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A 
                        AN


               ESSAY
                      ON THE

           CAUSES OF THE  VARIETY

                        OF*

     COMPLEXION  AND FIGURE

                      IN THE

           HUMAN  SPECIES.

               TO WHICH ARE  ADDED,

Animadversions on certain Romarks 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 of Mankind.

                        AND
                AN APPENDIX,   s^


      BY SAMUEL  STANHOPE S^IITH. D.D. L L.D.
   President of the College of  New-Jersey ; and Member
         of the American  Philosophical Society.
^
Gc:.'".,
   THB SECOND ED^piON....ENLARGED AND IMPROVED^
                £  T • - -> .   ^   \


                        s

               NE W-BRUHSWICK:

          PUBLISHED BY J. SIMPSON AND CO.

AND BRANNAN AND MORFORD, PHILADELPHIA ; AND E. MOR-
    FORD,  WILLINGTON, AND CO. CHARLESTON (s. C.)

                  I. DEJRE, printer.

                       1810, 
District of New-Jersey,  ss.                     y
     Be it remembered, that on the twenty-sixth day of No-
vember,  in  the  thirty-fifth year of the Independence of tiie
United States of America,  Josiah Simpson i.nd Churchill
Houston of the said district, have deposited in this office 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
tvhich are i.dded, Animadversions on certain remarks made on
the first edition of this Essay,  by Mr. Charles 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 Member of the
American Philosophical Society.  The second edition—En-
larged and improved."  In conformity to the act of the Con-
gress of the  United States, entitled,  an  act for the encourage-
ment 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 also to the 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 Boogs,  Clk. of the
                                   District of New-Jersey. 
©tiricattom
To the American Philosophical Society held in Phn
    ladelphia, for promoting Useful Knowledge.

  Gentlemen,

 JLHE  substance of the following Essay was, in consequence
©f a duty devolved by you upon the Author, pronounced in the
form of an oration,  before your very respectable body on tho
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 portion 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 and improve it.  It comes, therefore, in its new
form, to pay its homage to you to whom it owes its existence ;
and, if it should again be found worthy of your approbation,  to
 solicit your patronage.
     I am, Gentlemen, with the profoundest respect for you
individually, and as a  society devoted to promote the interests
of Philosophical Science in this new world,
             Your most obedient,
                  and most humble servant,
                    SAMUEL STANHOPE  SMITH*. 
               'SCtfocrtt^etmnt.


./aXTHOUGH the following essay may seem,  at first view,
to propose nothing to itself but to amuse the public with a phi-
losophical speculation; yet as its object is to establish the unity
of the human species, by tracing its varieties to their natural
causes, it lias an obvious and intimate relation with religion, by
bringing in science to confirm the verity of the Mosaic history.
It has lately become a kind of cant with certain superficial smat-
terers hi physical science to speak of revealed religion, and of
the spirit of piety as being hostile to profound researches into
nature,  lest  they  should be found to contradict the dogmas of
reveiation.   We see these men, likewise, with equal igno-
rance and vanity, contemptuously insinuate that  the friends of
piety are always ready to rest their opinions, not on well as-
certained facts,  but on the supposed authority of Heaven, to
save them the pains,  and the hazard of enquiries so dangerous
to contented superstition.  These self-dubbed naturalists, vain
of their own faint shadow of knowledge, because they know so
little, seem to have forgotten  the existence of  such men as
Newton, or Boyle,  Bacon or Mede, and a thousand  others,
equady  distinguished for the depth of  their enquiries into the
mysteries of nature,  and for their sublime and fervent piety to-
wards its Author.   Genuine philosophy has ever been found
the friend of true  religion.  They are only spurious pretences 
                             5
%o science which have wantonly arrayed themselves against the
holy scriptures.  In a question of that nature which is discuss-
ed in the following essay,  I would be far from introducing the
authority of religion to silence enquiry, and equally far would
I be from making it a substitute  for proof.   I appeal to the
evidence of facts,  and to conclusions resulting from these facta
which I trust every genuine disciple of nature will acknowledge
to be legitimately drawn from her own fountain.
   If any person should enquire why a writer who has so many
Other duties to fulfil more immediately relative to the sacred
functions  of his profession,  should devote so much time  to
studies  which seem  to be only  remotely connected with the
offices of piety peculiarly belonging to a christian" minister, I
 hope  it will be a satisfactory answer; that infidelity, driven
from all her moral grounds of objection against the gospel,
 has lately bent her principal force to oppose the system of na-
 ture to that of revelation.  From Natural Science, which has
 been  cultivated with more than common ardor and success in
 the present  age,  she now forms her chief attacks against the
 doctrines, and  the  history of religion.  And on this quarter
 she has pressed them with the greatest zeal.  While  others,
 therefore, are successfully defending the interior fortresses of
 religion, and extending her practical sway over the  hearts of
 men, I thought that I might render a valuable service to the
 cause, by cooperating, in some degree, with those who are de-
 fending her outworks,  and carrying their attacks into the ene-
 my's camp.   I have taken one  point of defence, which was
 thought to  be peculiarly  vulnerable.  And  though  certain
 artists may  feel indignant, that a writer, whose pursuits are 
                            e
naturally supposed to be so widely different from theirs, should
invade them in their own department, yet I hope the issue of
the conflict  will shew that religion has been able to repel one
more assault, if  she should not, in this  instance  obtain  a
decided victory.
  This essay  was  first published in  the  year  1787.   And
although various writers had, at different times, treated on the
same subject, it was esteemed by many ingenious and learned
men not to be a superfluous addition to the disquisitions which
had already appeared.—Jerome Berioit Feijoo, a Spanish Bene-
dictin, of whom the editors of the Theatro Critico>* as well as
the authors of the Modern Universal History,t have pronounc-
ed the highest eulogies, as not  being inferior to  Cervantes in
genius, and in  the useful labor of destroying the  prejudices of
his countrymen,  had entered on the question to considerable
extent,  and made many valuable and scientific observations on
the influence of climate.  He  has i>ot, however, cainied his
principles on that subject so far as is  done in the essay ; many
important considerations he has omitted ; and the effects re-
sulting from the state of society he has scarcely touched.
   Dr.  Blumenbach, one of the most celebrated naturalists,
anatomists, and physicians of Germany,  published in the year
1795, at Gottingen, the. third  edition, the only one which I
bave seen, of his famous treatise,  De generis humani varietate

   *  Published in Vols. 14.  Ann. 1742..  Berioit Feijoo died
in 1765.
   t  Vol, 9.  fi. 611. 
                            7
vatrva.   Of this Work I could consequently make no use ii»
my first'edition. I believe it had not then come to the public eye.
But I am happy to find that the ideas of this learned writer on
the subject of climate, and, particularly, on the effect of the
bilious  secretion on the colour of the  skin, have so nearly
corresponded  with  those  which  I  had  previously  adopted.
 And I have not thought it improper, in the present edition, to
 avail myself of several  elucidations of my subject from this
 valuable treatise.  But I have to observe  that he, like Feijoo,
 has almost wholly omitted the second topic which Ihave endeav-
 oured to illustrate, the influence of the state of society in mul-
 tifilying the varieties of mankind,  which in this essay occu-
 pies so  prominent a place.
    A short treatise also of the celebrated Camper's upon this
 subject was published at Utrecht by his son in 1791.  But it is
 formed on a plan, not contradictory indeed to that which I have
 adopted, but so different from it in its object,  and the mode of
 conducting it that, if it had been published much earlier,  I
 could have derived little aid from it.  After a few general re-
 marks at the beginning, the remainder of his ingenious disserta-
 tion, which,  however, is combatted, in some of its most  im-
 portant principles, by  Blumenbach, is  calculated rather for
 painters than for the great body  of even sensible, and well in-
 formed readers^
    To the former edition I annexed some strictures on Lorfl
 Kaims'  dissertation  on the  original diversity  of  mankind'.
 Besides these, which I  have  thought proper to  retain in the
 present, I have added some animadversions on certain remarks
 made  on that edition,  and on  tho  general, subject, by  Mr. 
                            *
Charles White, in a series of discourses delivered by him be*.
fore the literary and philosophical society of Manchester in.
England ; and published in London in Quarto in 1799.
  The whole I now commit to the judgment and candor of th$
literary and philosophic world.
                                        S. S. SMIT{|. 
ESSAY,
ON THE VARIETY OF COMPLEXION, FIGURE, isfc.
           IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.

THE  unity of the human race, notwithstanding the
diversity of colour, and form under which it appears
in different portions of the globe, is a doctrine, in-
dependently  of the authority of  divine  revelation,
much more consistent with the principles of sound
philosophy, than any of those numerous hypotheses
which have referred its varieties to a radical and ori-
ginal diversity of species, adapted by the Creator, or
by the necessary laws of the material world, to the
respective  climates which they were destined to in-
habit.   As there are several species of animals which
seem to be confined by the physical  laws  of  their
constitution to a limited range of climate, and which
either cannot exist, or do not attain the perfection of
their nature,  in  regions either  much farther to the
                        B 
                        10
 North or to the South than those in which the Crea-
 tor has planted them, superficial observers have been
 ready to conclude, from analogy, that different spe-
 cies of the human  kind must have been originally
 circumscribed, by the forming hand of nature, within
 certain  climatical limits, in which  she has  placed
 them,  whence have  sprung those varieties in exter-
 nal aspect, and in mental endowments, which distin-
 guish the respective  tribes of men from one another.
 But in contradiction  to this principle, experience de-
 monstrates that man is  not exclusively confined in
 his range to any definite lines upon the earth.   Al-
 though  the fineness of texture,  and delicacy of or-
 ganization of the human constitution, renders it ex-
tremely susceptible of the impressions of climate, as
 well as of all other causes which act upon the animal
frame, its peculiar flexibility, at the same time, ena-
 bles it to adapt itself with wonderful facility, and with-
 out materially injuring the organs of  life, to  every
 degree of temperature from the extreme heats of the
torrid, to the perpetual  rigors  of the frozen zone.
 We see commerce and  war, ambition and avarice,
 transfer the same people to every clime upon the
 globe ;  and the  American and European sailor re-
 side equally at the pole, and  under  the  equator. 
                       11
While the spirit of fanaticism carries the sun-burnt
Saracen to the North, the love of war, and of plunder
transplants the Tartar from the snows of Scythia to
the burning plains of India.—Why then should we*
without necessity, assume the hypothesis that origi-
nally there existed different species of  the  human
kind ? And not only without necessity,  but contrary
to the principles of true philosophy, since all its vari-
eties may be accounted for, which I hope to demon-
strate in the course of this essay, by the known ope-
ration of natural causes.
   Different species must be subject to different laws
both in the physical and moral constitution of their
nature.  The whole philosophy of man, therefore, is
confounded by that hypothesis which divides the kind
into various species*, radically different from one ano-
ther.   The  laws of morals designed to regulate the
mutual intercourse of mankind, we derive from ex-
amining our own  nature,  or collecting the  com-
mon sentiments of men in society, united together
by a common  system  of feelings  and ideas.   But
how shall we apply rules,  derived from these sour-
ces, to different nations, and to different individuals
whose  moral principles, resulting, in like manner,
from the constitution  of their natures, respective- 
                        12
 Iy,  may be as various as their several aspects.   Can
 they, indeed,  be universally applied to fix an inva-
 riable moral  code even for the same nation in differ-
 ent ages, after conquest,  or commerce may have pro-
 duced among them the most complicated mixture of
 species? Varieties may be created in the same species
 either in the animal or vegetable kingdom, by vary-
 ing  their culture, and,  sometimes, by transferring
 them to a different soil, or climate; but to  all these
 varieties,  where there is no radical  diversity of kind,
 the same general laws will  still apply.   To  man,  in
 like  manner, may be  applied the same  general prin-
 ciples of  moral and physical action, if it be ascer-
 tained that all their differences indicate only one ori-
 ginal species.  But, destroy this unity, and no certain
 and universal principles  of human nature  remain.
 We  have no  general and infallible standard by which
 to judge of the moral ideas and habits of different
 nations, or even of different men.—Besides, if human
 nature actually embraces different species of men, by
 what criterion shall we distinguish them ?  What is
 their number ?  Where do they now exist pure and
unmixed ?—
  Philosophers have never  been  able to give to these
questions  such precise and definite solutions as are 
                       13
sufficient to satisfy an inquisitive and discriminating
mind.  That criterion of identity of species first sug-
gested by the  English haturalist,  Ray, and after-
wards more largely insisted on by Buffon, has been,
since his age, most generally received; that is,  the
power of procreating an offspring, that shall be itself
endued with similar prolific powers.  The horse and
the  ass can produce a mule ; but the mule being
barren,  shews that the sire and dam are of different
species.   It is acknowledged, however, that experi-
ments on the procreative virtue  of animals,  never
have been, and probably never will  be  made, in suf-
ficient number, or with sufficient accuracy, to estab-
lish  the criterion  of Ray and Buffon  as  a certain
and  universal fact.  If it  were entitled to the rank
of an incontrovertible principle in natural science,
there could no longer be any doubt concerning  the
unity of  the human species  under all the  various
forms and appearances in which it has existed in the
different regions of the globe.
  Dr. Blumenbach observes  that  "  animals ought to
be ranked  in the same species when  their general
form and properties resemble one another, and the
differences which subsist among them may be deriv-
ed from some degenerating cause."  According to 
                            14
  this principle, if it be admitted, those only are to be
  esteemed of different species whose distinctive pro-
  perties are so essential to each respectively,  and so
  inherent in them, that they cannot  be  changed,  or
  their differences accounted for, by the known opera-
  tion of any physical, or moral causes.   If this,  then,
  be received as the acknowledged criterion of diver-
  sity of species, I doubt  not being able to demon-
 strate,  in the progress of this essay, that all the vari-
 eties of men may  have sprung from the same  origi-
 nal  stock.   To whichever criterion, therefore,  we
 appeal, the same conclusion will result.*

     It is amusing to  see the critical reviewers in England, in
 their remarks on the first edition of this essay, attach so much
 importance, as they do, to a frivolous and dubious disjquisition
 respecting  the proper criterion of a distinct species,  which
 could lead to no other result, by their own confession, than this,
 that no accurate criterion has ever been discovered by philoso-
 phers.   If that be so, surely a discussion of the question, mere-
 ly as an exhibition of  learning  in Natural Science, could have
 been of little importance towards an elucidation of the subject.
 —« So loose and  inconclusive is his  reasoning,  say they, that
 he has never enquired what really constitutes a different species.
 In botany, it is preserving the general and essential  characters
in changes of situation, and losing, in time, the  accidental dif-
ferences which climate and culture have produced. In animals,
where the distinction ought to have begun, it has been neglect-
ed, [viz. by Naturalists].  If the  production of a fertile off- 
                           15

   The hypothesis that the human kind is divided in-
to various species, radically  different from one ano-
ther, is commonly connected in the systems of  phi-
losophers with another opinion, which, however gen-
eral the assent be which it has obtained,  is equally
contrary to true philosophy, and to the sacred history;
I mean the primitive and absolute savagism of all the


spring be the criterion of the sameness of the species, men are*
undoubtedly, of the same species.  But this distinction is found
to be fallacious, particularly in domestic animals.   And, if care-
fully examined, we shall find that,  in zoology, the species are
not, in reality, ascertained with accuracy.   We must, then, at
last, refer to the botanical distinction."—Now what elucidation
could my subject have received from such learned remarks,
which leave the question in the same uncertainty in which they
found it ?   " In zoology, they say, no criterion has been ascer-
tained  with accuracy ;"—therefore they will  apply to animals
that which botanists have fixed for plants.—Be it so. It differs
not much from that which Dr. Blumenbach proposes both for
plants and animals.   And, agreeably to this criterion, it is the
whole object of the essay to deduce the varieties of men, or to
account for them, from what the Doctor calls degenerating cau-
ses ;__or,  to shew,  according to the botanical standard of the
Reviewers, that men in all climates, " preserve the general and
essential characters of the race, and will lose, in  time, the acci-
dental differences which climate, and culture, or the habits of
living, and  various states of society, have produced  in them."
With what  success this has been done I cheerfully leave to the
philosophic reader to determine. 
                        16
tribes of men.  A few observations on this opinion
calculated  to  demonstrate  its utter improbability, if
not its  obvious falsehood, will not,  I presume, be
deemed impertinent to the object of the  following
essay ; which  is to confirm the doctrine of the unity
of the human race, by pointing out the causes of its
variety.  As this argument, however, rests on an en-
tirely different kind of proof, and is only incidentally
related to my  principal  design,  I shall present it to
the reader with the greatest brevity.  And I trust it
will not be found  to be an argument so trite, or so
unimportant, as to render it, on either account, un-
worthy  his serious attention.
   The original, and absolute savagism of mankind,
then,  is a principle which  appears to me to be con-
tradicted equally by sound reason, and by the most
authentic documents which remain to us of ancient
history.*  All the earliest  monuments of nations, as
far as we can  trace them,  fix their origin about the
middle  regions  of Asia, and present man to us in a

    The argument from history will be found handsomely illus-
trated by Mr. David Doig of Sterling in Scotland, in three let-
ters addressed to Lord Kaims, and published in one small duo-
decimo volume. 
                        17
state already civilized.  From this centre we perceive
the radiations of the race gradually shooting them-
selves towards every quarter of the globe.   Savage
life seems to have arisen only from idle,  or restless
spirits, who, shunning the fatigues of labor, or spurn-
ing the restraints and subordinations of civil society,
sought,  at once, liberty,  and the pleasures  of the
chace,  in wild, uncultivated  regions remote from
their original habitations.  Here,  forgetting the arts
of civilized life, they, with  their  posterity, degene-
rated,  in a course of time, into all the ignorance and
rudeness of savagism, and furnished ample materials
to the imagination of the poets for the pictures they
have presented to us of the abject condition of the
primitive men.  But let us consult reason, as well as
history, for the truth, or probability of their pictures.
  Hardly is it possible that man,  placed on the sur-
face of the new world, in the midst of its forests and
marshes, capable of reason, indeed, but without having
formed principles to direct its exercise, should have
been able to preserve his existence, unless  he had re-
ceived from his Creator, along with his being, some
instructions concerning the use and employment of
his  faculties, for procuring his subsistence, and in-
                        c 
                       18
venting the most necessary arts of life.  Nature has
furnished the inferior animals with many and power-
ful instincts to direct them in the choice of their food,
and with natural instruments peculiarly adapted  to
enable them, either by climbing the forest tree for its
fruits, or by digging in the earth for nutricious roots,
to obtain it, in sufficientquantities for the sustenance of
life. But man, destitute of the nice and accurate instincts
of other animals, as well as of  the effectual means
which they possess of procuring their provision, must
have been the most  forlorn of all creatures, although
destined  to  be lord of the creation;  unless we can
suppose him, like the primitive man of the sacred
scriptures, to have been  placed in  a  rich garden
which  offered him,  at hand,  its abundant and spon-
taneous fruits.  Cast out, an orphan of nature, naked
and helpless, into the savage forest,  he  must  have
perished before he could have learned how to supply
his most immediate and urgent wants.   Suppose him
to have been created,  or to have started into beinsr.
we know  not how, in the full strength of his bodily
powers, how long must it have been before he could
have known the proper use of his limbs,  or how to
apply them  to climb the tree, and run out upon its
limbs  to gather its fruit, or to grope in the earth for 
                       19
roots, to the choice of which he could not be  led by
his smell, and for the collection of which the human
hand, especially in its soft, and original state, is most
imperfectly adapted.  Very inadequate must have
been the supply obtained by these means, if a supply
could have been obtained at all, for wants the most
pressing and importunate in our nature, and for appe-
tites the calls of which,  in such a state, wherein its
supplies must always be both scanty, and difficult to
be procured, could never be intermitted.    We are
prone to judge of the mental powers of such a being,
in the first moments of his existence,  by the faculties
which we perceive  in ourselves, or observe among
savages with whom we are acquainted, whose minds
have been,  in a degree, improved and strengthened
by experience.  The American savage, for example,
has been taught from his  infancy the necessary arts
for supplying his wants.   But  the primitive man, if
we suppose him to have received no  communication
of knowledge from his Creator,  and to have been
abandoned  merely  to his  own  powers,  without the
least aid from experience, or instruction, would have
been nothing but a large infant.   Reason, the su-
 preme  prerogative  of our nature, and its chief dis-
tinction from that of the inferior animals, could have 
20
 availed him little in that emergency.   It would have
 required,  in order to its  exercise, a  knowledge  of
 principles,  and of the nature of the  objects around
 him,  which could have been the result only of time,
 and a certain degree of  experience.   In the mean
 time,  that recent mass of organized matter, called a
 man,  would probably have perished.*


   * If it be asked how those few wild men, who, at different
 times, have been found in the forests of Europe have preserved
 themselves, if, as has been conjectured, they were exposed in
 infancy ?—I believe rather that they have been lost in the forests
 after the period of infancy  and childhood, and when they had al-
 ready acquired some knowledge of the manner of gathering cer-
 tain fruits, and, perhaps, of taking by art the smaller species of
 game.  The youth who, not long since, was found in a wood in
 France, appeared, by a scar which he had upon his person, to
 have been one of those victims who escaped from the knife of
 the fanatical revolutionists, while probably his parents were
murdered, or were obliged to leave him in their flight.  How-
 ever this may be, he,  and  all the others who have been found in
 similar situations, have been so affected, probably with terror
 when they found themselves abandoned, that they seem to have
 been bereft of a great portion of the native powers of intellect,
 and rendered  incapable of the ordinary exercises of reason.
 They resembled brutes more than men.   Attentive only to the
 calls of hunger, and the objects with which they were accustom-
ed to satisfy that appetite, they seemed to be capable of no other
 ideas.  They could not be  made to understand the advantages,
nor relish the habits of civilized life.  And whenever they could
escape from their keepers,  were ready, like the wildest animals, 
                        21
  But, if we believe that, in this deplorable condi-
tion, he could have found means to sustain life, mm,
originally a savage,  and a savage in the most abjeoH
state in which it is possible for human nature to ex-
ist, must have remained a savage for ever.   Urged
by the most pressing wants of nature,  for which all
his exertions, undirected by skill, and unassisted by
the natural arms which other creatures possess, could
have furnished but a scanty supply, and which, there-
fore would have never ceased one moment to harass
him,  he  would not have  enjoyed leisure to invent
any of those arts  which enter into the first elements
of civilized life.  An importunate appetite, with bru-
tal impulse,  would have so continually precipitated
him from  object to object in order to gratify its crav-
ings, that he could have redeemed no portion of his
time for contemplating the powers of nature, or for
combining his  observations in such a manner as to
apply those powers in ingenious inventions, for an-

to dart into the forests again.   These miserable beings, and not
a modern savage who has derived a few arts from his ancestors,
and they, at some remote period, from a more civilized people,
arc the proper types  of the primitive man thrown like a helpless
and abandoned infant from the hand of his Creator, upon the
wild and desolate surface of the new world- 
                       22
ticipating his wants,  or for facilitating their supply.
If he could indulge a moment's repose from the impon.
tunity of hunger, it would be to resign the next mo-
ment to absolute inaction, like a satiated beast in his
den.  The character of a savage is infinitely impro-
vident.   Nothing he abhors so much as labor, when
he is not under the immediate  impulse of some im-
perious appetite, or passion.  The American savage,
who possesses many advantages above the primitive
man whom we are contemplating,  as soon as he is.
released from the  fatigues of  the chace,  generally
gives himself up to listless and gloomy  indolence.
And, though he has derived from his ancestors, who
probably emigrated from different regions in the old
world, the rudiments of the arts of hunting and fish-
ing, which might have been expected to lay a foun-
dation for a further progress in improving the com-
forts of his condition; yet with these rude and scanty
arts the indolent genius of savagism has been con-
tented; and,  during  three centuries since America
was first discovered by Europeans,  he has not been
known to advance a single step in the amelioration
of his state.   Even  in those situations in which he
has had the most favourable opportunities to observe
the benefits resulting from agriculture and the me, 
                       23
chanic arts, in augmenting the conveniences and
comforts of living, he has never profited by the ex-
ample.  He regards the labors of the field, and the
work-shop,  as an intolerable servitude to men who
have it in their power to enjoy the range of the for-
est;  and, after the sports of the chace,   to recline
themselves in  indolent repose.  To a few of the abo-
riginal tribes who would permit it,  the government
of the United  States, with a laudable concern for the
interests of humanity, has endeavoured to extend a
benevolent patronage, with a view to raise them, if
possible, above their present rude and savage condi-
tion.   But it has found the greatest difficulty in in-
troducing among them only two or three of the simp-
lest arts of civilized society.  And only two or three"
of those tribes have hitherto been induced to admit
the smallest change in their habits of life.    The love
of complete personal independence, and the abhor-
rence of every species of restraint so natural to  the
savage, would for ever prevent  him, when left to his
own native impulses, and not encouraged, assisted,
and  directed,  and, in some measure, controled,  by
extraneous and superior power, from making even
the first advance in the career of civilization.   But
if any philosopher pretends that,  in the natural pro- 
                       24
gress of things, a savage tribe, cut off from all conv
munication with more polished nations, will, by the
efforts of their own genius, invent, and gradually per-
fect the arts of  civilized life, let him point out the
instance.   Following the lights of history, we  fre-
quently see rude and barbarous people prompted and
assisted in their progress to refinement by the exam-
ple and influence of nations who have advanced far
before them in this career.   The Greeks were polish-
ed by the Asiatics,  and Egyptians ;  the Italians by
the Greeks, and by colonies from the Lesser Asia;
and  Italy extended  her arts to  Germany and Gaul.
But history presents to us no tribe originally and per-
fectly savage who has voluntarily sought from abroad,
and introduced among themselves the manners, and
the arts of any civilized nation ;  much less has in-
vented those arts, and cultivated those manners, from
the operation of any  causes arising solely within
themselves, or  any tendencies in  human nature,
while existing in such a state of society, towards fur-
ther  improvement.  The unsuccessful efforts of the
United States to introduce among the tribes of sava-
ges,  who skirt along our* western frontiers, only a
few of our arts, most obviously tending to their own
advantage, demonstrate that the genius of savagism 
                       25
is obstinately opposed to the labours, the restraints,
and industrious habits required in civilized society.
Hardly has any individual savage ever been induced
to adopt our manners.  Such,  on the other hand, is
the charm of their wandering and independent state,
the pleasure of alternately  pursuing their game, and
reposing in indolence, that many of the citizens of
the United States are found voluntarily to renounce
all  the  conveniences  of  civilization  to  mingle
with the savages in the wilderness,  giving the pre-
ference  to their idle and vagrant habits of life.—Two
striking and practical examples which demonstrate,
on one hand, with  what facility civilized man sinks
into  the savage,  especially in  those circumstances
which  so frequently offered themselves  to  restless
and idle spirits in the early  periods of the world; and
on the other hand,  what difficulties, almost insur-
mountable, the savage state opposes to the ascent of
human  nature, in the contrary progression towards
the cultivation of the arts of civilized life.
  If  such is the genius and character of savagism,
as it  appears in the aboriginal tribes of America, how
much farther removed from  the first  elements of
                        D
4 
                         26
 civilization  must have been those primitive species
 of men, contemplated by this hypothesis;
     Qui prorepse'runt primis animalia terris,
     Mutum et turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilia propter
     Unguibus ct pugnis, pugnantia ?—*
                       Hor. Sat. lib. 1. Sat. iii. lib. 98.
 Compared with such  beings the American  indian
 may be considered as an artist,  and a sage.   Com-
 pared  with their hands, the only instruments afforded
 them by nature to dig  into the earth for a miserable
 subsistence, the bow and the hook may be regarded
 as high and noble inventions.  By such men, impel-
 led by  incessant and importunate wants; urged by
 the perpetual clamors of appetite ;  having their men-
 tal  powers almost annihilated 'by the rudeness and
 miseries of their state,  in which they could enjoy no
 leisure  for meditation,  no composure for reflection,
 ho comparison  of sentiment with others ;  and bru-
 talized  in  all their faculties, their habits, and their
 tastes,  it would have been impossible that one prin-
 ciple of science  should have been discovered, or one
 liberal art ever have been invented.  The existence of

  '  " Who crept forth like beasts from the fresh earth, a mute
and filthy herd, fighting with fists and nails, for their acorns and
their dens." 
                       27
civilized society in the world is a proof that man was
never in such an abject state. Infinitely more wretched
than those animals which provide  by instinct for their
subsistence, and accommodation, and are furnished
with natural arms for the purpose, adapted to their
respective  states, a thousand  ages would not have
been sufficient to raise them to the art of the beaver.
  Besides, uncivilized man is a  lazy, improvident,
and filthy animal.  If he has food for the present
day, nothing is able to rouse him to industry.   Con-
tented, and even pleased with filth, because in that
state he feels himself more perfectly at ease, for even
the attentions of cleanliness are a constraint to a sav-
age, he feels  no motive to desire any accommodation
beyond what he is compelled by necessity to seek.
Men with such dispositions will be for ever stationary
in whatever condition they may happen to be placed.
Ages will elapse,  as we have already seen  in  the
North-American savages, and to them we may add
all the independent tribes of the  southern continent,
without making a single effort to ameliorate their con-
dition.* Nothingbut the controlling influence of some

  * The population of Mexico and Peru, as will hereafter be
shewn, has every appearance of having been originally derived 
                           28

civilized power could ever induce a savage to wield
a spade, or  guide a plough.   And all the ages of
time would not be sufficient to teach him to separate
from the ore,  and to  prepare,  the metal  of which

those instruments are made.*


from nations who  had antecedently made some progress to-
wards civilization.

