitute of that variety of ideas and emotions which give variety of expression to the human counte- nance, the same vacancy of aspect is spread over" 231 all; and the same set and composition, nearly, is given to the features. When to this common re- semblance, created by their state of society, and similar habits of living, we add that the general com- plexion of tropical America is but a few shades darker than that which is the natural result of savage life even in temperate climates, we probably per- ceive the true causes of the apparent uniformity of the American countenance. There is, however, a visi- ble increase of the dark hue as we proceed towards the circle of the equator, which is also the widest part of the southern continent. And here, there are many tribes of the natives stained with as deep a colour as the inhabitants of the southern extremity of the Indian peninsula. The Mexicans and Peru- vians, and a few small nations in their vicinity, among whom we discern the first imperfect elements of civilized life, although preserving the general out- line of the American countenance, have a softness thrown over it which distinguishes it from that of the northern savages. Their features are more regular, and handsomely turned ; and they appear to bear a nearer resemblance to the inhabitants of many of the islands of the great South Sea, from whom, it is probable, they derive their origin. The Malays, i\ho were originally Tartars, having, at some re- mote period, taken possession of the farther India, afterwards spread themselves over the greater part of the islands of that vast ocean, conquering, and driv- ing to the mountains in the interior of some, and in others, reducing to slavery, or extirpating, the primitive inhabitants. Not being addicted to com- merce, these insular colonies, have not long main- tained any intercourse with the parent country, and have therefore retained the knowledge of only a few of the arts with which their ancestors were ac* quainted.* But with these few they have probably advanced from island to island till, at length, they reached the western shore of the American conti- * That eithei' the tmccstors of the present inhiibitants of many of those islands, or the nations whom they have extirpat' ed, possessed the is.nowledge of arts which are now lost from among them, is evident from the monuments of architecture and sculpture which still remain. Several monuments of an- cient art are found even in the small isUaid of E.stcr ■^^ hich is so deeply embosomed in the ocean, and approaches so near to the American continent, which are beyond the skill or power of it? present inhabitants to effect. The resemblance of the works which are found in Java, and some neighboring islands, to those of Elephantaand Salsette, demonstrate the relation of those an- cient people to the nations of India. While the religipus worr ship of the Peruvians bears a strong testimony to their AsikUc 233 nent. Here they seem to have laid the foundations of those empires which the Europeans, on their arrival in America, found as yet only in the first stage of civilized society. Their earliest estab- lishments were evidently made in Peru. After- wards Mexico api^ears to have been foui-ded about three centuries before the discovery. From this empire a few tribes probably found their way farther «p into the continent, to the North of the Mexican gulph.* But here they were met by ruder and fier- cer tribes whose ancestors had come from Asia by a different route. But whether leaving Asia, and en- tering America by the North, or by the South, the remote ancestry of both appear to have originated nearly from the same regions. And in all the Ame- rican Indians we discover visible traits of the Tartar countenance. The last apparent exception to the general princi- ples of the essay which I think it necessary to notice is found in the islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. In these seas people have been discovered • Such were probably the Natchez, several of whose cus- toms resembled those of the Peruvians. And geneia.ly, the tribes in that vicinity between the Mississippi and Mexico were of a milder character than the nortiiern indians. E E ^■34, in islands existing in the vicinity of one another, and often in the same island, of various complexions. The chief of them I shall present to the reader as they have been described by some of the most accurate observers, and eminent naturalists who accompanied the celebrated Captain Cook. The inhabitants of Otaheitee are divided into two classes. — The Tow- towsy or servile class, who are occupied in such la- bors as the simple condition of the people requires : and the Arees, who may be regarded as the proprie- tors of the soil^ and who arc exempted from every laborious occupation ; spending their lives amidst such pleasures and amusements as tlie climate per- mits, and their uncultivated state of society affords. The former, besidies the burdensome tasks which they arc obliged daily to perform, are reduced to a much more scanty provision of food than their mas- ters, and are exposed, without clothing, to the full impression of the sun. These, though not stain- ed with the deep jet of the torrid regions of Africa, are of a much blacker hue, than the superior class of the Arees, who are exposed to no hardships, arc always well clothed,* and enjoy not only a suffi- * In a handsome aiid light cloth the peculiar fabric of thoae- islaiids. S35 ciency, but abundance of simple, indeed, but nutri- tious food.* The Arees are represented to be, in general, a people of good stature, fine figure, pleas- ing features, and proportions of person, and of a complexion so light, in the women especially, as to render the stain of blushing easily perceptible. f Passing on to the north-east, about the region of the tropic, we come to the Marquesas isles, in which the women, who are clothed like the Otahei- teans, exhibit the same general appearance ; but the men, who universally go naked, are of a darker hue. Their food is neither so nutritious, nor so abundant as that of the inhabitants of Otaheitee : and a less fertile soil has imposed upon them a general neces- sity of labor. Hence, besides the greater discol- ouration of their skin, they are seldom so corpulent * Bread fruit, apples, cocoa-nuts, yams, eddoes, and otlier excellent fruits and roots which grow in great profusion al- most without culture in their mild climate, and fertile soil. Add to these, poultry, and hogs of a very sweet and succulent flesh, and dogs which are there kept only for the purpose of food. t The principal defects of their countenance are said to be a little bluntness of the nose, a small protuberance of the lips, di- latation of the middle of the face, and a gentle swell or plump- ness of its features in general ; which, however, in this simple people, appears agreeable. 236 as the Otahelteans, though commonly of a more muscular form. And these effects are supposed, by the naturalists whom 1 have before mentioned, to be iiicreased by the position of their habitations, which are never placed like those of the Otaheiteans, on beautiful and fertile plains, but generally on the slopes, and often on the summits of very high hills ; so that whenever they move abroad, they are neces- sarily in a state of strenuous exertion. From the inhabitants of the Marquesas, the peo- pie of the Friendly Isles, who, from choice, or from necessity, are addicted to the same habits of indus- try and exertion, do not differ much either in com- plexion or in figure. But far to the East, and nearly at an equal dis- tance from the Society Isles, and the American con- tinent, we discover the small, and thinly inhabited island of Easter. The natives of this remote and solitary spot are subjected to greater hardships than those of the islands which have just been mentioned ; and living in a still ruder state of society, are repre- sented as being more slender in their persons, and more daik and coppery in their complexion, not unlike the Peruvians of the neighboring continent. Several relics of ancient art, however, bearing s 237 striking resemblance to the remaining monuments of ancient indian architecture and superstition, de- monstrate that this island has once been possessed by a people who had made greater advances in the pro- gress towards civilization than the present inhabitants. Within the same latitudes, and not remote from the Society, and Friendly Isles lies the group of the New Hebrides. Of these several are inhabited by a people more savage than the former. Their inhab* itants, especially those of Mallicollo, of New Cale- donia and Tanna, are distinguished by a sooty com- plexion. Their hair, though not so short, and closely napped as that of the Africans, is frizzled and woolly. And in their whole appearance, they bear some analogy to the miserab e inhabitants of the neighboring region of New Holland ; except that their slender persons are better turned, and they possess much greater vivacity of disposition. The natives of Papua, and New Guinea exhibit nearly the same colour of the skin, and the same form of the hair. But in all the large islands near the Indian continent there are very distinctly marked two races of men ; — one inhabiting the mountainous countries every where occupying the iiuerior of those islands ; the other possessing the low and level 238 lands near the sea coast. The former exhibit many- points of resemblance with the Hindoo tribes : the latter are evidently of Malayan original. Thus I have presented to the reader the three principal varieties of men which are found in the Indian and Pacific oceans, — the blacks of New Hol- land, New Guinea, the New Hebrides, and Papua; — a people of dark olive colour, inhabiting the moun- tainous interior of the large islands ; — and those who possess the low and level countries in the same islands, who also occupy the greater part of the groupes of smaller islands scattered through those seas, all of whom exhibit different shades of the tawny complexion. — Of these, the first are probably descendents of that original stock who were formed by the climate, while they were yet in their most rude and saA-age condition. The second have all the appearance of being the remnants of Hindoo co^ Ionics who had established themselves in those isles in some remote period when the Indian empire was in a much more flourishing condition than at present. But expelled at length from the sea coast by Malayan conquerors, who form the third race, they have retired to the mountains, and there become savage. These conquerors, in a distant S39 SLgCj issuing from the Nortli of Asia, having subdued the farther India, at length spread them- selves over almost all the islands in those extensive seas.* If it be asked, why have not these several varieties been long since melted down into one uniform coun- tenance by the operation of the climate which is sup- posed to possess such a powerful influence over the human constitution ? — It is well understood by nat- uralists that various races capable of propagating their kind, may be formed out of the same original stock of animals, or of plants, and that, by proper culture and care, they may forever be preserved * This is an inference justified not only by the general re^ semblance of all these people to one another, but by the evie' dent vestiges of the same language, which those, who are best acquainted with them, discern in the vocabularies of all those- islands. Traces of tliis language are perceived says Reland, [dissers- tationes miscellsineae, vol. iii.] not only in the tongues spoken in these numerous isles, but in those used by the continental nations inhabiting the middle of Asia, as the Persic, the Mala- buric, and even the Braminic. And the common origin of so many different dialects is most obvious in tlieir vocabularies of names which express the most common, familiar, and useful objects, and such as must have been known, and even necesr &ary, equally to them, and to tlieir ancestors, in every stage of *Jieir improvement. 240 distinct. In forming the diflferent races of men*' other causes are combined not less powerful than climate. Manners, education, habits of living, and all those causes comprehended under the general * Blumenbach attempts to throw the different races of men into five principal divisions, viz. tlie Ciucaniayi or hcindsoniest race, the primary seat of which was about the Euxinc and Cas- pian seas, and the countries somewhat to the South, from whom came the Europeans. Second, the Mongou^ or people inhabiting the North-East of Asia, with their descendents to the East, of that continent. Third, the African. Fourth, the American, And fifth the Malayan., occupying the South-East of Asia, and a great part of the isles in the Indian and great South seas. Leibnitz, ranks them under four orders :— the Laponian^ the Ethiopic ; the eastern Mongou, comprehending the peo- ple of Asia ; and the western Mongou, embracing those of Europe. Linnaeus likewise divides them into four : — the red Ameri- can ; the white European ; the dark coloured Asiatic ; and the black Ethiopian. Buffon arranges them in six ; — ^the Laponian in the North of Europe and Asia ; the Tartar in the North-E^jst of Asia ; tlie southern Asiatic ; the European; the Ethiopian, and the Ame- rican. Various other divisions have been made by different wri- ters ; as, the Abbe de la Croix; Kant; Dr. John Hunter; Zim- merman, and others. — Thee onclusion to be drawn from all this vai'iety ©f opinions is, perhaps, that it is impossible to dratr the line precisely between the various races of men, or even to enumerate them with certainty ; and that it is in itself a use- less labor to attempt it. 241 head oithe state of society, have a powerful operation in preserving, and augmenting, or in guarding against the impressions of climate, and in modifying the whole appearance of the human person and countenance. And after the characters of a race have once been completely formed, and thoroughly- incorporated into the system, they may, by the in- fluence of the same moral causes, and the application of the same arts which contributed to create them, be, in their principal features, perpetuated in the most various climates. Nations, sprung from the same original stock, may be traced, by many points of resemblance, through different climates ; and differ- ent races may long preserve their peculiar, and most discriminating properties in the same climate ; espe- cially if, like the inhabitants of these islands, their customs, their prejudices, or antipathies prevent them from amalgamating, and confounding their stocks.-— Hence the resemblances and differences which exist among the various people of the numerous islands of the great South Sea, the Indian, and Pacific oceans. And hence that mixture of races extend- ed along the Senegal in Africa, and scattered through the intermediate space between that river and the Gambia, where we meet with ne§;roes» r F 242 Moors, and Arabs, and often with a race mixed and compounded of all the others.* Having now concluded the investigation which I proposed into the causes of the principal varieties in complexion and figure which distinguish the dif^ ferent nations of men from one another, it gives me pleasure to observe on this, as on many other sub- * This region seems to form the general boundary between the Moorish and Arab, or dusky and yellow population in the northern portion of Africa, and the negro, or black population in the center. It is a broad belt which borders the African zone from the twelftli or thirteenth degree of latitude to the tropic, and extending from the Atlantic ocean, to the mountains of Abyssinia — Mr. Park api>ears to regard the Foulah tribes, who are lighter in their complexion than other negroes, witU softer and longer hair, as related by mixture to the Arabs, whom they I'esemble in their attachment to a pastoral life. Those wandering and predatory tribes which are caLed by thft general denomination of Moors, who surround and penetrate the great desert, and have dispersed themselves in various hordes as fur as the Niger, are, not improbably, the remains of several civilized nations of antit;uity, Caitliaginians, Phoe- nicians, Romans who at different periods possessed tix North of Africa, blended with the Numidians aiid ^lauritanians, and reduced almost to savagism by being scattered through the in- hospitable deserts of that arid ai;d ungenial country. This is the circle which the Critical Reviewers have dexter- ously selected for examples of diversity of complexion within the troplc;d latitudes in order to impugn the pi inciples of tiiis essay while they have not had the candor to notice, as philoso- phers, the soluiiba which is given of this phenomenon. 243 jects which have been attempted to be formed into objections against the sacred history, that the most extensive and accurate researches into the actual state, and the powers of nature, have ever served^ more and more to confirm the flicts vouched to us by the authority of holy writ. A just philosophy will always be found coincident with the true theol- ogy. But I must repeat here an observation which I made in the beginning of this essay, and which i trust I am now entitled to make with more confi- dence, that the denial of the unity of the human spe- cies tends to impair, if not entirely to destroy, the foundations of duty and morals, and, in a word, of the whole science of human nature. No general principles of conduct, or religion, or even of civil policy, could be derived from natures originally and essentially difterent from one another, and, after- wards, in the perpetual changes of the world, infin- itely mixed and compounded. The principles and rules which a philosopher might derive from the study of his own nature, could not be applied with certainty to regulate the conduct of other men, and other nations, who might be of totally different spe- cies ; or sprung from a very dissimilar composition of species. The terms which one man would frame 244 to express the ideas and emotions of his own mind must convey to another a meaning as different as the organization of their respective natures. But when the whole human race is known to compose only one species, this confusion and uncertainty is remov- ed, and the science of human nature, in all its rela- tions, becomes susceptible of system. The principles of morals rest on sure and immutable foundations. —Its unity I have endeavoured to confirm by ex- plaining the causes of its variety. Of these, the first 1 have shewn to be climate, by which is meant, not so much the latitude of a country from the equator, as the degree of heat or cold, which often depends on a great variety of other circumstances. The next is the state of society, which may augment or cor- rect the influence of climate, and is itself a separate and independent cause of many conspicuous dis- tinctions among mankind. These causes may be in- finitely varied in degree ; and their effects may like- wise be diversified by various combinations. And, in the continual migrations of mankind, these effects may be still further modified, by changes which have antecedently taken place in a prior climate, and a prior state of society. Even where all external cir- cumstances seem to be tlie same, there may be 245 causes of difference depending on many natural in- fluences with which philosophy is not yet acquaint- cd ; as there are varieties among the children of the same family. Frequently we see, in the same coun- try individuals resembling every nation on the globe. Such varieties prove, at least, that the hu- man constitution is susceptible of all the modifica- tions which exist among mankind, without having recourse, in order to account for them, to the un- necessary, and therefore unphilosophical hypothesis of there having existed from the beginning, different original species of men. It is not more astonishing in itself, or out of the order of nature, that nations sprung from the same stock, than that individuals should differ. In the one case we are assured of the fact from observation ; in the other, we have reason to conclude, independently on the sacred au- thority of revelation, that from one pair have de. scended all the families of the earth. REMARKS ON CERTAIN STRICTURES MADE ON THE FIRSt EDITION OF THIS ESSAY, BY MR. CHARLES WHITE, In a series of Discourses delivered to the Litei*ary and Philosophical Society of Manchester in England. Published in London., in quarto, in the year 1799. ■ ^■- • . - /■ . ■ -A.-j.. ,-',»^ REMARKS, IYIR. Charles White having, in a series of dis» courses delivered to the literary and philosophical society of Manchester in England, made several strictures on the first edition of this essay, and ap- pealed to certain anatomical facts which he supposes to stand in opposition to its principles, I have con- ceived it to be a duty which I owe to myself, and a respect due to the ingenuity of Mr. White, to point out some mistakes in his facts, and some errors ill the conclusions which he has drawn from them. The facts subjected to his own inspection were derived principally from an examination of a single African skeleton, though afterwards confirmed by other skeU etons, and by some living subjects. And I readily admit that the picture which he has presented to us exhibits with sufficient accuracy a general image of that miserable and degraded class of Africans who are introduced as slaves into the islands of the West- Indies, or the United States of America, most G G 250 of whom had before been slaves, or were taken from the poorest and most abject class of the population in their own country.* If their characteristic physi-* ognomy may, in part, be ascribed to the influence of the climate, much certainly ought to be imputed to their miserable habits of living. For it is evident to every eye capable of comparing an American, with an African negro, that the change of climate, and of their manner of subsistence, has already produced in the posterity of the Africans, all the alteration in their appearance which, in so short a period of time, * We find from Mr. Park's examination of the region lying between the Senegal, the Niger, and the Gambia, that more than three fourths of the African population consist of the servile class, in a country in which the freest appear to be in a condition sufficiently wretched. From this servile class almost all the slaves imported into America are taken. Now and then, however, we find one who has been decoyed, or borne off by force from among those who belong to the superior grades of tlieir society. When tliis is the case, he is commonly distinguished by a more erect person, and -more open countenance than his companions, vdth less of what is called the African peculiarity of feature. A proof that the most disgusting qualities of the African countenance result from the abject state of poverty and subjection in which their slaves, and the lowest classes of their population exist. This conclusion is confinned by the amelioration which their features are undergoing in the United States, especially in the families of wealthy and iiumane masters. 251 could justly be expected, allowing to the principles maintained in the preceeding essay their full and necessary operation. I do not hesitate to apply this remark to the American slaves, ih general ; but it is applicable especially to the domestic slaves of opu- lent families in the southern states, aisd the free blacks who are found in considerble nun. b. is in the northern portion of the Union. The most op- pressed and destitute of these slaves, with vcr> few exceptions, are better fed, clothed, and lodged, than their ancestors were in Africa.* But there is a visi- * Very exaggerated descriptions are often given of the severities practised, and the deprivations imposed, on the slaves in the southern states. I have visited ail tiiose states, and re- sided several years in Virginia without ever having been the owner of a slave in any of them, and it gives me pleasure to be able to say that, except in a very few instances, I have general- ly witnessed a humane treatment exercised towards that de- pendent and humiliated race of men. If it be asked, why, then, are they not emancipated ? The answer to this question involves political considerations which it does not belong to me at pre- sent to discuss. But I believe the public safety necessarily pre- vents a speedy accomplishment of an event so desirable to hu- manity. But in justice to the southern planters I must add tliat their treatment of their slaves is not to be estimated by what too fre- quently takes place in the British West-Indian colonies. Sev- eral circumstances unnecessaiy, or improper to be mentioned kere, contribute to the severity of the slavery that exists in those islands. 252 ble difference, as I have formerly remarked, in th© appearance, as there is in the treatment of those do-t mestics who are nourished in the families, and pursue their light occupation almost constantly in the pre- sence of their mistresses or masters, and the slaves who are sent to labor in the fields under the inspec- tion of an overseer. The latter are obliged to be subjected to a severer discipline, and to subsist on a coarser and more scanty fare, and they are morp negligently attended during the period of infancy. Generally, however, even these enjoy considerable privileges which the prudent and industrious among them improve to the amelioration of their condition, and to add, in no small degree, to the comfort of their subsistence. Hence the American negro is visibly losing the most uncouth peculiarities of the African person, and physiognomy. Having made these preliminary observations I pro- ceed to enter into a more particular consideration of those distinguishing properties which, according to our author, discriminate the negro of Africa from the fair native of Europe.'?^ * The folloAving facts and I'easonings may be applied also to estimate at their just value those detached observations C[Uote4 in Mr. White's appendix from professor Soemmering's essa^^ en tiie comparative anatomy of the negro and European. 