Genre:

Essay, Serial

Subjects:

Ethnology, Human Species, Race, Breeding, Degeneration, Progress, Physiognomy

    Answers the objection that the differences between human races is at odds with the supposition of their common ancestry. Compares human races with varieties of domestic animals, where the varieties are known to be of one species. Observes: 'we think it might be proved that the human race differs in little else than external appearance, if we put out of the question the peculiar station which, in a moral or religious view, they occupy, and the working of those mysterious purposes with which they stand associated, and are destined to further, by Him who sees the end from the beginning' (89). Argues that, despite the degraded state of 'the slave-population of our colonies', the 'first civilized nation [i.e. the ancient Egyptians] was a nation of Blacks' (90). Argues that the Jews 'were for a long series of years the conservators of knowledge', but that they, too, have become degraded (91). Considers no greater moral or intellectual change to have taken place in a people than in the British since Saxon times. Discusses the differences in external colouration often found in animals of the same species in different climates, and suggests that racial differences in the human species may result from a similar cause. Suggests that the difference in countenance between the 'low-lived and unthinking boors' of rural England and the 'well educated and intelligent gentleman of his own country' may be no less striking than that between the former and an 'inhabitant of the least civilized nation upon earth' (92).