  * There can hardly exist a doubt in the minds of those who
have had an opportunity of  intimately observing the  manners,
and disposition of savages, but that it  is absolutely impossible
that they should ever discover and separate the iron from its
ore,  and render it malleable and fit for use.  This requires a
train and a kind of observation and reflection to which the savage
is utterly incompetent.  To say, as has been said, that an acci-
dental fire in the woods in Mount Ida, or any other mountain,
or that the eruption of a volcano, might throw out the metal in
the form of cast iron, indicates as little reflection, and know-
ledge of the subject as savages themselves possess.  Volcanos,
which cast up lava, and fragments of stone in great abundance,
have never been known to throw out smelted iron.  And the
fires which at any time are kindled in forests, an event which
frequently happens in those of America, where mines of iron
abound, never have a heat strong enough,  or sufficiently con-
centrated to smelt the softest metals___Indeed, if an indian had
found a piece of cast-iron he would have known as little what to
do with it as a\ ith the ore.   The process for rendering it mal-
leable could never have entered his thoughts.  And no acciden-
tal effect of the small fires kept in his hut, or wigwam, could
possibly have disclosed it to him.—Ever since the Europeans
arrived on the American continent, the natives  have  been ac- 
29
  A just  philosophy, therefore, grounded on fact
and experience, will lead us to the conclusion which
the sacred scriptures propose as an elementary prin-
ciple of our belief; that man, originally formed by a
wise and beneficent Creator, was instructed by him
in the duties, and the  most necessary arts of life.
Thus were laid,  in the very commencement of  the
race, the foundations of domestic, social, and civil
order.   From the primitive man, thus instructed,
have  descended  the various  tribes  of men  upon
the earth ;  and from him have been derived  to  his
posterity,  both the elements of religion  which we
perceive diffused  through the original traditions of all
nations, and  the  principles of the useful arts which
we find cultivated among them  from  the earliest
dawn of history.

quainted with iron, and have seen various instruments formed
of that  metal: yet  even that knowledge, and the advantages
which they have seen derived from the use of iron, have not in
three centuries turned their attention to discover and employ
it for themselves.  And for how many  centuries before, had
they trodden over the richest hills of the ore without ever hav-
ing framed an idea of the treasures which nature had deposited
beneath their feet ?  If such has been the case with the Ameri-
can savage, what prospect for the invention of arts could be en-
tertained from those  human brutes with which the philosophy of
some men would commence the population of the world? 
                       30
   But, among the most absurd of all opinions arc
 two, directly contrary in their principles, yet origin-
 ating from the same desire to account for all things
 without acknowledging any immediate act  of crea-
 tion by the Almighty.   One ascribes an eternal suc-
 cession to the human  race  upon this globe; the
 other pretends to account  for the original existence
 of man by an equivocal generation resulting from the
 united action of moisture and heat on the primitive
 mass of the world, not yet  perfectly redeemed from
 chaos, nor drained of its waters.   On this supposi-
 tion, indeed, if  it had  any support in the  order of
 nature,  these philosophers might find, in the slime
 of the recent earth, as many species of men, as there
 are of insects generated, according to their philoso-
phy,  from the same cause,  in a stagnant morass.
But, can  the patrons of this  extraordinary system
explain the  reason why nature has never made but
one such effort ?  Why have  we never,  since  that
first generative act,  found,  in the most extensive
morasses,  even in the torrid zone, one newly formed
man ; nor even one limb, or outline of a man,  just
shooting from the moistened,  and heated earth,  like
crystals in a chemical process ? Have not moisture
and heat,  and all  the other elements of nature, the 
                        31
same properties still which they possessed in the be-
ginning ?  But if  these  wretched philosophers only
wish to avoid the  immediate  agency of God in the
creation of this world, and of man;  if,  for this pur-
pose, they will strike off the mass of this globe from
the body of the sun by the impulse of a comet;  yet,
in their retrogression through the vast series of natu-
ral causes,  is there  not  some point at which they
must ultimately stop,  and confess a creating power
which has given its original movement and direction
to the system of the universe ?*  If so,  why not stop
with religion at the beginning of this world, where
we may behold man coming  from the hand of his
Creator,  not like a casual clod of the valley, nor
thrown from him  like a wretched and abandoned or-
phan,  but  so instructed and assisted by Him who
deigned to form him, and endow  him with reason,
that he  should be worthy to be  the parent of his nu-
merous  posterity, and  lord  of the new creation ?
True religion, and true  philosophy must ultimately

   * Unless they avow the principle of a gloomy and deplorable
atheism, and lose themselves, like many of the ancient philoso-
phers, in an infinite chaos of atomical actions, which have no
other cause for their existence, or their motions, but the ne-
cessary nature of matter. 
arrive at the same  principle.   There is the highest
reason to  believe that the primitive man received
from  his Creator,  along with his existence,  such a
knowledge of the qualities, powers,  and uses of the
various objects around him, together with such mo-
ral and religious principles, as would lay in his fam-
ily, and among his  immediate descendants, the true
foundations of  civilized society.   Hence the primi-
tive nations are, at their first appearance,  in history,
already civilized.   Savagism was an after growth,
which took its  origin  from  idle,  or  disorderly
men  who,  abhorring the constraints  of  society,
sought, in the bosom of boundless forests, that free-
dom from control,  and from labor, which was con-
genial with their wandering disposition.  By rapidly
extending themselves over the uncultivated regions
of Europe, and the North of Asia, they there prepar-
ed the elements of future nations.   Thus mankind,
either in a civilized, or savage state, became diffused
in time over the surface  of the  whole globe.  In
every position suffering the influences of the  climate,
of the sterility or richness of the soil,  of the eleva-
tion or depression of the face of their country,  of the
vicinity of seas or desarts,  of their insular, or conti-
nental  situation:  or the modifications  of all these. 
                        33
 resulting from their occupations, and their habits of
 living.  Hence they now present to the eye an almost
 infinite variety in their  complexion, their form and
 features, and their whole personal aspect.
   If we compare  together only those varieties  of
 human nature by which the several sections of man-
 kind differ most widely from one another,  the dif-
 ference is so great that,  on the first view, it might
 very naturally lead to the conclusion that they must
 belong to distinct species.  But,  when we come  to
 examine more particularly the intermediate grades
 which connect the  extremes, and observe by what
 minute differences they approach,  or  recede from,
 one  another; and when we observe further, that each
 of these minute gradations can be traced to obvious
 and  natural causes,  forming so  many links,  as  it
 were, in the great chain connecting the extremes,
we are ready to call in question our first impressions,
and perceive the necessity of subjecting them  to a
new  and more rigorous  examination.
  I have already remarked, that it is contrary to the
laws of true philosophy  to resort to the hypothesis of
different original species of men in order to explain
varieties which can otherwise be accounted for from
                        D 
                       34
the known operation of natural causes.   Philosophy
delights  in  tracing the most diversified  results
through various combinations,  to  the simplest ele-
ments.  And, if we can find, in the laws of nature,
powers sufficient to impress  on the ground of the
same original constitution of man all the varieties of
complexion and form  which have distinguished the
race in different climes, and states of society, it is an
homage which we owe to philosophy, as well as to
religion, to refer all the different nations  of the earth
to the same original stock.   It is  a debt which wc
owe to humanity to recognize our brethren  in every
class of men into which society is divided, and under
every shade of complexion  which diversifies their
various tribes from the equator to the poles.
   I shall endeavour, in the following essay, to fulfil
these obligations to science,  and to charity.   But, in
the course of this disquisition, if some of the facts
from which important conclusions  are drawn, seem,
at first view, to those who have not been  accustomed
to observe nature in her nicest operations, to be too
minute to bear the consequences which  are charged
upon  them,  I trust that a closer attention to the very
fine and almost insensible effects of many  physical
causes, which, in the end produce the  greatest re- 
35
suits, will convince the judicious inquirer that greater
stress may not have been laid upon them than they are
able to bear; so far at least as to prevent a hasty rejec-
tion of the principles,  and to procure for them a fair,
candid, and  patient investigation. *
   Of the chief causes of the  varieties of the human
species I shall treat under the heads
   Of Climate,—Of the State of Society,—and, Of
the Manner of Living.—
                   OF CLIMATE.
   In tracing the various climates of the globe,  ad-
vancing from the arctic circle to the  equator,  we
find them marked  with considerable regularity by
the colour of the inhabitants.  In the European con-
tinent, we meet,  in the highest temperate latitudes,
with a ruddy,  and sanguine complexion,  which is


   * It will be of  importance to bear in mind throughout tliis
essay, that the causes affecting the physical or moral constitu-
tion of man,  and ultimately producing great distinctions be-
tween nations, seldom attain  their full operation till af-er a long
series of tirne.  By almost imperceptible touches they produce
their effects, till entering deeply, at  length, into the habits and
whole structure of our nature,  they are transmitted from pa-
rents to their offspring.   Even  several generations  may pass
away before the ultimate results of the influences cldier of the
climate, of the state of society, or of the manner of living, are
perceived. 
                           36

commonly conjoined with different shades of redness
in the hair.*   We soon descend to a clearer mixture
of red in white.   And afterwards succeed the brown,
the  swarthy, and,  passing  over into  Africa,   the


  * Black hair united with a very dark complexion is frequent
in the high latitudes of the temperate zone, which may indicate
the affinity of those people with the inhabitants of the frigid
zone, or rather the correspondence of the  influences of these
neighbouring climates.   Near the boundary line, the climates
may frequently interchange their effect*; or the different races
may be often intermingled.  There seems to be even some
affinity between the  secretions, or colouring matters, which
give the  red  or black complexion to the hair ; since it is ob-
served, in red haired families, if one person accidentally differs
from the law of the house, it is most commonly to the opposite
colour of black ;  and the reverse of this often takes place in
families, and even in nations distinguished by the darker shades
of complexion and hair.
  Blumenbach remarks that, as to the various colour of the
human hair, there seems to  be  considerable  affinity between
the red and the black.  He adds,  that very frequently persons
marked by the redness of the hair are found among the darkest
complexioned nations, (p. 169.)  He quotes, as his authorities,
Charlevoix,  in his history of New France, who speaks of the
fact as existing among the Esquimaux,—Lopez, who observed
it among  the inhabitants of Congo,—Sonnerat, among those of
New-Guinea,—and Marion, and Wallis, in the islands of the
great South-Sea.  And the Doctor was in possession of red
coloured hair cut from the head of a mulatto.
  I have myself seen a young man, about  seventeen years of
age,  of a fair and ruddy complexion interspersed with freckles,
tuch as are common to that kind of skin, and having a reddish 
                        37
tawny, increasing by darker and darker shades  as
we approach the hottest temperature of the torrid
zone.  In the Assiatic continent we pass at once from
the fair to the  olive, and  thence by various grada.
tions in the darkness of the hue  to the black colour
which prevails in the southern provinces of the penin-
sulas  of Arabia and India.  The same distance from
the sun, however, does not, in every region, indicate
the same  temperature of climate.  Besides the lati-
tude,  many secondary causes must  be taken  into
consideration to determine the character of the cli-
mate.  Elevated and mountainous countries, in pro-
portion to their altitude  above the level  of the sea,
ascend  towards  that  region  of  the atmosphere  in
which we find the dominion of perpetual cold.  High
mountains likewise arresting  the clouds  in  their
course, compel them to pour their frequent rains,
as well as spread their cool shades over the vallies
which lie  between them.  Deep   bays and arms  of

wool tipped with a dirty white, who was born in South-Carolina
of parents both of whom were perfectly black and of the African
race.  He was of a stout and vigorous constitution, and discov-
ered no symptom of weakness, except  in his eyes, the iris of
which had a tincture of red, and they appeared  to be more af-
fected with a strong light than is common in white men. 
                       38
the sea running far within the land, temper both the
heat and the cold of the climate.  And islands com-
monly enjoy a milder  temperature  than continents
placed at the same distance from the sun.   Vicinity
to the ocean produces opposite effects in high north-
ern latitudes, and in the latitudes nearer the equator;
for this great body of water being of a more equal
temperature than the land, in one case corrects the
cold,  in the other moderates the heat.  Extensive
ranges of lofty mountains, such as the Appenines in
Italy,  the Alps in Switzerland, and Taurus, Cauca-
sus, and Imaus in Asia,  by interrupting the current
of cold winds on the one side,  and, on the other, of
the warm airs from the South, create, in  the coun-
tries which lie below them towards the equator, a
temperature much warmer, and in those above them
towards the North, much colder, than would be in-
dicated  by the difference  of latitude.   The frigid
zone in Asia, if I may give this denomination to the
entire' region of prevailing cold in that quarter of the
globe, is much wider than in Europe.  Asia, in-
deed,  can hardly be said to know a temperate zone.
From the northern ocean to the Caucasian or Uralian
chains of hills, it may be regarded, says Montescuieu,
as a flat mountain, or, as he should rather have said, 
39
 the  declivity of a mountain, gradually descending
 towards the north  through a  space of two thousand
 miles.*  Thence to the ocean which washes Arabia,
 Persia and India, it is generally a low country, de-
 clining to the south, destitute of seas to temper the
 warmth of the atmosphere,  and protected  by  im-
 mense ranges of  hills from  the  cold winds which
 blow from the North.   The Asiatic continent, there-
 fore, below the fortieth degree of latitude, is subject-
 ed to  a much greater heat than is experienced in the
 same parallels in Europe ; but between  that degree
 and  the arctic circle the dominion of cold is  propor-*
 tionably increased.   The nature of the soil, likewise,


   * Some of the longest rivers on the globe, the Oby,  the Yeni-
 sea, and the Lena, rising from ranges of mountains near the lati-
 tudes of the Caspian sea, take their direction towards the North,
and empty their waters into the ocean within the arctic circle.
On the opposite side of this elevated  region the rivers bend their
course towards the South.  So that the  continent of  Asia, in
 this part, presents the figure of the roof of a house,  offering
 its southern side more perpendicularly to the rays of  the sun,
while the northern side, declining from them, disperses them
over  a larger surface.  At the same  time, the level face of
the country exposing it more to the  unbroken sweep of the
 polar winds, the union of both these causes renders the North
of Asia much colder than the  correspondent latitudes in Eu-
 rope, while the southern declivity of that continent is propor-
 ♦ionablv warmer. 
                         40
 and the state of cultivation in different countries cre-
 ate some variation in the temperature of the climate.
 Sand is susceptible of a much higher degree of heat
 from  the rays  of the  sun, and retains  it longer
 than clay or loam; and an uncultivated region, shad-
 ed with forests,  and filled with undrained  marshes,
 is more frigid in northern,  and  more  temperate  in
 southern latitudes than countries laid open to the'
 full  action of the solar influence.*   In winter the
 moisture of the atmosphere is congealed into more
 abundant  snows,  and in summer descends in more
 frequent and copious  showers  of rain.  When the
 North of Europe lay almost buried  in  its native for-

  * Notwithstanding this general fact, it is equally true that,
 in a new country, like that  of the United States, when only a
few plantations are opened here  and there  in the midst of the
 woods,  the inhabitants are subjected to a more oppressive heat
 in the summer season than they will be when the country shall
be entirely disforested.  When a small plantation is opened in
a forest, the surrounding woods obstruct those breezes which
would refresh the inhabitants, while they are exposed to the  di-
 rect and scorching rays of the sun.  To this we may add, that
 the moist vapor, with which the atmosphere is generally  filled
in a region  that  is not yet cleared and drained, settling down
more copiously on the few spots which are opened, where there
is not vegetation sufficient, as in the woods, to absorb it, ren-
 ders the heat more oppressive, and at the same time the atmos-
phere more unwholesome. 
                        41
ests, and was inhabited only by various tribes of
barbarians and savages, there are several facts re-
corded in history which demonstrate  that  cold pre-
vailed  in a much higher degree than at present.   In
the age of Horace hail and snow were frequent phe*
nomena at Rome ;  and the light wines of Italy were
sometimes frozen in their cellars.  And Trajan, in
his Dacian wars, is said to have transported his ar-
mies across the Danube on the ice.   But since those
barbarous regions, from the Adriatic to the White
Sea, have been civilized,  and those  extensive  for-
ests have been cleared away, and the earth subject-
ed to tillage,  hail or snow are rarely seen  at Rome,
and their wines, at present, never suffer from con-
gelation.
   From the preceding observations this conclusion
results;  that  there is a general ratio of temperature
prevailing over the whole globe according to the de-
gree of latitude from the equator, which forms what
is usually denominated climate.*   And a general re-

   * Besides the effects resulting from temperature, or the di-
rect action of the sun's rays, when we consider the various ele-
ments,  or gases, which enter into the constitution of our atmos-
phere,  and the different proportions of these principles which
exist in the various regions of the globe, according to  their
                        E 
                          42

semblance m;.\ be traced in the complexion of na-
tions inhabitingthe same latitudes.  Botli theseeffects,
however, are greatly modified, in different countries,
by various combinations of the causes already men-
tioned.   And the latter, in particular, together with
the whole human appearance, is still more diversifi-
ed by the state of society in which different tribes of
the human race  exist,  and their  manner of living;


proximity to the course of the sun, or according to their soils,
their waters, their minerals, their volcanos, and a thousand
other causes which affect this aerial ocean, it is not surprizing
that animal bodies,  constantly exposed to their action, and suf-
fering their, influences, either by absorption, at the surface of
the skin, or by respiration, by which their qualities are im-
parted to the mass of the blood through the lungs, or the sto-
mach, should be sensible of material changes in many respects
from  the variations of this atmospheric constitution.   These
variations will be greatly increased, and diversified in their in-
fluence on the human body by the different proportions of light,
of heat, of the electric fluid,  and  of many other operative and
powerful principles constantly mingling themselves with the
mass of the air.  'Although this  general proposition will  be
easily admitted to be  true, yet the respective  effects  on the
human constitution of these fine and active principles every
where blended with the atmosphere, so easily tiude our obser-
vation, and are so difficult to be separately ascertained, and dis-
criminated from one another,  that the present state of physical
science  forbids us to  hope for much satisfaction from  any  at-
tempt minuted to investigate them. 
                       43
die influence of which  causes shall,  hereafter,  be
more minutely examined.
  Let us, in the first place, pass under review the
general effects of climate upon the colour of the hu-
man skin:  after which  we  shall take notice of the
principal apparent deviations from the common law
exhibited in various portions of the  earth.
  The power of climate to change  the complexion
is demonstrated by facts which constantly occur to
our observation.  In the summer season we perceive
that the intensity of the sun's rays in our climate
tends to darken the colour of the skin, especially in
the  labouring poor who  are more constantly than
others, exposed to  their action.  In the  winter, on
the other hand, the cold and keen winds which then
prevail contribute to chafe the countenance, and to
excite in it a  sanguine  and ruddy complexion.   In
the temperate zone, the causes of these alternate and
opposite effects serve, in  a  degree, to correct  one
another.  But in proportion as heat or cold predomi-
nates in any climate, it tends to impress a permanent
and characteristic  complexion.   The  degree  in
which the one or the other prevails over its opposite
may be considered  as a constant and uniform cause
to the action of which  the constitution is exposed 
                       44
Heat and cold aftect the nervous system by  tension
or relaxation, by dilatation or contraction, and in this
way, produce an alteration in the state of the solids.
Hence also the fluids are affected ; the quantity of the
perspiration is augmented or  diminished;  and the
proportions of the various secretions changed.   But
the human skin is susceptible  of  still greater and
more sensible changes,  by the  opposite  actions  of
the intense rays of the sun, or of the principle of cold
upon its delicate texture.  Even minute  differences
in the power of the cause often become perceptible
in the variety of the effect.   The justness of this re-
mark  will  be rendered more obvious by a  familiar
example  which is constantly exposed to our obser-
vation.   A cold and piercing air chafes the  counte-
nance, and increases the ruddiness of the complexion.
A warm  and moist atmosphere, on the other hand,
tends to  relax the  constitution, and commonly pro-
duces, in  valetudinarians especially,  some  tincture
of a bilious hue.   These effects, in countries where
heat and cold succeed each other in nearly equal pro-
portions, are  transient  and interchangeable.   But
where the  climate,  in any given proportion, repeats
the one,  or the other, of these impressions, there, in
the same  degree, is formed a correspondent and 
                       45
habitual colour of the skin.   If I have applied this
term to the colour of the skin, as well as  to the fea:
tures and form of the countenance and person,  it is
because I believe that the greater part of the varieties
in the appearance of the human species may justly be
denominated habits of the body.  Like other habits,
they are created,  not by great and sudden impres-
sions of their  causes, but by continual, and almost
imperceptible touches.  Of habits, hoth of mind,
and of body,  nations are susceptible as well as indi-
viduals.   Long in growing to maturity, national fea-
tures, like national manners, become fixed only after
a succession of several generations.   At last,  how-
ever, they become fixed.  And if we can ascertain
any effect produced by a given state of climate,  of
society,  or of the habits of living, it requires only
to be repeated during a sufficient length of time,  to
give it a permanent character, and so to incorporate
it into the constitution, as to render it an hereditary
property of the race.  The sanguine, or the fair com-
plexion  will,  for this  reason,  be  perpetual  in the
higher latitudes of the temperate zone, and we shall
generally find different shades of the  dark colours,
gradually increasing, till  we arrive at the perfectly
black, as we descend to the equator. 
                       46
   If those philosophers, who maintain that the van-
eties in complexion, and other constitutional proper-
ties of different tribes of mankind, are infallible indi-
cations of diversity of species, have embraced this
hypothesis from an apprehension that it is most con-
sistent with the benignity and wisdom  of the Crea-
tor to form different races of human beings, fitted by
some peculiar adaptation of their physical  organs to
the respective climates they were severally destined
to inhabit;  one  would  think that  sound  reason
should induce us,  from these  premises, to  infer a
contrary conclusion; that he has formed the human
constitution with such flexibility in its  organization,
that it is  capable of accommodating itself to every
situation on  the globe, to which business or neces-
sity may call  men, or a liberal curiosity and the de-
sire of improvement may invite them.   This pliancy
of nature in man,  above that of most other animals,
is favorable to the intercourse  of  the  most distant
nations, and greatly facilitates the cultivation of sci-
ence.   To what ample sources of  information have
not navigation  and commerce opened an access?
How imperfect must the philosophy of human nature
itself have remained if we had been precluded from
contemplating it under every climate,  and form  of 
                       47
society, and in every progressive stage of its im-
provement  from absolute savagism, to the highest
point of civilization and refinement ? And according
to this wise and benignant intention of providence,
do we  not  see mankind continually changing their
habitations  ?  Do not we find them under every zone
from the equator, to the pole,  not only able to en-
dure all these different degrees of temperature with-
out injury, but so assimilated by time to the charac-
ter  of each new climate, that hardly  can we pro-
nounce with  certainty,  who have been descended
from the aboriginals of the country, and  who from
families who have migrated thither only a few gene-
rations past?
  Why should it be thought necessary then that the
Creator should have formed different species of men
to inhabit  the frozen regions of Lapland, and the
torrid climes of Africa,  wjien it is confessed by one
of the  greatest  champions of  this doctrine, that a
colony of Hungarians, who are among the handsom-
est  and best proportioned people of Europe,  have,
by migrating to Lapland,  some ages ago, become
absolutely  assimilated to the natives of the country
in every  attribute of that diminutive and deformed 
                       48
race,* or were really the original stock from which
the present inhabitants are derived?  And the same
author asserts that a colony of Portuguese, estab:
lished in Congo, not yet three centuries since, have
so degenerated in complexion, in the figure of their
persons,  and  their habits of living, as to be no
longer distinguishable from the neighbouring tribes
of Hottentots, who are among the filthiest, the most
deformed and savage of mankind.  These examples
ought surely to have convinced the learned advocate
of this hypothesis  how unnecessary it is to the ex-
planation of the different appearances which human
nature puts on in the different climates and regions of
the globe,  having before his view such proofs of the
facility with which  the constitution of man moulds
itself to the impressions  of each, and  assumes the
habits of every state of society.
   Before proceeding to  treat directly of the causes
of the various degrees of dark complexion observa-
ble in the different tribes of  the human  species, it
will not be improper to propose two or three prelim-
inary remarks on the structure of the skin, the seat
of colour.  This fine integument, although extreme -
* Lord Kaims in his sketches of the history of man 
49
 Vjr delicate,  and susceptible of the lightest impres-
 sions from many causes both external and internal,
 is,  however, in its organic texture,  among the least
 mutable  parts of the human body.   Hence any  co-
 lour introduced into its substance is  not easily erad,
 icated.   Figures stained in it with  paints  inserted
 by punctures become indelible.   For the same rea-
 son, freckles, though consisting only  of partial stains
 impressed on the surface of a fair  skin by a slight
 exposure to the sun and air, cannot be removed but
 with great difficulty ;*  and in persons of a certain
 ruddiness of complexion,  such  as  is found com-
 monly united with hair of a dark red,  or deep orange
 colour, can never be entirely effaced.f