25S *< The foot of the negro, says he, is much longer, iDFoader, and flatter than that of the European. The vs calcis, instead of forming an arch with the tarsal bones, makes with them nearly a straight horizontal line." — Taking the second of these observations out of the technical language in which it is expressed, it is simply, that the heel extends much farther back in the black than in the white man. — This is surely a very equivocal criterion of a distinct spe- cies. We see in our own climate, the laboring poor who are occupied in the cultivation of the ground, and who generally pass the summer season without shoes, or with very loose ones, have their feet «iuch longer and broader than persons in the more polished circles of society, who have them always confined by tight shoes. When the foot is left en- tirely unconfined to bear the constant pressure of the weight of the body, it will necessarily be much dilat- ed and extended in every direction. On the con- trary, many of those slaves who are raised in genteel families, and kept near the persons of their masters and mistresses, and dressed like their superiors, ex- hibit comparatively little difference in this limb from the Anglo-Americans. I have now before me a ' young black woman, the property of a female rela- 254 tioii who has a heel as well formed as that of the fair- est lady. The author proceeds to say, — '* The skull is nar- rower, both before and behind, in the negro ; and the head is so placed upon the neck that the back part of it makes a much more obtuse angle with the spine, than in the white European." He adds,— *' The depth of the lower jaw, between the teeth and the chin is less, that of the upper, between the nose and the teeth greater ; the channel of sound in the ear placed farther back ; the foreteeth are larger, and not placed so perpendicularly in their sockets, pro- jecting more at their points. The bones of the nose are less projected ; the chin, instead of being pro- jected, recedes ; the meatus aiiditorius is wider, and the bony sockets which contain the eyes more capacious ; the bones of the leg and thigh more gib- bous, and the fore arm longer than in the white man." — Such is the picture which Mr. White has drawn of the negro skeleton : and taking for the original the greater part of those miserable people who are brought as slaves from the continent of Africa, the portrait is sufficiently accurate. But is it more surprizing, or difficult to be accounted for, that the form of the skeleton, than diat the muscles^ 255 the complexion or the expression of the counter nance, should be affected, as I have already shewn that they may, by the climate, the habits of life, and the state of society in which any people exist. But I repeat, and I repeat it with the most perfect con- fidence, because the fact is open to the observation of every American, that, in the United States, the phy- siognomy, and the whole figure and personal ap- pearance of the African race is undergoing a favor* able change.* Among the males you frequently . * I have before assigned reasons why a change in the com- plexion is less speedily to be expected in the blacks or any dis- coloured people, than in their features, and persons. Some annotator on the edition of Rees' Cyclopaedia now publishing in Piiiladclphia by Bradford, and others, has been pleased to as- sert that I have maintained that the black complexion of the American negroes is growing sensibly lighter. Whatever may be the fact, I have, certainly, made no such assertion ; but on the other hand, have assigned reasons why no very sen- sible effect of tliis kind should yet be expected. But, that time will efface the black complexion in them I think very probable, as it has done in the colony which, according to tlie testimony of Herodotus, was anciently transferred from Egypt to Colchis. — It discovers no small impropriety, but certainly not much philosophy, to pretend, in this manner, to remark on a work which either the writer has not read, or has read but very superficially. But one does not know which most to wo.ider at, his petulance, or his ignorance in the followiiig re- mark. « The question respecting the mutability of the com- 256 ifiiiect with men of straight, active, and vigorous persons, who present to you foreheads as open, full, and finely arched as the whites. And among the females it is not uncommon to meet with good fea* tures, and a pleasing expression of countenance. And if we consider beauty of form in the mixed race as of any account in this question, there arc not perhaps in the world persons of finer figure and proportions than are found among the mulattos of St. Domingo or Jamaica. — The nose of the American negro, though not yet so much raised as that of the whites, is, in general, far from being so much de- pressed as that of the natives of Africa. The teeth of that race are almost universally beautiful ; and, in plexion of man, is a philosophical one. And it is remarkable that tlie doctrine of entire mutubility on this subject," a strange expression for a critical annotator, " is, and always has been advocated, by men much more distinguished for their piety, and christian zeal, than for their knowledge of nature." — What then ! does a little smattering of Cheirdstry and Medicine, cre- ate a philosopher ? Were Bacon and BufFon, and Blumen- bach, and Camper, and a thousand others among the most eminent naturalists, more distinguished for their christian zialy than for their knOvjledge of nature ? Or has the young man, in his zeal to throw out a malignant reflection against religion, forgotten these rea/ philosophers ? — If he has a spark remain- ing of tliat ingenuousness which becomes a philosopher, or a. scholar, he will be ashamed of this anootation. 257 •the cases which I have already indicated, and which should be preserved in mind in all these re- marks, where their servitude has been mild, through several races, they are found not to project more at the points than those of the handsomest Europeans. In proportion as the feature of the nose rises, the lips are becoming less protuberant. And the dis- tance from the bottom of the nose to the aperture of the lips, and thence to the middle of the chin, dif- fers little, in many of them, from the proportions that are seen among the whites.* How far the gib- bousness of the legs and thighs, which is so com- mon to the natives of Africa, is to be ascribed to climate, I will not venture to pronounce : but I am inclined rather to attribute it to neglect of their children during the period of infancy.! The cli- * See the proportions taken from young blacks, p. 26 1 — 263, t From the same cause many crooked and deformed perj' sons are seen in most of tlie great manufacturing towns in Eng-- land ; and indeed wherever the necessities of the poor press upon them so constantly that they have not leisure to pay those attentions to their children which are requisite to improve the beauty of their form, or even to preserve them fio;nmaiiy hurtful accidents. From a directly opposite cause, the facility Avith which the poor procure subsistence in the United States, and the leisure Avhich they consequently enjoy for all these de- ll H 258 mate of Africa requires less attention to them for their preservation and safety, than the more rigorous climates of the North. And a savage and barbarous people not feeling the same solicitude for personal beauty which is felt in polished society, they per- ceive few motives, derived from this source, to de- part from the natural indolence of savagism m the care of their children. These children, left during^ a great portion of the day, on the ground at the doors of their huts, to their own struggles and ef- forts, at that period of life when they are first begin- ning to move from place to place, will fnq icnt- ly distort their limbs by accidents, or by wrong and violent positions. But without taking these acciden- tal ills into the account, the common way of moving' at that age being on their hands and feet, much stress is necessarily laid on the legs and thighs. And this not being in a perpendicular direction, as on the arms, but in an oblique and inclining position, will naturally tend, at an age in which the bones are in a soft, and almost cartilaginous state, to give a mestic, and parental cares, a deformed child is rarely seen in our country.— Indolence produces in Africa tlie sume effect, which the pressure of too much labor does in many paits of Euiope. —See this subject more pia'ticuiarly treated in the esiiay, pi 139—144. 259 gibbous form to these limbs. I am the more iii" cliiied to ascribe the eflfect to this cause for a reason tliat will be very obvious to a planter in the southern states of America, who has daily opportunities of observing the great difference in the figure of the legs and thighs that subsists between his field, and his domestic, slaves. Among the former, in whose quarters the necessities of their state concur with the mildness of the climate, and the natural indo- knce of slavery, to produce great negligence, and inattention in the nursing and management of their children, the gibbous form of these members is almost as common as among their African ances- tors. Among the latter, on the other hand, who are carefully nursed, you generally find much straighter persons, and, frequently, persons which would be esteemed handsome in any nation. In the northern states, the gibbousness of the leg in the blacks is disappearing more speedily. In Princeton, and its vicinity 1 daily see persons of the Afiican race whose limbs are as handsomely formed as those of the inferior and laboring classes, either of Euro- peans, or Anglo-Americans. To this gibbous deformity in the legs, is to be scribed also the next defect mentioned by Mr. 260 White, the too great elevation of the calves, or, as, he more technically speaks, of the gastrocnemii tnus- cles. And we perceive, in this country, that the one defect is diminished in proportion as the other is corrected. — To the mitoward structure of their limbs, this author attributes a peculiar awkwai'dness in their gait, which he reckons likewise among their characteristic and specific distinctions.- — I agree with him that this awkwardness, and apparent labor in walking, arises in part from their figure which is unfavorable to ease and grace of movement. But it is, perhaps not less to be imputed to their occupa- tions, and to the total want of example, and of care to form their habits in childhood. How com- monly do we see the ploughman display the habits of tlie ploughed field in his ordinary gait. Black domestics among us, in general, walk with us much propriety as our white servants, and black chamber maids, in particular, imitate with great address, the genteel air and manner of their mistresses. Another criterion by which Mr. White would mark the distinction of race between the African and European consists in the length of the fore arm, which is said to be greater in the former than in the latter.— He could not, perhaps, have pitched upoa 261 a criterion more uncertain than the proportion which this member bears to others in the corporeal system, and to the height of the whole person. The admea- surements which he acknowledges, and which were made by himself, or his friends, difter so consider- ably from one another in their proportions, as to be sufficient, one would think, to have weakened liis confidence in his own rule- Let us take the mea- sures exhibited by him in his discourses, stating the height of the person in one column, and the length of the ulna in another. Height of person. Length of vihia. Feet . Inches. Inches^ The first is of a female mea- sured by Mr. White, 5 8 1-2 10 The second of a man by Mr. Ward, 5 8 5 7-8 The third a female by Mr. Crozier, 5 3 1-8 10 The fourth a male by Mr. Foxley, 5 1 3-4 10 The statue of the Venus de Medicis, framed according to th6 standard of perfect beauty e^nceived by the ancient art ■ 4 262 Height of Lcngtli of person. uimu Feet. Inches, inches. iBts, gives tlie following pro- portions, 5 9 3.4 An European woman mea- sured by Mr. White, 5 8 3-4 Another European woman by Mr. White, 5 4 9 3-4 The following measures I have taken of four young wo- men in Princeton — viz. two young ladies, 5 2 3-5 9 1-4 • •• •• ado 9 3-S A young black woman in my family, 4 9 1-4 9 1-10 Another young black wo- man, 5 3 10 2-10 a proportion not very different from that of the Venus de Medicis. This young womaii was perfectly black and re- moved by at least three, and probably four descents from her African ancestors.* * Other proportions of the same woman will shew a great variation from Mr. White's picture of an African. Her foot 263 The peculiar structure of the skull of an African, as delineated by Mr. White, is not a more certain criterion of diversity of species than those proper* ties which have been already mentioned. Climate, modes of living, national customs and ideas, and the degree of riviiization to which a people have ar* gave 9.7 inches,— -her nose from its rise to the end of tlie cari' tihge 1.8 inches, its ridge was a right line, and its elevation at the end of the cartilage 1.1 1-2 inches. The distance from th© termination of the nose to the division of the lips 1 .7 inches, thence to the middle of the chin 1.2 inches ; from the middle of the chin to the meatus audilorius 6.5 inches, from the cartil- age which divides the nostrils to the same place 4.5 inches, from the meatus of one ear to that of the other, round the most prominent part of the occiput, removing the wool, 12 inches. A black man belonging to one of my neighbors [Mr. Craig] gives the following measui-es ; — ^liis height 4 feet 9 inches. — the length of his foot 10 inches, — ^the length of his nose from its rise to the end of the cartilage 19-10 inches,— its ridge is also a right line, its elevation 1 inch ; — ^from the end of the nose to the division of the lips I inch, — thence to th© middle of the chin 16-10 niches,— from the middle of tlie chin to the meatus auditorius 5 9-10 mches, — from the meatus of one ear to that of the other round the most prominent part of tlie occiput 15 inches, — the length of the fore arm 9 9-10 in- ches — The lips of the black girl were somewhat more protu- berant than is usuil in white women of her size ; those of th& black man exhibited no difference in this respect from the gene- ral ..ppeurance of the lips of white men. I see, however, a» much diversity in the features of our American negroes amonjf lUiemseives, as in those of tlie whites. 264 rived, all have an influence on the figure of this bony substratum of the head, as well as on the features of the countenance. Lavatcr says, he finds not a greater difference between the skulls of a German and an East- Indian, than between that of a German and a Hollander. And he observes further, that the skull of a Calmuc, or Nomade Tartar ap- proaches very nearly that of an African. — Lavater, indeed, without having accurately considered the changes which time, which civilization, or removal into different climates may produce in the same race, has confidently asked; " What care of educa* lion can arch the skull of a negro, like that of a star conversant astronomer ?" It is not supposed that education alone can effect it on a negro who has al- ready received the basis of his constitution, in Africa. But, that time, a more favorable climate, better diet, and habits of society, may in a series of descents accomplish such a change, in the West- India isl- ands, and the American states, can be confirmed by many examples. We often see among the children of Africa both in insular and continental America, heads as finely arched, and persons as handsomely formed, as are ever seen among the descendents of Europe- ans. And it was remarked of the army of Tous- Q65 aaint in St. Domingo that many of his officers were not exceeded in elegance of form, and nobleness of aspect, by any in the army of Rochambeau, or Le Clerc* Nearly connected with the preceeding is the next characteristic distinction of the negro species which our author assigns, founded in the supposed deficien- cy of mental talent. For this fact, real, or pretended, he quotes the authority of Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia t "Comparing them [ihe negroes] says he, by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the whites, in reason much inferior, and that, in imagination, they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous. It would be unfair, he adds, to follow them to Af- rica for this investigation. We will consider them here on the same stage with the whites. But it will be right to make great allowances for the difference of •ondition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere * The critical reviewers are pleased to insinuate tliat thfr fine persons of many of the West-India blacks arise from a mixture of white blood. There are undoubtedly, in the isl- ands, mulattos and other mixtures of blood in different de- grees. But the observation in the text is applicable to men and women who have a clear, undoubted African descent. t Page 232. I I 266 in which they more. Yet, many of them have been so situated that they might have availed themselves of the conversation of their masters : many have been brought up to the handicraft arts, and, from that circumstance, have been always associated with the ' whites. Some have been liberally educated ; and alt have lived in countries where the arts and sciences have been cultivated to a considerable degree, and have had before their eyes samples of the best works from abroad. Never could I find that a black had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration. Misery, he continues, is often the pa- rent of the most affecting touches in poetry — Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. He adds, love is the peculiar oestrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Whately ; but it could not produce a poet. Ignatius Sancho has approached nearer to merit in composition ; yet his letters dO' more honor to the heart, than to the head. He is often happy in the turn of his compliments, and his stile is easy and familiar. But his imagination is wuld and extravagant ; escapes incessantly from every restraint of reason and taste, and, in the 267 course of its vagaries leaves a tract of thought as hi* coherent and eccentric as is the course of a meteor through the sky." — After this, Mr. Jtfferson con- trasts the enslaved Africans in the United States, with the Roman slaves, in order to shew the vast inferiority of the former in all the exercises of the mental powers. These remarks upon the genius of the African negro appear to me to have so little foundation in true philosophy that few observations will be neces- sary to refute them.* If the principle maintained by Lavater, and by St. Gall, that the form of the skull is indicative of the peculiar talents, and even of the inclinations and dispositions of men, be founded in nature, will it * Mr. Jefferson reasons much better when he undertakes to defend the people of the United States, and the aboriginals of the American continent, aguinst the aspersions of Mr. Buf- fon, and the Abbe Raynal, and generally, of the European writers, who impute to them gieat debility both of mental, and of bodily powers ; because men ranging the forest for game, and pressed by incessant wants ; or", on the other hand, occupied in perpetual labors in clearing and bringing into a state of cultivation the soil of a new world, have not produced such poets as Homer or Pope, such philosophers as Aristo- tle, or Locke, or such orators as Demosthenes or Chatham.—- See his answer to 6th query, towards the end, in his notes opt Virginia. 268 not result, as a necessary conseqiicnccj that if the cli* mate, the mode qf living, or the state of society, or even accidental causes in early life, contribute to vary the shape of that bony case which encompas- ses the brain, thereby pressing upon it in some points, and giving it scope in others ; in some of its cells contracting this soft substance, and giving it a freer expansion in others, these causes must, in the same degree, assist, impede, or vary the operations of the mind, and affect the character of the national genius, or of the genius of a whole race of men placed in a particular climate, or existing in a par- ticular state of society.* That the causes which have been just suggested, may have some effect in hebetating the mental facul- ties of the wretched savages of Africa, I am not pre. pared either to deny or affirm. I am inclined, how- ever, to ascribe the apparent dullness of the negro principally to the wretched state of his existence first in his original country, where he is at once a poor and abject savage, and subjected to an atrocious despotism ; and afterwards in those regions to. which he is transported to finish his days in slaverj^ and toil. Genius, in order to its cultivation, and t Seepages 95, 96, also 153 — 156 of tlus essay. the advantageous display of its powers, requires free- dom : it requires reward, the reward at least of praise, to call it forth ; competition to awaken its 'ardor ; and examples both to direct its operations, and to prompt its emulation. The abject servitude of the negro in America, condemned to the drudg- ery of perpetual labor, cut off from every mean of improvement, f^ conscious of his degraded state in the ^ How few are the negroes in America who enjoy access tp {he first elements of knowledge by being enabled either to read, or write. Mr. Jefferson s^ys that many of them have been placed in situations in which they might have enjoyed the •society of their masters. What society, alas, can subsist be- tween a mastei', and a sic.ve ; not a polite and learned slave of Greece, such ..s was oiten seen at Rome, but a wretched and ignorant African slave ? Besides, if tliey could enjoy an in- tercourse much more free and intimate than is possible from the nature of their respective situations, I ask, what would thei'e be in tliat society, when we consider the general charac- ters, occupations, and conversations, of those masters, fa- vorable to iniprovement in -science, or the arts ; or calculat- ed to draw forth, and cultivate any of the high powers of im- agination taste, or genius ? The poems of Piiillis Whately, a poor African slave, taught to read by the indulgent piety of her master, are spoken of with infinite contempt. But I will demand of Mr. Jefferson, or any other man who is acquainted with American planters, how many of those masters could have written poems equal to those of Phillis Whately ? And with still greater reason might I ask the same question with re- gard to the letters of Ignatius Sancho. 270 midst of freemen who regard him with contempt, and in every word and look make him feel his inferi- ority; and hopeless of ever enjoying any great ame- lioration of his condition, must condemn him, while these circumstances remain, to perpetual sterility of genius. It is unfair to compare the feeble efforts of the mind which we sometimes behold under slavish depression, with the noble ardor which is often kindled even in the wild freedom of the American forest. The aboriginal natives of America often exhibit, as Mr. Jefferson justly remaks, some of the finest flights of imagination, and some of the boldest strokes of oratory. But we perceive these vigorous efforts of the soul only while they enjoy their rude independence, and are employed in their favorite exercises of hunting, or of war, which give ardor ?lO their sentiments, and energy to their character. Whereas, if you cut them off from employments which, along with conscious freedom and indepen- dence, often awaken the untutored savage to the boldest enterprizes ; if, in this condition, you place them in the midst of a civilized people with whom they cannot amalgamate, and who only humble them by the continual view of their own inferiority, 271 you, at once, annihilate among them all the noble qualities which you had admired in their savage state ; and the negro becomes a respectable man compared with the indian. Of the truth of this remark we have striking examples in the remnants of a small tribe in the state of New-Jersey, now called the Brotherton indians, from the name of their village ; in the remnants of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia, situated on the river Pamunky, on a small reservation of lands secured to them by the government ; in the indians situated along the Mis- sissippi in the vicinity of New- Orleans ; and many companies of the same people who wander along the banks of the St. Lawrence within the province of Lower Canada. For wretchedness, laziness, and the destitution of almost every manly quality, they can hardly be exceeded by the most contemptible tribes of men in any quarter of the globe. They afford a proof of the deterioration of the mental fa- culties which may be produced by certain states of society, which ought to make a philosopher cautious of proscribing any race of men from the class of hu- man beings, merely because their unfortunate con- dition has presented to them no incentives to awa* ken genius, or afforded no opportunities to display its 272 p6wers. Judging by the criterion which Mr. White, after Mr. Jefferson has endeavoured to establish y might not the Abbe Raynal, and other European writers who denounce the American climate as unfa-*^ vorable to the growth of animal bodies, and the energies of the human intellect, justify their conclu- sion, by the example of the Anglo-Americans? Among these decendents of the ingenious Europe- ans, since their settlement in America, have ap- peared fewer exquisite productions in the arts, fewer works of taste, erudition, or genius, than have adorned the kingdoms of Europe, in the same pe- riod. But is this to be imputed to the climate ? and not rather to the peculiar labors, and occupations required in a new world, to draw it forth from its forests, and its marshes, which have diverted the efforts of the people to other objects of more imme- diate necessity ? But besides this primary cause of deficiency in monuments of art, and works of taste, we may reckon the sparseness of our popula- tion which prevents that constant collision, and com- parison of sentiment, which contributes to strike out the fire of genius, and to correct its eccentricities and errors ; the want of men of leisure, and of wealth either to cultivate the arts, or to encourage 273 and reward theift. But because we have produced no such poets as Pope, or Milton ; no such groupes of wits as adorned London or Paris in the age of Anne, and of Louis the fourteenth, has a philoso- pher of Europe, in the pride of her present im- provements in every department of literature, a right to say, because one century has not yet produc- ed the fruits of ten, that the American like what was fabled of the Beotian, air, has hebetated the genius of this last and largest quarter of the globe ? Whence arose the difference between the Athenian, and the Beotian, or Spartan wit, but from their different states of society? And the Anglo, or Gallo- American only affords another example of this powerful influence in diversifying, in maturing, or retarding the operations of the human mind. The period has not yet arrived for displaying the full powers of the American genius. But whoever will regard with a truly philosophic eye the works which it has accomplished, the almost new creation which it has produced, within the last century, over the face of an immense continent, will be disposed ra- ther to respect its energy and enterprize than to dis- parage it by an unfair comparison with the results of the wealth and population of Europe, and the ac K K 274 •umulated improvements of so many ages. Many particular instances America can already exhibit of scientific investigation, of political eloquence, of mil- itary skill and heroism, of invention, especially in the mechanic arts, and of execution in the fine arts', which have not been exceeded in any country. And circumstances are now daily occurring to caH forth more and more the energies of the American character, and to display the vividness and force of the American genius, which will, in a short time place us above the fear of the contempt, or even the rivalship of any nation. And the reproaches of deficiency of talent cast upon America by philosophers who have had little opportunity, and perhaps less dis- position to form an accurate judgment upon this subject, will be doubly retorted upon Europe ; for she will then be in the period of her decline, while her young competitor will be advancing to the ma- turity of her powers, and her glory. In returning from this slight digression, may I not be permitted to ask, if this criterion, which is applied so unfavorably to the Africans, be just, are the modern Greeks of the same race with those re- publican heroes who expelled the Persians from their country ; with those illustrious scholars among* 275 v/hom Socrates and Plato only shone in the first rank ? Would it now be possible to restore among these degraded subjects of Turkish despotism, the genius of Demosthenes, of Xcnophon, or of Phidias ? Or are the Copts, a people more dull and stupid than the negroes of Angola, the descendents of those Egyp- tians who were once the masters of the Greeks them- selves ? Innumerable causes may, for a long time, prevent the faculties of the human mind from arriv- ing at full maturity in particular nations, or may to- tally restrain among them the growth, and develop- ment of the powers of genius. Among these causes slavery will readily be acknowledged to be the prin- cipal. The force of this objection, which Mr. Jef- ferson anticipated to his hypothesis, he endeavours to obviate, by comparing the negroes with the. H Greeks who were held in slavery at Rome. Bui has this philosopher sufficiently adverted to the infinite difference that must subsist between enslaved savar ges, destitute of the first elements of liberal know- ledge, and held in contempt by their oppressors, and an ingenious and enlightened people, cultivated in the schools of philosophy, and praccised in all the liberal arts, reduced to slavery by force of at ms^ aiad, even in slavery, respected by their masters ? 