  * White may be regarded as the colourless state of skin, and
 all the shades of the dark colours as different stains inserted
 into its substance.
  t It has  been remarked, and not without reason, that a dark
colour  of the skin  may be considered  as a  universal freckle.
And, certainly, if the same kind of secretion  mingling with the
perspirable matter issuing from the pores of the skin, which is
fixed by the action of the   sun or  air, on certain points in
freckles, should be equably diffused over the whole surface of
the body, or throughout the  whole substance of the skin,  and
we can  discern no reason why it may not, every point would
consequently be stained with  the same colour.
                         F 
                         so
   We sefe, even  in our own climate, that the solar
rays are able to penetrate the entire subBtance of the
Skin ; and, when it is first exposed to them without
covering, they dissolve its  texture, by inflaming and
falsing  it into blisters.  This  action tends not only
to change its  colour, but to incrassate its substance
till it becomes thick enough to resist any further al-
teration from  their influence ;* when it assumes a
hue,  more or less deep,  according to the power and
continuance of the cause.    The  complexion of the
African zone, therefore, in the  greater portion of
which the inhabitants are both savage  in their man.
ners, and almost universally  destitute  of clothing,
will naturally be as much deeper  as the  ardor of the
sun, f in those parched regions  is both more con-

   * The stimulus of the sun's rays, exciting a  greater flux of
humours to the skin, tends to incrassate its substance.  Hence
the skin on the hands and face of labourers, and sea-faring mem.
is thicker than that on other parts of the body.   And all people
of colour have this integument thicker than persons of a fair
complexion.  Blum. p. 110.
   t Pliny seems inclined to ascribe  the  colour of the Africans
entirely to the excessive ardor  of the sun in that climate.  He
says,  lib. 2. cap. 78.  " Ethiopas vicini  Sideris  vapore torreri,
adustisque similes gigni, barba, & capillo vibrato, non est
dubium."   And Ovid in the second book of the  Metamorphos- 
                         51

#ant, and more intense than in the  temperate Jatit
tudes, or even in other districts of the torrid zone.
  The dark colours of the tropical nations, however,
are not to be ascribed solely to the action of the sun*s
rays upon the skin.   Extreme heat, especially when
united with putrid animal, or vegetable exhalations,
which in all  torrid climates are found copiously to
impregnate the atmosphere,  teixjs greatly to aug-
ment the  secretion of  bile  in  the  human system,^
which,  being diffused over  the whole surface of the
body, imparts to the complexion a dull yellow tinge,
that soon  assumes a very dark hue, by  being expos-
ed to the sun, and by  immediate contact with  the


es,  relating the fable of Phaeton attributes the effect to the
chariot of the sun.  In which, says Feijoo, although the sub-
stance of the narration is fabulous, he alludes to the  opinion
which was then generally adopted ;  that the proximity of the
sun was the cause of the colour of the Ethiopians—
    Sanguine tunc credunt in corpora summa
    Vocato, Ethiopum populos nigrum traxisse colorem.

  * Dr. M'Clurg in his  treatise on the bile, asserts that this
secretion is always increased  in proportion to the  degree of
heat which  prevails in any climate.  We ought,  however, to
take into our consideration also  other causes of an increased
secretion of bile, as putrid miasmata in the atmosphere, meagre,
or scinty food,  excessive hardships, and whatever corrupts, or
Impoverishes the blood. 
                        52
 external air.*   Different shades of the dark colours,
 therefore, till we arrive at the deepest black, will be
 found in  the human complexion, in proportion to
 the predominancy of bile in the constitution, as well
 as of heat in the climate.
   On the immediate causes of colour in  the human
 species I  shall state a few obvious facts.   We may
 not be perfectly acquainted with the internal process
 of nature  in the production of those phenomena, yet
 their existence may be sufficient to convince the
 philosophic observer  that climate  is the principal
 agent in  creating that variety of complexion which
 distinguishes mankind in the different regions of the
 globe.
   L  The rays of the sun, when suffered to act im-
 mediately on the human skin, tend to produce a dark
 colour, although there should be  no uncommon re-
 dundancy of bile in the constitution.
   2. On the other hand, redundancy of bile imparts
 a dark hue to the complexionf in  persons who have

  * Take bile from any animal, and expose it but for  a short
 time to the influence of the sun and air, and it becomes  black.
  t There is a great agreement, and sympathy, says Blumcn-
bach, between the liver,  the laboratory of bile in the  human 
                          53

not, in any uncommon degree, been exposed to the
direct action of the sun.   Accordingly, we frequent-
ly see those who have been long affected in different
degrees by an excess of this  secretion, contract  a
hue resembling that  of various dark  coloured  na-

tions.*,


constitution, and the common integuments of  the body, or the
skin ; and both are to be considered as being among the princi-
pal means provided by nature for purifying  the mass of the
blood.
   " Manifestus officinae bilis cum integumentis communibus
" consensus.  Utraque quippe organa, hefiar nempe et cutis,
" ad maxime principalia, et invicem  consentientia sanguineac
" massae purgatoria  referenda."   De gen. hum. degen. &c.
§44. p. 126.

   * Dr. Strack, in his observations concerning intermittent fe-
vers,  speaking of jaundice arising from this cause, says, " I
have seen the skin, after such a jaundice, remain of an olive
colour, like that of the Asiatics, and even be  imparted to chil-
dren.   One I have seen become nearly as black as an East-In-
dian: and another the whole skin of whose body became as  dark
as if he had been the offspring of an Indian father, and Euro-
pean mother, while the palms of the hands, and soles of the feet
remained white like those of the indians."   Book iii. ch.  2.
I may add to these examples of Dr. Strack  that of a gentle-
man of the town of Newark in the state of New-Jersey, whose
complexion has, for more than twenty years, been as  dark  as
that of an aboriginal American.   This colour was induced  at
first in consequence of disease ;  but though he has, for a long
time,  enjoyed his health,  the colour still remains.  " I would 
                          64

   3. Where both causes co-operate, as is the case
in all fervid climates,  the effect upon the complex-
ion of the inhabitants must be greater in proportion

to the influence of the respective  causes.
   4.  The human skin has been discovered by anat-
omists to consist of three  distinct lamellae or integu-
ments ;  the external,  or scarf-skin,  which is  an ex-
tremely  fine netting," and perfectly transparent  in the
darkest coloured nations,—the interior, or true skin,
which, in people of all the different grades of colour,
is white,—and an  intermediate  membrane,  which


not, says  Dr. Blumenbach, urge too far  the analogy of  the
jaundice with the  national colour of the skin, yet are there sev-
eral phenomena which merit attention  on  this subject,  and,
among others, the following ;  that,  among nations of a dusky,
or black complexion, it is a frequent, not to say general thing,
to find persons,  otherwise in their full health, who have  the
white of the eye tinged with a certain yellowish appearance like
those who have  been affected by bilious disorders.   This is
very observable in the natives of  India,  of tropical  Africa,  and
America."   For  the fact he quotes De la Loubcre descript. du
royaumc de Siam. T. 1. p. 81. and  Rochefort,  hist, naturelle
ties Antilles, p. 383.  He t dds, wc frequently see in those who
have been affected with jaundice, according to the degree of the
disorder,  the skin, in different persons, stained with various
shades greatly resembling the complexion of different nations
of colour, which  stain often remains permanent after  the dis-
ease has been entirely removed.  Blum, dc gen. hum. dege&.
in specie. §45. p. 131.       , 
55
is cellular in its structure,  somewhat like  a honey.
comb.  This membrane is the proper seat of colour,
being filled with a delicate mucous, or viscid liquor,
which easily receives the lively tinge of the blood
when strongly propelled, by any cause,  to the sur-
face, or the duller stain of the bile when it enters
in any undue quantity into the circulation.  The
smallest surchange of this secretion imparts to it a
yellow appearance;  which,  by remaining long in
contact with the atmosphere assumes a darker hue,*
and if exposed, at the same time, to the immediate
influence of the sun, approaches, according to the
 heat of the climate and the degree in which the bile
prevails, towards black.
   5. The gall, or bile of any animal exposed to the
sun and air, in a short time becomes black :  a phe-
nomenon which probably results from the great pro-
portion of carbon which enters into its composition,*

  *  Even the blackest negro, when first born, does not exhibit
his true complexion till after he has been some time exposed to
the contact of the external air.
  *  Carbon, in its purest state,  is known to be clear and trans-
parent, as is seen in the diamond ;  but in that mixed and im-
pure condition in which  it exists in most bodies, especially in
the bile, the contact of the atmosphere, or the action of heat. 
                         56

 and the evaporation which takes place in the open air
 of the hydrogen, or aqueous fluid with which it had
 been combined and diluted.
   6. When, from any  cause therefore,  the bilious
 secretion has been increased beyond its natural pro-
 portion, approaching the surface of the body  in the
 progress of the circulation, the carbonic matter of its
 composition  becomes there attached  to  the  viscid
 mucous in the cellular membrane of the skin, while
 the more thin and volatile hydrogen with which it is
 combined, having a stronger  affinity and attraction
 with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and flying off
 first, leaves it  precipitated and entangled in those
 cells where it stains and discolours the complexion.*


renders it black.   Even the diamond, by the force of intense
heat, may be covered with a black crust.

  * This is confirmed by an observation of Dr. Blumenbach in
his treatise  de  gen. hum. degen. in specie, § 44. p. 124, &c.
The proximate cause, says he,  of the dark colour in the ex-
ternal integuments of the skin is to be  sought in the carbon
which abounds in the human body, and abounds more in the oil
and bile than in any other animal substances.   The latter com-
ing united with the hydrogen, with which it is intimately com-
bined, to the surface of the body, the hydrogen there attaches
itself more quickly to the oxygen of the atmosphere, on ac-
count of their superior mutual attraction, and, flying off first, 
                          57

   7. The bile itself is,  perhaps,  more  liable than
most other secretions in the human body, to become
incrassated and mucous: at least it is always copious-
ly found in that state in the stomach and intestines of
those persons who have been long subject to bilious

disorders.
   8. The vapours arising from stagnant waters with
which uncultivated  regions abound, great  fatigues
and hardships, poverty of diet, filthiness in the man-
ner of living, tend, likewise,  to create a surcharge of
the bilious secretion.   Hence, as well as from their


the  carbon is precipitated  in the rete  malphighianum, or
second integument of  the  skin,  and infects it with its dark
colour in proportion to the quantity which various causes have
thrown into the circulation, the chief of which is climate.  Cau-
sam equidem proxiraam adusti,  aut fusci coloris externoi um
cutis integumentorum, in abundante carbonaceo corporis hu-
mani elemento quaerendam censeo, quod cum hydrogenio per
corium excernitur, oxygenii vero atmospherici accessu prae-
cipitatum, Malpihiano  muco infigitur.
   Ingens climatum in hepatis actionem potentia, utpote quae
intra tropicos cceli ardore  mirum quantum excitatur et auge-
tur.   Hinc morbi biliosi intra tropicos multif-irii et endemii.—
Blum, de generis hum. degen. in specie. § 44. p.  125, 126.
   In section 45th, p. 130th, he says ; that the carbonic matter
belongs to the primary elements of the animal system, and that
it is the cause of a colour more or less dark has been rendered
evident by the late  improvements in chemistry,  particularly,
among the French.
                          c. 
                         58
nakedness, and exposure to the unmitigated effect of
the solar and atmopheric influence,  savages will  al-
ways be discoloured even  in  temperate, or in  cold
climates.*   For, although cold, when assisted  by
succulent nourishment, and by the comfortable lodg-
ing and clothing furnished by  the arts of civlized
life, propels  the blood with force to the surface, and
tends, in a healthful state of the  body, to render the
complexion clear, yet, when the system is relaxed, or
receives a surcharge of bile from the causes mention-
ed above, and poor and shivering savages, under an
arctic sky, do not possess those conveniences which,
by cherishing the principle of life, assist the motion
of the blood to the extremities,  the constitution is
overstrained, indirect debility ensues, and an increase
of the same discolouring secretion is produced.

  * From the  affinity of the bile, says the same eminent physi-
cian quoted in the last note, with the fat or oil of the animal body,
noticed also by Feurcroy, (philosophic chemique, p. 111.)  ap-
pears  the reason cf that waxen hue observable in dark colour-
ed rations, remarked by J. F. Mekel, histcire de 1'academie
des sciences de Berlin.  1753.  p. 92___Her.ce, unless I am de-
ceived, continues he, we derive the reason why nations who live
chiefly on a food consisting uf animal oil, not only smell of  the
oil, but contract a very d~rk complexion ; as the Greenlanders,
and the mist r.-.ble ir.hiilitair.s ct Tierradel Fuego, whose scanty
subsistence consists chiefly  of the almost putrid fat of seals. 
                       59
  The rigor of their climate, the hardships of their
state, the grossness and scantiness of their food, and
filthiness of their whole manner of living, not only
tend to augment this secretion, but,  by obstructing
the pores of the skin,  hold it longer in nearly a stag-
nant state at the surface of the body,  and in contact
with the external air, which occasions an increase of
the dark colour.  Hence, perhaps, the deep Lappo-
nian complexion, which has been esteemed a pheno-
menon so difficult to be explained.
  9. One other fact on this subject deserves to be re-
marked.  Those who make great and sudden changes
in their  residence from northern to southern  cli-
mates, and, especially if they remove from high and
dry soils to moist and undrained regions, are usually
attacked by bilious disorders which leave  the blood
impoverished, and shed a dark colour, tinged with a
yellow appearance over the skin.   These  disorders
are evidently the effects of the climate, and are prob-
ably only the efforts of nature in removing that ten-
sion of the system which would render it  under the
action of an ardent sun,  liable to dangerous inflama-
tory fevers, and  imparting  to  it that proportion of 
                          60

 bile which is requisite to its safety, and its comfort-
 ab.c subsistence in its new situation.*
   In the preceding propositions I have endeavoured
 to state  some principles, supporting them on the au-
 thoriry of unquestionable facts, by which to explain
 the proximate cause of colour,  and its various shades
 intheiiunian species, but, whether the theory which

 I lu<ve attempted to erect on the foundation of these
 fuc'.* be satisfactorily supported or not,  the general

 principle, that climate  possesses all the  power  to
 change the complexion which  I have ascribed to  it,


  * Bilious disorders are known to relax the system, and there-
 by to render it less liable to the inflamatory fevers  to which a
 tense and plethorc  habit would be exposed under a hot sun.
 The bile which tends easily to become mucous and incrassated,
contributes also, by increasing the thickness of the skin, which
thereby forms a kind of veil to the body, to  resist the inflama-
tory action of the sun's rays upon the constitution,  and to ren-
der it more patient of extreme heat.  For,  it is observed  by
Blumenhach, of the reticular membrane of the skin, that it is
always thicker in proportion to the darkness of the colouring
matter with which its cells are filled.  Blum, de gen. &c. p. 164.
  But it should ever be remembered that the predominance of
bile in the habit, and the discolouration of the skin, although
they nu.y be, and, in the  first instance, usually are; the effects
of disease, yet,  becoming, in time,  constitutional properties,
they remain after all symptoms of disease have passed away ;
and may even become necessary to a healthful state of the body. 
                         61
 can be established, I apprehend, on the clear and
 decisive evidence of other facts,  although I should
 have failed to point out the precise  mode in which
 climate acts,  or accurately to have traced the chain
 of its effects.—The principle results, then, from the
 regularity of the complexional zones of the world.—
 It results from obvious and undeniable events within
 the  memory  of history.—And it results  from facts
 which come under our own immediate observation in
 America.
   Encircle the earth in every zone, and, making those
 reasonable allowances which ought to be  made, for
 the influence of mountains, lakes,  and seas, and those
 other circumstances which are known to modify the
 temperature of  climate,  each  zone  is seen to be
 marked by its own distinctive,  and characteristic
 complexion.  The black prevails under  the equa-
 tor ;—near the tropics   we arrive at the  dark cop-
 per ;—and, on this side of the tropic of Cancer, to
 the seventieth degree of northern  latitude, we suc-
 cessively trace the  tawny, the olive,*  the brown,

  * Some difference exists in the tints which mark the corres*
ponding latitudes in Asia and Eurcpe, arising from the diver-
sity of the respective climates occasioned by the nature of the
soil, the form of the continents, and other causes affecting the
temperature of the atmosphere. 
62
the fair, the  sanguine.   In each of these grades we
discover several shades or tints; till, beneath the arctic
circle, we return to the black.  This general uniform-
ity in the effect, as we proceed towards the North, or
the South, affords a  strong presumption, that the  va-
rious shades  of complexion which distinguish  the
different latitudes are to be ascribed  chiefly  to  the
influence of climate.   The apparent deviations from
this law which are presented to our view in particular
regions of the globe, will, when we  come,  in  the
progress of this discourse, to point out their causes,
serve only to confirm the general principle.*


  * Various causes may contribute, in certain districts of the
globe, to alter the prevailing temperature of the atmosphere,
and consequently the shade of the complexion, which may be
said to form the general and characteristic temperature  and
complexion of  any particular latitude.  Some  of these have
been already suggested, and others will be more largely detail-
ed hereafter.  In a philosophic enquiry into this  subject it is
necessary continually to recollect that  there are often various
climates,  taking that term to signify any particular degree of
heat, or of heat combined with moisture,  under the same  par-
allel of latitude.
  When this obvious consideration is attended to, it is the
more surprizing that the critical reviewers in England, in re-
marking on the  first edition of this essay, should think to re-
fute the reasonings on the influence and effects of climate by
drawing their parallel round the globe, and shewing the vari- 
63
   The influence of climate on the human complex-
ion is demonstrated by  well  known and important
events within  the memory of history.  From  the
Baltic to the Mediterranean the different latitudes of
Europe are marked by different shades  of colour.
In tracing the origin of the fair  German, the dark
coloured   Frenchman, and the  swarthy  Spaniard,
and Sicilian, it has been proved that they are all de-
rived from  the  same primitive stock;  or, at least
from  nearly resembling nations which may be com-
prehended  under  the  general names of Huns  and
Goths.   The southern provinces of France, of Italy,
of Spain,  and of other countries of Europe, are dis-
tinguished from the  northern  by a  much  deeper
shade of complexion.*   And, if we extend our view

ous shades of colour found under this circle..—This negligent
and injudious criticism is the less excusable because the fact
had been remarked and accounted for in the essay itself; and
to the candid, the  attentive,  and truly philosophic  reader, I
trust it is sufficiently demonstrated to be the necessary result
of the principles laid down on the subject of climate.
   * It has been remarked by travellers that in Spain the ladies
of the province of Biscay generally possess very  fair complex-
ions.  In Grenada, on the other hand,  and the other southern
provinces,  they are of a dark swarth, which is so general a
characteristic of the ladies there, that it is esteemed a beauty, 
                       64
 beyond Europe to the great empires of the East,  to
 Arabia, to Persia, to India, and China,  this obser-
 vation is  still  more applicable  to  those countries
 which embrace so much greater an extent of lati-
 tude.  The inhabitants of Pekin are fair while those
 of Canton exhibit as deep  a colour as the Mexicans'.
 The Persians in the vicinity of the  Caspian sea are
 among the fairest  people  in the world,  and their
 neighbours, the Georgians and Circassians, are ac-
 knowledged to be the most  beautiful.   But, this
 delicate complexion gradually changes to a dark olive
 as we approach the gulph  of Ormus.   The inhabit-
 ants of the stony and desert Arabia are distinguished
by a light copper colour, while those of the southern
provinces of Mocha and Yemen are of as deep a hue
as those of middle  India.  The same gradation holds
in Egypt, from the Mediterranean sea to the foot  of
the mountains of Abyssinia.  The population of the
southern provinces of the peninsula  of India are
black; on the North,  and just below  the range  of
the Caucasian mountains,  the  complexion changes
 to a light chesnut,  or yellow colour.   And this gra-

 and is even given  to their pictures and statues of the Virgin
 Mary.  Blum. p.  135. 
65
dation is observed both on the Malabar, and the Co-
romandel coast.*
  In these extensive countries in which the surface
of the earth is more  uniform than in Europe, and
not so much broken and intersected by mountains,
seas,  and bays running far up into the land, the gra-
dation of colour holds a more regular progression ac-
cording to the  latitude from the equator.   But the
influence of climate  on the complexion  is  better
illustrated by its effects on the Arabians and the Chi-
nese,  than on most other nations, who have been the
subjects of frequent conquests,  and great intermix-
tures with foreign tribes.   These  people  have re-
mained, from a very remote antiquity, almost whol-
ly unmingled with foreign  nations.   The former,
especially, can be traced by  a clear, and undisputed
genealogy to  their  origin in one family ;  and they
have never been blended, either by conquest, or by

  * The authors  of the Universal  History.  Asiatic Re-
searches.   Bruce's Travels.  Accounts  of Missionaries  to
India from Britain, Holland, and Germany.  A similar remark
is made with regard to the negroes on both sides of the Senegal
river, by Barbot in Churchill's collection of voyages. But the
varieties of Africa will be afterwards more particularly noticed
and accounted for.
H 
                        66
commerce, with any other race.  And yef we find
every gradation of discolouration among them from
the swarthy hue of the northern  provinces to  the
deep black suffused with a yellowish tinge,* which
prevails  in  the  southern  angle of  the  Arabian
peninsula.
  But no example can carry with it greater author-
ity on this subject than that of the Jews.  Descend-
ed from one stock, prohibited by  their most sacred
institutions from intermarrying with  strangers, and
yet widely dispersed  into  every  region  on  the
globe, this one people is marked with  the  peculiar
characteristics of  every  climate.   In  Britain and
Germany they are  fair, brown in France and in Tur-
key, swarthy in Portugal and Spain,  olive  in  Syria
and Chaldeii,  tawny or copper-coloured  in Arabia
and Egypt, f

  * It is the same colour which is seen  in those blacks who,
in the United States, are denominated yellow negroes.
  t Button's Nat. Hist. vol. Ill—Mr. Buffon, in giving these
general characteristics of complexion writes rather like an ora-
tor than a philosopher, and, that he may  not embarrass his
stile by too many distinctions, gives the colour of only a parti-
cular portion of each country.  For example, he  has in  his
view chiefly the northern parts of Arabia, and of Egypt; the 
                         67
   Another  example of the  power  of climate  to
 change the complexion, and even to introduce great
 alterations into the whole constitution, is presented
 to the view of the philosophic observer in the native
 population of the United States.   Sprung,  not long
 since, from the British, the Irish,  and the German
 nations, who are the fairest people  in  Europe, they
 nave extended themselves over the American conti-
 nent from the thirty-first to the forty-fifth degree  of
 northern latitude.  And notwithstanding the recent
 period  at  which the first  European establishments
 were made in America ;  and the  continual influx  of
 emigrants from the old continent, and  their frequent
 intermarriages  with  the native  Anglo-Americans;
 and, what is of not less consequence in this question,
 notwithstanding ideas of personal  beauty  derived
 from their ancestors which they sedulously  cherish,
 and  which the arts of civilized life have enabled them
 to preserve, as far as is possible, against the influence

 North of Syria, and South of Chaldea;  with perhaps a similar
 limitation in Turkey, and in France.  A tribe of Jews, or Is-
 raelites has lately been discovered in India, known by the He-
 brew Pentateuch preserved among them from  immemorial
 time, to be of the stock of Israel, who have become,  by a resi-
dence of ages in that climate, as black as  the natives 
                       68
of the climate ; yet have they undergone a visible
and  important change.  A certain paleness of coun-
tenance, and softness of feature in the native Ameri-
can  strikes a British traveller as soon as he arrives
upon our shores.   Many exceptions there are; but,
in general, the American complexion does not exhi-
bit so clear a red and white as the British, or the
German.  And there is a tinge of sallowness spread
over it which indicates the tendency of the climate
to generate bile.   These effects are more obvious
in the southern than in the northern states.  They
appear more strongly marked in the  low lands near
the ocean, than as you approach the mountainous re-
gions to the North and West.   And they  are much
more deeply  impressed in the poorer classes of the
people than in families of easy fortune who enjoy a
more various and nutricious diet,  and possess the
means at once of improving  their appearance,  and
guarding against the unfavourable influences of the
climate.  The people of New-Jersey, in the low and
level country between the  sea,  and the  extensive
bay of the river  Delaware,  are generally darker in
their complexion,  than in those counties where the
country rises into hills;  and considerably darker than
the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, which is every where 
                       69
diversified with hills, and frequently rises into lofty
mountains.  The depression of the land exposes it
to greater heat; and the level surface of the country,
not yet subjected to a high degree of culture, leaves
it, in many places, covered with stagnant waters that
impregnate the atmosphere with unwholesome ex-
halations, which  greatly augment the secretion of
bile.   The  increased heat of the  sun in the low
lands of Maryland and Virginia, near the coasts of
the ocean, and of the wide bays which every where
indent them, gives a visible heightening to the dark-
ness of the complexion, especially in the poorest clas-
ses of the people who are most exposed to the force of
the climate.   Descending still farther to the South,
along the sea coast of the Carolinas and Georgia, we
often meet among the overseers of their slaves, and
their laborious poor, with persons whose complexion
is but a few shades lighter than that of the aboriginal
Iroquois, or Cherokees.   Compare these men with
their British ancestors, and the change which has al-
ready passed upon them, will afford  the strongest
ground  to conclude that, if they were thrown, like
our native indians,  into a state of absolute savagism,
 they would, in no great length of time, be perfectly 
                            70

 marked with  the same .complexion.*   Not only is
 their complexion  thus changed, but a visible  and
 striking alteration seems to have been produced  on
 their whole constitution.    So thin and meagre fre-


   * Those rude woodmen, on the frontiers of the United
 States, who live in  the vicinity of  the indian tribes,  and who,
 being frequently intermingled with them, have adopted nearly
 the same modes of living, contract, in time, a great resem-
 blance to the savages, not only in their manners, but in their
 colour and the expression of the countenance.   Those especi-
 ally who have incorporated themselves with any of their tribes,
 conforming entirely to their customs, and habits of living, soon
 acquire a surprizing similarity to them in their whole appear-
 ance.  Of this effect Mr.  Adair in  his history of the American
 indians, gives us a  striking example in  an  Anglo-American
 who had, in this  manner,  incorporated himself with the  Shaw-
 anoese nation. And I have had similar relations confirmed to
 me by persons who have had the best opportunities  of making
 observations  on  these adopted children of the savage tribes.
 " At the  Shawanoe main camp, says he, I  saw a Pennsylvanian,
 a white man by birth, and in profession a christian,  who by the
 inclemency of the sun, and his endeavours to improve the red
 colour, was tarnished with as deep an indian hue as  any of the
 camp, although  he  had been  in the woods only four years."
 Adair Hist. Amer. lnd. p. 3,4.—I follow this extract with the
 remark of the ingenious and judicious Dr. Barton of Philadel-
 phia : " If these remarkable changes are wrought on the system
 in the term of a  few years, we ought not to be surprized at
 seeing even the most opposite tints and features produced from
 the long and permanent operation of physical,  and of  moral
 causes."   But I will add that, probably, the Anglo-AmericanB
will never u-generate into a perfect  resemblance of  the  abori- 
                        71

quently are they  in  their persons, that their  limbs
seem to have a disproportiond length to the body;
and the figure of the skeleton appears often,  very
distinctly, through the skin.  If these men, unmixed
with others whose state in society enables them to
enjoy in  greater  abundance the conveniences  and
comforts  of living, and consequently the means of
preserving themselves  from  the  deteriorating im-
pressions of the climate,  had  been  found in  a dis-
tant region where no memory of their origin remain-
ed,  they  would have furnished to the advocates of
different  species  belonging to the human kind, an
example as strong,  and as much to the purpose of
their argument, as most of those on which they now
rely with the greatest confidence.
   In general, the habit of the Anglo-Americans is
more slender than that of the natives of  Great-Bri-


ginal indians.  The arts of civilization may be expected, in a
considerable degree, to correct the effects of the climate.  Even
if they should now sink into a  state of savagism, perhaps the
resemblance might  not,  in every point, be  complete; be-
cause the one would receive the impressions of the climate on
the ground of features formed in Europe, and in a high state of
civilization ; the others have received them on the ground of
features formed in a very different region of the "globe, and in
a much ruder state of society.  Such differences  in the  combi-
nations must necessarily vary somewhat the results. 
                       n
tain or Ireland, from whom the greater  part of our
population is descended.  But the extremely meagre »\
aspect of that class to which I refer, may arise from
their situation, which exposes them more to the un-
mitigated influences of a climate that is,  at present,
very unhealthy from the intensity of its heat  acting  J
on the great quantity of its  stagnant waters and in-
fecting the atmosphere, during the hot season, with
putrid exhalations.  And,  I have before remarked,
that  the  changes created in the human constitution
by migrating from dry, to  moist regions, and from
temperate to very  warm latitudes, are,  in the first
instance  generally diseases.  Hereafter, when  the
constitution shall  become  more  accommodated to
the climate, as it may, in time, adapt itself  to any
situation on the globe,  these people will present to
the eye a less haggard, and diseased appearance;
but they will probably forever  exhibit  a very thin
and meagre habit of body, and a very swarthy hue.
  Examples taken from the descendants of Europe-
ans in America are  the stronger because the climate
has not yet had time to impress upon them  its full
character.   And  the  change which will ultimately
be produced in the American constitution has been 
73
retarded, not only by the arts of civilized society,*
but by the continual intermixture of new colonies of
emigrants  from  Europe with  the natives  of  the
country.
   To those  who  have  surveyed this subject in a
hasty  and  superficial  manner, these  changes may
appear to  advance more  slowly to their ultimate
point than  is consistent with  the principles hitherto
laid down. But it will be recollected that all national
changes,  whether moral or physical,  usually advance
by almost imperceptible gradations, f   Many cen-


  * In savage life men more easily receive the impressions of
the climate than in civilized society, because they are exposed
to its full force without any means of defence.  Indeed, what-
ever art they possess is usually employed, not  in defending
themselves from its influences, but in heightening  the dark
colour of the skin.  But independently on the application of
any art, the same consequences would result, in a degree, from
the extreme neglect and filthiness of their persons.

  f It deserves to be remarked that the natives  of the West-
India islands, even of those settled by the English and Danes,
and the fairest European nations, are already become very dark
in their complexion, and approaching to a copper hue, although
three centuries  have not yet elapsed since those settlements
were first established.   The  descendants of the  Spa-.iu.rds in
South-America are become absolutely copper coloured.  [See
Phil. Trans, of  Roy. Soc. Lond. No.476. Sect. 4.]  The Por-
                          1 
                         74

turies elapsed before Europe was  able to  raise
herself to her present refinement, from the rudeness
of barbarian manners which overspread that portion
of the globe after the  fall of the  Roman empire.
Perhaps  not less time  may  be required to  pass
through all the changes which,  from  different cau-
ses,  may affect the countenance  and corporal form
and appearance of a whole people ;—to receive the
impressions of climate on  successive generations till
it has attained  its utmost  operation ;—to combine
these with the effects which result from the state of
society ; to  blend both  with personal peculiarities;
and,  by the almost  infinite  unions of  families, to
melt  down the whole into  those features, combined


tuguese of Mitomba, in Sierra Leona, on the coast of Africa,
have,  by intermarrying  with the natives, and adopting their
manners, become, in a few generations, so assimilated to them
in figure, and complexion, that hardly can they any longer be
distinguished.  [Treatise on the trade of Great-Britain to Af-
rica, by an African Merchant.] And Lord  Kaims affirms of
another Portuguese settlement on the coast of Congo, that the
descendants of those Europeans have become both in their per-
sons and their manners, more like beasts than like men.  [Pre-
lim. Disc, to the Sketches on Man.] These examples indicate,
with no small degree of evidence, how easily climate  would
assimilate, in a great degree, any foreign people to the natives
of any country, in the course of time, if they would adopt the
same manners, and equally expose themselves to its influence. 
                        ¥5
with  that complexion,  and  peculiar  expression,
which go to form  what is called a national counte-
nance.  It is even questionable whether any nation in
Europe, in consequence of the eternal  migrations
and conquests which have mingled and confounded
its  inhabitants with the natives of other regions,
yet exhibits the entire effect of all these causes, so
far, at least, that they  may  not still be susceptible
of. further change.   China and Arabia are, perhaps,
the only  civilized: countries in  the world in which
climate combined with manners, have attained their
utmost operation on the human constitution; because
they are the only-countries in which the inhabitants
have  been able, during a long succession of ages, to
preserve themselves unmixed with any other people,
and to persevere in the same habits of life.  Each par-
allel of latitude is, among them, distinctly marked
with  its  characteristic  complexion.  In no other
country is there such a regular gradation of colour as
is traced from the fair natives of Pekin* to  the in-

  * The Tartars, who have more than once, within the mem-
ory of history, dethroned the reigning family at Pekin, and es-
tablished a new dynasty in the empire of China, form no pro-
per exception  to this remark.  The Tartars, though they
changed the dynasty, made  no alteration in the frame of the 
                          76

habitants of  Canton,  who are of a dark copper;  or
from the dark olive or swarthy colour of the Desert

Arabia, to the black of the province of Yemen.
   From  these observations  it results,  that the cau-
ses  of colour and of  other varieties in the human
species have  not yet had their full operation on  the
inhabitants of the United States.   Such an operation,
however, they have had as affords a striking proof and
an interesting example of  the powerful influence of
climate.*


government; and, being  few in  number, and chiefly  of the
military order,  have had no sensible effect on the character of
the population.  They form a part of the soldiery of the em-
pire, or rather of the guards of the prince; they have never be-
come cultivators of the soil.

  *  The reader will always bear in mind that in remarking on
the changes which have pdssed on the Anglo-Americans, I have
in view chiefly the nt-tives of  the second and third generation
from their European ancestors, or even a more distant posteri-
ty if  there be such.  Although a few exceptions from each re-
mark may be pointed out, yet they will not be regarded as suf-
ficient to overthiow conclusions drawn from the great mass of
population.  The y  will be rare among  those who have had a
clear American descent by both parents through two or three
races.  They will be much more rare in the low countries near
the sea, in the middle and southern states, where the climate
differs  more from that  of  Europe, than in the northern
portion of the Union, or the western counties of the southern 
                        77
  Before leaving the illustration of this article it may
contribute to confirm the doctrine of the power of cli-
mate to affect the human complexion, to point out, in
a few instances, its operation on  the colour of the in-
ferior animals.   Analogy often affords a solid ground
of reasoning. And, on this subject, we may strength-
en our conclusions by analogous facts  which are
known to take place in different species of the animal
tribes.  It has been remarked by several writers, that,
whether we ought to ascribe the effect to any peculiar
constitution of the  atmosphere, or to the manner of
feeding, swine,  in the province of Normandy in
France, are universally white; in Suabia in Germa-
ny,  on the other hand,  they are  every where black.;
while they are seen only of a  chesnut brown in
Bavaria.  Cattle of the beeve  kind  are  in Hungary
of a whitish grey;  which is likewise the case in the
northern parts  of  Syria ;  except,  that  the Syrian
cattle are whiter than the Hungarian.  In the coun-

states, where the country rises into high hills, and is diversifi-
ed with ranges of lofty mountains.  Here the character of the
climate is less removed from that of Britain, or  of the middle
of Europe.  And in the western parts of the middle and south-
ern states the population is more mingled with recent emi-
grants from Ireland and Germany. 
                        735
 try of Angora in !the centre of the Lesser Asia, the
 .goats are of a beautiful milk white colour, the hair
 over the whole body being remarkably fiflfi and dis-
 posed  in  long  spiral  ringlets.*   It is  now  well
 known to  every voyager, that,  in the climates  in
 which  extreme cold prevails, foxes, bears, hares,
 even falcons, crows, and several other  birds and
'beasts are generally found of a white colour.   And
 that this elect is to be ascribed  to the  prevailing
 cold of the  climate  is rendered the more  certain,
ibecause, in those regions posited a little  farther  to
ihe  South,  in  which  the moderate  warmth  of
 summer,  during a few  months replaces the ex-
 cessive rigors of -winter, these animals change the
 colour of their feathers, and their furs in the respec*
 tive seasons.   On the other hand,  Beekman,f and
 other navigators  assert that on the coasts of Guinea,
 and in various districts of the torrid zone  of Africa;
 many of their domestic animals, and particularly their
 dogs,  and common poultry,  as well as  the human
 inhabitants, are uniformly black.

   * This is the material of which our finest camlets are made
   ■'* His voyage to and from Borneo, Eond. 171«f 
                       79
  If,  then,  in  animals acknowledged to be  of the
same  species,  we  perceive  such  differences  of
colour, created by the climate,  or region in which
they  exist,  why  should we  not  equally  admit
its  power  on  the  complexion of man?  This
ground  of  reasoning   is  conformable to  princi-
ples which  have been  universally received in the
philosophic  world,  on  subjects of natural science,
since the age of Newton.  Of natural effects of the
same kind,  the same, or like causes, ought to be
assigned, as  far as possible.-—And more causes ought
not to be  accumulated  in explaining  the phenomena
of nature  than are sufficient to account for them,
and are supported by clear experiment, or by obvi-
ous analogy.
  Hitherto the facts which have been adduced, and
the reasonings founded upon  them, have  tended
chiefly to  explain the principle of colour and to ac-
count for the  varieties  of  complexion, in differ-
ent portions of the human  race; and, in the firsr
place, to  demonstrate the influence of climate on
these affections of the skin.  I proceed now to illus-
trate its power in giving existence to  other varieties,
which distinguish different nations. 
80
   It would be difficult, as it is unnecessary, to enter
into a very particular description of every part of the
human  body,  or even  every feature of the human
countenance, and to trace each change of which they
are susceptible to their respective  causes.  If we
are able satisfactorily to  account  for the  principal
changes, a reasonable and candid enquirer after truth
ought to remain satisfied that all minuter ones are
within the power of the same or similar causes, with-
out having recourse to the superfluous, and, conse-
quently, unphilosophical doctrine of different origin- ,
al species  of men.  I  shall,  therefore, confine  my
observations, principally, to those conspicuous  vari-
eties  which are seen in the hair,—the figure of the
head,—the proportions of different parts of the body,
—and in  the  features of the face.
   The colour of the hair generally follows the law of
the complexion;* because, its roots, being planted in

  * There are instances in the southern states of America and
in the West-Indies of white children  derived from black pa-
rents of the darkest African hue.  There are also instances of
pied negroes, whose skin is variegated with black and white
spots, some  from their birth, and others who have changed
their colour at different ages.  But wherever this colour has
affected the  skin of the head beneath the hair, the colour of the
hair has been changed with it.  Dr. Blumenbach mentions a 
                        81
 the skin,  derive its nourishment,  and its colour from
 the  same  secretion which there contributes princi-
 pally to form the tint of that various covering of the
 body.  Every gradation  of shade in  the skin  is
 usually accompanied with some correspondent shades
 in the hair.   The  pale  red,  and sandy  complexion,
 on the other hand, or the  sandy spotted with  dark
 orange freckles,  is almost always connected with a
 proportional redness of  this excrescence.  Between
 these two points is found  almost every  other colour
 of the hair arising from the mixture, in different pro-
 portions, of the principles  which constitute the black
 and red.   White hair, except that which is occasion-
 ed by disease, or age, is commonly united with the
 palest skin.  White  appears to  be the ground on
 which the colouring substances of the red and black
are variously stained.   These, which  may be re-

black man whom he saw in London, [p. 150. § 48.] who after
the period  of adolescence became pied.  The white colour
affecting an angular spot in the fore part of his head, from the
crown to the  forehead, the hair on that portion of the skin as-
sumed a yellowish colour.
  Another example has been mentioned in a note  at the 36th
page of this essay in a young  negro of sandy complexion with
red wool.
                        K 
82
 garded  as extremes, seem nearly to approach each
 other ;  and, by a very  small alteration of the secre.
 tions of the body, easily to pass into one another*
 If, in a red or black haired family, a child happens
 to deviate from the law  of the house, it is commonly
 to,the opposite extreme.   The  Highlanders,  who
 inhabit the hills in the North of Scotland, are divid-
 ed between  these two colours.   And  a red beard
 is not unfrequently joined with black hair.
   On these facts it deserves to  be  remarked, that
 diose philosophers who  deny the identity of the ori-
 gin of different nations,  because one is black, and

                                                   :•;
  * J. R. Foster, in his remarks on the inhabitants of th|
 South-Sea islands observes  that among the Otaheitans  we
 sometimes meet with red hair, though black is the habit of the
 island. Other voyagers  have made the  same remark on the
 people of Timor, the Papuans, and even on the inhabitants of
 Congo in Africa.  Mr. Bruce found several instances of red
 or yellow hair among the Galla tribes in Abyssinia  ; and
 Charlevoix informs us that such instances also exist among the
 Esquimaux.  The young man mentioned in the last note who
 was of a fair and sandy complexion though born of  black pa-
 rents, may be given as another example to the same purpose.
 And, in general, we see that those persons both in Europe and
 America,  who are distinguished by the  redest complexion of
the hair, have also many, and very dark coloured freckles scat-
tered over the whole surface of the skin; ana especially in those
parts which are most exposed to the sun and air. 
8S
another is red,  might,  on the  same ground,  deny
identity of origin to the children of the same family.*
From such examples,  at least, we derive a practical
proof,  that there is in human nature a susceptibility


  * The argument that difference of colour does not demon-
strate diversity of origin, is still more strongly established by
the fact mentioned in the last note of pied negroes  descending
from black parents, not unfrequently to be met with, and more
strongly still by such examples as that of Henry Moss, referred
to in pages 92 and  93, who from a perfectly black man became
entirely white, without any disease,  or exhibiting the least
symptom  of scrophulous  or albino whiteness.  These, and
similar facts, which we find recorded in various literary regis-
ters of the greatest credit, indicate that the black, or the white,
the brown or the fair complexion may depend,  in a great de-
gree,  on the  peculiar action of the fine vessels in the skin
which are affected by various causes in different persons, or at
different times, by which, in one case,  they may be more dis-
posed, than in another, to secrete, and, at its approach to the
oxygen of the atmosphere,  to precipitate and deposit in the re-
ticular membrane,  that carbonaceous  substance which has be-
fore been shewn, in many instances,  to mingle copiously in the
circulation, and, to form, at the surface, one of the chief cau-
ses of the various dark shades of the human complexion.   This
peculiar action of the minute vessels of the skin may  sometimes
be different in one  part of the body from that of those in ano-
ther, and produce that pied appearance whic  is observed in
some negroes  ; and which  has been seen also in seme persons
originally white.  It may be very different in the same pei son
at different times according to the state of the body.  The his-
toiy of medicine furnishes a variety of instances, especially of
women during a state of pregnancy, who, in paiticular parts of 
                         84

of great  varieties which  may be  incorporated irft*
the constitutions of families,  and of nations, without
impairing any of the essential properties of the spe-
cies.   And  I may here be permitted to anticipate an
observation  which, perhaps, would come  with more
force after having considered other distinctive  pro- *
perties which discriminate the various tribes, or races
of men; but which will be of use to be borne in mind
through every stage of the following illustration.  If
we have reason,  from the varieties, in the midst of
resemblance, which  are often seen to exist in the
same  family,  or the same tribe, and which are not
less  than  those which discriminate the Danes, the .


the body, .and sometimes in the whole person, have become
much more dark in their complexion ; and of some who have,
in that state, become absolutely black ;  but have returned, after
they were relieved of their infant load, to the original fairness of
their skin.  De nos jours une  parielle metamorphose s'est re-
nouvelle annullef&ent dans la personne d'une dame de distinc-
tion d'un beau tehc;, et d'une peau fort blanche.  Des qu'elle
etoit enceinte, elle £ ommencoit a brunir, et vers la  fin de  sa
grossesse  elle devenoit une veritable JVcgresse.  Apres scs
couches la couleur noire disparoissoit peu a, peu, sa  premiere
blancheur revenoit, et son fruit n'avoit aucune teinte de noir.—
Bomarc, apud Blum.  156.----Et le Cat loc. eod___Une pay-
sanne des environs de Paris, nourrice de son metier, a regu-
lierement  le  ventre tout noire a. chaque grossesse, et cette,
'-.ouleur se dissipepar 1'accoucheinenV 
8$
French,  the Turks, and even nations more  remote
from one another,  to conclude that all these people
have originally sprung from one  stock,  and belong
to the same- species,  have we not equal  reason to
conclude that the nations beyond them to the North,
the East, and the  South, and who do not differ from
the last by  more  conspicuous distinctions  than the
last differ  from the  first,  belong, likewise, to the
same species ?   By  pursuing this  progression we
shall find but  one species from  the  equator to the
poles.*
   The hair, and that excrescence which  is analogous
to it, called wool, is,  in all animals,  greatly affected
by the temperature of the climate.  Widely different
is the coarse black shag of the American bear, from
the fine white fur of the same animal under the ex-
treme rigor of the climate  of Greenland.   The bea-

   * Men frequently deceive themselves upon  this subject by
bringing  together at once the most distant extremes, without
patiently tracing the intermediate grades which, in every step
of the progression,  touch upon one another.  The extremes
surprize  us by their dissimilarity :  but, passing along  the mi-
nute gradations which serve to reunite them, the mind per-
ceives in this wide difference merely the result of the actions of
 the same physical laws in successive climates, or positions of
Vhe human race. 
                       8S
ver, removed from the frozen regions of Upper Can-
ada to the warm latitude of southern Louisiana, ex-,
changes its delicate fur, for a much harsher substance
which preserves the body of the animal in a more  •
comfortable temperature.   A similar change has
been  observed  to take  place on the wool of sheep
removed from Europe,  or the United States, to the
islands of the West-Indies.   A sheep taken from
the rich pasture, and the cool but temperate climate
of England to the parched and arid coast of Africa,
soon  exchanges its fine warm and  involved fleece
for a coat of hair nearly as  straight and coarse as
that of the camel, which fits the creature to bear the
ardors of a sun, that would be otherwise intolerable.1
Yet, no philosopher imagines that these varieties are
indicative of a difference of species :  but all who are
acquainted with the powers of nature easily perceive
that the Creator has adapted the pliancy of his work
to meet the various situations in which he may have
destined it to exist.
   The fineness and density of the hairy, or woolly
covering of most animals found in different regions,
is increased in  proportion to the intensity and pre-
dominance of cold.   Hence the excellence  of Cana-
dian and  Russian furs, and the fineness of the wool 
87
of the sheep of Thibet.*   Cold, by contracting the
pores of the skin, renders the hair of a finer diame-
ter and texture,  and, by the same cause, collecting
at the surface a greater quantity  of the  perspirable
matter, which, in warm climates, passes off by trans-
piration, it forms a more abundant nutriment of this
excrescence,  and is there  converted  into a coat of
increased density, as well as fineness.
   The colour of the hair we have likewise  seen to
be, in many instances,  affected by the temperature
             »
of the climate.   The bear becomes  white  beneath
the arctic circle.   And black foxes are found only in
the coldest it ritudes.  And  when we contemplate
the  varieties of the  human race,  we frequently see
nations distinguished from one another by some pe-
culiar qualin of this excrescence.  The hair of the
Danes is generally red,  of a lighter or deeper shade•


  * Sheep with a fine wool are sometimes reared in the middle
latitudes of the temperate zone, but it is only in countries of a
very mountainous face which present a mild and cool region
©n the sices and summits of their hills.   And although Thibet,
which produces such fine wool, might be regarded, from its la-
titude, as belonging to the warmer  regions  of the temperate
zone, yet by the elevation of its surface consisting chiefly of
bleak  moui.i ins, whence issue rivers of vast extent, and of
rapid course, it suffers a rigor of climate equal to that which,
prevails many degrees farther to the North. 
                        88
 That of the French is commonly  black.   And the
 most frequent colours among the  English are fair,
 and brown.  Among the Highlanders of Scotland,
 the  predominant complexions are black  and red.
 Red hair is, likewise, frequently seen in the cold and
 elevated regions of the Alps, while black prevails in
 the  warm  vallies at the foot  of those mountains;
 except  along the northern frontier where it borders
 the German empire.  The  aboriginals of America,
 like all  people of colour, have universally black hair,
 which is straight and grows in a thick coat upon the
 head.   Black is that colour  of the human hair which
 is most frequent; because those climates which are
 most favourable to the multiplication of the species,
 tend also to create different shades of the dark com,
 plexion.  Nations which are  not naturally distin-
 guished by any peculiar colour of this  excrescence,
 but have it diversified by different tints and shades,
 generally incline to the fair complexion.  The great
 variety  in the  hair  which is seen in England may,
 in some degree, be ascribed to the uncommon mix-
ture of nations  which has taken place  in that beau-
tiful and inviting island, either from early migrations
to it, or from the successive conquests to which it
Ins been subject. 
                          89
   But that form of it which principally attracts our
 attention, is the  sparse,  coarse,  and involved sub-
 stance like wool,  which covers the head of the trq-
 pical African.   This peculiarity has been  urged as a
 decisive  character of a distinct species with more as-
 surance than became philosophers  but tolerably ac-
 quainted with the operations of nature.   The sparse-
 ness,  and coarsness of the African hair, or wool,  is
 analogous to effects which we have already seen to be
 produced by the temperature of arid climates upon
 other animals.—Its involution may  be occasioned, in
 part, by the excessive heat of a vertical sun acting
 upon sands  which glow with an ardor  unknown  in
 any other quarter of the globe.*  But, probably,  it is
 occasioned  chiefly by some peculiar quality of the
 secretion by which it is nourished.I  That the curl,

  * According to the testimony of Mr. Bruce, and other travel-
 lers, in the sandy deserts of Africa the sands appear frequently
 to burn, and to emit a blueish flame destructive to life, unless a
 man, perceiving its approach, instantly falls upon  his face and
 scraping a  deep hole in the sand breathes below  the surface
 while it is passing.
  t It is manifest, saysBIumenbach, that there is a strong sym-
 pathy between the liver, the laboratory of the bile, and the skin:
and, as the influence of climate upon the secreting powers  of
the former is very great, it is proportionally great on the action
                         l 
                          90

or  nap of the hair depends,  in a great degree upon
this cause, is rendered the  more probable by the ap-
pearance which it exhibits on the chin, over the arm-
pits, and other parts of the human body.  Whatever
be  the  nutriment of the hair, it would  seem, by the
strong and offensive smell  of the African negro,  to
be combined in him with some gas, or fluid of a very
volatile  and ardent nature.*   The  evaporation of


of the minute vessels of the latter by which that matter is sup-
plied to the reticular membrane which becomes  there the nu-
triment of the hair, and according to the qualities of this nutri-
ment will the hair be affected in its colour, and other properties.