276 Epictetus was, indeed, a philosopher, Terence, andT PhcEdrus were poets, and many of the most eminent artists at Rome were slaves ; but they were philoso- phers, and poets, and artists before they became slaves ; or belonging to a people extolled, and rever-- ed for their ingenuity and heroism, they still possess^ eda certain elevation of mind, which rendered them capable of acquiring science, of cultivating the no-r bier powers of the soul, and displaying the beauties of imagination, and taste, even in an enslaved con- dition.* * Two or three other remarks in Mr. Jeffei-son's illustra- tions of the great defect of genius, in the blacks may deserve some notice. " Many of them, says he, have been brought up. to the handicraft arts, and all have lived in countries where the arts and sciences have been cultivated to a considerable degree, and have had before their eyes samples of the best worksfrom abroad." — Ihave often seen these handicraft artists, their black- snnths, coopers, house carpenters and others. But, except in a few instances, their whole design in learning tliesearts was to do the coarse work on their master's plantations, the competent skill for which they accjulrcd from artists who were nearly as coarse workmen as themselves. And what is intended in this remark, « that all of them have had before their eyes samples of the best works from abroad," I can hardly conceive. Does the writer mean statues, pictures, or household furniture ? I believe few of them have seen the most exquisite productions in any of these departments ; and those who have, I presume, have con- templated tliem with the same eyes with which other coach- men, hostlers, and footmen view tliem. And why arc these 277 Having bestowed so much attention on this quaii; ty, which Mr. White, supported by the authority of Mr. Jefferson, supposes to constitute an essential S^distinction between the negro and the white man^ exquisite works of genius said to he from abroad ? If tlie in- genious whites have nevei' yet produced them at home, why are the poor negroes degraded from their rank in the scale of ration- ality, because their enslaved genius has not towered above that of their masters ? " Misery, continues Mr. Jefferson, is often the parent of the most affeftting touches of poetry. Among tlie blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry."— When misery fulls on such men as Dodd, or Young, who possess minds toned to the finest sensibilities, and adorned with refined taste, and a culti- vated imagination, their sorrows will often wake the most affecting strains of the pensive muse : but when have we seea the miseries of Newgate or the gullies produce a poet ? " Love," he adds, " is the peculiar oestrum of the poett Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the im- agination." With what fine tints can imagination invest the rags, the dirt, or the nakedness so often seen in a quarter of negro labourers ? Besides, to awaken the exquisite sentiments of a delicate love, and to surround it \vith all the enchantment of the imagination, this passion requires to be placed under cer- tain moral restraints which are seldom formed in the coarse familiarity, and promiscuous intercourse permitted, and too often encouraged among the American slaves. Yet have I, not unfrequently, seen, among these slaves, the most delicate and durable attachments take place between the sexes, where a good moral education, united with the virtuous, and amiable example of their masters and mistresses, have concurred to cultivate the heart, and produce a certain rcserv^e and refine- ment in their manners 278 and I hope obviated the force of their remarks, I shall treat the other differences which he enumerates with greater brevity. The skin of the negro, he observes, is thicker than that of the European. The fact is admitted ; and the cause of it has been already assigned in the essay. It is a natural consequence of the intense action of the sun's rays, which, by their constant stimulus, tend to incrassate its substance. The bil- ious mucous, likewise, which is deposited in the celular membrane of the skin, having parted, at the surface, with the hydrogene, with which it was diluted, as has before been shewn, becomes more glutinous, by means of its coagulated carbonic in- gredient, and thereby imparts a greater density to this integument, than the common mucous which fills the cells of the white skin. If it be true, as Mr. White affirms, in which opinion he is supported by other naturalists, that the negro secretes less by the kidneys than the white man, although it cannot be an adequate criterion of Some praise Mr. Jefferson bestows on the letters of Ignatius Sancho, though by no means so great as they deserve, con- sidering his situation, and the means of cultivation which he en- joyed. Few white men in similar circumstances could have written so well. 279 a distinct species, it may account, in some measure, for the greater quantity of bile thrown out to the surface of the body, which becomes there the basis of the dark hue. It may be the cause likewise of that pungent and volatile gas, which, transpiring copiously through the skin, is perceptible in the strong and offensive odour, which distinguishes the greater part of the African race, till corrected, as it is in the United States, by a more favorable climate, or by better habits of living. Another distinctive quality of this race given by this author is, that they are more capable of enduring heat than the Europeans. This tolerance of heat by the blacks is con- firmed by experience ; and probably arises, in part, from the superior thickness of the skin, which forms a deeper veil to protect the vitals from the in- tensity of the sun's rays. It may arise also, in part, from the refrigerating nature of that mucous with which the cells of the skin are filled ; or the more copious transpiration of the hydrogene principle in which the bile is floated to the surface, and which, in the whites, is secreted and carried off by the kid- neys. An insensible evaporation, so abundant, will necessarily reduce the temperature of the body. 280 Besides-, the constitution of the European being^ more highly braced by his climate, his blood, when exposed to an American or West-India sun, is more easily inflamed, and excited to the heat of fever. These causes, however, of the diminish- ed sensation of heat in the negro, are not peculiar, exclusively, to that race. Europeans, introduced into a southern climate, if they do not fall victims to the first attacks of fever, induced in consequence of excessive heat acting on a system too highl}'" toned, commonly suffer from these fevers, which are chiefly of the bilious kind, a considerable relaxation of its tension, with a proportionable discolouration of the skin. When the constitution has been, in this manner broken down, and fitted to its new situation, it is always found to become more tolerant of heat ; as it is also rendered more impatient of cold. It is a fact, likewise, whether it arise from the increased copiousness of insensible perspiration, or the reduced temperature of the system, or from any- other cause, that they, and their descendents, arc less liable than immediate emigrants from Europe or the inhabitants of the northern states of America, to certain epidemic, or contagious disorders which belong to the climate, or have been introduced by 281 belong to the climate, or have been introduced by infection from abroad. From the yellow fever, which prevailed in most of the sea ports of the Unit- ed States during several seasons between the years 1790, and 1800, the negroes suffered less than the Anglo-Americans. But this was equally true of the French refugees frogi the island of St. Domingo whom the calamities of their country, at that period, had driven, in great numbers, to seek an asylum on the continent.* The negroes, says this writer again, are more short-lived than the whites. From what data he has drawn this conclusion I know not, except it be from the excessive mortality in several of the British West- India islands induced by the sever- ity of their servitude : but as fiir as our expe- rience on the continent can furnish an inference, wherever the slaves are not exhausted by hard treatment, and excessive labors, it is not true. It ^s known in all the southern states, that the slaves, * A species of the yellow fever may be said to be indigenous In many of the West-India islands. It is less dangerous, how- ever, to natives whose constitution has been assimilated to ;he climate. But to strangers either from Europe, or tlie United States of America, it is almost certainly fatal. L L 282 in that district between the sea and the ifeuth east- ern rup.ge of the Apalachian mountains where they have hi'herto been most numerous, multiply faster than the whites. And certainly you see, in the northern states, as many old men among them, in proportion to their numbers, as among their mas- ters * Tbiis author is equally misinformed when he as- serts that the mamma of negresses are longer than those of white women. This is never seen except in skives who are old, and worn down by continual labor. And in them, they are not longer than in white women who have been equally exhausted by fatigue and want. Nor are the black women in America, from \Ahatever African nation they are descended, known to possess that natural veil of modi-'sty, which, on the authority of travellers of very dubious veracity, he has ventured to ascribe to them. If ever their ancestors were distinguished by those very strikii-g peculiarities, certain it is * There is a nef?;ro man in the neighborhood of Princeton, npwiads of a hvn.dicd years of age, who is able to walk several m'l?s every d y ; and there are not a few of the same race be- tween seventy uiid ninety. 283 that their posterity in America have entirely lost them.* Facility of parturition in black women is assis:n- ed as another criterion of a distinct species. This must certainly have been a very inconsiderate sug- gestion coming from an author so well acquainted with the economy of the human body. Facility of parturition is no otherwise peculiar to the negro race, than as this operation of nature is ever easier to the inhabitants of warm than of cold ciimutes ; and much easier to women who are engaged in ac- tive, and even laborious duties than to those who indulge themselves in luxury and indolence, or who are confined chiefly to sedentary occupations. No women suffer greater hardships than those which are frequently borne by the females, of the aboriginal Americans ; and none pass through the labors of parturition with less pain and inconvenience. Sel- dom do they require any assistance. At the crit- ipal hour they retire apart from their neighbors and friends : — they bear their infant, and do every thing necessary in such an emergency with their own hands. The women of the German emigrants who * Seep. 135, 136 of the essay, 284 have settled in Pennsylvania, and the western por- tions of Maryland and Virginia arc known to be equally remarkable for their laborious lives, and their easy parturitions. In this principle likewise we find an easy and natural solution of a fact in the sacred his- tory, which has been little understood, and too often regarded as miraculous. When Pharaoh reproached the Egyptian mid wives for not having put to death, according to his order, the children of the Israelitish women, they vindicated themselves, because the women of the Hebrews were not like those of Egypt ; For^ said they, they are lively^ and are delivered ere the midxvives come in unto them. Another error still more strange in a philosopher who should be acquainted with human nature in all its various situations, and particularly with its advantages, or defects in the different states of society in which it exists, is this author's regarding as proofs of diversity of species, tenaciousness of memory^ or quickness in the senses of hearing, see- ing, and smelling^ which^ he says, are greater in the African than in the European. Strength of memory, or nicety of perception in any of the senses, depends principally on the situations in which men are plac- ed, requiring, greater frequency in their exercise. QB5 or more accurate and attentive observation of their objects, and the notices they afford. Judging of other savages by the aboriginals of this continent, with whose manners we are more particularly ac» quainted, we have ground to ascribe to men in that state of society, generally, retentive powers of mem- ory ; for having no other means of recording events of the utmost importance to them as individuals, or as nations, they are obliged to rely solely on the ex- tent and force of this faculty for the preservation of their history, or for any knowledge of the traditionary opinions and customs of their ancestors. And it is surprizing with what accuracy an indian chief, tak- ing a string of wampum in his hand, will detail from it, by the force of memory alone, aided by a few arbitrary marks worked up in its fabric, all the articles of a long and intricate treaty entered into vidi his nation, while he perhaps was only a youth; and even of many treaties, and other transactions, which have taken place an age before he was born ; which have been transmitted to him by the older chi fs who preceeded him. The wants, necessities, and dangers of savage life contribute likewise to give an acuteness, and quick- ness to many of the senses, particularly those of see^ 286 ing and hearing, which often astonish men who have not been educated in the same hard school. In pursuing their game, or perceiving the approach of an enemy, they exhibit a nicety in these senses of which there is no example in civilized hfe. As the eye ranges through the forest, it catches a vari- ation in the reflections of the Hght ; as the ear is turn- ed on every side, it perceives a rustle in the leaves, a whisper, a vibration in the air, occasioned by the movement of an animal, which, by persons, not ac- customed to such a vigilance of attention, would be utterly unobserved. They will track their game, or their enemy, through the forests where a European could not perceive the trace of any foot. In a night in which no star can be seen, they will pursue their course through the woods with an exactness that differs little from the accurate direction of the mari- ner's compass.* * When tlie leaves fall from the trees in autumn, they com- monly descend with the back of the leaf towards the earth on account of the specific gravity of the veins which run over it- Any animal, therefore, passing through the woods, will neces- sarily disturb, in its course, the regukr order in which those leaves lie, by turning many of them upside down, which ena- bles the savage hunter to follow its direction. Where th» leaves have lain long, and become in a great measure combined 287 Hence appears the entire inadequacy to the pur- pose for which Mr. White adduces them, establish- ing a criterion of a distinct species, of that large enumeration of properties wherein he supposes the African to differ from the European.* They are either founded in error and misinformation, or are easily explained by the known operation of the pow- ers of nature. Mr. White makes many ingenious observations en the human hair;f but they will not be found to contradict the principles, or reasoning of the essay. I do not assume the aridity of the African climate as the sole, or even the principal cause of the woolly appearance, and close nap of the hair of the natives. The whole state of this excrescence depends much with the soil, the stirface, which has seldom been trodden by the foot of man or beast is soft and spongy enough to receive an impression which is quickly perceived by an eye accustom- ed to search for it. In a dark night these savages, destitute of every art for marking out the quarters of the heavens, direct their course by feeling the bark of the trees which is always roughest towards that quarter from which their severest colds, and most frequent stoiTiis arise. * Pages 84th and 85th of his work. t Pages srth — 98th of his discourses. 290 bach,* and other respectable chymists, bile contains a greater quantity of carbon, or black colouring matter, than any other secretion of the human body, except oil. When, in the course of circulation, therefore, it arrives at the surface of the body, dilut- ed as it must be with a laxge proportion of hydro- gene, the hydrogene, uniting more readily than the carbon with the oxygene of the atmosphere, escapes sooner by perspiration. The carbon consequently, is deposited more copiously ; and, being deprived of its dilutent principle, it settles in a more viscid, and fixed state, in the rete mucosum, and there forms the basis of the black complexion. Having made these few observations on Mr. White's chapter on the colour and complexion of man, I shall, in other things, let the essay speak for itself in those points in which that author questions the solidity of its principles, only correcting one error in his facts into which he has been misled by some careless writer, or ignorant traveller. He as- sertsf that " the aboriginal Americans, both in the torrid, and temperate zones are of a uniform, red * Page 52nd of the essay. t Page 106th of his discourses. 291 topper colour, except near the northern extremity of the continent, where they are of a very deep brown inclining to black, because they have probably trav- elled thither from the northern parts of Europe."— It is true, on the contrary, that the natives of some regions, of Brazil and Amazonia, are nearly as black as those of tropical India, The extremes of heat and cold are found, as I have before remark- ed, to resemble one another in their effects upon the colour of the human skin. And in the tropical and arctic regions both of Asia, and America the com- plexion is black, though of a lighter shade in the latter continent than in the former. If we do not find white men in the temperate latitudes of North- America, I have, in the essay, assigned, at least, probable reasons for this phenomenon ; existing, in part, in the extreme savagism of the natives,* which exposes them, without the smallest protection, to the full influence of the sun and atmosphere, augmented * If the ancient Gauls and Britons were comparatively a fair people, it is to be remembered that their state of society was far advanced in improvement above tliat of the aboriginal savages of America. Their origin likewise they derived, more nearly or remotely from tlie fair inhabitants of Middle-Europe, H.Rd Uie vicinity of tlie Euxine and Caspian seas. 290 bach,* and other respectable chymists, bile contains a greater quantity of carbon, or black colouring matter, than any other secretion of the human body, except oil. When, in the course of circulation, therefore, it arrives at the surface of the body, dilut- ed as it must be with a large proportion of hydro- gene, the hydrogene, uniting more readily than the carbon with the oxygene of the atmosphere, escapes sooner by perspiration. The carbon consequently, is deposited more copiously ; and, being deprived of its dilutent principle, it settles in a more viscid, and fixed state, in the rete mucosum, and there forms the basis of the black complexion. Having made these few observations on Mr. White's chapter on the colour and complexion of man, I shall, in other things, let the essay speak for itself in those points in which that author questions the solidity of its principles, only correcting one error in his facts into which he has been misled by some careless writer, or ignorant traveller. He as- sertsf tliat " the aboriginal Americans, both in the torrid, and temperate zones are of a uniform, red * Pa§;e 52nd of the essay. t Page 106th of his discourses. 291 topper colour, except near the northern extremity of the continent, where they are of a very deep brown inclining to black, because they have probably trav- elled thither from the northern parts of Europe."— It is true, on the contrary, that the natives of some regions, of Brazil and Amazonia, are nearly as black as those of tropical India. The extremes of heat and cold are found, as I have before remark- ed, to resemble one another in their effects upon the colour of the human skin. And in the tropical and arctic regions both of Asia, and America the com- plexion is biack, though of a lighter shade in the latter continent than in the former. If we do not find white men in the temperate latitudes of North- America, I have, in the essay, assigned, at least, probable reasons for this phenomenon ; existing, in part, in the extreme savagism of the natives,* which exposes them, without the smallest protection, to the full influence of the sun and atmosphere, augmented * If the ancient Gauls and Britons were comparatively a fair people, it is to be remembered that their state of society was far advanced in improvement above that of the aboriginal savages of America. Their origin likewise they derived, more nearly or remotely from tlie fair inhabitants of Middle-Europe, HRd the vicinity of tlie Euxine and Caspian seas. 292 by their filthy customs ; and, in part, in their origin ; having sprung from the dark coloured Tartar, in- habiting the North- East of Asia. For the black, or dusky complexion, once contracted by the ancestors of a race, is continued in their offspring by a much lower ciimatical influence, than was originally neces- sary to create it. I cannot conclude these remarks without taking notice of some animadversions on this essay by Dr. J. A. Smith, professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the University of New- York, delivered in an intro- ductory lecture to his class Nov. 1808, and publish- ed in the New-York Medical, and Philosophical Journal and Review, Feb. 1809. Some petulancies in the manner of introducing the name, and speak- ing of the author of the essay, I pass over, because a merited retort might lead to a degree of asperity of language which I am not inclined to employ; and still more, because I hope I may now appeal to the essay itself as my best vindication. In die very few quotations which he has made from that work he has been neither liberal nor can- did. *' Hear," says he, '' the manner in which he," speaking of the author of the essay, *' explains the action of the climate in producing this change of 29S colour. He begins with the following position, that" the skin, though delicate, and easily/ susceptU ble of impression from external causes, is, from its structure, among the least mutable parts of the body. After which he adds, " Wc shall see the Doctor^ in a little time, comparing this skin to bone.'* These two short passages are the whole of what he has been pleased to select as a specimen of the rea- soning of the essay on the power of climate in effect^ ing a change of colour in the human species. The reader will judge how far this is any competent ex- ample of the strain of that work. The Professor thought he had found an anatomical mistake in the account which the author of the essay has given of the structure of the human skin ; and he wished to enjoy a humble triumph over the imaginary error. With what justice he indulges this triumph, for which he misrepresents the fact,* 1 shall presently shew. * The great source of error," says he, " in the Doctor's work is in the use of the word skin. By skin an anatomist means the cutis -vera : but Dr. Smith uses it in three differ- ent sense* : 1st. to signify the rate mucosum ; 2ndly. the cutis vera ; and lastly, both together." I presume the intelligent reader will find the skin used in the essay in one sen^ie only, ex- cept in a single passage, as the integument of the body, but These rcmai'ks of the Professor, even if they were well founded, are of trifling importance, and can little affect the result of our enquiry. The more important principles of the essay, and the facts by which they are supported he hardly notices. He has collected, indeed, from Cuvier, Hunter, Cam. per, Blumenbach, and others, but chiefly from White a long list of varieties subsisting, or suppos- ed to subsist between the diflferent tribes of man- kind, which he produces as unanswerable objections against the general conclusions of the essay. Of their unanswerable force however, the reader will better jndge after having examined the solutions which are given of them in the work. But it is somewhat amusing to see him after the stile of presumption and affected science which he assumes, and his pretences to mathematical preci- sion and accuracy in measuring the lines, and capa- cities of the heads of different nations, making a pa- composed of three different lamellx — ithe cutis vera, the rete Tiiucosum, and the scarf skin. In that passage the scarf skin was compared to the bones, merely in its destitution of vessels, and the little niutation to which each is subject. The fact of its wanting vessels is asserted by Blumenbach, p. 117, and by other anatci»msts. But as it is not necessary to the illustration of the subject, it has been wboUy onutted in the present edition^- 295 tade of qnoting authors, as favoring his opinion^, some at least of whom he cannot have read, orj most certainly, has not understood. If this seems a harsh accusation against the learned Professor, I have not made it without being able to give satis- factory demonstration of its truth. — He professes, to adopt the doctrine of Von Camper concerning the facial angle^* by which angle he attempts to dis» criminate the heads of different nations, and seem* willing also to measure their respective degrees of b auty, or of intellect. This discovery, or fancy of Von Camper's he speaks of in such a stile of * " This angle," Professor J. A. Smith informs us, « iS. formed by the intersection of two lines at, or parallel to the inferior part of the nostril, one being drawn from the most projecting part of the forehead until it strikes the edge of the- incisor teeth of the upper jaw, the other from the inferior part of the bony canal of the ear until it meets the other at the place above mentioned." — The reader may perhaps, understand tli© construction of the angle from this description, but certainly * the intersection of two lines parallel to the iaferior part of the Bostrii is an unusual language for an anatomical professor and a matiiematieian to tmploy. He then proceeds to say that one of these lines is to be drawn from the most projecting part of the forehead till it strikes the edge of the incisor teeth.— He sViould have said, according to the author from whom he bor- rows the idea, the bottom of that channel (limbum alveolarcm} contahiing the sockets of those teeth. It is the first time, I be- Ueve, thut ever this has been called the edge of the incisors. 296 eulogy as would lead us to believe that it is receiv-ft' ed by all the Anatomists of Europe as one of the highest improvements in anatomical and physiog- nomonical science.* Yet, after extollir.g this dis- cove?'!/ in the highest terms, and quoting the name of Blumenbach with the same familiarity as that of Von Camper, as if he were perfectly acquainted with the writings of both these great anatomists, he seems, not in the least aware that the former has entirely re- jected the principle on which this facial line is drawn. Can it be because Blumenbach's work is written in latin ! I will not presume such a disgraceful thing. I will, therefore, proceed to exhibit my proof, with- out doubting but that I shall be understood. " At * Unfortunately for the accuracy of his geometi'ical language he repeatedly speaks of the greater or less degree of obtu«enesa in the facial angle, from that of 70° which is the measure of an African face, to that of 80° or 85" which is the measure of the European. If he had followed his guide Von Camper throughout, in his diction, as well as the supposed result of his experiments, he v.'ould have taught him greater precision, at least, in his cxpre£- sion. " Pour peu que Ton considere avec attention Tangle dans les quarti-e tetes," says he, speaking of some skulls which were before him, " on reconnoitra facilcmcntqu'ils dcviennent plus co7ii,iderables" (not more obtuse) « amesure qu'on elevc davantage lalignc f^tciale, d'ou il resulte que l&filus grand di- mension" (not the most obtuse) "anra lieu d^.ns les Euro- pcens."— .Partie 1. § viii. ^7 tnim vero," says Blumenbach, speaking of this cele- brated line," si quid recte video, haec regula noii uno vitio laborare mihi videtur. — l**. Enim, quod equidem ex iis quas de varietatibus faciei ^entiiitise diximus (fj56) per se patet, universahieecce/mt'aya- x:ialis ad summum Hon nisi in eas generis humaiii varietates quadrat quae mandibularum directione ab invicem variant, neutiquam vero in eas quee con- traria plane ratione facie potius inlatera diducta iii- sigues sunt. 2. Ssepissime diversissimarum gentium craniis toto, quodaiunt, caelo ab invicem discrepuntibus,una tamen eadcmque lineas facialis directio esse solet ; vice versa, pluribus unius ejusdemque gentis craniis, quae in universum eodem habitu invicem conveni- unt linea facialis valdopere diversa. Parum enim ex sola directione faciei in craniis a latere visis judir care licet, nisi simul respectus habeatur latitudinis ,€orum. Ita v. c. dum hgec scribo coram video cra- niorum bigam iEthiopis scil. Congensis, et Sarma- Ue Lithuani ; utrisque linea facialis fere una eadem- que ; habitus tamen maxime diversus si angustum et quasi carinatum iEthiopis caput cum quadrate magis Sarmatoe comparaveris. Contra vero alia bina 298 iEthiopum crania ad manus habeo, facial! linea ml- rum quantum ab invicem abhorrentia, utroque vero, si a facie spectetur, angusta et qua^ compressa cal- varia, fronte fornicata i^thiopicam originem apertc testante. 3. Denique vero Camperus ipse, in iconibus operi suo subjunctis, lineissuis binis normalibus adeoar- bitrarie et inconstanter usus est, toties punctis con- tactus variat, secundum quae lineas istas dirigit, et a quibus omnis earum vis et fides pendet, ut seip- sum in earum usu incertum et ambigue hcsitantem tacite profiteatur." Blum, de gen. hum. degen. in. specie. ^ 59, 60. p. 200—203. How could the Professor, in the face of this au- thority, introduce to his class this all-important facial line which is, in a great measure, to decide the controversy concerning the original, or factitious varieties of the different tribes of men, as if it were an uncontroverted discovery of the great Camper^ and yet, in the same page, I believe in the same sentence, quote the name of Blumenbach, without ever informing them that this principle of Camper's has not only been questioned, but utterly denied, and shewn to be inapplicable to every purpose of national discrimination, by that superior anatomist, 299 if he had ever read, or understood the work to which he has the confidence to refer ? But a proof still more pointed to this purpose is found in the fourteenth page of his introductory lec- ture. Having quoted from the essay the following sentences, — 1st. ''-Anatomists inform us that, like the bones, it," meaning the skin, " has few or no vessels, and therefore, is not liable to those changes of augmentation, or diminution, and continual altera- tion of parts, to which the flesh, the blood, and the whole vascular system is subject." 2nd. Anat- omists know that people of colour have their skins tliicker than people of fair complexion, in proportion to the darkness of the hue," — the Professor pro- ceeds ; "as the Doctor," meaning the author of the essay, " has not given us his authority for these two opinions, and, as I never met with any thing like them, I conclude he quotes from memory, and is liable to be mistaken ; the former is certainly erro- neous, and, I believe, the latter." The former of these sentences contains the only part of the essay in which the term skin is employ- ed where only the scarf skin, or epidermis was in- tended. Confining the expression in this manner the opinion is justified, as I have before said, by the 300 best anatomists. It is positively asserted by Dr, Blumenbach, ^ 42. p. 117, of the work already quoted. " EpTdt-rmis structura simplicissima, ner- vis, vasisque plane destituta." And, with regard to the opinion, or the fact stated in the second, hear the same author, p. 118. "Utrumque quoque hocce af- fine stratum sedem colons integumentorum ita con- stituit, ut in candidis homiiiibus, &c. In fuscis vero, aut alio colore infcctis, princeps pigmentum cutaneum reticulo Malpighiano inhaereat et c\aofus*^ ciiis rericulum sit, eo crassius quoque, et propius ad membranulce sui generis speciem accedens," Again, p. 162, speaking of the smooth and silky, or shining appearance of the skin in dark coloured nations, particularly in the Caribaeans, Ethiopians, Otahei- teans, and even the Turks, he says ; " In omnibus, sive a teneriore epidermidis, sivc a crassiore muci Malpighiani stnito pendere, in aprieo est." What, now, are we to think of Dr. J. A. Smith's acquaintance with Blumenbach ? What are we to think of his acquaintance vrith his own profession, since he declares he has never met with these tpin^ io.is, nor with any thing like them ?^— Dr. J. A» * He may find them in a great variety of avithors which ar© in the hcOids of every naturalist. 301 Smith, likewise, in order to impugn the principles of the essay on the subjects both of the cause, and the seat of colour, is pleased to say ; "so far as I know, the bile does not tinge the rete muscosum, but remains in the cutis., and colours that in the same manner that it does the opaque cornea of the eye." Yet the same great anatomist, whom I have already quoted so often, calls this fold of the skin, *' sedem colons.''^ And further adds, " utrumque stratum ita constituit natura, ut princeps pigmentum cutaneum reticulo Malpighiano inhcereat."* Let the reader now judge of the modesty of that gentleman in the following sentence in which he evi- dently alludes to the author of the essay. " Men who call themselves philosophers, or who wish others to consider them as such, too often suppose that this title is acquired, not by a thorough acquaint- ance with a few sciences, but by a superficial know- ledge of tlie whole : hence they frequently incur the ridicule of the world by writing on subjects of which they are ignorant." — -I certainly owe Dr. James Augustine Smith many thanks for this prudent ad- monition, this gentle discipline, which, no doubt, * Edit. Gottingae apud Vandenhoek et Ruprccbt, 1795. 502 his superior wisdom well entitles him to give to me. — ■ But on whom now rests the ridicule ? Not for possess- ing even a superficial knowledge of the whole circle of sciences, for that I presume, after what we have just seen, he does not arrogate to himself; but for pretending to such an extensive acquaintance with tlie writers on his own branch, as it is evident he does not possess. " That climate," he concedes, " does produce great changes on all animals, no one will deny. Thus, if you transport a sheep covered with wool from England into Syria the wool will be changed into long silky kind of hair, — but if you reconvey it to England, it will recover its wool. Not so the African ; he approximates not the European by changing his climate, as is fully evinced on this con- tinent." — That the progeny of Africa, have not changed their complexion, or have changed it but little, is true ; and the hair, which is, in a great de- gree, governed by the law of the complexion, has, likewise, exhibited but small alteration. The causes of these phenomena are assigned in the essay. But it is no less true that, in their persons and features, they have undergone, and are daily undergoing a very obvious revolution, by which they are ap- 303 preaching more and more towards the European, or Anglo-American standard. And if our Professor has not perceived it, his observation must have been very limited and negligent indeed. Even the cele- brated facial angle, of which he makes so high ac- count in his system, has, in the blacks born in the United States, become considerably less acute than it is in the natives of Africa. On the subject of the African person many remarks have been made, and many facts adduced in the essay. I will here add only one other fact respecting this angle. I have measured it in several blacks in Princeton who had every indication in their complexion and hair of a pure African descent, and have found it with as much accuracy, I presume, as it can be taken in living subjects, from 73*^ to 78^. Their foreheads, at the same time, are high, bold, and open.* Near the conclusion of this introductory lecture he takes his leave by saying ; " Were I to follow Dr. Smith" (the author of the essay) "through his whole work, you might suppose I have some enmity to that gentleman." I think that not at all * On the othei- hand, I have m my family an old black wo? man with a true African forehead narrow and wrinkled, who gives a facial angle of 7 1 «. 304 improbable ; nor is it very difficult to divine the cause that has awakened his displeasure. He hop- ed to find in the anatomy of man an in\ incible ob* jection against the identity of the human species, which might furnish arms to infidelity in her impo- tent attacks against the truth of diviiie revelation, and he seems to be provoked at any attempt to wrest the weapons out of her hands. ■I cannot close these observations without repro-- bating in the strongest manner, that disingenuous^ mode of assailing the holy scriptures which has be. come fashionable with a certain class of writers, and which this gentleman affects to imitate. They speak of them with oblique and ambiguous respect, as if their authority ought, in all cases, to command the belief of mankind, while, at the same time, it is suggested that if we do believe them, it must be in spite of nature, and of the most certain physical facts. Thus do these authors study to undermine revealed religion by hinting that its friends require only implicit faith in opposition to all the truth of science. This mode of attack I cannot regard as either fair, or manly. Let natural science preserve its proper place. We never wish to abridge its lawful domain. But let it not officiously go out of 305 ks own sphere to assail religion by this species oi wily ambuscade. Let infidels appear in their true, form ; if they seek the combat, we only pray, like Ajax, to see the enemy in open day. The more profoundly natural science has been explored, ihe more have those objections to the sacred writings been dissipated which ignorance once thought she had found in the system of nature. These puny and half-learned sciolists, who affect to treat with sarcastic leer the oracles of God, would do well to remember, if they are susceptible of advice, or of shame, with what modesty and humility of heart those sublime and genuine sons of nature, from Newton, down to Sir William Jones have thought it their glory to submit their superior minds to that wisdom which came down from Heaven. Doubtless the Professor will be able, in the course of his lectures, to point out many anatomical as well as physiognomonical varieties, subsisting between the different nations and tribes of men. But if he can find in the climate, the modes of life, ^nd other secondary causes, a satisfactory account of the change in the facial angle of a Swede, a Pole, or Hungarian, and I might add other nations of Europe, o o 306 from that of their Asiatic ancestors, from whom it is ascertained beyond reasonable doubt, that they have derived their origin ; the same ingenuity, I presume, will be competent to account for the remaining dif- ferences which, for want of the like reflection, seem, at present, to embarrass him. STRICTURES ON LORD KAIMS' DISCOURSE ON THE Original Diversity of Mankind. STRICTURES, ILORD KAIMS, in a preliminary discourse to his sketches of the history of man, has undertaken to combat the principle of the unity of the human spe- cies. As Mr. White has proposed to assemble against it all the objections which can be derived from the science of Anatomy, Lord Kaims has en- deavoured to collect, and present to us in one united view, those which arise from the history of man, and from such speculative principles, or such moral causes, as are supposed chiefly to influence the state and condition of human nature, as it relates to the particular subject of his discourse. The reputation of this writer stands so high in the literary world as a philosopher, that it is justly to be presumed, he has advanced whatever can be most plausibly urged from these sources against the opinion which he op- poses. If his objections, therefore, can be fairly set aside, or successfully answered, the refutation of «such an antagonist will probably be regarded as 310 bringing no inconsiderable addition of strength to the preceeding argument. I hope, then, to be able to shew that with regard to many facts on which his lordship relies, in this disquisition, he has been egregiously misinformed ; and that almost the whole of his reasoning, even where his facts have been better ascertained, is in- conclusive, or concludes only against his own prin- ciple. His dissertation he commences with a speculative argument drawn from his own ideas of propriety, and the wisdom of providence. — "Certain it is," says . he, " that all men, more than all animals, arc not equally fitted for every climate. There were, there- fore, created different kinds of men at first, accord- ing to the nature of the climate in which they were to live. And if we have any belief in providence, it outcht to be so : because men, in changing their cli- mate, usually become sickly, and often degenerate." The power of climate to airect the figure and general appearance of the per soil., which his lord- ship, in this paragraph acknowledges, when he in- forms us that, in consequence of changing their hab- itations mankind often degenerate, is the very prin- ciple on which, united with the influence of diet 311 and manners, I presume to account for the varieties which distinguish the different nations of men from one another. Are not the blacks of Guinea, the dwarfs of Siberia, degenerate races compared with the inhabitants of France, or England, of Turkey, or Persia ? If these people had attained, in their own climate, the perfection of their nature, while civiliz- ed Europeans had, by being transplanted thither, degenerated far below them, or they had degenerat- ed by being removed to Europe, the argument would have had some force. But since these people are found to improve in their appearance and form, by being removed from their own climate, as has before been shewn with regard to the Africans hi America ; and shice the greatest degeneracy of the European, on his removal to Africa, or Lapland, consists only in a nearer resemblance to the natives of those countries, the example concludes strongly against his lordship's principle. But " men," he says, " in changing their climate, usually become sickly."- — In many instances, they do. But, is it a given principle that man is not made for situations in which he is liable to encoun- ter danger, or disease ? He were then only an in- truder upon this world. True, it is, that great and 312 sudden changes of climate are hazardous ; but not more hazardous than equally ^reat and sudden chan- ges in our habits of living. This argument, there- fore, proves only that such alterations ought always to be made with due precaution. And if this pru- dential conduct be observed the human constitution has been found capable of enduring the influence of every climate. It becomes, in time, assimilated to its situation. And in southern regions especially, the bilious habit, and the dark complexion, which, in many instances, were originally the effects of disease, become, at length, necessary to the most comfortable and healthful state of the body. — In America we are liable to disease by removing in- cautiously from a northern to a southern State and even from one part to another of the same State r but shall we conclude thence that we are not of one species from New- Hampshire to Georgia? Shall we conclude that the top of every hill, and the bank of every river are inhabited by difterent species, be- cause the latter are less healthy than the former ? The constitution often becomes so attempered even to an unhealthy region, that it feels augmented symptoms of disorder on returning to the most salu- brious air and water : but does this prove that na- 313 ture designed that such men should never remove, when it might be in their power, to a situation in which they could drink clear water, or breathe a pure atmosphere ? His lordship's second argument is certainly an extra- ordinary example of philosophic reasoning. — "Men, says he, must have been originally of different stocks, adapted to their respective climates, because an European degenerates both in vigor and colour on being removed to South America, to Africa, or to the East-Indies." — Would not true philosophy have drawn from this fact a contrary conclusion? Certainly, if an European had not changed his colour, with various other properties of his constitution, aiS he does, that is, if he had not degenerated to a nearer resemblance to the natives of Africa, Amer- ica, or the Indies, it would have been a much stronger evidence of the original difference of the respective races. The degeneracy of the human constitution often produced by change of climate, he confirms by the ex- ample of a Portuguese colony on the coast of Congo, vvho, in a course of time, have degenerated so much, that they scarce retain the appearance of men.'- — A fact more to the purpose of the preceeding essay p p 514 could not be adduced. Apply it to the case of the neighbouring tribes of negroes, and of Hottentots. Although they are now so rude that scarcely do they retain the appearance of men, does not his own ex- ample demonstrate that, in some remote period, they may have descended from the same original stock with these degenerated Portuguese ? His lordship has been egregiously deceived with regard to certain facts on which he professes to ground his opinion that the climate of America is not adapted to European constitutions. — " Charles- ton in Carolina, he asserts, is insufferably hot ; be- cause it has no sea-breeze. Jamaica, he continues, is a more temperate climate. But the inhabitants of both die so fast, that, if continual recruits did not arrive from Europe to supply the places of those that perish, the countries would be soon depopulat- ed," — All these assertions are equally and entirely erroneous. And if a philosopher, and a lord of sessions in Scotland, can betray so little acquaintance with a country, which, from its long and intimate connexion with Great- Britain, he might be expected to understand better than any other, we may just- 1}' presume that he is still less informed with regaid to the state of the Asiatic, and African nations ; and 515 that the objections drawn from them by him, and by inferior writers, against the doctrine of the unity of the human race, are still more weak and un- founded. This distinguished author employs as another ar- gument for an original diversity of species among mankind, that common European error, that " the natives of America are destitute of hair on _fhe chin, and body." — That philosophers, like other men, should sometimes be liable to be deceived by false information is not surprizing : but they are certainly blameable, after having found, in so many examples, the egregious mistakes of voyagers, and the utter incapacity of many of them for accurate observation, lightly to rest on such dubious tales, an argument against the most sacred opinions of mankind. His lordship says, in the next place, that " the northern nations, to protect them from the cold, have more fat than the southern," whence he again draws this erroneous inference, that " these nations are of different races, or species, adapted by nature to their respective climates." Is it not evident that this fact furnishes ground for a directly contrary conclusion: that the human constitution hath b. en endued by the Creator, with such pliancy as ena- 316 bles it with flicility to assume those habits which fit it to subsist in every region. His goodness ap* pears in forming the world for man, and, therefore, in not confining him, like the inferior animals, to a bounded range, beyond which he cannot pass, either for the acquisition of science, or the con- venience of subsistence. And both his benefi- cence, and wisdom are seen in mingling in the hu- man frame such principles as, under a prudent direc- tion, always tend to counteract the hazards of a new situation. Fat contributes to protect the vitals from the dangerous effects of extreme cold. Whence we sec, in the wise arrangements of divine provi- dence, that animals which are destined to run wild in the forest, not only increase their coat of hair, or fur, but augment their fat, at the approach of win-r ter. But, this covering being too warm for south- ern latitudes, provision has been happily made for throwing it off, in those regions, by a more profuse perspiration. The physical cause of this effect ought to have been no secret to a philosopher who treats of human nature. Not to mention other ef- fects of the relaxing influence of heat, or the brac- ing power of cold, on the human constitution, and the nature, or the quantity of nourishment it can rcr €eive and digest, in the one case, or in the other, it is sufficient to observe, that the copious perspiration, which takes place in southern latitudes, carries oft' the oily with the aqueous parts, and, in consequence, tends to render the habit of body thin ; but a frigid climate, by closing the pores, and obstructing the evaporation of the oils, while the aqueous fluid more easily escapes, condenses them into a coat of fat, which contributes to preserve the warmth of the ani- mal system. Experience verifies this influence of climate. The northern tribes M'hich issued from the forests of Germany, and overrun the southern provinces of the Roman empire, no longer retain their primitive grossness, and their vast size. The human constitution, in Spain, and in other countries to the South of Europe is slender in comparison with the German of Tacitus. And Europeans, in general, have become more slender by emigrating to the southern provinces of America. Here is a double experiment made, within the memory of his- tory, on entire nations. The argument, therefore, which this writer thought to derive from the fatness of northern, or the leanness of southern nations, is utterly inconclusive for the purpose for which he urges it, the proof of an original difference in th^ species of men. 318 His next fact is, that " the skin of the negro is more cool than that of the white, and, therefore, better adapted to their fervid climate. For a ther- mometer, applied to the body of an Afiican, will not indicate the same degree of heat as when appli- ed to the body of an European." This phenomenon is admitted, and, I presume, sufficiently accounted for in the essay. It results from the same causes which contribute to form the colour. The observations, however, on the tem- perature of the bodies of Europeans and Africans have probably been taken in those latitudes in which either heat or cold has been the predominant affec- tion of the atmosphere. The increased temperature, of the whites will be chiefly visible where heat great- ly prevails : because the European constitution, be- ing more tensely braced than that of Africa, suffers, under the fervors of a tropical sun, at least till it is broken down, and assimilated to its new climate, the additional heat of an habitual fever. When the atmosphere is at the temperature of about seventy or sevcnt\'-five degrees, and the subjects of the experi- ment have been perfectly tranquil, 1 have not been able to perceive, by the thermometer, any sensible difference in tlie w armth of two persons, the one 319 white, and the other black. But, in order to render such an experiment as accurate as pobsible, the greatest care should be taken that the subjects of it be of the same age, the same sex, the same degree of natural vigor, activity, and health, and, as far as can be judged, in every respect equal in their per- sonal properties. The reader, I doubt not, will readily excuse me if I treat a few observations, which immediately fol- low in this dissertation, a little more briefly. " Is it possible, his lordship asks, to account for the low stature, and little feet, and large head of the Esquimaux ; or, for the low stature and ugly visage of the Laplanders, by the action of cold ?" I have endeavoured to account for them from the action of cold, in conjunction with the state of society. " But the difference of latitude between the Lap- landers, and the Norwegians, or Fins is not suffi- cient, in his opinion, to account for the difference of features." This phenomenon, I presume has been explained. The temperate climates border upon eternal cold, and civilized on savage society, in all those proportions of the globe. And the influences of these t^vo power- 320 ful and opposite causes arq fully adequate to ac«^ count for the difference in the effects. His lordship confesses that " it has lately been dis- covered, by the Pere Hel, an Hungarian, that the Laplanders were originally Huns." Pere Hel has, no doubt, given authentic