  ' Certain volatile and saline secretions tend to curl and in-
volve the hair.  Viscid and glutinous matters  would produce
a like effect.  The strong smell of the negro, however, seems
to indicate the union of sulphur with  hydrogen gas, or infla-
mable air, and perhaps with an unusual proportion of phos-
phorus.   These secretions, or at least their quantity or pro-
portions may depend on some influence of the climate, or on the
diet or habits of living of the people, all of which affect, as
already suggested, the action of the minute vessels of the skin;
and, in some instances, perhaps,  may depend on certain consti-
tutional peculiarities of organization, as a very offensive odour is
found to issue from the pores of the skin of many white persons.
Certain medicines of the fetid or sulphurous kinds are, in some
cases, very sensibly perceived by  the smell in the perspiration of
persons who have been long accustomed to use them.  And
some whole tribes of savages are distinguished  by a peculiar
and very offensive fetor, as is perceived in the inhabitants of the 
91
such a gas rendering the  surface dry, and disposed
to  contract, while  the center continues distended,
tends necessarily to produce  an involution  of the
hair.  This conjecture receives some confirmation
from the fact that the  negroes born in  the  United
States of America, and especially the domestic ser-
vants, who  are  well  fed  and  clothed,  and who
are bred in the habits  of all the neatness and clean-
liness which prevails in the mansions of their mas-
ters,  are gradually losing the offensive odour that is
perceived in most of the natives of the African zone.
Their hair, or wool, at the  same time, is becoming
less involved.   And  many of  those of  the third
race,  or who  are farther removed from their Afri-
can ancestors, and who are careful in dressing it, fre-
quently  extend it in  a braid or queue  of  several
inches in length.*

southern point of the American continent, arising from the fib
thiness of their habits, the  poverty, and wretchedness of their
food, consisting chiefly of the rancid oil of seals.
  * It is not much to the credit of the authors of the critical
review in England that this remark, in the first edition of this
essay, should have called forth their contemptuous smile.   We
often see these men at one time receiving with childish creduli-
^>thc most ridiculous and extravagant tales transmitted by th« 
92
    Another fact which has  occurred to my own  ob-
 servation, and which I find likewise recorded in the
 Medical Repository of New-York, and is mentioned
 also by Dr. William Barton of Philadelphia,  demon-  ;
 strates that the involution and woolly  nature of the
 hair of the African negro depends, in a great degree,
 if not chiefly, on the quality of its nutriment in  the
 skin.   Henry Moss,  a negro in the state  of Mary-
 kind, began, upwards of twenty years ago to under-
 go a change in the colour  of his skin, from a deep
 black, to a clear and healthy white.  The change com-
 menced about the abdomen,  and gradually  extend- .,.,
 ed over different parts of the body, till, at  the end *£
 of seven years, the period at which I saw him,  the 1#
 white had already overspread the greater portion of
 his skin.   It had nothing of the appearance of a sick- .
 ly or albino hue, as if it had  been the effect of dis-
 ease.  He was a vigorous and active man ; and had .,
 never suffered any disease either at the commence-

 ignorant travellers who have visited this country ;  at another,
 rejecting, with obstinate scepticism, the  most certain facts.
 But who can forbear smiling, when, instead of the cause which  *
is here assigned for the involution of the hair of the tropical Af-
ricans, they are pleased to ascribe  it to the tortuosity of the
pores in a black skin, and the struggle of the hair to  push its
way through them ? 
                       93
ment, or during the progress of the change.  The
white  complexion  did not advance by  regularly
spreading from a.single center over the whole sur-
face.   But soon after it made its first appearance on
the abdomen, it began to shew itself on various parts
of the body, nearly at the same time, whence it gra-
dually  encroached in different  directions on the ori-
ginal colour till,  at  length,  the black was left only
here and there in  spots of various sizes, and shapes.
These  spots were largest and most frequent, where
the body, from the nakedness of the parts or the rag-
gedness of his clothing, was  most exposed to the
rays of the sun.   This extraordinary change did not
proceed by gradually  and equably diluting the in-
tensity of the shades  of the black colour over the
whole person at once; but the original black, reduc-
ed to spots, when I saw it, by the encroachments of
the white, resembled dark clouds insensibly melting
away at their edges.   The back of his hands, and his
face, retained  a larger proportion of the black than
other parts  of his  body;  of these,  however, the
greater portion was changed.   And the white colour
had extended itself to a considerable  distance under
the hair.   Wherever  this took place,  the woolly 
94
 substance entirely disappeared,  and a fine,  straight
 hair, of silky softness succeeded in its room.*
   From this history, the truth of which is well known
 to great numbers of persons  in  the middle states of
 America,  thro' which Henry Moss has travelled, and
 particularly to several literary men of great respects
 bility, who have carefully examined the fact,  result
 two or three  inferences of no small importance in this
 enquiry.   In the first place, that  secretion in the
 skin which contributes chiefly to  the formation of the
 negro complexion, seems to be the  chief cause also
 of the curl,  or woolly appearance of the hair:  for,
 wherever  the  white  colour  in  this man extend^
 beneath the hair  there the  form of that excrescenc?

   * The  extraordinary nature  of  this phenomenon strongly
attracted the attention and benevolence of the public ; and the
 man obtained, from the liberality of those who visited him, a
 sum sufficient to purchase his freedom, with a surplus to be
applied afterwards to his own use.  I examined him in company
with the Rev. Dr.  Rodgers, and John R.  B. Rodgers, M. D-
of New-York,  gentlemen, than  whom none are more capable
of observing and examining a fact of this nature with a sound
and accurate judgment. Shortly after this period  Henry Moss
removed into the  State of Virginia, since which time  I have
not had an opportunity of seeing him ; but  I have been inform'
ed by respectable authority, that the whitening process was
soon afterwards completed, and that, in his appearance, he could
not be distinguished from a native Anglo-American* 
                         95
 was entirely changed.—In the  next place, although
 there was evidently a strong and general tendency in
 the constitution of this negro to a change of colour,
 yet, this tendency was much longer resisted in those
 parts of the body which were most exposed to the
 immediate action of the sun's rays than in  others.*
 Whence I infer that where any dark colour has been
 contracted by the human skin, the solar influence
 alone, and the free contact of the external air, will be
 sufficient to continue it a long time even in those
 climates  which are most favorable to the fair com-
 plexion.f
   Although the principal cause of the peculiar form
 of the African hair, consists in those secretions which,
 being deposited in the cells of  the skin become the
 nutriment of this excrescence, yet something may be
 ascribed alse to the excessive ardor of that region of
 burning sand.  Africa is the hottest country on  the
    i
   * As he was a  labouring man, wherever there were rents
in the thin clothes which covered him there were generally
 <Jeen the largest spots of black.
   t It is found by experience that different shades of the dark
complexion are easily impressed by different causes on a skin
originally fair, and when once impressed, the slightest influ-
ence of the same causes is sufficient to continue it. 
                        96
globe.  The  ancients who  frequented the Asiatic-
zone without  fear, esteemed the  African an uninha-
bitable zone of fire.   And modern travellers, who
have explored the interior of that continent with the
greatest intelligence and care, inform us that, although
along the margins of the rivers  Gambia and Sene-
gal,  and for some  distance  on each side, there are
shady forests and a fertile soil, yet almost the whole
region embraced between the  tropics is a tract of
sand that often literally  burns.   This state, not of
the atmosphere only, but especially of the earth, in the
dust of which young  savages, utterly neglectful of
decency of manners, often roll themselves, will hav«
its effect in increasing  the close nap of the wool, for
the same reason that a hair held near a flame will coil
itself up, or the leaves of vegetables be rolled toge«
ther under the direct  rays of an intense sun, when
the earth is at the same time parched w ith drought
  A part of the population of Borneo,  and the whole
of that of New Holland, Mallicollo, and other islands,
have likewise  a very crisped and curled substance
instead of straight and long hair, but in Africa alone
do we find that extremely short and close nap which
distinguishes the inhabitants of the western tropical
region of  that  continent.   The hair  as  well as 
                          97

 the whole constitution, suffers, in that region the ef-
 fects of an intense fire.

   The  rude  habits of an uncultivated people  con-
 tribute  to heighten  the  injurious effects of the cli-
 mate.   Being savages, they  possess few arts to pro-
 tect them from  its intensity.    Nor are they led by
 any refinement in their tastes of living, or their ideas
 of personal elegance to invent  such arts, or to apply
 them, if they  were acquainted with them, to improve
 their  appearance.   The African  climate preserving
 the life of children without requiring those attentions
 in the parent which are necessary in colder regions,
 and under a more variable atmosphere, they are, per-
 haps,  among the most negligent people in the world
 of their offspring.*  The character of most nations


   *  If children, by their own instincts  and natural powers, or
 by the favourable temperature and spontaneous productions of
 the climate, could as soon, and as easily  provide for their safe*
 ty and subsistence as some of the inferior animals, and were as
 little dependent on the care of the parent, parental attentions
 and filial dudes would both equally cease, and with  them all
 the delicate ties  of family affection.   Civilized society could,
in that case, hardly ever have had an  existence.  The African
savages approach nearer to this state than any other people on
the globe.  This is, perhaps, the  principal reason why men
have always existed as savages in the greater part cf the Afri-
can continent.  Another reason,  however* of this unfortunate
                          M 
                         98
 is chiefly formed by their situation, their employ-
 ments,  and the  wants  either  real, or factitious,
 which press them.   And it is observed of every sav-
 age people that, unless roused by some violent pas-
 sion, or urged by some immediate want, they are al-
 ways indolent.  The African savage therefore, is as
 careless of his children as the American, compelled
 by the severity of the climate, and the hardships of
 his state, is attentive to their preservation and the
 perfection of their form.   They are suffered to lie in
 the dust, or ashes of their huts, or to roll in the sand
 before their doors beneath  the ardent rays of a ver-
 tical sun.   The mother, if any other object calls her
 attention, or requires her labor while nursing her in-
 fant, lays it down on the first spot she finds, and sel-
 dom  gives herself the trouble of seeking for it even
 the miserable shelter of a barren shrub which is al-
 most the only shade that the  interior country af-
 fords.*   This treatment will contribute at the same

state of human society in that region is, that there the ingenu-
ity of men is less called forth by the necessities of their situa-
 tion ; and fewer relations are created by mutual dependence,
and the need of mutual assistance.

  * I have been witness of  this treatment of children by the
 slaves in some parts of the southern states where they are suf- 
y»
time to scorch the hair, and to add many shades  to
the darkness of the complexion.   And the influence
of this cause is verified from the following fact, that
the hair is seldom of a deep and shining black, but
rather of an adust colour, exhibiting at its extremi-
ties a brownish cast as if scorched by the fire.


ficiently numerous to retain many of their African  customs,
and where the necessary hardships of their state render  them
careless  of the  personal appearance of themselves,  or  their
children.  I speak of the field-slaves,  who living in little villa-
ges on their plantations, at a distance from the mansions of
their masters, are slow in adopting the manners, and ideas of
their superiors.   There I have  seen the mother of a  child
within less than  six weeks after its birth, take  it  with her to
the field, and lay it uncovered on the ground beneath an ardent
sun, while she hoed her corn-row down and up.  She would
then suckle it a few minutes, and return to her  labor, leaving
the child in the same exposure, although she might have found
a convenient shade at the distance of a few yards.  Shocked,
at first, with the apparent barbarity of such negligence, I have
remonstrated against it, but was always told that dry sand, and
heat were never found to hurt children.  And indeed custom
will harden the human constitution to almost any suffering.
Besides, it is well known that a black or a dark skin either from
its thickness, from some refrigerating quality in the substance
which contributes to  its colour,  or from the relaxation of the
constitution which often accompanies it, renders  the body more
patient of heat, and less liable to inflamation, than one of fair and
florid complexion.   For  this reason,  as well as  from  their
frreater temperance, the French and Spaniards endure the heat
of a West-India sun better than the British or the Irish, and are
less subject, in that climate, to inflamatory disorders. 
                      100
  Having treated so largely of the form of this ex-*
crescence in those regions where it deviates farthest
from the common law of the  species,  I proceed to
consider other varieties of the human person which
occur in different portions of the globe.
  'The whole Tartar race, except a few small tribes
who have probably migrated into that country from
other regions, are of lower stature than their southern
neighbours on the continent of Asia, or than the peo-
ple of the temperate  latitudes  of  Europe.  Their
heads are large;—their shoulders raised ;—and their
necks short;—their eyes are  small, and appear, by
the great projection of the eye-brows, to be sunk in
the head;—the nose is short, and is not so promi-
nent as the same feature in the Europeans; the cheek
is elevated;  the face, somewhat depressed in  the
middle, and spread out toward  the  sides;—and the
whole appearance and expression  of the counte-
nance is harsh and uncouth.  All these deformities
are aggravated as  we proceed towards the pole, in
the  Laponian,  Borandian,  and  Samoiede  races,
which,  as Buffon justly remarks,  are only Tartars
reduced to the last degree of degeneracy.  A  race
of men resembling the Laplanders in many of their
lineaments and qualities, is  found  in a similar  cli- 
                        101

mate in  America.   The frozen  countries round
Hudson's  bay  are as • cold  as Lapland or Kamt-
schatka.   The  few  wretched natives who  inhabit
these inhospitable regions do not exceed five feet in
height,—their heads are large,—their eyes are small
and weak,—and their hands and feet remarkably di-
minutive.*

   These  effects are natural consequences of the ex-
treme cold of their climate, combined with the hard-
ships to which they are necessarily exposed in those
frozen and sterile regions,  from the deficiency,  and
poverty of their food,  and their total want of every
art by  which they might  protect  themselves from
the rigors of a polar winter.   A moderate  tempera-
ture of climate  contributes to give tone and vigor to
the body, and  to expand it  to  the largest volume.


   * These wretched and feeble people, although they have a
great affinity in their appearance with the  Laponians and the
Greenlanders, are, however, still more degenerate, arising
perhaps from  their  more wretched means of subsistence.
Some savage tribes very similar in their appearance have been
discovered in the high northern latitudes on the western  coast
of this continent, and in the islands lying in those  seas which
divide the continents of  America and Asia where they ap-
proach nearest  to one another.  They will probably be found
hereafter to extend entirely across the American continent in
those latitudes. 
                        102
 Extreme cold produces a contrary effect; and the ani-
 mal system under the constriction of perpetual frost,
 is irregularly checked in its growth.   The  intense
 rigor of the climate, by overstraining the constitution
 produces indirect debility, in those parts especially,
 which, being farthest removed from the  seat of
 warmth, and source of circulation in the heart,  are,
 consequently, most affected by its influence.  Hence
 the hands, and lower limbs suffer the greatest con-
 traction from the cold.  The debility of these poor
 savages is greatly increased, likewise,  by the poverty
 and scantiness of their  diet, which  occasions  the
 blood to  circulate with a feeble and languid mo-
 tion to the extremities.  But,  flowing with  more
 warmth, and acting with a stronger impulse  in  the
 head and breast, these  parts of the body are increas-
 ed in size much beyond the proportions which they
 usually bear in other nations to the hands, feet, and
 lower limbs.   In a similar manner, though not in an
 equal degree,  the Tartar nations are affected  by  the
 influence of their inhospitable sky.  They are  not in-
deed, sunk, in general, into such an abject state of
savagism.   And  the  climate gradually  relaxes its
rigor from  the southern limits of  the Samoiede and
Borandian  countries to Persia and Bulgaria.   The 
103
Tartars are a taller, and a much stouter race than the
Laplanders,  and the most northern tribes of Asiat-
ics.  Some of the Tartar hordes, and particularly the
Tschutski inhabiting the north-eastern  extremities
of the Asiatic continent, are said to be distinguished
from their neighbours by a nobler stature and finer
proportions  of person.   They enjoy, at the  same
time, a more  civilized state of society.    And,  is it
not probable that, in the perpetual migrations of that
roving people, some of the southern clans, possessing
more agreeable, or rather, less distorted,  features and
persons,  may  have exchanged habitations with the
ruder barbarians of the North;  and have been ena-
bled, by their superior civilization, to defend them-
sehes against the worst effects  of  that severe cli-
mate ?*
   Other peculiarities in the appearance of the Tar-
tar  race, as  the elevation of their shoulders, and the

   * The principles stilted above apply with little variation to
all nauons situated in very high northern latitudes, in propor-
 tion to the degree of cold which prevails in them combined widi
 the  savage degeneracy  of manners, existing among the people.
 The cold in the  high latitudes of Europe, it will be recollected,
 is much less  severe  than in those of  Asia ; and the state of
 civilization to which the inhabitants have arrived, enables them
 to deiend themselves against its influence with much more
 success than is  in the power of savages. 
                       104
 shortness of their necks, are referable likewise to the
 effects of extreme cold.   Severe frost,  especially
 where men are exposed  to its action  without  ade-
 quate defences, almost involuntarily prompts them
 to raise their shoulders in order to protect the neck,
 and cherish its warmth.   And when this cause acts
 with that constancy and uniformity which prevails
 in the frigid zone of Asia, it naturally produces a
 fixed habit of body.  It resembles in its effects those
 artificial  constrictions which are  sometimes applied
 to the persons of children to alter the figure, attitude,
 or movements of particular limbs.  In like manner
 those habits of the person  which naturally result
 from the general temperature of the atmosphere, be-
 come fixed in time, and unchangeably incorporat-
 ed with other peculiarities of the climate.  Hence
 the Tartar neck must ever be short,  not only be-
 cause it suffers a proportional contraction with other
parts of the system from the influence of cold, but,
because the head and shoulders being increased in
size, and  the  latter,  particularly, being  elevated
above their natural  position, necessarily  encroach
upon its length.  And so much are they  raised in
many instances as  entirely  to conceal the neck, and 
105
to give the head an appearance of resting upon them
for its support.
   That these  peculiarities are  purely the  effect of
climatical influence* is  confirmed  by  the chang©
which  has  passed  upon the  descendents  of those
Chinese families who have removed into that region
of Tartary,  to  the North of the great wall, which is
subject to the  Chinese  empire.   In no very long pe-


   * Climate,  and even certain temporary constitutions of the
atmosphere, are known peculiarly to affect particular parts of
the human system.  This  is visible  in many epidemic disor-
ders,  as in quinzies, peripneumonies, catarrhs, and in  those
diseases which are in a great measure confined to particular
districts of a country,  as the goitiers among the  Alps,  and a
disease very similar in its appearance, which is frequently found
in the vicinity of Pittsburg in the  state  of  Pennsylvania.  If
temporary constitutions of the atmosphere are found to give
diseases a determination to certain parts of the system rather
than to others, should it be strange that the habitual state of a
climate, or of the atmosphere in particular countries,  should
affect some parts of the body more than others,  so as to in-
crease or diminish their size, or alter their figure ?  Certain
medicines are likewise known to have a determination  to on©
part  of the body rather than another.   But  in  the atmos-
phere are found  the elements of all medicinal agents, existing
in different proportions at various times.  We might then,
from analogy, have recourse, if it were necessary, which it is
not,  to some unknown atmospheric constitution to account for
certain peculiarities of the  Tartar as well as of the negro phy-
 siognomy.
                           N 
                       106
fiod of time, they have  become perfectly assimilat-
ed in their figure and aspect, to the native Tartars.
The  French missionaries in  China,  who, during  a
certain period had perfect liberty, and enjoyed the
best advantages to examine the interior state of the
empire, assure us that they have been witnesses  of
this remarkable effect of the climate even as low as
the forty-eighth degree of northern latitude.^
   That coarse and  deformed  features, resembling
those of the Tartar  race, naturally result from the
constant action of intense cold, will be obvious even
on a slight inspection of the countenance exposed to
a keen and frosty air.  The aperture of the eye-lids
is contracted in order to protect that delicate organ
from the piercing  influence of the wind; the eye-
brows are drawn together and made to overhang
them; the mouth is closed to prevent the air from
entering too copiously into the chest and stomach;
the  under jaw is closely pressed against  the upper,
which tends to give an  unnatural elevation to the
cheek; the face, therefore,  which is diminished in
its length, is, in the same proportion, spread out at,
the sides; and every feature, by the action of cold,
* See Recueil 24 des lettres edifiantes. 
                      107
becdmes more harsh and distorted than it would be
in a mild  temperature of the atmosphere.  How
much must this  effect be increased in the poorer
classes  of  society,  whose laborious employments,
and want of the conveniences which wealth may pro-
cure, expose them to the utmost severity of the cli-
mate?   And how much more still in the abject con-
dition of savage life ?
   The effect which I have just described,  is in our
climate, and in our  state of society, necessarily tran.
sient, being effaced by the change of season, or by
the conveniences which the arts  have  furnished to
dissipate the cold, and restore the comfortable warmth
of the body.   But, in the inhospitable climate of Si-
beria, or Kamtschatka, where there is little remission
of the intensity of the frost, it becomes a permanent
habit of the countenance.  The hardness and irre-
gularity of Tartar features will be increased also by
the rude manners of the people, which never induce
them to put  any constraint on the most disagreea-
ble  expression of their unpleasant sensations ;  and
by their destitution  of the chief arts and convenien-
ces  of  society which  might mitigate  to their feel-
ings the severity of the atmosphere.   And this rig-
orous influence of  the climate commencing its ac- 
                       108
tion from the tenderest period of infancy when  the
features are  most susceptible of impression, and be-
gin to assume a settled habit,  and continuing, and
repeating it with little remission till they are fixed in
the ultimate point of deformity, they there constitute
the Tartar, Samoiede, or Esquimaux countenance.
   The principal chracteristics of that  countenance,
the causes of which may require further illustration,
are the depression of the middle of the face, and the
prominence of the  forehead,  in  the  northern Asi-
atic ; and, in those people who inhabit the extremities
of the North, both of Asia and of Europe, the gen-
eral weakness as well as smallness of the eyes.
   The middle of the face is that  part which is most
exposed to  the immediate action of the cold,  and
consequently suffers most from its power of contrac-
tion, which  tends to impede the growth of the parts.
And a  circumstance, perhaps not unworthy  of no-
tice, may deserve to be mentioned as contributing to
increase the effect.   Every person in a cold  atmos-
phere naturally draws his breath more through the
nostrils* than the mouth.  This will,  therefore,  be

   * A frosty air inhaled by  the nostrils chills the body much
less than taken in by the mouth.  Nature therefore prompts 
109
a common habit of all people  inhabiting very cold
regions.   Thus the impulse of a chilling, and almost
congealing current of air directed against that  fea-
ture, and the parts adjacent, must greatly tend to re-
strain the freedom of their expansion.*
  On the same principles, the next peculiarity, or dis-
tinguishing characteristic of the Tartar physiognomy,
which, is the prominence  of the forehead, is easily
explained.  The  superior warmth  and  impulse of
the blood in the brain, which fills the upper part of
the head, will naturally increase its relative magni-
tude ; hence the forehead and the brows  will be pro-
portionably projected over the contracted parts im-
mediately beneath them.
   The eyes in those rigorous  climates  toward  the
North of Tartary, and in Lapland, are singularly
affected.  The prominence of  the  eye-brows gives
them the appearance of  being sunk in the  head;

men almost involuntarily,  in extreme cold, to keep the mouth
closed, and even to press the jaws strongly together.
  * By directing a constant stream of air against the bulb of a
thermometer, touching it at the same time with any volatile
fluid that by its speedy evaporation, will be continually carry-
ing off  some portion of the internal heat,  the mercury,  even
in warm weather, will suffer as great a contraction as it would
by many additional degrees of cold. 
110
which appearance is increased by the contraction of
their lids occasioned by extreme cold.   An(llne m*
tensity of the frost, concurring with the glare of the
snows which, throughout  almost the  whole year,
cover the surface of the earth,  so  overstrains these
tender organs, as to render them  generally  weak ;
and,  among the most  northern tribes, blindness,
even at a very early age, is a frequent disease.
   In the temperate zone,  on the other hand, and in
a latitude rather below than above the middle region
of temperature, the agreeable warmth of the atmos-
phere disposing the body to the most free and easy
expansion, will open the features into the most pleas-
ing and regular proportions.*   Here  the large full
eye is that form of this feature to which the climate
naturally tends; whence,  in the strain  of a Persian
poet, the eye of the antelope ascribed to his mistress;

   * In the continents of Asia and America, and the remark
Viay be applied in some degree to Europe, the temperate cli-
mates and extreme cold border so near upon one another that
we pass almost immediately from the mildness of the former to
the rigor of the latter.  Hence we find the Laplander, the Sa-
moiede, the Mongou, and the tribes round Hudson's bay,  in
the neighbourhood of the Swede, the Russian, and Canadian.
Without attention to this remark a hasty observer might sup-
pose that the sudden change of features in people almost in the
vicinity of one another,  militates against the principles above
laid down with regard to the effects of heat and  cold. 
                        Ill
and in that of a Greek, the venerable large eyed Juno
in describing  the dignified aspect  of a goddess,*
would convey an idea of female beauty  or divine
majesty to their respective nations, which can hard-
ly be understood by an inhabitant of the North  of
Europe or of Asia.  This is perhaps the reason that
in Greece, in Georgia, between the  Euxine and
Caspian seas, and other regions distinguished by the
peculiarly mild temperature  of their  climate,  the
human person is so often seen to display that perfect
symetry of parts, and those  beautiful  proportions,
which most nearly correspond with the original idea
of the Creator.-j*
   The African face, confining that designation of
 countenance chiefly to the torrid zone of western
 Africa,  is distinguished by  the  depression of the
 nostrils,  and the thickness of the lips, accompanied
 by a peculiar projection of the fore-teeth arising from

   * Bo-OPIS  POT-NIA.  HE-RE.
   t Chardin asserts that in Georgia he saw the most beautiful
 people of all the East, and, perhaps, oftlie  world.  I have*
 never observed, says he, one homely countenance of either sex
 in that country.  Nature has shed upon the greater portion of
 their women graces, no where else  to be seen.—Chardin's
 Travels, vol. i.  p. 112, 171. 
                        112
 their oblique insertion into their sockets.   The fore-
 head is narrow, and generally wrinkled;  while the
 eyes, and  brows  suffer a remarkable contraction.
 It is difficult,  indeed, precisely to point  out  those
 physical influences on which these several effects re-
 spectively depend.  Something is probably to be
 ascribed to  climate,  as  almost  all  people within
 the torrid zone have the mouth larger, and  tne lips
more protuberant  than the nations within the tempe-
 rate latitudes.  Somewhat also, is, perhaps, justly
imputed to the state  of society,  and the habits of
living ;  as it may  be observed,  I  believe,  of all the
savage tribes of men, where they  are not emaciated
by want, and their features shrunk by the poverty of
their diet, that they are marked by a certain eleva-
tion  of the cheek,  and turgidity of the mouth.*
And as the distention of the features in one direction
naturally tends to  produce a correspondent contrac-
tion in another, the protuberance of the mouth, and
turgidness  of the  lips, or any great prominence of
the cheek,  or dilatation  of the face,  is commonly
conjoined with a proportional depression, shortening,

  * Some account of this appearance will hereafter be attempt-
ed in treating of the  effects resulting from  different states of
society. 
                       113
or sinking of  the  nose.   Seldom, therefore, does
this feature rise in tropical climes, or in savage  life,
to the  same  elevation which  it has in  the civilized
nations of Europe.
   Some travellers have endeavoured to persuade us
that the depression of the  nose among the  Africans,
is owing to an artificial operation practised upon their
children  in  infancy.  And it is  certain that,  ever
since the  days of Hippocrates, several  barbarous
nations, in order to form  their children according to
some  fantastic model of beauty which they have
conceived, have endeavoured, by violent compres-
sions applied to the head, or to some particular parts
of the body,  to change their natural figure.  We are
not, however,  sufficiently acquainted with the  inte-
rior of Africa,  and the customs of the different tribes
inhabiting that continent,  to enable us  to pronounce
any decided opmion concerning the consequences of
this,  or of other causes,  dependent upon manners,
which have  been assigned for these effects by  vari-
ous writers.*

   * Marsden in his history of Sumatra, and J. R. Foster, in his
account of the Society Isles in the South Sea, and the authors on
whose testimonythe report of the lords of the committee ofcoun-
                         o 
1H
   But, to whatever causes the appearance of these
features in the natives of Africa ought to  be ascrib-
ed, they seem to be in a great  measure local;  and
dependent, at the same  time,  in some  degree,  on


cil,'m England, for the consideration of the slave trade,is found-
ed, assure us that among .Ji these tribes artificial pressures are
applied to certain features of their children.  The latter parti-
cularly affirm that on the western coast of Africa, the nose of
the new born infant is always flattened by violence.  On the
other hand, Barbot, in Churchill's collection  of voyages, as-
cribes the effect, in part at least, to the custom of the poorer
women, carrying their young children  on their  backs while
travelling, or engaged in their daily labor, particularly the labor
in which they are occupied every morning of beating or pound-
ing their millet. The children,  he supposes, by striking the
mouth and  nose  continually  against the shoulders  of  their
mothers, at length render the one more depressed,  and the
other more turgid.  In corroboration of this opinion, he affirms
that these features in the better classes of the natives, are by no
means so deformed as in the poorer and more laborious ranks.
Whatever justice there may be in these observations in the ex-
tent which Barbot has given to the power of so small a cause,
certain it is that the minutest causes by their constant action,
are often productive ultimately of very great and important con-
sequences.—Take for an example the ears of many boys, espe-
cially in the country, which being pressed forward by  their hats
in the day, and not restored by any bandage in the night, assume
at length an habitual position, resembling that of the ears of a
beast pricked forward, and listening to catch a distant sound.
From some similar causes, perhaps, have arisen those  tales
related by certain voyagers, of nations in the East who are said
to have moveable ears capable of being erected like those of a
horse, or a haie. 
                        115
the manner of living.   For, it is an undoubted fact,
that the  descendents  of that race  in  the  United
States,  are gradually losing these peculiarities so
offensive to our eye.   In those black slaves especi-
ally, who reside constantly in the mansions  of their
masters, and who are  treated  with that lenity and
kindness which the greater portion of them who are
placed in that situation, experience in these  states,
we often see the nose finely turned, and rising hand-
somely from the face ; and the lips, though   gently
swelled, have lost that unsightly protuberance so
common among their ancestors  in Africa.  The Af-
rican feature, however, vanishes much more slowly
in those  slaves who are  subjected to the  severer
labors of the field,  and the coarser,  and less nutri-
tious fare of  the plantation quarters in the southern
states.  A fact which seems strongly to indicate that
this variety of the human countenance does  not de-
pend merely on the influence of the climate,  but is

  Camper indeed has produced some very plausible  facts for
his opinion that the effects of violence upon the body,  or of any
customs which affect it only externally can never be transmit-
ted by birth.   The contrary doctrine, however, has been sup-
ported by the great names of Hippocrates,  Aristotle, Pliny,
and even by those greater naturalists Haller and  Buffon. 
                         116
 connected also,  in  some measure, with the manner
 of living, and habits of the people.   And this con-
 clusion  is  corroborated by  another  fact existing
 within the region of tropical Africa.   Many  indi-
 viduals are seen among the most deformed of their
 tribes, in whom these  features are far from being
 disagreeable.  These probably  belong to the better
 classes of  the people spoken of by Barbot.   And
 there are several nations in that zone, and even on
 the western coast,  in whom, what is  peculiarly de-
 nominated the African countenance,  is hardly to be
 distinguished.*
   With regard to the contraction of  the eyes,  and
 eye-brows, the wrinkled appearance of the forehead,
 and the general expression of silliness,  and uneasi-
 ness so frequently exhibited  in the features of the
 aboriginal African,  we may remark, that it is that

  * Aikin  says, " the people of Congo are represented as hav-
 ing little of the negro feature, though perfectly black with
 woolly hair."  Geog. p. 299. edit. Phil, printed for  F. Ni-
 chols,  1806.  In the same edit. p. 294, he says  of the  Kaf-
fers, or Kousis, « with this  people European travellers have
become acquainted in their expeditions from  the colony of the
Cape, and have found a remarkably strong and well made race,
brave, and  not unacquainted with the arts of life, and much
superior in appearance to the neighbouring African tribes." 
117
 figure and habit of countenance which is the natural
 consequence of the  intense ardor of the sun's rays
 darted directly on the head.*
   Although the Barbary states, bordering the south-
 ern shore of  the Mediterranean,  lie  under a milder
                                                «%•
   * As the intensity of the sun's rays falling on the superior
 parts of the head has  a tendency to contract the forehead and
 the eyes, will not this effect, in consequence of the natural re-
 lations between different parts of the system, as already men-
 tioned, contribute to the dilatation of the parts below, whence
 may be occasioned,  in a degree, the unsightly protrusion of
 the mouth ?—
   In conformity with these observations, I find a reflection
 made by Mr. Volney in his travels through  Egypt:  " The
 countenance of the negroes, says he, represents precisely the
 state of contraction which our faces assume when strongly af-
 fected by heat;—The eye-brows are knit,  the cheeks rise, the
 eye-lids are drawn together, and the mouth pouts out.   This
 state of contraction to which the features are perpetually expos-
ed in the hot  climates of the  negroes is become the peculiar
characteristic  of their countenance."  And coincident, in some
degree,  with  observations which I have before  made on the
effects of climate on the Tartar countenance, he adds ;—.« Ex-
cessive cold,  wind,  and snow produce the same effect, and
thus we discover the same faces among the Tartars."   Trans-
lation of Volney's Travels,  Dublin edition,  1788, p. 49.----
The last loose expression of Mr. Volney mi^ht lead an incau-
tious reader into an error.  The negro and the T -rt..r face are
not the same,  although both are distinguished by .-. depression
of the middle  of the face, and protrusion of the parts about the
mouth. 
                       113
 sky than  tropical Africa,  yet posited  so near that
 torrid climate, we might still expect to find, though
 considerably softened, many of its characteristic fea-
 tures.  Accordingly we learn from the Roman wri-
 ters that the people of that region,  at  least as h.gh
 as  the*  kingdoms  of Numidia and  Gaetulia, par-
 took in  some degree of the negro countenance.  But
 by  repeated  conquests,  the  aboriginal  races have
 been so wasted, or blended with strangers, that hard-
 ly can the present population be said to bear any dis-
 tinct  and  general  characters of a national  counte-
 nance.  Egypt is, likewise, occupied by a mixed race
 drawn together from various  northern climes, who
 hardly  exhibi^ any  national  characteristic of face.
But the Copts, who are believed to be the descend-
ants of the ancient Egyptians, still present so much
of the negro visage, as strongly to indicate that their
remote ancestors were more nearly allied in their ap-
pearance to the nations beyond them to  the South,
than the present inhabitants of Egypt.  The prin-
cipal part  of the present population being  derived
from ancestors who,  within  recent periods of histo-
ry have  migrated thither  from different countries of
 Europe and Asia, have been enabled, by the arts of
civilization, to preserve the lineaments  of their  Eu- 
                       lis
ropean,  or Asiatic original; whereas the primitive
people would  naturally be  more deeply marked
with the characters of a climate approaching, as does
that of Egypt, the tropical latitudes.  And in proof
of this opinion it is ingeniously remarked by  Mr.
Volney, that the face of the Sphinx, which exhibits
a strong expression of the negro countenance, and
wa*  probably copied from the standard of face which
chi' flv prevailed, and  consequently was chiefly ad-
mired among those who sculptured it, is a standing
monument of the ancient  Egyptian visage,  and  of
its conformity, in many of its lineaments, with that
of tropical Africa, with which region they must have
had the most intimate relations.
   The national or general  countenances of many  of
the tribes and ;reat communities of mankind receive
their iorm and expression from the state of society, and
the peculiar habits and manners which either the phy-
sical circumstances of die country, or the moral and
political condition of the people have created  among
them; the illustration of which is reserved to another
branch of this essay.*   It is generally acknowledged.,

  * As particular examples we may take at present, the fero-
cious aspect of some savage tribes who are frequently engaged 
                       120
Indeed, that the soft, and mutable parts of the body
are liable to considerable changes from the tempera-
ture of the climate, or from the influence  of society
and manners.  But the  bones which are hard and
solid, and little subject to change, it has been sup-
posed,  cannot be affected in their figure  by  causes
so minute,  and almost insensible in their  operation.
Hence it has  been  inferred by some respectable
anatomists,  that the form of the skeleton,  and espe-
cially of the skull, contains more certain indications
of difference of species than the fleshy parts of the
system.  When, therefore,  in comparing the skulls
of an African,  a Tartar, and a European, they find
very considerable varieties in the shape of this  princi-
pal bone of the skeleton, they esteem it a fair ground
on which to conclude that these several races of men
belong to different species.
  This argument  appears to  me to be the result of
.< very negligent attention to the operations  of  na-
ture.  The bones, although they are certainly the least

ui cruel and bloody wars, or the mild and benignant physiog-
nomy of a Braminical indian ;  the sprightly visage of a French
comedian, or the demure and s xl countenance often to be found
5r* cloisfM s. 
                         121
 mutable parts of the corporeal system; yet are evi*
 dently capable of increase,  diminution, and change,
 and, during the  whole course of life, are continualfy
 acquiring or losing some portions of their substance.
 Luxury, or simplicity in the habits of living possesses
 no inconsiderable influence on the firmness of their
 texture.   An indolent and effeminate life, on  the
 one hand,  or habitual occupation in  vigorous and
 athletic  exercises on the other,  affects  both their
 consistence and their form. *  Certain employments,
 or attitudes,! continued from early life, produce pe-
 culiar effects on the figure of particular limbs.   And,
 in large manufactories in Europe it is well known
 that the negligence which necessarily  takes place  in
 those institutions in the care of children, where they

  * Nor ought the narration  of the historian to be deemed a
 fiction who informs us that the husbandmen,  in turning up the
 fields in after ages on which the battles of Alexander and Da-
 rius were fought, could easily distinguish the skulls of the Per-
 sians from those of the Greeks by their extreme fragility.
  t Some artizans are said to  be known by their gait,  or
the figure, or attitude of particular limbs.   And Mr. Forster
informs us that the inhabitants of New-Zealand, almost uni-
versally have the joints of their knees much enlarged, from the
general custom both in their boats, and on shore, ©f sitting on
their hams.
                          r
/ 
                       122
are left with little assistance, and care, to struggle
with all the difficulties of their first efforts to  walk,
and  are afterwards confined to sedentary occupa-
tions, in which nature is restrained  from freely un-
folding her powers, it is a common  thing to see the
different limbs of the body suffer a great variety of
distortions.   And this is seen to take place without
any extreme  violence; but  merely  in consequence
of being frequently  thrown into  unfavorable posi-
tions, while the bones were yet in their softest state;
and  by wanting  that regular  action which enables
every part of the system most freely to expand itself.
In infancy and youth, therefore, before the bones have
attained their firmest consistency," these solid sub-
stances are susceptible of considerable alterations in
their figure from  the operation of very minute caus-
es, and especially from the various and  powerful
action of climate.   On the figure of the  head, parti-
cularly, besides the climatical influences or the ex-
traneous accidents  to which  it  may  be  exposed,
every action  of every muscle affected in any way by
the thoughts and passions of the mind, is calculated to
make some impression.  And although the separate
impressions may be insensible, yet the accumulated
result of an infinite number of the slightest touches 
                       123
becomes very perceptible in a long course of time.
Nor is  the softness  of muscular action a sufficient
objection against the reality of this fact.   What can
be softer in its action  than  a drop of water falling
from the height of a few inches?  Yet, in time, it will
wear a cavity in the  hardest marble.  What can be
more tender than the young herb just sprouting from
the seed ? Yet, although the earth that covers it may
be pressed down, and beaten hard, we see it, by the
gentle impulses of its expanding fibres, and circulat-
ing juices, gradually swell,  and,  at length, break
through the incumbent crust.  Shall we deny, then,
that the passions which often strongly agitate the
mind,  nay,  that each emotion, each thought, by af-
fecting  the  muscles which  give expression to the
countenance, and  varying their tension, and, conse-
quently, their pressure  on different parts of the bony
base of the head,  may also affect its figure ?—From
these,  and similar facts, some  great  physiologists
have  imagined that the figure of the skull,  with its
various protuberances and indentations, affords a cer-
tain criterion by which to judge of the intellectual
powers, and moral dispositions of men.
   On this subject, we may,  perhaps be justified in
affirming that the various strictures and  relaxations 
                       124
of the muscles about the head produced by the infin-
itely diversified actions of thought and passion will,
in time, leave certain impressions affecting the exte-
rior form of the skull.   At the same time, the brain,
the immediate organ of all the emotions of the soul,
will, by its dilatations and contractions,  contribute,
in some degree, to mould the interior cavity in which
it is embraced.  On  the other hand, the original
figure of this receptacle  of the brain,  in different
men, by giving it scope in some for a more  ample
expansion,  and  a freer  action;  or, in others  by
compressing it in some parts of its orb, and thereby
restricting  the regularity, or freedom of its motions,
may affect  the operations of the  mind, and thus lay
a foundation in the organization or structure of the
head for the existence  and display of particular  in-
tellectual or  moral  excellencies,  or defects.  The
original figure of the skull, therefore, may have an
influence, not inconsiderable, on the developement
and exercise of certain passions and affections of the
mind,  and on its peculiar powers of intellect or im-
agination ;  and,  on the contrary, the habitual exer-
tion of these  powers, or  indulgence of these pas-
sions,  especially in the early periods  of life, may re-
ciprocally affect  the  figure even of that solid cell in 
125
which the brain, the immediate organ of the mental
actions, is contained.   The physiognomonical sci.
ence, indeed, with which these remarks are connect-
ed, may,  probably,  never be  susceptible  of  very
great accuracy, or extent, through our incapacity of
disentangling perfectly the infinitely complicated, or
of discriminating with nicety the infinitely fine linea-
ments,  either in the form of the head, or the ex-
pression of the countenance, which indicate the cha-
racter of the mind.   Perhaps its pretensions have in
some instances been already carried too far.   Some
great outlines, however, there are  which cannot
easily be mistaken, and which, to an attentive ob-
server of nature, may furnish general principles, that
may often be applied with considerable certainty in
judging of the qualities of the understanding and
the heart.
   From the  preceding  observations,  if  they are
founded in nature and fact, we are fairly entitled to
infer, that some  climates, and some states of  soci-
ety,  and modes of  living, by varying,  in  a less or
greater  degree,  the form of the  head, that  organ
which,  by its figure, necessarily affects the opera-
tions of thought, are  more or less favorable than
others to certain exertions of the mental powers. And 
                         126
we may infer further,  that after  a people have long-
cultivated science and the arts with success, or  de-
voted themselves chiefly to certain occupations  and
pursuits, a greater general aptitude for those pur-
suits, or those arts may become hereditary  among
their desendents,  till  other causes arise to change
their manners.   The argument, therefore, for diver-
sity of species in the human  kind  which some phi-
losophers  fancy they have found in the  varieties of
the skull in different nations, must be inconclusive,
since so many causes,  both  physical and moral are
found to operate material changes in the form of this
part of the human skeleton.*

   * That the climate, together, probably, with other physical
causes, possesses some influence to create considerable altera-
tions in the figure of the skeleton,  as well as in the general ex-
terior form of various annuals,  at least equal to the varieties
which appear in the skulk, of different nations, is evident from
the whole history of zoology.  Buffon assures us that the
beautiful form of the B^ibary race of horses soon disappears
when they are transferred to France.   The head of that animal
reared in Naples assumes  very much, the configuration of that
of a ram ; and in Hungary the  under jaw is  seen to protrude
forward considerably beyond the upper.
   The effect of the state in which animals are placed, and their
iubits of living, is illustrated by a striking example In the skull
of the wild boar; especially in  its superior size  and hardness,
md the length and curvature of its tusks above those of the 
127
   But whatever differences  anatomists have discov-
ered between the skull of a Laplander,  and that of a
German or Hungarian, between that of a Portuguese,
and of a negro  of Congo or Mitomba, of a Tartar
and an inhabitant of the Mogul empire, fact and ex-
perience have amply demonstrated the power of the
various causes which have been mentioned, to create
these distinctions.   The Finnish and Lapland races
have been proved,  by the affinity of their languages,
to  that of the Hui.~arians,  to have been originally
sprung from the same stock.  The descendents of a
Portuguese  colony not three centuries old on the
coast of Africa, are now no longer distinguishable
either in their appearance, or their manners from the
aboriginal inhabitants of the country.   The Mogul
race is known to have been  derived from  Tartary;
and the Mogul  countenance is only the  Tartar fea

common swine ; all which must result entirely from their situ-
ation, and modes of life.  In some counties  in England the
horns of their black cattle are remarkably long, and embrace a
wide space within their curve ; in  Iceland these cattle are whol-
ly destitute of this excrescence. Perhaps climate, and the
manner of living both  concur in the production of these oppo-
site effects—Natural history furnishes innumerable examples
which demonstrate  the influence of climate, aud other physical
causes,  in varying, indifferent ways, the figure; of animal*. 
128
 ture softened by the climate of India, and by more
 mild and civilized manners.
   But we must add  to  the effects of climate,  and
 other physical influences in diversifying the figure of
 the  head, the artificial means applied by several  bar-
 barian or savage nations,  in order  to attain some
 fantastic idea of beauty.   Certain tribes among the
 American indians endeavour, by the use of particu-
 lar kinds of ligature, or instruments of pressure, ap-
 plied to the head of the new born infant, to change
 its natural form, and  to give it one  which they es-
 teem more beautiful, or more martial.*  And simi-
 lar customs exist, according to the narrations of voy-
 agers most worthy of credit, in  many of the islands of


   *  Two nations among  the northern tribes, are, from the
 shape which they give their heads, in the manner related above,
 distinguished by the denominations of the round-heads, and the
Jlat-heads.  This is attested also by Charlevoix in his history
 of Canada.  Condamini, who spent a long time in South-Ame-
 rica, informs us,  in a memoir addressed  to the  Academy of
 Sciences at Paris in 1745, that the nation of the Omaguas have
 the fantastic custom of pressing the heads of their children, as
 soon as bom,  between two flat pieces of wood, in order to give
 the face the  appearance of the  full  moon.  The existence of
 similar customs in Lima,  is further proved by a decree of the
 Synod  or Council of that province, forbidding the indians to
 distort the heads of their children by putting a force  upon  na-
 ture.—At a Synod held in Uie city of Lima in the year 1585. 
                       129
the southern ocean.  This practice was not unknown
to several nations of antiquity both in Europe and
Asia.  It is attributed by Hippocrates, to the Macro-
cephali;  a nation near the eastern end of the Euxine
sea.   They moulded the heads of their children, he
says, to  the long figure, which their name imports,
because they esteemed it a mark of noble and gen-
erous birth, and sentiments.  And he supposes it
was  originally effected by certain bandages, or other
means of pressure, employed by midwives and nur-
ses in the earliest period of infancy.  It is his opin-
ion,  likewise, that  the various forms of the head in
many different nations may be attributed originally to
similar arts;  because nature, says he, may,  in time,
be made to assume the shape of art; so that any obli.
quity of form artificially given to a particular member
of the body,  and repeated through  many genera-
tions, shall, at length, be incorporated into the con-
stitution  of  the  race,  and become  hereditary.*
Whatever estimate we may frame of this principle,
which certainly derives  no inconsiderable  weight
from the name of the great father of medical science,

   *  Hip. de aere, and locis, 8cc. Sect. 3. edit. Fresii, p. 289,
de Macrocephalis> 
130
  as well as from  the names  of several  distinguished
  modern  naturalists* who have embraced it, we may
  at least give him full credit for the existence of the
  custom.   And such customs, becoming general in a