evidence of the fact, in the striking similarity which exists between the elementary principles of the two langua- ges, as appears by the conviction it has produced- in this learned and ingenious writer. But how shall we account for it, unless it be from the prepossessions created by his theory, that it should not have occur- . €d to him, that, from the same Huns, are descend- ed, likewise, some of the fairest, and most beauti- ful nations of Europe ? As an objection against the power of climate to change the complexion, he says, " the Moguls, and the southern Chinese are white." If he means that they are not black, it is true. But if he means that their complexion is, in any degree, to be compared to the whiteness of the Europeans, he has been egre- giously misinformed. That the Moguls are less discoloured than some other nations in the same lati- tudes, is to be ascribed to the state of civilization f 321 at which they had arrived previously to their taking possession of their present seats. Migrating origin- ally from a high temperate latitude, the arts of civ- ilized life have enabled them to preserve their col- our against the worst effects of their present more southern exposure. He is not less misinformed when he says, that Zaara is as hot as Guinea, and Abyssinia hotter than Monomotapa : yet, he adds, the inhabitants of the former are not so black as those of the latter." — Zaara is not so hot as Guinea ; nor is Abyssinia hotter than Monomotapa. But if the temperature of these countries were equal, there are other causes which produce a wide difference between the figure and complexion of the nations which respectively inhabit them. The Abyssinians, who derive their origin from Arabia, are enabled, by their partial civihzation, to preserve some resemblance to the features of their ancestors. Their high and moun- tainous elevation, raises them above the region of ex- treme heat in the tropical latitudes of Africa. Tlie Monomotapans are evidently descended from the ne- groes of the equator. And their savage habits have continued among that portion of the people, who 322 are not of Caffre origin, the figure, and other pecu- liarities of their ancestors, without great variation. His lordship proceeds, *' there are many instan- ces of races of people preserving their original col- our in climates very different from their own." — This can be true only of people who have made very considerable advances in the progress towards civili- zation. The pretended fact, however, is utterly void of fomidation in the extent in which he affirms it. — He very incautiously adds, " And there is not a sin- gle instance to the contrary." — To his lordship, surely, the Portuguese of Congo might have been that instance. Another argument for the original diversity of the races of men, on which some reliance is placed in this preliminary discourse, is founded on the variety of disposition, spirit, and genius displayed by the different nations of the world. But, on this part of the subject, many of the author's remarks appear so weak as to be utterly unworthy of his general character as a philosopher, and a judicious writer. — Among the oriental islands, " some there are, he says, whose inhabitants are hostile, others are hos- pitable to strangers." — To this we may justly an- swer, that kindness, or aversion to strangers de- S23 pends on so many contingent causes that a mor^ equivocal foundation can hardly be mentioned on which to rest the argument for the existence of dif- ferent species of men. Nations which have been often exposed to hostile attacks, will become habit- ually suspicious of foreigners, and prone to repel them from their shores : those, on the other hand, who have seldom seen the face of an enemy, will be equally disposed to receive them with frankness and hospitality. On the same ground might he have demonstrated diat Europe, in the tenth and in the eighteenth century was inhabited by different species of men, from the facility and security with which a stranger might, in one of those periods, have passed through all its kingdoms ; and the hazards to which, in a similar tour, he would have been exposed in the other. — His lordship goes on to coiifirm this argument by examples of some nations " who are full of courage and prompt to combat;" and of others who hardly know the arts of war," or have *' confidence to meet an enemy in the field." — With equal reason might he conclude that the Greeks are not of the same species now as when they gave birth to such heroes as Miltiades, AgesiiivUS, ^ Alexander. That die Romans were not of the ' 524 same species under Caesar, when they conquered, as under Au:?ustulus, when they lost a world. And that, cimontj the Jews, the Essenes, who were peaceful hermits who fled from the sound of war, were not of the same species with the martial Pha* risces who resisted Titus. But the argument is too absurd to merit even this answer. He speaks in the next place, of " the cowardice of the American indians," with whose character and manners he is manifestly unacquainted, as form- ing one feature of a distinct species. The proof of their cowardice consists entirely in their mode of fighting which is commonly from behind the shel- ter of thickets, or of large trees, seldom exposing themselves to an enemy in the open field. — An Indian philosoplier, who should have examined the subject with no more attention than his lordship ap- pears to have done, would probably retort the charge of cowardice on the Europeans ; because they do not siuTc-r torture like the natives of Ame- rica. Na iop.s have diiTerent ideas of courage and of honor, and they exert these principles in dif- ferent ways. The miiitary education of an indian consists in learning to make -war by stealth and to endure pain with fortitude. The reasons of their 525 eonduct in both,* arise naturally out of their state of society, the thinness of their population, and the physical state of their country. No people have superior courage. They differ from civilized na- tions only in the manner of exercising it. Another example of the difference of dispositions in the various races of men. which, in his lordship's opinion, contributes to establish his principle, he supposes he has found in '• the Giagas a nation of Africa, who, says he, bury all their own children as soon as bo n, and supply their places with others stolen from tlie neighbouring tribes." 1 quote this passage merely as one out of many examples of the credulity of philosophers who declaim with vehe- mence against the faith required by the gospel. It might surely have occurred, even to his lord- ship's zeal, that the race of the Giagas could not have existed above one generation. Yet these stolen children seem, by miracle, to be constantly trans- formed, for his lordship's use, into Giagas. An anecdote of a similar nature, he gives us from the history of the Japanese. *' The Japanese, says he, differ essentially from the rest of mankind, be* cause, when others would kill their enemies, they * See Appendix. 526 kill themselves through spite." — This is certainly a ■very extraordinary distinction. And another not less so is, that " they never supplicate the gods, like other men, in distress." — The difference is, no doubt, very wide between them, and those men who never supplicate their Maker at any other time. But one would think that a philosopher argued in this weak manner with intention to expose to ridicule SI cause which he only fictitiously espoused. His lordship indeed acknowledges that these ar- guments are not altogether conclusive, and therefore, proceeds to produce others which are to carry with . them, 1 presume, irresistible evidence. 1 shall quote them at full length, that I may diminish nothing of their force. *' But not to rest, says he, upon presumptive evi- dence, few animals are more affected than men gen- erally are, not only with change of seasons in the same climate, but with change of weather in the same season. Can such a being be fitted for all climates equally ? Impossible.— Horses and horned cattle sleep on the bare ground, wet or dry, without harm ; and yet, were not made for every climate : can man then be made for every climate, who is so much more delicate that he cannot sleep on wet ground without hazard of some mortal disease?" — This is 3-27 the argument. But is it not refuted by the uniform experience of the whole world? The human con- stitution is the most delicate of all animal systems : but it is also the most pliant, and capable of accom- modating* itself to the greatest variety of situations. The inferior animals have no defence against the evils of a new climate but the force of nature. The arts of human ingenuity furnish a protection to man agaitist the dangers which surround hivi in every re-* gion. Accordingly, we see the same nation pass iiito all the climates on the globe ; reside whole win- ters at the pole ; plant colonies beneath the equator; pursue their commerce and establish their factories in Afjica, Asia, and America. They can live equal- ly under a burning and a frozen sky, where many of those hardy animals could not exist. It is true, such great changes ought not in general to be suddenly hazarded, nor without those precautions which ex- perience has shewn to be useful for the preservation of health. But, when they are prudently made, habit soon accommodates the constitution to its new position ; and the changes which the climate itself introduces into the constitution enable it better to resist any dangerous effect of the influences by which they are produced. 328 . But, " men cannot sleep on the wet ground without hazard of some mortal disease." — By men I presume his lordship means Europeans, because the savages of America, sleep on the naked earth without hazard, in every change of weather, or of season. Whether he admits the American savage into the rank of men or not, he concludes, from this circumstance, that they are of a different species from the civilized and polished people of Europe. If he had visited the forests of the new world, he would have found in this, as well as in many other instances, how little he was acquainted with human nature beyond the sphere of his own country. He would have seen this argument, on which he rests with so much confidence, entirely overturned. He would have seen Europeans, or the descendents of Europeans, without any mixture of indian blood, become, by habit, as capable as savages, of using the naked earth for their bed, and of enduring all the changes of an inclement sky. The Anglo-Ame- ricans, on the frontiers of the United States, who acquire their subsistence chiefly by hunting, enter, with facility, into all the customs of the neighbour- ing savages, and endure with equal hardiness the want of every convenience of polished society. 529 And riot only the hunters, who have long been ac- customed to those habits of living, ate able to lodge' without injury, on the damp earth, but the large companies of men, women, and children, who are continually removing from the interior parts of the United StatcG to the western countries for the sake of occupying new lands, encamp every night in the open air. They sleep on the bare ground with, per- haps, only a few dried leaves beneath them ; and frequently exposed to heavy showers of rain or snow. Kindling a large fife in the center of their encampment, they sleep round it, extendirg their feet towards the pile. And, while the feet are kept warm, as they have often informed me, they seldont suifer any serious injury to their health from the coldness of the earth or the vapors of the atmosphere. "But, the argument which I chiefly rely on," con- tinues his lordship, " is, that, were ail men of one species, there never could have existed, without a miracle, different kinds, such as exist at present. Giving allowance for every supposable variation of climate, or of other causes, what can follow but endless varieties among individuals j as among tulips Ml a garden ? Instead of which we find men of dit R R ferent kinds ; the individuals of each kind remarka- b'y uniform, and differing no less remarkably from the individuals of every other kind. Uniformity without variation is the offspring of nature, never of chance." How often do philosophers mistake the eagerness and persuasion of their own minds, resulting from violent attachment to their theories, for the genuine light of truth and reason ! — The first part of this argument consists only of an ardent and zealous as- sertion, which, as it rests on no proof, requires no refutation. — The second part contains only a fine similitude : but that similitude, as far as it has any relation to the question, operates directly against his principle. *' Giving allowance for every supposable X'^ariation of climate, or other causes, what can fol- low, he asks, but endless vaiieties among individ- uals, as among tulips in a garden ?" — I answer, that such varieties among individuals are found in every climate, in every region, in every family. But dif- ferent climates, as far as they possess any power to alter the human physiognomy, must necessarily cre- ate varieties, not among i?idividuals, but kinds. For the same climate, in similar circumstances, operat- ing uniformly, as far as it extends, must occasion. 331 a certain uniformity in the kind^ and operating- dif- ferently from every other climate, must render that kiyid different in its appearance from all others. — " Uniformity, he continues, is the offspring of na- ture, never of chance." Could his lordship mean to insinuate, by this remark, that the operations of cli- mate are the effect of chance, or that all the varieties produced by it ai-e not governed by uniform and certain laws ? He adds, " There is another argument that ap- pears also to have weight ; — horses, with rtspect to shape, size, and spirit, differ widely in different cli- mates. But let a male and female, of whatever cli- mate, be carried to a country where horses are in perfection, their progeny will improve gradu..My, and will acquire, in time, the perfection of their kind. Is not this a proof that all horses are of one kind?" His lordship seems to reason only against himself. Is it not equally true of the species of men, as of that of horses, that it varies its appearance, and many of its properties, by every removal to a new climate, and by every change which the state of society undergoes ? The present nations of Eu- rope are an example in the way of improvement ; tlie S32 Europeans, whom he acknowledges to have degene- rated by being removed to Africa, Asia, and South- America, are an example in the contrary progres- sion. Carry the natives of Africa, or America to Europe, and mix the breed, as you do that of horses, and they will, in a short time, lose their dusky hue, and all the peculiar defects of their figure ; and will acquire, in the same number of de- scents as horses, or any other animals, the high perr fcction of form which is seen in that polished country. No, says his lordship, " a mulatto will be the re- sult of the union of a white, with a black." — That is true in the first descent, but not in the fourth or fifth, in which, by a proper mixture of races, and by the habits of civilized life, the dark tinge may be entirely effaced. There resided in the college of New- Jersey, in the years seventeen hundred and eighty five, six and seven a striking exemplification of the above remark, in two young gentlemen of one of the most respectable families of the state of Virginia. They vvere descend- ed in the female line from the indian emperor Pow- hatan, and were in the fourth descent from the prin> .cess Pqcahuntis, a high-spirited and generous woman. ^IthoA^gh all their ancestp/s in Virginia had retain- 333 ed some characteristics, more or less obvious, of their maternal race, in these youn^ gentlemen they aj^peared to be entirely obliterated. The hair and complexion, of one of them in particular, was very fair, and the countenance, and form of the face, per- fectly Anglo-American. He retained only the dark and vivid eye which has distinguished the whole family, and rendered some of them remarkably beautiful. If his lordship's argument, then, have any weight, as he supposes, it is only against his Qwn position. But he still pertinaciously repeats the conclusion, *' That mankind must have been originally created of different species, and fitted for the different cli- mates in which thej/ were placed, whatever change may have happened in later times, by war, or by commerce." Let us ask, why fitted by a different organization, for the different climates in xvhich they were placed? Is it because they could not exist in other climates ? or because they attain the greatest perfection of their nature only in their own ? Both these reasons are contradicted by experience. Let us remember *' the changes which have been produced by war and by commerce." Nations have been transplanted- -554 from their original soil to other dimes ; and have continued to exist, and to flourish. Foreig-ners from the most distant regions, have become assimilated to the natives. Instead of attaining, in their prim- itive abodes, the highest perfection of their nature, they have improved it by migrating to new habita- tions. The Goths, the Tartars, the Africans, have greatly ameliorated both their bodily, and mental qualities by changing those skies for which it is said, " they were peculiarly fitted by nature.'* They must, therefore, have defeated, or improved upon, the designs of the Creator, or, at least, have . shewn that the precautions, attributed to him by this author, were superfluous. Lord Kaims having endeavoured to demonstrate, in the manner ne have seen, the existence of origin nal varieties among mankind, proceeds in a similar strain of reasoning ; — " There is a remarkable fact which confirms the foregoing conjectures ; as fer back as history goes the earth was inhabited by savages, divided into small tribes, each tribe having a language peculiar to itself. Is it not natural then, to suppose that these original tribes, were diflbrent races of men placed in proper climates, and left to form their own language ? But this opinion we are- 335 not permitted to adopt, being taught a different les^- son bv revelation. Though we cannot doubt of the authority of Moses, yet his account of the crea- tion is not a little puzzling. According to that ac- count all men must have spoken the same language, viz. that of their first parents. But what of all seems the most contradictory to that account is the savage state. Adam, as Moses informs us, was en- dued by his Maker with an eminent degree of knowledge, and he, certainly, must have been an ex- cellent preceptor to his children, and their progeny among whom he lived several generations. Whence then the degeneracy of all men to the savage state ? To account for that dismal catastrophe mankind must have suifered some terrible convulsion. That terrible convulsion is revealed to us in the history of the tower of Babel. By confounding the language- of all men, and scattering them abroad upon the face of the earth, they were rendered savages. And to harden them for their new habitations, it was necessary that they should be divided into different kinds, fitted for different climates. Without an immediate change of bodily constitution, the build- ers of Babel could not possibly have subsisted in the burning region of Guinea, or in the frozen re^ 336 gidn of Lapland. If the common language of meit had not been confounded upon their attempting the tower of Babel, I affirm that there never could have bfen but one language. Antiquaries constantly suppose a migrating spirit in the original inhab- itants of the earth, not only v/ithout evidence, but Contrary to all probability. Men never desert their connexions, nor their country without necessity* Feaf of enemies, and of wild beasts, as well as the attractions of society, are more thini sufficient to re-^ 'strain them from wandering ; not to mention that savages are peculiarly fond of their natal soil." When ignorance, or profligacy pretends to sneer at revelation and at opinions held sacred by mankind, it is too humble to provoke resentment. But when a philosopher aftects the dishonest task, he renders^ himself equally the object of indignation and con- tempt. Error and absurdity are at no time so des- picable as when in a ridiculous confidence of shrewdness, or affectation of wit, they assume airs of superior sagacity, and contemptuous leer. To point out all the instances of weakness and mistake in this paragraph would exceed the bounds which I have prescribed to myself in these strictures. One important and obvious error 1 shall take notice o^ 337 and then shew that the whole foundation of this rea- soning is false, and indicates even extreme ignorance of human nature, as it exists in that state of society of which he speaks. " Without an immediate change of bodily consti- tution, says he, the builders of Babel could not pos- sibly have subsisted, in the burning region of Gui- nea, or the frozen region of Lapland." — How, then, tio Europeans, at this day, subsist both in Guinea, and Lapland, without undergoing this previous and miraculous change of constitution ? Have not the nations of Europe armies, or colonies, or travellers in every region on the globe ? But if his lordship be- lieved that the intensity of a frozen, or a torrid cii- miate was sufficient to have destroyed the builders of Bibel, he should have no objection, surely after such a declaration, to admit that men, from these causes, may suffer great changes in their complexion, and figure. Yet, his whole object is to combat this principle. He allows the greater, he denies the smaller effect. But errors or contradictions of this kind, we often have occasion to see, that philoso'« phers, in their zeal against an obnoKiou.s doctrine, easily overlook. S 3 n n tj I proposed, in the next place, to shew that the whole foundation on which the reasoning in this par- agraph rests is false, and betrays extreme ignorance of human nature in that state of society of which the author speaks. — It rests on two principles ; — 1st. That the posterity of the original parent of the race, or any part of them could never have become savage, if he had possessed that wisdom and goodness as- cribed to him by the sacred historian. And -2dly, that, on this supposition, also, there never could have existed a diversity of languages. — On the other hand, hardly any conclusion in moral science can be more certain than that the savage condition of a large proportion of mankind must have been the natural result of the state of the earth, as Moses represents it immediately after the deluge, — And, that, out of the dispersed state of its savage tribes, would neces- sarily arise, in time, a great diversity in the langua- 2:es of men. I am not now going to explain the history of Ba- bel; nor to defend the miracles recorded in the sa- cred scriptures. I take the matter on his lordship's ground, who, no doubt, fervently disbelieves all jniracnlous interposition in this or in any other case, and shew that, in the nature of things, many tribes would become savage, and language would become divided into different dialects. According to the Mosaic history, on the basis of which his lordship reasons, man descended, after the deluge, into an immense wilderness, in which the beasts would naturally multiply infinitely faster than the human race. Agriculture would, probably, from habit, and inclination, form the employment of Noah, and his immediate descendents. And in this occupation we find the first elements of civilized so- ciety, which we can trace, without interruption, from the countries in which they resided, and the period in which they lived, diO\\n\ to the present times. — But agriculture is too laborious an em- ployment, and requires habits of life too regular to be agreeable to all men. Surrounded by forests filled with game, many would be iiiclined to aban- don the toils of clearing and cultivating the ground, to seek their provision, and their pleasure, inthe chace, which has ever been a favourite exercise of mankind. Judging from what we observe among the savages of this continent, and those Anglo- Americans who reside in their vicinity, their mode of procuring subsistence by hunting tends to dis- perse them widely from one anotlicr, and to di^tri. 340 bute them over immense tracts of country. Hence small independent tribes would in time spring up here and there through a boundless wilderness; they would forget all arts but that of hunting, and their mode of life would necessarily render them savage. — His lordship supposes that there exists an invin- cible objection against the dispersion of the primitive inliabitants of the world, and against the possibility of their degenerating into savage manners, in the ex- ample and advice of a venerable ancestor, and in the social disposition of man. — The example and advice of such an ancestor would doubtless possess great influence among that civilized people which would naturally be formed around the place of his imme- diate residence. But what power could they exert over his remote descendents who should live in a following age, or be ranging the forest at the dis- tance of a thousand leagues ? — In answer to this question he confidently pronounces, in contradiction to all experience, that mankind would never have separated from one another, and from the pleasures of that social intercourse v.