    *  Scaliger says that the Genoese, deriving the custom from
  their ancestors the Moors, flatten the heads of  their chiklren
  while asleep till now they are all born with both the head and
  the soul of Thersites.   Comment, in Theophrust. liber 5. p.
  287, de causis plantarum.—In this remark, indeed, we see the
  effect of the pique and resentment  which Scaliger had conceiv-
  ed against the people of Genoa,  but we see also the opinion of
  that great man,  that certain habits  of person, whether deform-
  ities, or otherwise, may be so ingrafted into the constitution by
  long custom as at last to become hereditary, and characteristic
  of a whole people.
    Cardan speaks in the same way,  lib. 5, cap. 43, de varietate,
  &c—.The Chinese have, by artificial strictures compressing
  the feet of their female children, rendered  that  deformity to a
  considerable degree, hereditary.—
    Certain it is that neat cattle, horses, and  other domestic ani-
  mals, turned into the woods in the West of Carolina, in Loui-
 siana, and  other uncultivated parts of America, where they find
 but a scanty  supply of food, and  are liable to many accidents
 from their feebleness at certain seasons of the year, and the
 want of human care, not only become diminutive and deformed
 themselves, but, although  brought back  from their wild and
 savage state, and placed in the most favorable circumstances,
'will propagate a diminutive and deformed offspring for several
 generations.   By proper attention,  however, they are capable
 of being  gradually restored to the size and  beauty of the origi-
 nal European stocks from which they were derived • except in
 those places where a hot sun, and barren soil prevent the 
131
nation  will  necessarily  produce a change in the as-
pect of the whole people.
   It is necessary,  in the-next place,  to take  some
notice of the extravagant relations which  have been
given to the world by certain travellers, of the pro-
digious expansion of the ear which they observed in
some barbarous nations of the East;  and of the no
less extraordinary tales concerning the long and pen-
dulous breasts of the African women in general, and
especially of those  tribes which inhabit the southern
portion of  that continent.   Among the former they
pretend to have seen people with such large ears that
they could wrap themselves in their  immense  vol-


growth of a luxuriant herbage.  In such situations, the size of
the animal  is necessarily contracted in proportion to the defect
of nutritious food,  or the prevalent excess either of heat, or
cold.—
  Such examples as the  preceding  seem to confirm, in some
degree, the opinion of Hippocrates, Scaliger, and Cardan, which
has been just mentioned, and of other respectable  writers, who
have embraced the same doctrine,—that any form of the body,
or of any of its parts, produced not only by climate  or the means
or modes of living, but by any habit,  the result  either of cli-
matical influence like the contracted eyes and forehead of the
negro, or of national custom, like the small feet of the females
in China, the long heads oftlie Macroceph..li, or the flat heads
of some of our indian tribes, is communicable to  offspring by
natural inheritance. 
                       132
 ume; and among the latter, women whose breasts
 hung down like sacks below their knees, and, in some
 instances,  even to the ground.  The extravagance
 of these narrations  ought to be sufficient to destroy
 their credit with all persons but tolerably acquainted
 with the natural history of the globe.  Some  fami-
 lies  in every nation, and the inhabitants of particular
 districts of different countries have  ears extended
 beyond  the usual proportion  which they bear to
 other parts of the head.   In  Spain the Biscayans
 are said to have them much larger than the people
 of the other provinces of that kingdom.  Some savr
 age tribes are known to stretch their ears by weights
 appended to them ;  which they esteem highly  orna-
 mental.  And it is a common custom among our
 American indians, from a like false taste of beauty,
 to cut the rims of their ears, in a very artificial man-
 ner,   into  narrow strips,  round which they  wrap
 thin  plates  of shining metal, which weigh them down
 to the shoulders.  But, such sheets of ear as were
 formerly spoken of  by many travellers and even by
 Pliny, have not been discovered by recent and more
 accurate observers,  and may safely be pronounced
 to have no  existence.
   A lil:e remark may be applied to those narrations,
the greater part of which one  writer  of travels ha,s 
                       133
 borrowed from another,  which have been so long
 vended by ignorance, or imposture, and received by
 credulity, concerning the protracted and  pendulous
breasts of the  women of many uncultivated tribes,
 especially of Africa.  The whole origin of those tales
 is probably  to be found in  the effect which poverty,
 great hardships, and exhausting toils, naturally have
 not only on savages but on poor women in the low-
 est classes of civilized society, to render their breasts,
 in time, flaccid  and thin.  This flaccidity, especially
 in advanced life, and after  they  have been  much
drawn by the  suckling of children, does occasion
 their depending much lower than the breasts of wo-
 men who have enjoyed plenty and ease.   Ignorant
 travellers, who have not been accustomed to the view
 of naked savages, smitten with the love  of astonish-
 ing their countrymen with a marvellous tale, or infect-
 ed with the prejudices of little minds, which delight
 to depreciate and misrepresent  whatever is seen in
 foreign countries, have given these exaggerated pic-
 tures  of  the length of the breasts of African  fe-
 males.*  That  climate, or other causes, in  the bencfi-

  * Even  Ireland not two centuries  ago, when, however, it
 v as rarely visited by English travellers, and was regarded wifb 
134
cent  arrangements of divine  providence,  may  in-
crease the size of these organs of the nourishment of
infants,  especially in regions, or states of society in
which it would otherwise be  peculiarly  difficult to


contemptuous pride by its more powerful and wealthy neigh-
bour, was  sometimes subject to  similar misrepresentations.
Lithgow, in his  rare adventures and painful peregrinations,
Says he saw women in the " North parts" of that island, I pre-
sume with traveller's eyes,  who could lay their breasts, or
" dugs,"  as he calls them,  over their shoulders, and suckle
their  children behind their backs.   He adds, that they were
more  than  half  a yard in length,  and disdainfully compares
them to the money-bags of an East-India merchant, made of
well tanned leather.  It is not wonderful then that more dis-
tant and savage countries should be  more  grossly misrepre-
sented.  There are, indeed,  very few travellers who visit re-
mote regions with a philosophic spirit, or even with the atten-
tion requisite for accurate observation.  If they see a single
fact which  strikes them with surprize, they are  apt, from it, to
characterize  a whole country ; and if they observe somewhat
extraordinary in  the aspect or manners of a few individuals, or
certain vices or follies which are only different from the follies
and vices which are familiar to them in their own country, they
make them a foundation for abusive calumnies and exaggerated
and distorted pictures of a whole people.  Indeed the ridicu-
lous mistakes, or wilful falsehoods, or the prejudiced colour-
ing given to almost all objects, which we find in the travels of
the greater part of Europeans who have visited America,  are
sufficient  to  bring  into  doubt  all  extraordinary  relations
brought to us by  such men from distant portions of the globe,
or from any countries whose  habits and  manners differ from
those of the writer.—The observation made above by Lithgow 
                         13i5

find a proper sustenance  for them, is not hnproba-
ble.   But a little excess above the ordinary scale of
nature, or a little deviation from its ordinary stand-
ard, in any  feature, or  limb, has often afforded oc-
casion for the most hyperbolical  relations in the ac-
counts which travellers have retailed of remote, or un-
explored regions.  And that such has been the source
of the extravagances which I have just mentioned,
in the descriptions given by several voyagers,  who
have just touched on the coast of Africa, of the pen-
dulous breasts* of women in some of die  Hottentot


on the long and leathern dugs of Irish women, renders it pro-
bable that  he  has seen a few of the laboring poor,  discoloured
by exposure to the sun, and exhausted with toil, and the scan-
tiness  of  their  provision, whose  breasts, having, in conse-
quence, become  flaccid,  and somewhat  pendulous, and pro-
tracted, have  given occasion to all this misrepresentation, the
effect merely of foreign contempt, and false wit.

  *  Savage women, who generally carry their infants on their
backs in long and irksome marches, or during their work, do,
through necessity, or for convenience, often suckle  them by
making them  reach over their shoulders ;  and for this purpose-
they endeavour to stretch their breasts to meet the mouth of
the child.   By the repetition of this practice, the breast may
sometimes be drawn into an unnatural lengtii. Some examples
of this are seen among the  American indians ; and doubtless
may be found among the African tribes.  But  indian women
who are not exposed to uncommon hardships, and negresses in 
                        136
tribes,  as well as of  that natural veil  of modesty*
which has been ascribed to them by others,  there
hardly now remains a doubt.
   The peculiar form of the legs in certain nations
may, from the manner in which they have been re-
marked  on  by several eminent anatomists, justly
claim a portion of our attention.—Among the Tar-
tar tribes  some have  these limbs remarkably short,
and widely bowed  between the  knees.  On the other
hand, there are nations among the  indians as much
distinguished by their length.   These constitutional
peculiarities are with great probability ascribed to
some influence of the climate or of the habits of so-
ciety, or manner of living.   This conjecture is cor-

the United States who are brought up in genteel families, are
said to have breasts as well formed as the Anglo-Americans.
   * Voltaire, who is equally  a wretched philosopher and a
brilliant wit, is fond of magnifying this veil that he may find in
it one important character of arpeculiar species. It is probably
no more than that lax and corrugated skin  on the abdomen
which sometimes becomes pendulous in women who have borne
many children, and especially in those who have suffered great
hardships.  Or it may be only a protraction of the labia, which
takes place., as we are informed by anatomists, in some women
of all nations ; and which, in particular instances, may be very
much increased by the filthy habits of several of the African
tt>ibe«.- 
                      137
roborated by the known effect of climate and of the
manner of  feeding on different  species of quadru-
peds, and of fowls.  Passing other instances, at pre-
sent, I  will take an example only  from the neat cattle
of Holland removed to the Cape of Good Hope.  The
deep bodies and short legs of the herds which feed
in the  rich  meadows of Holland disappear entirely in
the meagre pastures of the Cape; and, in a few de-
scents the whole race of the beeve kind are deformed
with long legs, and comparatively narrow and lank
bodies.  It is observed, likewise, of the cattle in the
United States,  and especially in  those states which
lie southward from Pennsylvania, and in the districts
eastward between the Apalachian mountains and the
ocean  that  they are longer in the leg, and shallower
in the  body, than the British stocks from which they
are derived.   This effect, however, is, perhaps, less
to be imputed to climate, than to the scantiness and
poverty of their food in a country as yet imperfectly
cultivated, and to the  negligence with which they
are  guarded against the  inclemency and changes of
the  seasons.  For we find that, in other parts of
America, in which the cattle are properly fed, and
sheltered during the winter, and, in summer, suffer-
                         R 
                        138
ed to run in rich pastures, they are often equal both
in form, and size,  to the finest stocks in England.T
  The curvature of the legs, so frequently observed
among the Tartar tribes, has, by Blumenbach after
Pallas,  been reasonably ascribed, as its chief cause,
to the custom of placing their children on horseback
almost from their infancy,  and the constant habit of
riding at that early age when their natural  timidity
and inexperience  prompt them to embrace the ani-
mal forcibly between the legs and knees.
  But that deformity of the leg which has attracted
the greatest attention of naturalists and is thought to
depart farthest from the beautiful proportions  of  the
human frame, is the curve projecting forwards which
is seen in most of the natives of the western coast of
Africa, especially  among the lowest  orders of  the

  * Of this  Mr. Jefferson gives several examples in the sixth
section of his Notes on Virginia.
  An ox raised near New-Haven in Connecticut lately passed
through Princeton on  his way to Philadelphia of the following
dimensions  and weight:—he was 16 hands  high ;  he was 18
feet in length from the end of the tail to the  nose ;  12 feet in
circumference round the body ; and his weight was 3400lbs.
  Another ox has been exhibited in this town within a few days,
raised in Morris county  in New-Jersey, of the weight of
3500lbs. called by a  piece  of country wit, on account  of his
■>J70,  the Morris county calf.  He was six years old. 
                       139
 people.  For, savages, or barbarians  as  they  are,
 their society is distributed into different grades ;  and
 it is chiefly among the  inferior, or servile classes that
 we find those uncouth  features, and deformed limbs,
 which go to compose what we call the proper Afri-
 can person, and countenance.   But among their
 princes and the  superior ranks  of their  popula-
 tion, the human form is often seen in a high degree
 of beauty and perfection.  I have limited my obser-
 vation likewise, to the  western coast of Africa prin-
 cipally ; because the same deformity does not exist
 among the Abyssinians,  or the  Caffres on the east-
 ern coast, who are not  depressed in such abject sav-
 agism ;  and is hardly perceived among the natives
 of Aian, and Zanquebar, who, though nearly in the
 same latitude,  enjoy a  milder climate.
   This region of Africa anciently furnished slaves to
the Romans to be employed in the humblest offices,
who were conveyed  to Rome through Mauritania,
and the territories of Carthage, and  sometimes by
the way of Lybia and  Egypt.   The gibbous form
of  their legs,  with  other African  peculiarities, is
remarked by Petronius; and it appears both from
him, and from Virgil that the same defects of person  -
n>ust have existed in that climate  from the remot- 
                        140
est periods of history.*   But  the  climate is proba*
blv not alone to be charged as the cause of this  de-
formity ; for the neighbouring regions  of Numidia
and Mauritania have always nourished a straight  and
well proportioned race of men.  And, as I have just
remarked, even  within  that  zone which exhibits,
among the poorest and most servile race, the great-
est deformities, you often meet, among their chiefs,
with men of handsome features, and regular propor-
tions.  And Mr. Bruce informs us that, in the desert
of Senaar on the eastern side of  Africa,  under the
very tropic  of Cancer, he saw, in the house  of  one
of their chiefs, a woman of the most  beautiful form,
the most delicate skin, and the most lovely composi-

  * Petronius, Satyricon, c. 102.  Atramento mutemus  colo-
res a capillis usque ad ungues.   Ita tanquam  servi ^Ethiopes
— ige, numquid et labira possumus  tumore teterrimo implere ?
numquid  8c crim s calamistro invertere ? numquid et frontes
cicatricibus scindere ? numquid et crura in orbem pandere ?
  And Virgil in his Moretum,  1. 31—36 :
    Interdum clamat Cybalen : erat unica custos,
    Afra genus, tota patriam testante figura,
    Torta comam, labra tumens, £c fusca colorem ;
    Pectore lata, jacens niummis,  compressior alvo,
     Cruribus exilis, spatiosa prodga planta ;
     Continuis rimis calcanea sci,ssa rigebant. 
                        141
lion of features,  he had ever beheld.*   The cause
of the  gibbous leg of the vulgar African, therefore,
we may find, not more in the climate than  in some
peculiar  customs in the treatment of their children.
   The manners of savages often result  from the ne-
cessities  of their situation.   Among the North-Am-
erican indians the mother is always obliged to be-
stow the greatest assiduity in her attentions to her in-
fant in order to protect it from the injuries of seasons
which are extremely variable,  and often rigorous;
and to provide  it with food by her own labor,  in
the bosom of forests where little offers  itself sponta-
neously to be gathered.  At the same time, the hard-
ships  of a wandering and hunting  life prevent the
multiplication of children, so that, frequently, one is
three or four years old before she is burthened with
the care  of a second.   The necessities,  therefore, of
her state require, and the intervals between her chil-
dren afford her leisure for, the exercise of every ten-

  * Before this rencontre he informs us he had always con-
nected the idea of perfect beauty with a fair complexion ; but
when he beheld this Senaar lady, he speaks of himself as being
for some moments suspended in admiration: and  he was at
once convinced that almost the all of beauty consists in ele-
gance of figure, in the fineness and polish of the skin, in grace
pf movement, and the expression of the countenance. 
                         142
 der and  maternal care  which  her savage condition
 will admit.   She consequently employs the utmost
 pains not only in providing for the safety and sub-
 sistence of her child during its infancy, but in  form-
 ing its person to activity,  beauty, and vigor, that it
 may hereafter be able to  rely boldly on itself in hunt-
 ing or in  war, and in all the exigencies  of its hazard-
 ous state. •
   The African mother,  on  the other  hand, is not
 under the same  necessity to be perpetually  solicit-
 ous for the safety and subsistence of her infant; nor
 does   she feel the same motives to exercise  such
 constant and minute attentions to  preserve the erect-
 ness and  activity of its person.  The warmth of the
 climate,  which is favorable to the multiplication of
 children,  releases the mother also from  much anxiety
 about their provision or their safety.  It permits her,
 while  employed in any other care,  to leave them ex-
 posed naked to its influence without incurring those

  * In her frequent, long, and painful marches, in order to pre-
 serve the limbs of her child perfectly straight, and  to  guard
 them against every accidental  distortion which might otherwise
affect it, she extends it upon a thin board, or plank, with its
back towards the plank ; and,  that she may be able to preserve
it perfectly in its position, small hoops arc bent over it insert-
ed at each end in the plank.  In her marches she travels with 
                        14S
 risks to which the  delicate constitution  of a child
 would be liable under a cold, and variable sky.  The
 climate, almost  spontaneously, or  with very little
 labor, offers them abundantly, those fruits and roots
 which are proper for the nourishment and support of
 their children.  While occupied,  therefore, in cul-
 tivating the small  spot of earth  about her hut, or
 in  other domestic  cares,  she often  leaves even her
 youngest children for a long time together, wholly
 to  their  own management.  This  is a  spectacle
 which is often seen also in the quarters of the African
 slaves in the southern states of America,  and in the
 West-India islands.   Children thus  left, while their
 bones are yet in a soft, and almost gristly state,
 will be liable to many accidents that  may distort the
 figure of their limbs, in their frequent struggles with
 their natural imbecilities, in endeavouring to move
 from place to place.   In their first efforts, especially,
 to creep upon their  hands and feet, the weight of the
 body, pressing upon the tender bones of the  thighs

 this board suspended at her back.  And  often, while  occupi-
 ed in her wigwam, she  attaches the child  to the same board,
 supporting it against the wall of her hut, or against the stock
of a tree at her door,  to save it from any untoward accident
 while her attention is otherwise engaged. 
                      144
and legs in an oblique position, must tend to give
them that gibbous form which is thought to be  pecu-
liar to the African race, but  which is often seen
among the poorest classes in other countries.   But I
must remark here,  as 1 have already done concerning
other  characteristics of this race, that, whether the
causes which  have produced them be justly  as-
signed, or not, certain it is,  that,  in  the United
States, they are gradually throwing off this gibbous
deformity of the leg.  Many of them, of the third or
fourth descent, who have been  trained in genteel
families,  and  have not been pressed by  excessive
labors, are distinguished by straight and well turn-
ed limbs, and by those easy and graceful movements
which can never be exhibited where the  person is
crooked or deformed.  And this change  is becom-
ing daily  more conspicuous.  On the  other  hand,
in those states in which an extensive slavery  exists,
and great numbers are collected on the  respective
plantations in small  villages  of huts at a distance
from their masters' mansions, these field slaves, liv-
ing chiefly by themselves, and being, in general, dir-
ty, ragged, and badly fed;  having, in consequence,
little  concern about personal beauty;  and  being
 urged at  the same time  by constant labors,  and 
145
 obliged,  therefore,  to abandon their children Very
 much to themselves, even in their earliest infancy, the
 peculiar deformities of the African race continue to
 Subsist much longer, and in a much greater degree,
 among their descendents than  among those slaves
 who always serve near the  persons of their masters.
 This  fact, which  is obvious  to  all  Americans,
 serves  to  confirm  the  opinion, that many  of the
 peculiarities of the  African person,  and especially,
 the gibbous shape of the leg, are to be  ascribed  to
 neglect, and the wretched  habits of living of those
 savages, not  less,  and  perhaps more,  than  to any
 direct influence of the climate on the constitution.*
   The size of the feet,  in  the next place,  although
 affected in some instances by climate, as has  before

  * It has been remarked by some respectable voyagers that a
 small gibbousness of the leg, and probably arising from a sim-
 ilar cause, is a pretty general characteristic of  the aboriginal
 inhabitants of the islands of the Caribean sea.
  And in all the great manufactories of Europe, in which
young children are necessarily very much neglected,  there is
always a large proportion of crooked and deformtd persons.
This is true also of many persons in all the classes of extreme
poverty in that  country.  On the other hand, in the United
States of America where extreme poverty at present hardly
any where exists, except in  a Tew hospitals and aims-houses,
a crooked limb, or a maimed  person is rarely to  be seen-
                         S 
                       146
been rendered apparent, in the case of the Esquimaux,
and other tribes far removed towards the North pole ;
yet depends more on the artificial bandages by which
they are confined,  or  the free  expansion which is
permitted to them in different countries.  The Chi-
nese repress the growth of the feet of their women
by tight and painful ligatures.   On the other hand,
we see that those persons in the United States who
pursue the labors of the field barefooted during the
whole summer season, have their feet spread out to
an extraordinary breadth, and proportionably extend-
ed in  length.*   From a like  cause  proceeds  the
large size of this member which is common to al-
most the whole  African race.  The foot of the Af-
rican is never confined by a shoe, or any equivalent
ligature; it, therefore, receives  the full  expansion
which  the whole weight of the body,  continually
pressing upon it in  that state, can give.f   And  the

  *  J. R. Forster in his account of Capt. Cook's last voyage,
informs us that the natives  of the Society Isles, though, other-
wise a handsome and well proportioned people, have universal-
ly large  feet, for which he assigns as the cause, the custom of
going barefooted.
  t  Virgil's " spatiosa prodiga planta." 
147
hot sand in which the negro constantly treads great-
ly incrassates the skin, and opens it on  the edges
round the sole of the  foot in many  small  fissures,*
which give it the appearance of hard scales.f
   It  is hardly  necessary  to enter into any minute
enquiries  respecting those great deviations from the
ordinary standard of  the human stature which have
been reported to exist, particularly,  in two different
tribes of people, supposed to be the extremes of the
human race; the one, a nation of dwarfs, said to in-
habit the  mountains of Madagascar;! the other, a


   * " Continuis rimis calcanea scissa," of the same author.

   t Neither the expansion of the foot, nor the thickness of the
skin,  in that race is greater,  in  proportion, than that  which
takes  place in the hand of a sai or, or a digger, which is enlarg-
ed and hardened by continual pressure  on the ropes  of his
vessel, or  the  handle of his instrument..—The confinement of
the shoe is gradually producing its natural effect on the  feet
oftlie  domestic slaves, their descendents, in the United States.
   From a cause directly the reverse of that which creates the
enlargment of die digger's, or die sailor's hand, the hand of the
American indian is small; for he never performs any labor with
it; except drawing his bow, or throwing his  tomahawk.
                                    »
   \ This story which was entirely discredited in Europe bv
Flacourt, was  revived after the middle of the last century by
Commcrson the botanist, who saw a pigmy girl in the service
•f the master of the ship in which he embarked from Madagas* 
148
gigantic  people pretended to be spread over  the
southern parts of the country of Patagonia, a region
which has received its denomination from them, and
extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific seas, along
the straits of Magellhaens.  But since the facts have
been more  accurately examined, the  pigmies  of
Madagascar have been found to exist only in fiction,
in mistake,  or in great exaggeration,  by  which a
few examples of the defects, or abortive births, of na-
ture  have been presented to us as a distinct  race.
On  the  other  hand,  the Patagonian  giants  have
dwindled  down to  a  race  of men the  average of
whose stature is somewhat above that of the savage
nations  in their neighborhood.*   This is equally

car.   But the Baron de Clugny, who sailed in the same vessel,
declares that she was evidently a diseased, and almost a mons-
trous offspring. She was of a chalky colour, v.ith a breast very
much depressed, and long arms.  Her voice was stridulous, her
head extended to a disproportioned length, and her whole ap-
pearance indicative of compleat stupidity.
  * The average stature of the Patagonians has been  deter-
mined to  be about six feet, or but little more.  And in the
United States are many examples of men from six to seven feet
in height; and several instances are known of men, who consid-
erabiy exceed seven feet.  Besides the general reasons which
contribute to magnify the appealance of savage men in a new,
and uncultivated country, one cause which helped to increase 
149
true of various other tribes of the American indians;
and particularly of the Osages, a tribe situated on the
South of the Missouri river, the greater part of whom
are men of tall stature, and of robust,  and athletic
figure.   The same was remarked by  Tacitus  con*
cerning the ancient Germans compared with the in*
habitants of the Roman provinces.  But in all this,
we see nothing more than the known effects of cli-
mate, of food, of culture, or of other natural causes,
operating on animal bodies: in one  region they are
more slender, in another they  are more gross;  here
they are seen of lower stature,  and there of taller and
more noble port.
   II. Having, thus far, endeavoured to point out the
power of  climate in the production of many of the
varieties which distinguish  different portions of the

the wonderful narrations of navigators concerning the size of
the Patagonians was the discovery of graves among them of an
extraordinary length, which, Mr. Brown,  in his  travels, as-
sures us, arose, in some instances,  if it was not a general cus«
torn of the  country, from burying women at the feet of  men ;
probably wives at the feet of their  husbands, and dressing up
both graves with the appearance of  one. Mr. Wood informed
him of a grave twelve feet in length which upon examination
was found to contain two skeletons,  of a male and  female, de-*
posited in this manner, 
                       150
 human species, I proceed to illustrate the influence
 of the
   STATE OF SOCIETY, AND  THE HABITS OF
                     LIVING,
 in creating other varieties,  or in aggravating or cor-
 recting those which are occasioned by climate.
   I join diese two  causes together in treating of
-them, because their effects are frequently so blend-
 ed, that  it is difficult,  in  many cases,  precisely to
 discriminate them, and to assign each to its proper
 head.
   In the first place,  climate exerts its full influence,
 and produces its most deteriorating effects  in  a sav,
 age state of society.
   And,  in  the  next place, the peculiar character,
 and habits  of society in which men are educated,
 and the modes of living to which they are either ad-
 dicted from choice, or compelled  from necessity,
 tend  to create many differences in their complexion,
 their figure,  the form and  expression of their coun-
 tenance, and in their whole aspect.
   In the first place, then,  climate produces its most
 deteriorating effects  in a savage state of society ; and,
 on the other hand, these effects are,  in some degree,
 corrected by the arts and conveniences of civilization. 
151
  A naked savage, seldom enjoying the protection
even of a miserable hut, and often compelled to lodge
on the bare earth under the open sky, imbibes the in-
fluence of the sun, and atmosphere,  at every pore of
his body.   The American indian inhabits an unculti-
vated  forest,  abounding with  stagnant waters, and
covered with a luxuriant growth of vegetables which
fall down and corrupt on the spot  where  they had
grown.  He  generally pitches  his  wigwam on the
side of a river that he may enjoy the convenience of
fishing as well as of hunting.   The  vapor of rivers,
therefore, which are often greatly obstructed in their
course by the trees fallen, and the leaves collected in
their channels,  the exhalations of marshes, and the
noxious gases evolved from decaying vegetables, im-
pregnate the  whole atmosphere, and give a deep bil-
ious tinge to the complexion of the savage.*   And