-hich they would have en- joyed with their families and friends. Or if pleasure could not bind them, he imagines that fear would have restrained them. — " Men, says he, never de- 341 sert their connexions, nor their country without ne* cessity : fear of enemies, and of wild beasts, as well as the attractions of society, are more than sufficient to restrain them from wandering : not to mention that savages are peculiarly fond of their natal soil." No man could have spoken in this manner who had ever been acquainted with human nature in its savage state. It is ridiculous to speak of the fear of wild beasts to hunters whose diversion it is to pursue and destroy them. And not much less absurd is it to speak of the attractions of society, and of exclusive attachments to a particular soil to men whose habitation is a wilderness, — to whom migra- tion is a habit, — to whom every spot of earth is equal where they can find game, — and who feel the charms of society infinitely less than the pleasures of the chace. What are the attractions of society to rude unpolished savages ? Destitute of the delicacy and refinement of sentiment which civilized manners create, and accustomed to the taciturnity in. duced by solitude, they are little more than the pleasure which dumb animals perceive at the ap. proach of other animals of the same species. The chace, which is productive of higher and €tonger ^motions, easily breaks the feeble ties of such sociv 342 cty ; and hunters, like beasts of prey, delight hi solitudes and deserts. — Men, in such a state, are seen to migrate to the greatest distances for the most trifling causes : sometimes from curiosity ; some- times through mere caprice, and often for the con- venience of hunting. The influence upon the human mind, of a great extent of lands lying in common, and ready to be occupied by the first comer, is very visible in the effects produced by a similar situation on the inhab- itants of many parts of the United States. Their fathers came from Europe with all those fixed hab- its, and those tendencies to local attachments which can reasonably be imputed to any people. They took possession of a boundless and unappropriated forest, in which they might choose almost at plea- sure, where to reside : a circumstance which has pro- duced a speedy, and astonishing eflfect upon the manners of their descendents. The Anglo-Amer- icans discover comparatively little attachment to a natal soil. No hereditary possessions, no objects of antiquity, seize the imagination, and identify themselves with the endearing idea of family. The people migrate from place to place, and often to the greatest distances, without reluctance. They 343 change their habitations, retire from the midst of their friends, and abandon their natal soil, often for apparently small conveniences. Near the sea coast, indeed, and in our oldest towns, the long residence of families is beginning to produce its natural effect upon the mind, a greater attachment to ancestral seats ; but passing westward, as the settlements be- come more recent, these attachments are seen to be more feeble, till, at last, as we approach the vicin- ity of the Indian tribes, they are next to nothing ; and similarity of situation, begets a great approxi- mation of manners between the posterity of Euro- peans, and the aboriginal savages of the country, If his lordship had seen America, he might have, seen men forever migrating from the midst of soci- ety to uncultivated deserts ; and, as society gradual- ly advances upon them from the sea- coast, he might have seen them again retiring before it still fcirther into the depths of the wilderness ; he might have seen men decline the labours of agriculture as a toil, and prefer the fatigues, with the precariousness of hunting to all the advantages to be derived from the arts ; he might have seen that mankind often find eharms in the indolence and independence of the- savage state, superior to the attractions of society , 544 which must be connected with the labors of industry, and the sacrifices of subordination ; he might have seen our native indians, either singly, or in com- panies, travel for many moons successively, to ex- plore other forests, and to seek for other rivers ; he might have seen M^hole tribes rise from their seats at once, and, carrying with them the bones of their fathers, seek new habitations at the distance of hun- dreds of leagues. — But his lordship has seen none of these things ; and he speaks of the savage state without understanding it, and of human nature in the beginning of time, without knowing how it has been affected, or what principles of action it has displayed in similar situations in later periods. Like many other philosophers, he judges and reasons concerning man only from whati^^" has seen ; and is led to form wrong conclusions from his own prepos- sessions. According to his principles a state of savagism never could have existed on the supposition of vari- ous original species of men, more than on that of one. " Fear of wild beasts," and " the attractions of society," would have held each race so closely connected together as to have *' prevented their dis- j)ersion." Every art of agriculture would liave 345 been tried before they would have extended thek habitations into the dangerous wilderness. A civ- lized community would have risen round the dwell- ing of the progAiitor of each race. And when they should have been compelled by necessity to enlarge their limitSi they would have extended them in com- pany. The forests would have fallen before them as they advanced ; and fear, and the social principle, would have equally contributed to restrain them from encountering the hazards, and risking the dis- persions consequent upon indulging the spirit of the chace. The world, instead of being filled with numerous tribes of savages, would have every where presented to us civilized nations. His lord- ship, on this subject, constantly reasons against him- self. He intends to combat the doctrine of a single species, from the existence of the savage state, which yet is a necessary consequence of that doc- trine, and would certainly be precluded on his own principles. Finally, his lordship '' affirms," that if all men had descended from one family " there never could have existed but one language, without the aid of a mira- cle," which he only supposes in the case, with the in- sidious view of exposing it to derision. This is an T T 346 assertion which is certainly, not a little surprizing in a great philosopher, who has undertaken to treat of human nature, and to present Vb us a philosophic historj' of man. — Similarity of language among all nations, diversified only by the various grades of improvement in science, and the arts, to which they should respectively have attained, would have beeli a natural consequence of the universal civilization of mankind continued down from a wise and virtuou's father of the race, through all the branches of his posterity. Diversity of languages is an equally ne- cessary consequence of the savagism of a great portion of the tribes of mankind, induced in the manner that has been already explained, and natur- ally arising out of the condition of the earth immedi- ately after such a catastrophe as the universal del- uge. — The reason of this will be obvious on a little reflection. The savage has comparatively few wants; and his state furnishing but few objects for the employment of language in his intercourse with other savages, the compass of discourse between them must be extremely limited. A savage is a taciturn animal. The paucity of his ideas, and the solitude in which he lives, incline him rarely to speak rand when he does speak, he is obliged, for 347 want of a sufficient copiousness of terms, to express himself chiefly in figures. Tiiis artifice the effect of i^ecessity, abridges still more the sphere of language, by making the same term stand for various ideas, sensible, or mental, physical, or moral, according as the speaker finds resemblances or analogies between them. A swift man, is a deer, — a man of address is « fox, — a warrior of strength or courage is a bear. — The union and harmony of peace is expressed by <» chain; and putting an end to the cruelties and distress of war, by covering the tomahawk y or %v ashing the bloody bed. In this rude condition of mankind, the elements of speech must be extremely narrow. At the same time, among different tribes it must be very various. Each new region, each new climate into which they may be dispersed, will present to the senses many different objects, must create differ- ent wants, which will consequently require new terms by which to express them. Hence will result a diversity in the first elements of speech between various tribes. — If a few common terms should be transmitted from the primitive stock relative to the most familiar ideas, and objects of the first neces- sity, yet even these would undergo, in time, con- siderable modifications arising from the usual 348 causes which create a continual flux in all langua- ges ; and many of them would be so changed from their original forms as hardly to be recognized to have been once the same, or sprung from the same roots. Language would become as various as the tribes of men. And as these tribes would advance in the cultivation of the arts, their respective languages would constantly exhibit still less resem- blance to one another. They would commence the vast carter of improvement, as we have seen, with few elements in common ; and even these few would soon undergo material changes. And in the infinite multitude of words which civilization, sci- ence, and the arts add to language, no two nations, perhaps, have ever agreed upon the same sounds to rej:)resent the same ideas; — In the progress of time, indeed, the superior refinement of one nation above its neighbours may induce them to adopt many of its terms along with its arts ; conquest may impose a language ; extension of empire may contribute to melt down different dialects into one mass ; but in- dependent tribes naturally give rise to diversity of tongues. Hence, although the speech of men was origin- ally one, yet, as they separated themselves from on^ 349 another over the uncultivated face of the primitive world, and gave existence to various savage tribes, or tribes only in the first simple stages of society, they laid the foundation, at the same time, of an equal variety of dialects. — Every argument, therefore, employed by his lordship fails to support the super- structure which he attempts to rest upon it, and this last, which he deemed the strongest of all, in- stantly falls to pieces under a fair and critical ex* amination. Such is the attack which this celebrated philo- sopher has made on the doctrine of the identity of the human species. In all the writings of this author there is not another example of so much weak and inconclusive reasoning. This ought in justice to be imputed rather to the indefensible nature of the cause which he has undertaken to maintain, than to any defect of talents in the writer. For, to him I may apply the lines which, on another occa= sion, he applies to Dr. Robertson ; Si Pergama dextra Defend! possent, etiara hac defensa fuissent.. APPENDIX, APPENDIX. OF THE NATURAL BRAVERY AND FORTITUDE OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS OR THE HIS- TORY OF THEIR MANNERS AS IT RELATES TO THEIR MILITARY EXPEDITIONS, AND THEIR CONDUCT TO THOSE WHO ARE TA- KEN CAPTIVE IN WAR. The writers who subdivide the human race into various species have sought support for this opinion, among other arguments, from the great diversity of moral and intellectual powers and qualities which exist between various nations of the globe, and es- pecially between the tribes of African and American savages, and the civilized inhabitants of Europe, or of Asia. Reasoning falaciously from false facts, they have endeavoured to establish such extreme and essential distinctions between them as can be the re- sult only of some original and radical difference of nature. Mr. White has taken for his example the negroes of Africa, and Lord Kaims the indian abo- riginals of North- America. The former I have already considered in my remarks on the discourses 354 of that writer. On the latter, which have been so often, and so egregiously misrepresented, I purpose in this appendix, to make a few observations. Lord Kaims appeals to the modes of warfare in use among the American indians as indicating a degree of pusillanimity beyond the ordinary stand- ard of human nature, which, in his opinion, ought to degrade them from the rank of men ; and to the cruelty of the tortures inflicted on their prisoners, as well as their apathy in suifering, as demonstrating some principle in their constitutional organization which entirely discriminates them from the rest of - mankind, and may be justly admitted as a sufficient ground to arrange them as a distinct species. His lordship appears to be very imperfectly informed in the genuine history of these tribes, and to have be- stowed little reflection on the po^verful influence of moral causes in forming the characters of nations. Both these phenomena which have induced him, to- gether v.ii;h many other Eiuopean writers, to brand the natives of the new world with cowardice, and with almost incredible apathy of feeling, result from their state of society, and the peculiar situation of their small hordes, and from certain habits and opin- ions existing amon^ them wluch have originated^ in a 355 great measure, Irom the same causes. Some de- tails in their history I shall now present to the rea- der relative to their modes of warfare, with their treatment of their captives, and the peculiar opinions, and circumstances in their state, which influence each, whence we may derive a philosophic solution of those extraordinary traits in their manners, which have given occasion to these unjust and odious im* putations. The aboriginal natives of North- America present to the philosopher some new and curious views of human nature which were wholly unknown to an- tiquity, and which even now, notvvithstanduig the extended improvements of modern times in geo- graphical, and moral science, are not to be met with in any other portion of the globe. In tracing the origin of this people by the most probable co jeC' tures, it has been generally agreed, that they are de- rived from the Tartar hordes dispersed along the north- eastern coasts of Asia. Here a barbarous people, impelled by accident, or attracted by the allurements of the chace, passing the narrow seas which, iw this part, separate the two continents, soon forgot even the imperfect arts of Siberia and Kamtschatka, ex» cept those simple stratagems which were necessary SS6 to take their game in the forest, or to draw the fish from the stream. In this rude condition they would be abandoned entirely to the unassisted efforts of nature, to be formed by the influences of a new cli- mate, and by the wants, and the dangers of their aew situation. In the milder and more fertile re- gions of the southern continent, which had derived their population, tlirough several intermediate grades, from the more cultivated nations in the South of Asia, some advances towards improvement, and a civilized state of society, had been made. But these elementary operations in the arts had not yet extended to the tribes which lay above the thirtieth degree of northern latitude when the first adventurers from Europe reached the American shores. These still remained in the rudest condition of human na- ture. Thej^ were universally savage ; but they were savages of a temperate climate, and, therefore, not so utterly degenerate as those which are found un* der the latitudes of extreme heat, or extreme cold. Tne powers of life were not benumbed by the one, nor enfeebled by the other. A warm sun, and a luxuriant vegetation did not offer to the natural in- dolence of a savage the means of subsistence without the strenuous exertion of his own faculties ; nor did 557 the rigors of a frozen sky render those exertions en- tirely fruitless. The indian of North- America pre- sents to us man completely savage, but obliged by the nature of the forest which he inhabits, and the variable temperature of the heaven under which he lives, as well as by the enemies with which he is surrounded, to employ both courage and address, for his subsistence, and defence. He is of savages, therefore, the most noble, in whom the unaided powers of human nature appear with greater dignity than among those rude tribes who either approach nearer to the equator, or are farther removed to- wards the poles. It is not my object, at present, to pourtray the moral character of the American savage in all its re- lations ; I shall contemplate it singly in his military operations and atchievements, as this is the principal point of view in which it is immediately related to my subject;* and is that, indeed, in which the * This appendix is extracted from a larger dissertation en- titled the history and philosophy of the manners of the Ameri- can savage, which I have had it in contemplation to prepare as an addition to my lectures on Moral Philosophy in the college designed to exhibit the influence of various states of society on the human character. 358 peculiarities of tins extraordinary race arc chiefly displayed. Except hunting, which is the necessary means of their subsistence, war forms their favourite occupation, and to excel in it is their supreme ambi- tion. In conducting it they exhibit the greatest address and enterprize, perseverance and fortitude. If the passions of such uncultivated minds are often atrocious, they sometimes display such heroic, and even sublime eiforts of courage, and unconquerable firmness of soul, as justly excite our wonder, and command our admiration. In treating this subject I shall consider, the causes, the conduct, and the consequences of their wars. Wars, among them, most frequently arise from encroachments on their hunting grounds, or from contests concerning their limits. Although the idea of dividing land in private and individual pro^ perty has never occurred to a savage, and is, indeed^ resisted by all his habits, and his feelings of unrestrain- ed liberty, yet their hunting grounds they regard as a national domain in which every huntsman and war- rior feels the deepest interest, as it is the great field of his sports, and furnishes the only sources of his subsistence. He is vigilant, therefore, to observe- 559 ¥very transgression of its limits, and prompt to rqjel, or to punish eyery invasion of the national rights^ But, as they have no arts by which these boundaries can be fixed with precision, and they must neces- sarily be left to be rudely marked by mountains and rivers, and by certain lines which, at different points, are indistinctly traced through the woods to connect these, they are liable to be frequently passed by foreign hunters who cahnot be minute-» ly acquainted with their course. The uncertainty of such lines, likewise, must often afford to neigh* bouripg tribes pretexts for mutual invasions, or^ complaints. In the ardor of the chace, it is easy for young and impatient hunters to overleap those ill de- fined limits without any hostile design. But if they should happen to be met in this act of aggression by any of that nation v/ho consider themselves possess* ed of the right of property, the intruders usually pay with their liyes the forfeit of their rashness ; or if the force on each side be nearly equal, their meetings issues in mortal conflict. If the aggression is not discovered and punished on the spot, as soon as it is known to the chiefs of the injured nation, they send a herald with a demand of satisfaction, or they en- courage their young men to make reprisals on the 360 ofFending tribe, which inevitably kindles the rage of war for the diversion of hunting. The wars of rude people often arise from the most trivial causes ; and not unfrequcntly it happens that parties of young hunters from different tribes mt-et-. ing in the forest, and roused by that spirit (3l rival- ry, and that pride of national atchievenient so natu- ral to man, enter into contests of emuiaiion. Con- tests, which, managed with their rough passions, easily degenerate into broils, that terminate in blood- shed. And the first blood which is spilled too of- ten becomes the signal of general war. In these small tribes the persons who are slain are more nearly or remotely connected by the ties of blood with every family in the nation. Each man feels and resents the murder as a mortal injury aimed against himself: and the whole nation, with that spirit of clan which always pervades such narrow communities, are ready to rush to its revenge. Hostilities among savages are seldom waged through motives of ambition, which hardly can have any place in a state of society entirely destitute of wealth ; or from the cool dictates of a calculating arid fore- seeing policy, which would involve ideas too com-'* plex and refined for their uncultivated minds; 361 They are commonly the result of the sudden im- pulses of passion. Rude hunters, and young and» mettlesome warriors, little acquainted with the re- strains of government, and presumptuous from ii.ex- perience, impatient or incapable of the details of negociation by which hostilities might be prevented^ and wrongs compensated or redressed, are ever prompt to recur to force, and on the sUtj^htest pro- vocation, make their appeal to arms. Their want of subordination to any civil authority, for no control which deserves that title is established among them^ and their lofty sense of personal independence, fre- quently subject their national movements to violent convulsions. They possess no regularly organized bodies charged with the care of the common weal, who can coolly deliberate on the public interests, and preserve the nation from being committed, and its peace embroiled by the rash actions of their young warriors. Yet, when it is threatened with danger, their old men, whom age and experience have cloth- ed, even among savages, with a certain degree of respect, convene and ofi'er their counsels. To ad- vise is all that is in their power; which,, however, is not without its influence when the general inflania* tion is not already excited to too high a pitchy w w 362 Having" no laws to punish crimes among themselves, stili less does there exist any public law to repress, or to punish aggressions meditated, or committed against any foreign tribe. And when a young warrior, stimulated by his native courage, or burning with national emulation makes the first attack upon a neighbouring tribe, he relies securely on the protec- tion of his own people. Their love of war, and fe- rocity of character, render them ever prompt to de- fend the indiscretions of courage. The sympathies of these savages are always in unison with vioient and daring actions. Hence the multiplication, and the sanguinary complexion of their v,ars. They do not, however, always precipitate them- selves rashly, and without discernment, into every new war. When hostilities are threatened by some powerful tribe, the whole nation is assembled to de- liberate on the expediency of taking up the toma- hawk, and on the measures to be pursued in the pre- sent crisis. Here their old men give their sage and experienced advice, and their orators address them with an eloquence always highly figurative, and often noble and commanding. If the nation which is the object of their councils is nearly equal in force with themselves, their own courage, and sense of national 363 honor, and above all, the ardor of their youth, wiH commonly determine their ultimate resolutions in favor of war. And it is surprising with what saga- city and judicious discernment, the reasons on either side of the questions which are proposed to their deliberation, will often be estimated, and balanc- ed by these savage senators. But if it be obvious that hostilities must be waged by them, at present, with great national disadvantage, the cooler counsels of age and experience will sometimes turn the scale to the side of peace. If this be the result, they hasten to send an embassy to the tribe with whom they were likely to be embroiled, and by gifts and concessions, endeavour to avert their fury. If nothing less will appease the vengeance of their en- emies for some favourite wsjriors slain, than the blood of the murderers, this demand is followed by an example of retaliative justice the most extraordi- nary, perhaps, that the history of any people has re- corded. They have no laws by which they can ar- rest, confine, or put to death, any member of their respective tribes. But the nation which is solicit- ing peace under these disadvantages, resolves, by a public decree, to abandon the victims which have been demanded, to the revenge of the offend- 3fl4 cd party. And what is not less singular than this public abandonment, is the calm resignation with which those who arc thus devoted await the execu- tion prepared for them. Not an effort is made to resist, or to escape it. The warriors of the injured nation, deputed to inflict it, appear, and, without a murmur they offer their heads to the vengeful toma-» hawk, now the minister of peaces and the harmony of the two nations is cemented by the blood of the murderers.* If a determination for war is the result of the na- tional council, the resolution is received with a uni- versal shout. They raise the war song, — they min- gle in the war dance, which is a horrible imitation of all the most atrocious actions of their cruel war- fare; — they run to prepare their weapons; — they send to invite their allies ; — they paint their bodies, and especially their faces, with a variety of coarse, fantastic, colours and figures, which they suppose • This resignation appears to be the result of a noble senti- ment of piitriotism to save their countrymen from the calami* ties which would otherwise fall upon them; or of a full convic- tion thxt, when dbandoned by their tribe, it is no longer possible to escape the vengeance of tlieir enemies : and, as they do not fear deuth, they would not seem to wish to delay it. ,365 -will be at once beautiful to their friends, and terri- ble to their enemies ; — they equip themselves for the expedition; — they chuse a chieftain to conduct it. Frequently it happens that some not- ed warrior, confiding in the reputation which his past achievements have gained him, offers himself to be a leader, and is received with enthusiasm. When the election is to be made out of the mass of warri- ors, the choice is said to be, in many instances, de- termined by the physiognomy of the chief. For, sav- ages not being accustomed to disguise their emotions, and leaving their features to be formed or modified by the natural and unconstrained sentiments and passions of the mind, often exhibit in their countenance a striking mirror of their character. His features should be fierce, his eye bold, and penetrating, his muscles strong, his limbs active, and his whole as- pect and demeanor haughty and intrepid. A loud and terrible voice is, likewise, a great recommend- ation to a leader in their esteem as it was among the ancient Germans. For, in battle, he must endeav- our by his shouts to rouse the courage of his own troops, and to terrify those of his enemy. The voice of the chief serves them, instead of trumpets, to €0und the charge ; and must often direct their S66 movements during the conflict. But the chief title to the public favor, in this moment of danger, is founded in his past exploits, and his distinguished exertions of intrepidity and skill in hunting- or in war. Those heroes whose achievements the nation has often beheld and admired will commonly he follow- ed by her warriors with the greatest coiifidence. But as, in this state of society, no public obliga- tion, more than private duty can be imposed by any law of the community, the actions of every mem- ber are unconstrained and voluntary, and depend in this case on the sympathy of the individual with the public spirit. The whole body of warriors therefore are not expected to follow the national chieftain ; and many partizan corps are formed under separate leaders. A bold and intrepid chief presenting to them some*point of attack which he is ambitious to assail, with the probable means of ensuring success, offers himself to conduct the enterprize ; and march- ing forth from the midst of the assembly with a lofty step, strikes his tomahawk into the body of a tree. All those, who, admiring his courage, and confiding in his talents, arc inclined to follow him, advance in the same manner and strike their hatchets under his into the same tree. This is their enlistment. It is 367 perfectly voluntary. A spirit of enterprize, and at- tachment to their leader are their only motives, and their only reward, besides glutting their vengeance, the applauses of their countrymen. No legal penalty could be iiiflicted on desertion. But after an indian has once fixed his tomahawk in the tree, to retract his engagement would brand him with indeliible contempt and shame. Sometimes a single warrior, to prove his prowess and address, or to satisfy his revenge for some friend slain, will undertake an expedition alone ; and, after marching over hundreds of leagues, and enduring almost incredible hardships, and spending weeks and months in this solitary warfare, he will return grati- fied if he has taken only a single scalp ; which is in- deed, a difficult achievement against an enemy at once so brave, and so vigilant. But if he returns wifhout this proof of his success, his courage or his dexterity is dishonored in the esteem of his nation. A lid, with them, it is nearly an equal disgrace to be deficient in stratagem as in bravery. If he bringSr home several of these barbarous trophies, it fixes his character as a brave and skilful warrior. But, by following the ]:;rincipal chieftain, who conducts the national force, we shall gain a more 368 distinct view of the military genius of this extraor- dinary people. — Assembling his little army, he ad- dresses them in a rude eloquence that is not desti- tute of energy and force. It glows with the warm- est and the boldest figures, well calculated to in- flame all their fierce and unrelenting passions. He reminds them of the injuries of their enemies — ^the broken chain of treaties — the bloody axe which has severed it — ^the unwashed bed of tlieir slaughtered countrymen — their bones whitening on the hills that can never be gathered to their country burying place — the fires lighted up to torture their captive broth- ers. And when he perceives their passions kindling, when he hears their impatient shouts and sees their frantic gestures, he raises the song, and leads up the dance of war. This is the horrid prelude to their entering on their march. One precaution in selecting their troops deserves to be remarked, as it is an evidence at once of their prudence in forming their military plans, and their resolute and determined spirit in executing them. A young man is not permitted to take arms along with the host, in any hazardous expedition, who has not given decisive proofs of his courage, and ad- dress in hunting, and of his patience in enduring 369 fatigue and pain, lest his weakness, or unskilfulness should bring dishonor on his nation. In their march they observe nothing like the disci- pline that takes place in the armies of civilized na- tions. The chief enjoys no authority but what his reputation gives him. Confidence in his skill, and a sense of common interest and danger are the sole principles of union and order among them. He lays before his warriors his general plan, and the regula- tions he wishes to be observed in their advances to- wards the enemy. The rest is left to each man's judgment and discretion. Their weapons, before the introduction of fire arms by the Europeans, were bows, arrows, spears, and clubs. Their spears and arrows were- headed with the hardest bones taken from animals which they had slain in hunting ; or with stones, of a fine and hard grain, nicely ground to a point, by a tedious and laborious friction. Their clubs were formed out of a weighty species of wood, having a large knob at the end most distant from the hand, which, on one side, was fashioned to an edge re- sembling that of an axe. With this, they could cither knock down an enemy, or cleave his skulL In place of these clubs, they would frequently enr- X X 370 ploy a hard kind of granite, moulded by extraordi- nary pains into the figure of an axe, except that, in- stead of the eye into which the handle is inserted, they \Aorked out a small groove or channel round the upper part of the stone, about which they twisted a withe of some tough wood, whereby to connect it with the handle. This was an important instrument both in their domestic occupations, and in war; for, with it they, occasionally, either cut their fuel, or dispatched their enemy. But since their commerce, first with the Europeans, and, more recently, with the people of the United States, they have, in their wars generally substituted the musquet, or the rifle- barreled gun in the room of the spear and the bow. And, in place of the club they employ the toma- hawk, which is a small axe formed at the poll like the head of a hammer. This they can throw to the distance of several yards with surprizing dexterity ; and can cast it with such slight as, at pleasure, to strike their object either with the poll, or with the edge. In combat they use it either in hand, or at a distance : and, in both ways, they render it a very formidable weapon to an enemy. Besides these arms, they usually carry a long knife, suspended from the girdle, for the purpose of taking the scalps, 371 which are their trophies of victory from the enemies whom they may have slain in battle. Thus accoutred, they take up tlieir line of march, which is always in single file. They proceed, one following another, exactly in the same path ; and each succeeding one preserves an interval of st veral paces between him and the warrior immediately be- fore him. And this order they observe till they arrive so near their enemy that the continuance of it would expose them to danger, or betray their move- ments, when they separate, and direct their fucure progress in the manner which wall be afterwards described. In their march they carry themselves in the most erect posture, casting a vigilant eyq through the forest to discover any danger that may be lurking in ambuscade near them. The necessity of directing such constant vigilance to the objects around them, prevents them from regarding the small obstructions which must necessarily be in a path that passes entirely through a wild woods. Hence they contract a habit of raising their feet when they walk much higher than is customaiy among civilized nations. As they advance, they observe the most profound silence, unless some dangi?x *^ suddenly discovered. When this happens it is in? 372. timated to the line by a peculiar kind of hooty which it is impossible to describe, but which issues from the thorax by a sudden and violent compression of the muscles about the breast, and impinges forcibly upon the roof of the palate. The march is arrest- ed. Every one looks out for the danger and puts himself in a posture of defence. If an enemy ap- pears, prepared to give them battle, and not too pow- erful to be resisted, each one instantly betakes him- self to the protection of a tree, or other fixed ob- ject, from behind which he can most securely annoy the foe, or defend himself. The party which is most powerful advances from tree to tree. The weaker retreats by the same degrees ; endeavouring, how- ever, at the same time to bear off with them as many of their wounded, and even of their slain, as they are able to carry with them. In this they discover sentiments of sympathy and honor towards their friends who ha^ e fallen, which would entitle them to the highest praise in the niost ci^ ilized nations. The victors scalp the dead, and put to death the wo'unded whom their friends have been obliged to abandon, and who are not able to travel at the pace xvith which they find it necessary to retreat. For even the victors are obliged to retreat ; otherwise 573 (hey would be exposed to be cut off by the whole, force of the hostile nation which would be roused upon them in consequence of the alarm created by the return of their vanquished warriors. But both parties return only to prepare new expeditions. If they meet with no such opposition in their route they march in one body only to a certain distance. As they have no means of laying up magazines, or trans-^ porting provisions for large bodies of men, they arc obliged, before they enter on the territories of the enemy, to separate into small parties, both for the convenience of hunting, and for more effectually concealing their designs. They usually part under an agreement to meet at a preconcerted place in the vicinity of the town, or collection of wigwams which is the object of the expedition. This place they approach by various routes, with the utmost caution and secrecy ; for if only one man be discov- ered the whole design is defeated. A small army can effect nothing against a nation apprized of its dan- ger, in which every man is a warrior, and every war- rior lives with his arms in his hands. And it is im- possible by any address to conceal themselves when once the vigilance of their enemies is awakened. They are obliged to flee with the utmost precipita- 574 tion. To prevent a discovery so fatal to their de- signs, they make their approaches, when they have arrived near their object, only in the night. Dur- ing the dav they lie concealed in thickets, or be- hind the bodies of decayed timber, and often so cov- ered with dr} leaves that the place of tlieir conceal- Hient differs nothing in its appearance from the or- dinary surface of the forest. If they have occasion to make any movement in the day they will crawl, and frequently to the distance of miles, on their bel- lies, with the greatest perseverance and patience. When arrived, at length, at their preconcerted ground, here they arrange their ultimate plans for making the assult. For whole days will they sometimes lie concealed, with the most astonishing tolerance of hunger waiting the most favourable moment for the execution of their design. Of this the leader gives notice by runners, or by signals already agreed upon. It is commonly at night, when the townsmen are buried in their profoundest sleep ; unless, which sometimes is the case, they find a village in the day dissolved incase, or in pleasure, and wholly off their guard. Then follows a horrid scene of carnage and butchery, in which is display- ed ail the ferocity of savage passions in their most 375 direful forms. All at once, they spring from their coverts, and rush into the town which is defended by no ramparts, and watched by no guards. Some, bea-ing flaming brands in their hands, fire the huts in various directions. Others burst open the ill barred doors with hideous yells, and attack the wretched inhabitants just waking from sleep and ciiiifounded with these frightful and diabolical sounds. At this moment little use is made of their fire arms. They rely chiefly on the murderous tomahawk. They sink it into the skulls of the defenceless, and mangle the limbs of those who attempt to make any resistance. Men, women, and children share the saYne fate, and are slaughtered without distinction* At length, some of the wretched victims, escaping from their burning habitations, maintain a desperate conflict with the victors in the area before their doors. D«:^spair augments their force. With the fury of de- mons they rush upon their conquerors. They con- flict, — ^they mingle their tomahawks, with most frightful yells and screeches ; all is despair, and rage ; and, the flaming town shedding a dismal light upon this scene of darkness and horror, resembles what our imaginations have pictured most dreadfid in 376 hell.* Tired at last with carnage, and meeting with no more resistance, the conquerors condescend to make prisoners of the few that remain. As soon as their work of death is done, they hasten to return to their own country. They delay no longer than till the victorious chief cuts, or paints on the handle of a tomahawk, which he leaves stuck in the body of a tree, or on the tree itself, some rude emblems of his success. An oval figure serves to represent the leader, in which are stained such characteristic marks as may indicate to his enemies who is the hero who has taken such vengeance on them. Some symbols he adds expressive of the nation to which he belongs. After these, very coarsely drawn fig- ures of men, or simply erect lines, point out the number of his warriors, and horizontal lines the number of the slain. These, or similar symbols left upon the spot form the rude record of his glory. Here we discern the origin of trophies erected on the field of action. We perceive also, how naturally mankind have recourse to hieroglyphic images or * This description is taken from an account of the sack of A town of the Hurons. 377 characters to express their thoughts before they are acquainted with alphabetical writing. This finished, they commence their retreat, which " is always executed with the greatest rapidity. For they are sure of being immediately pursued with a superior force by the enraged nation ; and they have no means of securing themselves by fortifications, or waiting for succours from their own tribe. And it is the glory of the victor to retire with such speed as to preserve his prisoners and to save his own men from reprisals by the enemy. They hardly eat or sleep till they have reached their own territories. And even then, if they remit their pace while they are yet near the frontier, they are liable to be over- taken, and cut off by a foe burning with revenge. During these movements their captives are guarded with the utmost vigilance. And if any of them, either through fatigue, or by their wounds, are rendered unable to keep pace with them in the rapidity of their course, they are, with unrelenting barbarity, in- stantly dispatched. When at last they have gained their own villages, they are every where received with shouts of tri- umph, with frantic dances, and the most flattering testimonies of the applause of their countrymen. 378 The prisoners experience the most opposite fates. Some, with strange contradiction to all the ideas and customs of civilized nations, are adopted into various families, and, from enemies, become, at once, fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, and enter into all the nearest relations of life. Others are re- served for the utmost extremities of torture which , ingenuity can invent, and cruelty can inflict. A few whom they despise too much either to adopt, or to torment, are reduced to slavery to assist their v.'omen in those labors of drudgery to which the sex is des- tined by the customs of savage life. But, before such distribution is made, the}' un- dergo a severe and extraordinary kind of discipline in every village through which they pass after they enter into the territories of their conquerors, or of their allies. Each village consists of a double line of huts extended along a single street. At the end of the street the prisoners are collected in order to run a most teazing and distressing kind of gauntlet, between two rows of young men who are ranged for the purpose along either side, and are armed with sticks, and stones, and hard balls composed of gravel and clay. With these the unhappy runners are bruised and be:>ten in a miserable manner. 379 But, before these races are begun, which afford a barbarous sport to their youth, and even to their children, who are permitted to mingle in the amuse- ment, to accustom their minds betimes to acts of ferocity, frequently it happens that women, or old men who have lost their nearest relations by disease, or by w^ar, and who now feel the want of their assistance in their domestic occupations, will select a part of the prisoners whom they resolve lo adopt in the room of the deceased. This act, apparently so contradictory to the natural ferocity of savage passions, however surprising it may seem, appears to be very sincerely entered into by both parties, and imn:»ediately puts an end to all further injury towards the captive. The adopted enemy is received as a countryman and kinsman ; and they transfer to him all the rights, and good offices to which the dead was entitled. The rest are obliged to course it through their cruel gauntlet. If, in the progress of the race, some bruised and beaten victim of their sport, discouraged with the frequency and violence of the blows which he receives, breaks through the line of his persecutors, and endeavours to seek a shelter in some cabin, the females of the family will frequently interpose to skreen him from further suf- '380 ferings. It depends on the accidental influence of his protectors with those who enter their cabin, whether their kindness is able to defend him, or he is to be dragged forth with increased fury to run the remainder of his course. If any woman adopts him on the spot, which is not an unusual thing, this effec- tually arrests all further persecution, and he is re- ceived as a member of the family. The circum- stance most astonishing in these adoptions, but w hich is as well attested as any in their historj'^, is the mutual transfer which is made of duties and affec- tions. The enemy is treated as a friend and he, on his part, seldom fails to make a suitable return. With a facility that surprizes us he enters into the sentiments which belong to his new relations. He never attempts to return to his native country ; they never distrust his fidelity. Every prisoner who does not receive the privilege of adoption, or who scorns it, as those commonly do who value themselves upon being distinguished warriors, is destined to suffer death in its most fi'ightful forms. Before his sentence, however, is intimated to him, he is, by one of those strange contradictiois so often exhibited in the savage cha- racter, treated with every appearance of kindness, 381 and humanity. He receives the appellation of bro- ther ; he is supplied with food, and lodged in the same manner with themselves. What is not less strange than their kindness is his indifTerence. He «ats, and drinks, and sleeps with the same tran- quillity as if he were in the midst of his friends. Always taciturn, indeed, according to the character of a savage, but always composed. — At length a warrior arrives who informs him that his fate is decided, and his funeral pile is ready. He makes no other reply, but a certain kind of guttural and forcible sound, which, among them, signifies— . IFell! and marches with an elevated and sullen air towards the place of his execution. Here he sees a huge pile of wood to which fire is applied, and near -it a tree to which he is to be bound. No sooner does he see the flame, and his enemies shouting and dancing round it, than he raises his death song. Sometimes he is bound close to the trunk of the tree, — at other times the cord is so fastened as to aftord him a certain range, in which case he courses round the circle prescribed to him chanting his lugubrious notes during the whole of his torture, or as long as his strength will enable him to utter a voice. The fire is not intended to consume him S82 speedily, but is only applied so as to aggravate his torments, and, by their tediousness, to weaken, if possible, the firmness of his mind. Sometimes the signal for torture is given by an enraged woman who has lost a husband, or a son in the late battle, rushing upon him with a flaming brand, gashing him with a scalping knife, or striking him with a club. In an instant all follow the example, shouting, and leaping round their victim like infernal furies. For torture is the sport of savage minds, and in no amusements do they feel their spirits more elated, Some mangle his limbs, — others stick his body full of splinters of some pitchy wood, which, lighted at one end, and burning slowly to the other which is inserted in his flesh, inflict a most exquisite pain. Some amuse themselves by piercing beneath the nails wath these splinters, and setting them on fire ; while others, more furious, endeavour to increase his an- guish to the highest pitch of suffering by tearing his sinews from his bones. Every one is eager to bear a part in this scene of horror. The women, at other times surpassing the men in facility of nature, and kindness to the unfortunate, are often foremost in these cruel and vengeful sports. And even the children are here trained like hounds to the scent of 383 human blood, and are taught to steel their hearts asrainst commiseration. Such is the force of education, and of habit unit- ed \vith the elevation of mind produced by martial pride, that a distinguished warrior never shrinks from the severity of these torments, or suffers him- self to express the smallest complaint. On the other hand, he glories in sustaining them with a high, unbroken spirit, and making his enemies sensi- ble of the impotence of their rage. He continues his death song, and now and then interrupts it only to insult them. He calls them women ; tells them they are unacquainted with the arts of torture which he has often practised on tlieir friends, and boasts that they are unable to subdue the firmness of a warrior of his nation. He irritates them by recount- ing the numbers of their countrymen he has slain ; and, by every species of provocation, endeavours to incite them to some rash effort of their fury which will shorten his sufferings. It is only the fear of abridging the period of their diabolical revenge which imposes any restraint upon their rage. An old Onondago chief, who was taken by the Hurons^ provoked in this manner, a young warrior to give him three stabs with a knife. ^' Thou shouldst 384' not," said the old man to him calmly, " thou shouldst not be too furious ; — ^thou wilt spoil thy re- venge, and not have time to learn to die like a man." Many such anecdotes are related of thtir last moments. Sometimes savage ingenuity protract* these scenes of torture during several days. But, whether continued for a longer or a shorter period, they are equally incapable of wearing out the pa- tience, or subduing the haughty spirit of a noted chief. He insults his persecutors — he sings his mournful song, till nature being at length entirely exhausted, he sinks down without a groan, appa- rently more satisfied at having braved his enemies, than afflicted at the loss of life. Their revenge and hatred prompt them to make him express some com- plaint, if possible, under the anguish of his suffer- ings. He places his honor in being superior to them. They strive to subdue his pride, he derives a pleasure from making them feci his contempt. Their vengeance would enjoy a triumph if they could reduce a warrior of a rival nation to utter a groan, he glories in shewing them that a warrior of liis nation can never be subdued by pain. — Some- times it happens that a prisoner of the lower class is overcome by the extremity of his sufferings, and 385 trembles at death surrounded by so many terrors. This never raises the compassion, but always the contempt of these hardy savages ; and some haughty- and furious chief dispatches him at a blow, as un-' worthy of being treated like a man. From the preceeding details of the military cha- racter and habits of the American sja at'-e several im* portant enquiries arise the solution of which will tend to throw light on the philosophy and human nature, and particularly to obviate those objections which have been made by some respectable writers to the identity of species in them, and in the polished Eu- ropeans. — 1. To what principle are we to ascribe that concealed mode of fighting, and those approaches made by stealth to the object of their attack which, from their opposition to the customs of all civilized nations, and the manner in which true bravery is expressed among them, has produced against the American the charge of extreme and unmanly pusil- lanimity ? Is this an indication of a total destitu- tion of courage ? or is it only a different mode of exerting a principle which conspicuously belongs to human nature in every region of the globe ?— 2. How z z 386 shall we reconcile the facility with which adoptions are often made and received among their prisoners of war, with the ferocity of their passions, and the exterminating spirit of their hostilities ? Are their moral and domestic affections entirely different from those of all civilized people ? Or, are these ap- parent contradictions in their character to be ex- plained only on the supposition of a radical dif- ference of nature ?— 3. In what way shall we ac- count for that atrocious barbarity in torture which seems to have not one sentiment of compassion ming- led with it in the breasts of a people who, on other occasions, are not devoid of the feelings of humani- ty ? — 4. Finally, what name shall we give to that astonishing tolerance of i>ain with which they en- dure the most cruel tortures ? Is it magnanimity ? Or is it defect of natural sensibility ? The various and variable character of man will ever be, in a great measure, formed by the situa- tion and circumstances in which he is placed : and the same original principles are capable of being moulded, by these circumstances, into an infinite diversity of forms. Apply this reflection to the military habits of our American indians, and so far wiii they be found from indicating that natural cow- 887 ardice and pusillanimity which has been erroneously imputed to them, that they will appear to be the al- most necessary result of the nature of their country, of tlieir political state, and their total want of im- provement in the arts. — The d( fences and stratagems of war in civilized nations are always relative to the progress and improvement of society and the arts among them, and to the nature and position of their jespective countries. The bravest armies cover themselves by fortifications, and take advantage of high grounds, of ravines, of villages, or thickets for tlieir defence ; a Roman fought from behind his shield, and all employ numerous stratagems in war for the purpose of concealment, or deception. Is it more dishonorable in a savage to employ, in his marches and attacks, the cunning which nature has given him, and, in battle, the simple defences which nature affords him ? Savages have not either the means or the skill to construct fortifications, or to estabhsh magazines of provisions for the purposes of conquests, or to facilitate the march of armies. In a country, therefore, overgrown with forests they are necessarily obliged to prosecute their wars in small parties, both for the purpose of obtaining provi ion jon their route, and for more effectually concealing ^88 their numbers, and the object of their expedition; Advancing in this manner into the territories of an enemy, a mode of warfare which the nature of their country, and their imperfect progress in society and the arts, con (pels them to adopt, they are exposed to certain destruction unless they can cover their movements with perfect secrecy. Shall we then, with so many European writers, impeach their courage because they conceal their motions with s I ch address and care, or because, when engaged in action, they fight from behind trees, or other object?^ of protection ? They gave a dreadful refu- tation of this error when a few hundreds of these un- tutored and despised savages entirely routed a British army, conducted, in all the pride of military discip- line, by one of the bravest of the Britsh generals.* Nv), these are only the first rude arts of attack and defence pointed out by nature to the uncultivated genius of the savage. If these arts are carried to greater perfection by the improvement of civilized nations, the principle on which they are employed, by the one and by the other is the same. It would not be courai^e but madness in them to abandon their * Genera,! Bradclock= 589 Natural defences, and with Quixotic errantry to challenge their enemies to combat in the open plain, where both must be uselessly destroyed for a point of honor which a savage could never comprehend. Considering the smallness of their population, and the value of the life of each warrior to the nation, it is as much the glory of a chief, by a skilful conduct, to save his troops, as to conquer his enemies. The next enquiry is, perhaps, more difficult to be resolved, and seems to furnish a more striking contradiction to the principles of human nature as they appear among civilized nations. To what mo- tive are we to ascribe the facility with which adop- tions are made and accepted among these ferocious people, immediately after being engaged in acts of the most inveterate hostility ? How shall we reconcile these effusions of kindness with the atrocity of their other passions and the scenes of extreme barbarity acted on the countrymen and fellow prisoners of the adopted ? Some writers have supposed that the necessity of saving from utter extinction their small tribes wast- ed by continual wars, has given rise, from political motives to these adoptions, and that custom has now confirmed the practice. But tliis is a plan of 390 conduct much too cool and artificial for men in that imperfect state of society. It is making savages) who feel the ties of society very feebly, and the im^ pulses of passion in their utmost force, act more as citizens than as men. Besides, they are the women chiefly who enjoy the privilege of protecting prison- ers by adoption ; and to ascribe to them such mo- tives would be to make policy prevail over nature in iheir hearts. We might rather arrange nature against nature, and suppose that the softness of that sex, more prone to compassion than men, only yielded to the natural impulses of kindness in their own breasts when they rescued an unhappy victim from torture. But another fact equally characteristic ©f the sex seems to stand in opposition to this. Their weakness inclines them more to cruelty than men, and even the sensibility of their hearts, and the irritability of tlieir feelings render them much more bitter and atrocious in their revenge. For this reason, the warriors frequently resign a pris- oner, who has been destined to the flames, to some woman who has lost a husband, or a son in the late actions, that she may appease her grief by venting upon him all the vengeance of her heart. She leads tije way, she sets the example, slie incites the ac- 391 tors in all the torments he is made to suffer. Her mge makes her ingenious in inventing new modes of torture. ^ It is true that women, in different situations, are equally prone to kindness and to cruelty. And from the influence of these principles we derive in part at least, the causes of two moral phenomena so con- tradictory, and apparently so irreconcileable. Those whose hearts are sore from the recent loss of their friends, irritated almost to madness, set no bound& to their fury» Those, on the other hand, in whose breasts the edge of grief has been blunted by time, and the first transports of revenge have subsided, regaining the softness natural to the sex, more easi- fy admit the returning sentiments of humanity. .But there are other motives which govern them ki this extraordinary act. A woman who has lost a husband, in that rude condition of society where no artificial ties exist to attach her forever to his me- Haory, and no delicacies of sentiment and of mannere, created by the state of the public morals, check her desires of a new connexion, finds, at length, the emo- tions of grief subside, and give way to the demands ftf nature. 392 This transition is greatly aided by the peculiarly hard condition of women, and of aged men in the savage state, when bereft of their husbands, or their sons, who might supply their most urgent wants by furnishing them with game. They cannot, as in civilized society, exchange the products of their in- dustry for the means of subsistence. And the indo- lence of the savage, hardly providing for himself, during a great portion of the year, the necessaries of life, has no stores whence even charity could supply the wants of others. Wretched, then, is the condi- tion of those widowed females, or unfortunate old men who have no vigorous and active huntsmen on whom they can depend for a sustenance which can be drawn only from the chace. To these hardships we may add that their tribes, wasted by continual w^ars, scarcely afford husbands to their young wo- men ; their widows, therefore^ and older women, must often be left through necessity to seek a hus- ' band or a son from among the number of captives, who have been taken in war. The inclination, like- wise, to renew a connexion in which they have been more happy, may frequently prompt their younger widows, who, in that state of society, are little re- 393 strained by sentiments of delicacy, to solicit an alli- ance among the prisoners which they cannot find among their own countrymen.* On the other hand, aged women, or aged men, who have lost a son that promised to be the stay of their declining years, not only require one who will supply them with provision, but one who will in- corporate himself with their family by the closest ties of relationship. Savages as they are, they have the feelings of human nature. And as families, in that state of society, are usually small and it fre>- quently happens that the loss of one son is the loss of their all, they need an object to fill the vacancy in their hearts, upon which their affections may, in some degree, repose. It is especially necessary in very advanced age, the imbecility of which requires more than ever such a consolation and support. Not being able always to find it home amidst a wasted population, they are willing to take it even * Nor is this so indelicate and abhorrent from nature iii Uiese savages, as it is in some modern queens and princesses to elevate common soldiers from their guards to be their para- mours and ministers of state. The chief difference between them is, that the latter, by their rank, have raised themselves above the laws of delicacy, the former have never understood them. 5^ 394 from enemies whom the fortune of war has thrown mto a situation to become useful to them, and even, as we shall presently see, to become friends. Such unions are formed with much greater facility be- tween different savage tribes than among nations who have made greater advances in civilization. Between the latter so many differences exist in char- acter, in manners, and language, that they often become fruitful sources of mutual prejudices, and deep rooted antipathies. But among the neighbour- ing tribes of American savages there exists such similarity of habits, of aspect, of manners, and even of language, as greatly facilitates the mutual transfer of duties, first, and afterwards of affections. The adopted are immediately acknowleged by the whole nation as countrymen and brothers. For personal independence among them is so complete, and indi- vidual and national rights so equal and perfect, that the community never thinks of questioning what any member has done, but the act of one is recognized by all. Not less difficult to be understood by a civilized people than the act of adoption is the acquiescence of the prisoner. How does he reconcile himself to a situation, and to connexions so novel ? Why dogs 395 he never attempt t6 escape from the midst of stran- gers, and return to his native tribe ? How can he so easily rehnquish old, and enter with cordiality into new relations ? To explain this phenomenon so ex- traordinary hi itself, and so widely different from what is ever seen to take place among people of cul- tivated manners, it is necessary to recur to those national habits and ideas which prevail among the American savages, and have origin their chiefly in their state of society, and the nature of the country. Possessing none of the agricultural or liberal arts, and under the necessity, in consequence, of draw- ing their subsistence chiefly from the forest ; ex- posed, besides, to perpetual hostilities, and liable, if they should be taken captive, to sufier the most atro- cious barbarities from the fierce passions of men who have never been softened by culture, the whole education of our native Indian consists in being trained to hunt with dexterity, — to make war with courage and address ; — and to endure pain with un- conquerable patience. The first point of honor in an indian hero is to kill his enemy, but, if he is taken prisoner, the next, and perhaps not less es- teemed, is suflfering the extremities of torture without slirinking, or seeming to feel them. As this is so S96 high a proof of genuine heroism, and so essentially belongs to the honor of a warrior, a great chief is always prepared to give that testimony of devotion to his nation : he would refuse adoption as a dishoif- curable condition. By a national sentiment, there- fore, or a kind of unwritten public law, all prison- ers are held to be dead by these savages, because they ought to die. Those who accept of life among another tribe are hated and despised by their coun- trymen. It is a violation of their allegiance, which is a natural claim that every national community seems to possess and assert over all its members. They dishonour their tribes, and would most proba- bly be put to death as enemies, if they should at. tempt to return. The adopted, on the other hand, are, on account of their utility, caressed and com- forted by their recent connexions ; they receive the mark of their new nation imprinted on their skin which is a barrier of eternal separation from their former friends.* Their inducements, therefore, are much stronger to remain \n the society of their * Each nation has some peculiar symbolic character, as each chief has some personal distinction impressed upon the person. It is inserted by punctures, in the substance of the skin, and in- dellibly stained by the discolouring juice of certidn vegetable?. 397 reconciled conquerors, than to return to the con- tempt and hatred of their alienated countrymen. There are many circumstances besides whicb tender the relinquishing of his native region a much less sacrifice to the savage, than to the citizen. The latter is attached to his country by property, by artifical wants which- render that property neces- sary to his comfortable subsistence, by habits which attach him to the manners and customs of his own people, by fixed residence which connects his hap- piness intimately with the scenes wherewith he has been long conversant, and even the spot of earth which has been identified in his imagination with all his early pleasures, by a long dependence upon parents, and by a thousand nameless ties and charms of society. Whereas a savage can hardly be said to have a country. Accustomed to roam over hun- dreds of leagues in quf st of prey, he is exclusively connected with no region, he is attached to no spot. Even whole tribes rising at once from their habitations and carrying with them the bones of their fathers, will often seek new forests, and new skies, for the Convenience of hunting. Every place is the country of a savage where he can find game. His bow is his property. He has no wants which this cannot 398 supply. Society can have few attractions to a savage who is a solitary and silent being. His patriotism is not that fine and complicated sentiment which makes the name of country so dear to the citizen of a pol» ished nation ; it resembles more the tie which binds robbers together, and which is dissolved, when the gang is broken. So many circumstances concur in explaining the conduct of the adopted captive on the ordinary principles of human nature ; so little rea- son have we to recur continually, with certain philo- sophers to specific differences in order to account for varieties of character among different nations which, when fairly examined, are found to be the result only of moral, or of physical causes. The next enquiry was, to what principle are we to ascribe that atrocious barbarity in torture exer- cised upon their prisoners, which seems to have not one sentiment of humanity mingled with it in the breast of a people who, on other occasions, are not destitute of the emotions of kindness ? We must look for the origin of this, as of most of the other distinctive traits of their moral character, in their rude and unformed state of society, which tends to extinguish all the sympathies of human na- ture, when their passions are inflamed by the rage 399 of war. Refined and polished nations correct the ex- treme violence of the passions by the improvements of reason. The education of a savage is intended not to correct, but to give full and unrestrained scope to them. It is not surprizing then that their vengeful passions, which are always among the strongest impulses of uncultivated minds, should be extreme in their effects. Feuds even among themselves, are all mortal. They are not constrain- ed to act with moderation through any apprehension of the power or control of laws — their only law is their own will ; and this is often dictated by their revenge, and is always ready to be defended by their courage. But against their public enemies^ rage, which is the predominant passion in the breast of a savage, acts with ungovernable and ex- terminating fury. In war their object is not con- quest but destruction. And, as every warrior ex- pects, if he should fall into the power of his en- emies, to be put to death by the most cruel tor* tures, he is prepared, by anticipation, to retaliate this mortal injury upon his unfortunate captives. Great and polished nations fight to augment their power : they conquer, therefore, to preserve. Their armies combat for glory, not for revenge : their opera 400 tions, consequently, guided by a cool policy, are never actuated by those furious, and deadly passions which inflame barbarian soldiers, and savage war- riors. Bearing but a small proportion to the popula- tion of the country, the nation is but little affected by the individual fate of those who fall in battle* And armies are so constituted, that the loss of thou- sands of the common soldiery possesses but small in- terest in the sympathies of that class of society which chiefly influences the public measures, and gives the tone to the public feeling. If a few of better rank are slain in the field, their friends are consoled by the glory of their fall. But, among the savages of America, the same men who fight, decide the fate of the prisoners, and they do it with the same passions with which they fought. They have no reasons of state, which induce nations to make war without passion. Their wars are the consequences of re- cent injuries keenly felt. Their armies, although small, bear a large proportion to their entire popula- tion. Every warrior stands in some relation of kindred to his whole tribe. And all who are slain in battle are lamented as brothers. No artificial sen- timents of glory serve to console the survivors : and they study only to quench their griefs, and their re- 401 venge in the blood of their enemies. In the tortures they are preparing for their miserable victims, they see only the gratification of their own vengeance, and the torments which would have been destined for themselves if the chance of battle had thrown them into the hands of their prisoners. This re- flection serves to inflame their rage ; and their mu- tual instigations when assembled round this horrid sacrifice, to avenge their slaughtered brothers, and their own jneditatcd injuries, excite their passions to the wildest fury. They make a festival of cruel- ty. In the midst of shouts and yells, and those wild and frantic gestures by which they express, at once, their exultation, and their rage, every emotion of humanity and sympathy, if it should happen to rise in their breasts, is eflectually extinguished. There is, indeed, a kind of wantonness in cruelty which forms a part of the character of the American sav- age, that resembles the pleasure which badly edu- cated children are often seen to take in the writhings and convulsions of the inferior animals subjected to their persecutions and torments. A savage is, in. many respects, little more than a grown child. But in the moment of victory and triumph, in their bar- barous carousals, and the wild frolic of all their 3 B 402 spirits and their passions, they are still more cruel and unreflecting than on other occasions, and derive a more horrible diversion from the miseries of their captives. But sympathy is a sentiment which is scarcely understood by hardy and savage warriors, who nei- ther exercise nor claim it. Exposed to continual hazards, and fatigues, and frequently, to the ex- tremes of want and suffering, they are accustomed to brave danger with firmness, and to endure pain without complaining. Loosely connected in society, every man depends upon himself in the most haz- ardous or most unfortunate conjunctures of affairs. Equal to his situation, by courage or by patience, he makes no demand upon the pity of others, and does not understand how they should have any claim upon him. The rudeness of his condition imparts the same coarseness to his mind as to the fibres of his body. The Goths estimated the injury done to a woman in the most delicate situations by the largeness of the w^ound. The savages of America, still more rude, and conversing only with the wildest scenes of nature, know nothing of those finer, feelings of the litart, and that soft interchange of affections which 403 give birth to the sentiments of compassion and sympath}'. Our law excludes butchers from giving a verdict in cases of life and death, because, by see- ing and inflicting death on other animals, they are supposed not to possess a sufficient value for the life of man to render them mild and humane judges. Much more will those eternal scenes of blood in which the savage is engaged either in hunting or in war, blunt all those finer sensibilities of the htart of which unadulterated nature would otherwise be sus- ceptible, and which might contribute, in some measure, to restrain the ferocity of their ven- geance. Having laid open some of the principal causes of that extreme barbarity with which the savages of America treat their prisoners whom they have doomed to death, it is not less curious and impor- tant to the philosophy of human nature to examine into the principles of that astonishing patience which they exhibit in the midst of the most excruciating sufferings. Is it magnanimity ? Or is it want of feeling ? Does it arise from tlie influence of cli- mate ? Or is it the result of ideas created by their state of society, and their habits of life ? Or final- ly, must we search for it, ^\ ith Lord Kaims and 404 other kindred philosophers, in some original and specific difference of nature from other men ? Writers of no inconsiderable eminence have as- cribed the tolerance of pain by the American savage to the humidity of the atmosphere in the new world, recently redeemed, as they suppose, from the ocean, and abounding in marshes. Hence they have gratu- itously inferred that the sensibility of the natives of this continent both corporeal and mental, is impaired by the influence of their climate. But, do we find this reason verified by the experience of other por- tions of the globe ? Are the people who happen to be posited on the borders of lakes, or in the neigh- bourhood of fens, less sensible to pain than others ? Does a Hollander possess greater fortitude than a German? Or is his sensibility to suifering less keen ? If such effects are produced by a relaxed fibre in the American savage, and it is found to di- minish to such a degree, the irritability of the sys- tem, should we not equally expect to find him pa- tient of afironts, languid in his resentments, tardy in his revenge ? The true explanation of this phenomenon we shall probably discern, not in the physical constitution of America, but among those moral causes which are 405 so often overlooked in the philosophy of human na- ture. No person who reflects deeply on the principles of action in man but must easily be persuaded that ac- tive courage in encountering, and intrepid firmness in repelling danger, or that inflexible patience and fortitude in bearing up under calamity and suffer- ing, are more frequently the result of the sentiments of the mind than of the physical force of the animal constitution. And it depends on the education of men, and the situations into which they are throvv^n, whether one or other of these characters be chiefly drawn forth, and called into action. It was not physical teperament, but education which enabled the youth of Sparta to endure the deprivations which were required of them by the discipline of Lycurgus, or suffer without complaining the lacerations with which they were exercised at the shrir.e of Diana. In that country, at present, where a sublime educa- tion had once rendered children more than men, do we not, by a change of manners, see men become less than children? It is sentiment which creates heroes in action or in suffering. Hatred and ven- geance against his enemies, and the pride of defj ing their rage, are sentiments inculcated into the heart 406 of an American savage from his earliest years. From his infancy he is taught that his own glory as a warrior, and a chief, and that of the tribe to which he belongs are involved in the heroism with which he combats, or, if he is vanquished in battle, in the magnanimity with which he suffers. His ^^'hole soul is occupied with these ideas, and these passions. Without doubt their patience under tortures must be greatly assisted by their habits of life, and the constant hardships of their state. That the power of enduring pain with firmness may be acquired by the influence of education, and habit, we have a prac- tical demonstration in the manners of the Lacedemo- nians. And the stoic school has afforded a high ex- ample of the force of their philosophy in subduing the fear, and even the sense of suffering. Although the mind of the American indian is not cultivated by any philosophic system, he derives the same firm- ness and strength of character from his state. Inur- ed from infancy to fatigues, to wants, to dangers, and conversant only with ideas of active, or of suf- fering heroism, he has learned more in the hard school of necessity than, probably, he could ever have acquired under the voluntary discipline of Zeno or Lycurgus. 407 The Spartan boy, who had taken a fox from a neighbouring inclosure, was enabled, by the force of his discipline, to endure, without discovering his pain, the animal gnawing into his vitals rather than expose himself to the infamy of detection, and ex- pired without a groan. And a savage warrior will suffer his enemies to rend his sinews, to burn his flesh, to rip off his nails, and to plunge the fiery stake into his bowels, without giving them the sat- isfaction of being able to extort from him a com- plaint. He glories in conquering their perseverance by his patience. But shall we, with the philosophers whom I combat, look for the cause of this astonish- ing constancy in the humidity of the climate, or in some specific organization of the corporeal system, and not rather in the almost omnipotent force of sentiment ? It was a maxim with that philosophic and aus- tere sect, who have just been mentioned, that pain is no evil : and certain it is, that it derives its chief power over man from the weakness of tl\e mind. An energetic xvill, created by sublime sen- timents, by strong passions, or even induced by th,e habit of conflicting with dangers and sufferings, im.- parts to the soul a strength which suspends, in a 408 great measure, the sensation of pain, and wholly deprives it of those additional terrors with which a timid imagination invests it. Our savages understaning the hardships of their own lot, and foreseeing the trials to M^hich their for- titude may probably be exposed by the chances of war, make it a principal object of their early disci- pline to inure their youth to fatigue, and sufferings, and deprivations of every kind. Even their amuse- ments partake of the same intention. Among all nations, their customary diversions are relative to their manners. In the warlike ages of Greece and Rome the amusements of those martial people con- sisted in leaping, running, wrestling, and throwing the discus, or the spear, to fit them for the com- bat. After the model of nature, likewise, the Ame- rican indians have drawn their amusements from their state, and make diversions themselves prepare them" for suffering. Besides shooting the arrow, and throwing the tomahawk to qualify them for the ac- tive operations of hunting, and of war, their chil- dren frame diverting subjects of contest with one an- other, in trying Vvho shall endure the deepest punc- tures, or the hardest blows without complaining ; or who shall hold a burning brand in their hands with 409 tlie most persevering steadiness, and for the longest time. Sometimes tliey single out objects of their rude wit upon whom to try the force of their ridi- cule, who are forever disgraced if they discover any temper or impatience under all the jests and teazings of their companions. Thus do they prepare them- selves, by continual exertions of patience, even in their sports, for that last and great trial of it, when they shall be called to endure the most cruel tortures of enraged enemies, and to suffer from them every species of insult and contempt, often more difficult to be borne than tortures. Their religious ideas contribute also, in some de-^ gree, to sustain that amazing fortitude, and patience in enduring torture which is one of the principal dis* tinctions of their race. It is not my intention to en- ter into any extensive delineation of their system of superstition : but only to suggest a single reflection as it is relative to tlneir extraordinary fortitude in death. — Virtue, in their esteem, consists entirely in those elevated and enterprizing qualities which are associated widi the idea of heroism. An expiring warrior, therefore, is never affected with those fears of futurity which, to the disciples of a purer religion, 3.e 410 when they are not assured of their own interest in its hopes, often render the consequences of death more terrible to them than the pains of dying. His heaven is accommodated to the rudeness of his ideas. It lies in a mild, serene, and bounteous sky far to the South, where he shall forever enjoy the pleasures of a successful chace. Such sensible images are fitted to take the strongest hold upon uncultivated minds. And Mahomet understood human nature well when he proposed such rewards to soldiers who were nei» ther philosophers, nor saints, but whom he intended to make the conquerors of the world. I am aware that spiritual ideas are more powerful than all others, when once they have taken full possession of the soul. But the frailty of human nature, or perhaps, its de- generacy, which is only calling frailty by its cause, makes a sensible religion, and a sensible heaven, the religion and heaven of gross minds. And, Avhen we see a whole nation suffer with such surprizing con- stancy we must seek for the reasons of it in such principles as will apply to the mass of mankind. — From the combination of so many causes, the savage tribes of America afford the most distinguished ex- amples of a heroic patience in torture that the his- tory of nations has ever recorded. 411 Upon the whole, it results again from the preceed- ing details of the military history of the aboriginal tribes of North- America, and especially, of their uncommon power of supporting pain, that their mental as well as corporeal qualities may be all ac- counted for by natural causes, and, on the common principles of human nature ; and that it is superflu- ous and unphilosophical to attempt to search for the diversity of their moral, more than of their physical character from the more cultivated Europeans, or the citizens of the United States, in any specific difr ference of nature or organization. FINIS. 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