  * The forests in uncultivated countries naturally absorb a
great portion of the noxious  miasmata with which the atmos-
phere is  filled. They do not, however, absorb  the whole.
Nothing but a skilful  agriculture can  perfectly purify the air
from the insalubrious exhalations created by the causes already
mentioned.  All uncultivated countries, therefore, tend to pro-
duce a bilious habit, and a dark complexion in the savages who
range them.  It may seem an objection against this observation
that, in America we often perceive bilious disorders increase 
                          152

 the sun,  acting immediately upon  the skin in this
 state, necessarily impressed on it a very dark hue.
   The darkness of the complexion is still  further in-
 creased by the custom which prevails among them
 of painting their bodies:  a custom to  which these
 savages are often obliged to have recourse in order
 to protect themselves  from the injurious effects  of
 the moist earth, which frequently is their only bed


 in consequence  of extending the plantations.  When  a few
 acres only are cleared of their timber and wild vegetables, while
 the marshes around them are not drained, the trees and plants,
 which formerly absorbed the greater portion of the putrid mias-
 mata, being taken away from the surface of the plantation, these
 unhealthful vapors consequently fall more copiously on the
 inhabitants.  Besides, the heat of the sun is, in that case, very
 much augmented.  For, while the plantation is scorched by  its
 almost perpendicular rays, the surrounding woods  obstruct
 the free,  and refreshing currents of the winds.   So that, fre-
 quently, excessive heat combined with the unhealthful  mois-
 ture of the atmosphere will produce, for a time, an increase of
 those distressing disorders, till the  country is laid  entirely
 open to the powerful action  of the sun, and the  free course  of
 the wind.  In clearing a new country of its forests, and prepar-
 ing it for cultivation, a large grove of trees should be left round
 the habitation of each planter or farmer___These would detain,
 and, by  thcii  foliage, absorb in  a great measure the hurtful
 vapors which would otherwise fall upon it;  at the same  time,
the fresh and refrigerating perspiration of so many trees would
 contribute to the salubrity  of the air around, and within his
 dwelling. 
15-3
during the night; and of an atmosphere, filled with
noxious vapors, to the influence of  which they are
exposed without covering.  Painting  taken up at
first through necessity, is afterwards employed as
an ornament; and an indian is seldom seen  without
having  his  skin anointed  with some composition
that injures the  fineness of its texture, and  impairs
the clearness of its natural colour.  If this is the ef-
fect of the finest paints and washes which are used
for the same  purpose in polished  society, much
more will it be the consequence of those coarse  and
filthy ungents employed by savages.  For if colour-
ed marks  or figures inserted by punctures into  the
skin,  are  known to be indelible, it is reasonable to
believe that the particles  of paints, insinuated into
its texture by forcible and frequent friction will pro-
duce  a deep and permanent discolouration.*
  To this may  be added the  frequent fumigations
by  which they are obliged to guard  against the an-
noyance of innumerable insects which swarm in un-

  • These paints consist of substances unfit to be taken up by
the absorbent vessels of the skin and received into the circula-
tion: they are lodged, therefore, by the force of friction, just
beneath the scarf which, being little subject to change, the
discolouration is retained with great tenacity.
                         T 
                        154
 drained and uncultivated  countries, and the smoke
 with which their huts, small and unskilfully  built,
 are  constantly filled.   Smoke  discolours  every
 object long exposed to its action,  by insinuating
 itself into the pores and  adhering strongly to the
 surface.  Hence it contributes somewhat to heighten
 the effect of so many other  discolouring causes on
 the complexion of the American savri^e.
   Lastly,  the  hardships of their condition, which
 tend to weaken and exhaust the principle of life :—
 their scanty, and meagre food, which wants that suc-
 culence and nourishment which give freshness to the
 complexion, and vigor to  the constitution; the un-
 certainty of their provision,  being sometimes left to
 languish with want, and on other occasions furnished
 with a superfluity, which  tempts them to overstrain
 themselves by a surfeit;—and finally, their entire in-
 attention to the cleanliness  of their persons, and their
 huts, all have their influence to heighten the disagree-
 able duskiness of their colour, and to render the fea-
 tures coarse and deformed.  Of the power  of these
 causes in savage life we may  frame some conjecture
 from observing their effects on the poorest classes in
 society, who are usually as much distinguished  by
their meagre habit, their uncouth features and their 
                        155

 dinj*y and squalid  aspect,  as  by the  meanness of
their garb.  Nakedness, exposure  to the  weather,
negligence of appearance, want of cleanliness,  bad
lodging, and poor diet,  are always seen to impair the
beauty of the human form, and the  clearness of the
skin.  Hence it results,  that savages never can be
perfectly fair.   But when savage habits concur with
the influence of an ardent sun,  or an unwholesome
atmosphere, the complexion of the  people will par-
take of a tinge  more or less dark in  proportion to
the predominance of one, or of both of these causes.
Their features  will be more coarse  and hard,  and
their persons less robust and athletic  than those of
men in civilized  society who enjoy its advantages
with temperance.*


  * A few examples, perhaps, may occur  among  savages of
strong and muscular bodies, or of regular and agreeable fea-
tures ; as in civilized society we meet with some rare instances
of extraordinary beauty.  Yet it is certain that the counte-
nance of savage life  is cemmonly much  more uncouth and
coarse, more unmeaning and wild, as will afterwards more dis*
tinctly appear when I come to point  out its causes, than the
countenance  formed in polished society.  And the person is
generally more slender, and rather fitted for the activity of the
chace, than for great exertions of strength.   An American in-
dian is commonly swift, but seldom athletic.  And it has been
remarked in the many expeditions which have been undertaken
against the  savages by the people of  these States, that the 
156
   As a state of savagism increases the injurious in-
fluence of climates which  are  unfriendly  to  the
complexion or fine proportions of the human consti-
tution ; civilization, on the other hand, by its innu-
merable arts and conveniences, contributes to correct
that hurtful influence.   The  comfortable protection
of  clothing and  lodging,—the plenty and nutritious


strength of an Anglo-American, in single  combat, is usually
superior to that of an indian of the same size.  The muscles,
likewise, on which the fine proportions of the person  so much
depend, are generally  smaller and more  lax  in  them than
among a civilized people who are not corrupted  by lux-
ury, or debilitated by  sedentary  occupations.  Their limbs,
therefore, though straight, are less beautifully turned.—A de-
ception often passes upon the senses in judging of the beauty
of savages ; and it  is often  very injudiciously exaggerated in
description.  We do not expect beauty in savage life.  When,
therefore, we happen to perceive it, the contrast which it pre-
sents to us with the usual condition of men in that state affects
Uie mind with a degree of surprize that very much promotes
the deception.  And the exalted descriptions of savage beauty
which we sometimes read are true only by comparison with
savages.  There is a difference, in this respect, between man,
and  the inferior animals  which were  formed to  run wild in
the forest.   They  are always most beautiful when they en-
joy their native liberty. They decay and droop when attempt-
ed to be confined and domesticated.  But man, being designed
for society,  and civilization,  attains, in that state, the greatest
beauty of the human form, as well as the highest perfection pf
his whole nature. 
                       157
 qualities of food, and the skilful means of preparing it
 for use, and rendering it more healthful,—a country
 freed from noxious effluvia, and subjected to culti-
 vation,—the  constant  study  of  elegance, with  im-
 proved  ideas of a standard of beauty for the human
 form,—and the  continual effort made to approxi-
 mate this standard, in ourselves, or to form our chil-
 dren to it by a proper  culture, give an immense ad-
 vantage, in this respect, to  cultivated  society over
 savage life.
   2. I come now to observe, what is of much more
 importance on this part of the  subject,  that all the
 features of the human countenance are  modified,  and
 its whole expression, in a great measure, formed by
 the state of society in which men exist.
   Every idea,  and every emotion which is excited
 in the mind, affects, in some degree, the features of
 the countenance,  the index of our feelings, and con-
 tributes  to form  its infinitely various lineaments.
 Paucity of ideas,  and of objects to call  forth the  ex-
 ercise of the understanding  or the passions,  marks
 the countenance  with a vacant and unmeaning  as-
 pect.   Agreeable and  cultivated scenes enliven and
animate the features, and tend to render them regu-
lar  and soft.   Wild and solitary forests impress on- 
                       158
the countenance some image of their own rudeness:
Considerable varieties are created even by diet, and
the different modes of preparing it for use.   A diet
composed  chiefly  of raw  and uncooked meats is
generalty accompanied with ferocity of aspect.   And
among  the various  methods  of preparing  food in
civilized  nations,   some  are  undoubtedly  more
favorable  to  health and vigor, and consequently
to personal beauty, than  others.   Hard fare, and
exposure to the injuries of the weather  render the
features of savages, and the poorer classes of society,
coarse and uncouth.  The infinitely diversified at-
tentions of men in polished society give  great flexi-
bility and variety  to the expression of the counte-
nance.  The defect of interesting emotions, or of the
habits of attention,  and thought, leave its muscles
lax and unexerted ;  whence they assume a swoln
appearance, and distend themselves to a grosser
size.*  A general  and  national standard of beauty,
likewise, which is usually aimed at in civilized soci-
ety, and which, in  some  respects,  is various in dif-
ferent countries, has its  effect in  forming the fea-

  * Several  of these reflections shall be illustrated more in
detail hereafter.. 
159
tures and fashioning the person.   Every passion,
every emotion, every thought which passes through
the mind has its peculiar expression.   Each single
touch, if I may speak so, may be so fine as to be im-
perceptible ; but  frequent repetition will  at length,
trace on  the countenance very distinct lineaments.
And these minute causes  may  again vary  their
effects  according  to  their  respective  degrees  of
strength, according to their combination with other
principles, and according  to the constitutional pecu-
liarities of individuals, or of nations,  that form tho
ground on  which  the  different impressions are re*
ccived.   And,  inasmuch as the advances made  iii
the arts,  the prevalent ideas, pursuits, and moral
habits of men in different countries, and under dif-
ferent  forms of government, are infinitely various,
they open a boundless  field for variety  in the human
countenance.   It  is impossible  to enumerate all
these minute varieties.*   They are not the same  in

  * From various combinations of the causes that have been
suggested, and others of a similar nature, we often see differ-
ent characters of countenance, and habits of body, and even dif-
ferent habitual attitudes, and modes of moving the person, not
only in different nations, but in different cities, and districts be-
longing to the same country.   I.ibavius, a German author, re- 
160
any two nations, nor in the  same nation  in any twd
ages.   It  would be unnecessary  to enumerate them,
as  my object  is, not to  enable  my readers to be-
come physiognomists, but to suggest a proper mode


marked above two centuries ago, this variety in his own nation.
« There is one countenance, says he,  belongs to the Thurin-
gians,  another to  the  Saxons,  and a different  one  to  the
Swedes.  Indeed each village almost has  something, in  this
respect, peculiar to itself, so that a person who would accurate-
ly attend to this subject might nearly pronounce on  the coun-
try of a man from his physiognomy."—Yet  besides these
smaller local differences, tliere is commonly a general  cast of
countenance,  arising from the influence of government, reli-
gion, civil  occupations, and other  causes, which belongs to
each nation, and serves to distinguish it from others.
  In conformity  with the observation of Libavius, and with
what I have said above, Camper remarks that it is easy to dis-
tinguish at the first view,  Jews from Christians,  Spaniards
from Frenchmen, or Germans,  and these again from English-
men.   We can distinguish, says he, the inhabitants of the
South of France from those  of the North,  except where they
have been blended by marriage.  The cities of Holland, where
so many people have been mingled together, no longer present
to us distinct features of a national countenance.  The inhabit-
ants of the islands only still possess their primitive features en-
tire.   In Friesland, for example, the inhabitants of Hindelo-
pen, Molkwerum, and  Koudum, still  exhibit their thin face,
and their length of jaw; while those  of Bildt,  by their short
face all crowded together, differ entirely from their nearest
neighbors, who inhabit, however,  the most ancient portion
of the country.
   Each people then forms to itself some distinguishing national 
                         161

 of reasoning on each  new difference among  man-
 kind as it occurs to our observation.

   For this purpose,  I shall  endeavour,  in the first
 place,  to  evince by several  facts and illustrations,
 that the  state  of society  in which men  live has a
 powerful  influence in varying the character  of the
 countenance,  and even in changing the  habit, and
 appearance of the whole person.
   And, in the next place, to  shew that some of the
 most  distinguishing features  of  the  savage,  and
 particularly of the American savage,  with whom we
 are best acquainted,  naturally result from the rude
 condition in which he exists.
   The influence of the state of society,  and  of the
 modes of life which prevail among different nations,


 traits, till at length the mixture of different nations coming in
 among them effaces this characteristic distinction.  Wars, mi-
 grations, commercial intercourse, have so confounded nations,
 anciently posited at the greatest distances from  one another,
 that we can no longer perceive  that primitive and  specific im-
pression which originally distinguished them.  As most neigh-
boring  countries, however,  form in time pi ctty intimate con-
nections, they become gradually  so blended, that now  we do
 not often perceive very striking and characteristic differences
of national countenance but among people whose actunl, or pre-
 sent positions are removed from one another at ven cnr«;der-
able intervals. Chap. i. p. 13,  14. 
                       162
or tribes of men, to produce some variety or change
in the complexion, and even in the form and pro-
portions of the person, may receive illustration from
the variety, of aspect  exhibited by  the  higher and
lower classes into which the people of almost all na-
tions are divided ; and who may be regarded, in some
degree, as men in different states of society.
   The poor and laboring part of the community in
every country, are usually more dark in their com-
plexion, more hard in their features,  and  more coarse
and ill formed in  their  limbs, than persons of better
rank, who enjoy greater ease,  and more  liberal
means of subsistence.   They want the delicate tints
of colour, the pleasing regularity of features, and the
elegant and fine  proportions  of the person so fre*
quently seen in the higher classes.   Many particu-
lar exceptions undoubtedly there are.  Luxury may
disfigure the one,—a  fortunate coincidence of cir-
cumstances may give a happy assemblage of fea-
tures to the other.*   But these exceptions will not

   • It should be kept in mind through the  whole of the follow-
ing illustrations, that, when mention is made of the superior
beauty of persons in the higher classes of society, the remark
is general.  It is not intended to deny that there exist many
*— •> *    both of deformity amoi.^ the great,  and of beauty 
                       163
invalidate the general observation.  The distinctions
which subsist between the several classes of society
become more considerable by time,  after families
have  held, for ages, nearly the same stations.   But
they  are  more  conspicuous  in those  countries in
which the laws or customs of the nation have made
the most complete and permanent discrimination of
ranks.  In Scotland,  for example,  how wide is the
difference between the chiefs of the Highland clans,
and the tenants and laborers of the land !   A simi-
lar distinction takes place  between the nobility and
peasantry of France, of Spain, of Italy, of Germany,
and especially of Poland, because there the vassalage
of the  peasantry  is more oppressive than  in  any
other country  in  Europe.  The noble, or military
class in India has  been pronounced by some travel-
lers to be composed of a different race of men from
the populace who are their traders, and artizans; be-
cause,  the former,  elevated by  their rank  above
them, and devoted only to martial studies and at-
enlevements, are distinguished by  that manly beau-

among the poor.  And the general remark  is intended to be
applied only to those who enjoy their fortune with temperance;
because luxury and intemperance tend equally with extreme
poverty and hardships to disfigure the person. 
                          164
   ty so frequently found united  with the profession of
   arms; the latter, poor and laborious, exposed to in-
   numerable hardships and privations, and left, by their
   laws and their religion, without the hope of improv-
   ing their condition, or the spirit to attempt it, have
   become timid and servile in the expression of their
   countenance, diminutive, and often deformed in their
   persons, and marked by a deeper shade  than their
   superiors  in  their complexion.   In  France, says
   Buffon, you may distinguish by  their appearance,
   not only the nobility from the peasantry, but the su-
j  perior orders of nobility from the inferior, these from
   the  citizens,  and  the citizens from  the  peasants.
   You may even distinguish the peasants of one part
   of the country from those of another,  according to
   the  fertility of the soil, or the nature of its product.
   —And I have been assured by a most  judicious and
   accurate observer of men and manners, a native of
   Scotland,*  that there is a sensible and striking dif-
   ference between the  people in the  eastern,  and those
   in the western counties of that kingdom.   The far-
   mers who cultivate the fertile  lands  of the Lothians

     * The late Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, President of the College
   of New-Jersey. 
165
have generally a  fairer complexion,  and a better
figure,  than those who  live in the West, and draw a
more coarse and scanty subsistence from a thin and
ungrateful soil.*


   *  It is well known to those who have been  accustomed
carefully to  observe  human nature, that  coarse  and meagre
food is commonly unfavorable both to softness and regularity
of features, and to  the  fairness  of  the complexion.  Every
change  of diet, as I have before  remarked, and every variety
in the manner of cooking and preparing it for use, is accom-
panied with some alteration  in  the system.  I have several
times witnessed, in my own family, and in those of my friends,
the most pleasing changes take place in poor children taken in
to service for a term of years, who, in a short period have ex-
changed their sallow skin,  and emaciated  appearance, the ef-
fect of  want and hardship, for a healthful countenance, and
clear complexion.
   Difference of food, and treatment equally affects die inferior
animals.  The flesh of  many species of  game differs both in
solour and in flavor  according to  the nature of the grounds on
which they have fed.  The flesh of hares,  it is remarked by
Buffon, that have fed on high lands is much fairer than of those
which have fed in vallies, and  in  damp  places.   And every
keeper of cattle knows how much the firmness and flavor of the
meat depends upon the manner of feeding.  According to the
nature of the food, and the care and  treatment bestowed upon
them, all domestic animals are infinitely varied in size and shape.
The Spaniards inform us that the  swine in Cuba grow  to nearly
double the size of their parent stock in Europe.   And accord-
ing  to  the  testimony of Clavigero, black cattle arrive at a
much greater volume of body in the  rich forests, and  the tem-
perate climate of Paraguav, than the cattle of Spain, from which 
166
   That respectable naturalist Forster, who accom-
panied Capt. Cook in his last voyage,  in remarking
on the inhabitants of the islands of the Great South
Sea, observes, with regard to  those of the Society -


they have originally sprung.  On the other hand, the cattle, in
many parts of the United States, and in Canada, being negli-
gently  housed, and fed, during our rigorous winters, and often
left, through the rest of the year, to gather a scanty subsist-
ence from the pasturage found in our woods, have  greatly
degenerated from their  parent stocks.  They arc often seen
to be  diminutive through defect  of nourishment, and  de-
formed through  weakness, which exposes them to many ac-
cidents, and distorts their limbs,  by their inability, especially
in the spring season, to bear firmly their own weight.   Somo
such facts occurring to the  observation of Europeans who had
visited this country,  gave occasion to the  Abbe Ruynal to pro-
nounce the American climate unfavorable to the growth and
vigor of animal bodies.  That rapid philosopher saw the effects,
and had not patience to enquire into the proper cause of them ;
and with characteristic boldness, a boldness, indeed, which we
see too often imitated by European travellers and philosophers,
pronounced his decision.
   Many animals, by the manner  in which they  are fed and
trained nn y be brought to change, and apparently to lose,  the
characteristic properties of their nature.   Forster remarks of
the dogs of Otahcitce, which are kept, along with their hogs,
and poultry, merely  for food, and which are nourished chiefly
on fruits and roots, the island furnishing little or no game, have
become most inactive and lazy animals.  Their heads grow
larger  than is common to the species ; and, in their extreme
sluggishness, they are hardly ever heard to bark; but utter their
':ir.guid and uneasy feeling only in a kind 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, and 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.  Science,
 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 citizens
the beautiful figure  and complexion of the noblest
blood; and in noble houses the 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
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 themselves,  they retain many
customs  of their African  ancestors.   And pressed
with labor, and dejected by servitude, and the hu-

   * In some of the 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
die sobriety of their domesdc education, and of their moral and
religious,  their industrious and  economical  habits, which
pretty obviously distinguishes them from the natives of most
of the states in 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-
vice 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 African 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    •
tion of their features is regular,* their capacity good,
and 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 immediately in the families of their masters,
have undergone a great change, while the complexion is not
yet sensibly altered.  The form and expression of die counte-
nance, and composition of the features being principally affect-
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 require, in our climate, the greatest
care to prevent them 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
tliere 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 dJiy in
Princeton and its vicinity who have the nose turned with a
Handsome aquiline curve. 
                     '    172

quently meet with persons who  have  been taken
captive  in infancy from Anglo-American  families,
and grown up in the habits of savage life.   These
descendents 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 infancy, 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 lugubrious wildness, the  same swelling of
the features and muscles of the Lee, the  same form and atti-
tude of the limbs,  and the same characteristic gait,  which is a
great  elevation of the feet, with the toe somewhat turned in.
Exposed without covering, to  the constant action  of the sun,
an! of the weather, amidsi all the hardships of the savage state,
th ir colour tends to a coppery brown.—This example affords
a.:' ti.ci proof of the greater ease with which a dark colour may
be suoned on a skin originally fair, than effaced from it.  The
causes of colour are active in their operation, and, entering  in-
to the substance of the skin, soon make a durable impression.
While is the original ground on which this operation is receiv-
ed.  And the whiteness of the 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 negative influence : applied, therefore,  to a
skin already discoloured, it  will be slow in producing  any
change towards white as long as the smallest degree of positive
agency is suffered from the original causes of discolouration.
And, as the skin retains with great constancy impressions once
received into its substance, all the dark shades of the complex-
ion will be very long retained.  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 internal  constitution o' 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
hitherto become sensibly lighter in America ? If lie has any
candor, and possesses, in any degree, the information  which
ought  to distinguish  a man who presumes to be an  annotator
on that work, he will be ashamed of the indiscretion mid incor-
rectness, to  give them the  softest names  they will bear,  of
some of his remarks under 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
 society,  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-
portion 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 differ-
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 correspondent feature in many of his  com-
panions, the difference was very small,  and some-
times hardly  perceptible; and yet there was an oh-

  * 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 in him, I ascribe rather to the 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
weather, and the hardships ef their state, with other causes
which 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  already 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 flat, 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-
                        x 
                      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, we
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 cir-
cles of society, and the coarse ruddiness of the vul- 
                      179
gar |—between the uncouth  features,  and unpliant
limbs of an unpolished rustic, and the complacency
of countenance, the graceful figure, and easy air and
movement of persons in  cultivated  life !—between
the shaped 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 title 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 differences, 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 effect of a common standard
of beaut)-,  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  different idcay
 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.
 Thev 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  oflndia and China, con-
 sidering the pleasantness of those inviting climates, were  ori-
 ginally inhabited  before the regions of Tartary.  But,  the fre-
 quent conquests to which they have since been subject, parti-.
 cularly, the northern parts of India, from Tartarian tribes, have
 changed the hc.bits, ideas, and persons of the people even more,
 pertu.ps, than Europe was changed by the barbarians who ovci -
 ran it in the fifth and sixdi centuries.   The present population
 of Northern India is, in effect, Tartarian, only changed to softer
features, and better  proportioned persons, by a milder climate^
und a more improved state of society. 
                           181

 »have. *  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  Li 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 mark  them with such scars,  through 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 obsei vei s,
 has ventured to assert that the natives of America have no hair
 on the face, or the 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 race.  Dr.
 Blumenbach, through a similar error in his information, sup-
 poses that tlieir hair is very thin, and in small quantity.  On the
other hand, the hair of our native indians, where it is not care.
fully extirpated by art, is both  thick  and long.   But careless
travellers seeing their smooth faces, and bald heads enquired
no farther into the cause, but represented the fact as proceeding
from a natural debility  of constitution and consequent defi.
•iency 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 origin.  And the
same people you trace from that continent through a succession
of islands til 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  tributary streams of  the Maragnon.   And
here accordingly you meet  with various  tribes of indians of
handsomer  form and features than those of  North-America,
and not ur.l'.ke, in their appearance, 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 Tartary through tic
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 
183
Africa, and in the northern regions of Asia they en-
deavour to assist the  influence  of the climate  by
using 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 wildness of dieir 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
civilized ; 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
the  tendencies of the climate, and the natural influences of so- 
                        184
 affect 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 the obser,
 vation of those who have paid a careful attention  to
 her operations.   Every considerable  change of co-
 lour, feature,  or  figure which has grown into a habit
 of the body, or indicates any important alteration in
 the general action of the system, is liable to be trans-
 mitted, along with other constitutional properties,  to
 offspring.  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, are  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,

 ciety ; and often in  some unaccountable caprice :  but, whether
 derived from the one source, or the other, they will ever have
 a powerful effect in forming the attitudes, the air, the compo-
 sition of the features, and the whole aspect of the person. 
                       IS5
became  hereditary.*   The  inferior animals afford
many examples to prove the existence of this  natu-
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 they are  equally
susceptible of deterioration  by  neglect,  or by im-
proper  treatment.   Out  of the  same original stock,
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 proper
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 conceived, or less worthy of
credit than that constitutional tendency  to certain diseases
which, it is now acknowledged by all physicians, may be ren-
dered hereditary ?
                         Y 
                       186
onuses, that which I have mentioned of an imaginary
standard of the human form, or oftlie  ptrkction 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
such 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 them 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 person is established in any na-
tion, connexions in marriage will be greatly influenc-
ed by it.   And  these will  contribute,  in  no incon-
siderable degree, to perpetuate, or to modify the na- 
                        187
tional  countenance.*   If men,  in  the union of the
sexes, 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 forming this connexion by interest ever

  * Perhaps the power of imagination in pregnant  women,
which must be always strongly affected by die 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 carried
?» an extreme on the other hand. 
                      188
void of taste.  The superior ranks, with few excep-
tions, will generally excel, in the beauty of their form
and 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 statf
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 Ror
man historians of the ancestors of the present nations
of Europe, we must acknowledge that the refinement
of manners, and the improvements in the state of so-
ciety, which have been introduced in modern  times 
                      189
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
vriters, 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 cause of the  high 
                        190
perfection to which the arts of sculpture  and paint-
ing arrived in Greece.  Hitherto among almost 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 designj
they gratified only their  own taste, they have gener-
ally  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
amo.ig the citizens, and the poorest enjoy comparative ease and
plenty, than in Europe where so wide a distinction exists be-
tween the highest and the lowest grades of society.—They ar» 
191
Df  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
C;;pt. Cook's observations on the inhabitants of most  of the
islui.us which he visited in the South Sea.  In remarking on
thosu of the island of Owyhee, he s^ys, " The same superior-
ity which is observable in the Erees (or nobles) through all the
other islands is found also here.  Those whom we saw, are,
without exception, perfectly well fomned ; whereas, the lower
sort, besides  their general inferiority, are  subject to all the
variety of make and figure that is seen in the populace of other
countries."   Cook's 3d voyage,  book 3d, chup. 6th.   These
are the remarks of a plain, but most judicious man, who had
no 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 with which it inspires the beholder, that,  t© this
quality, probably, does the body of princes and nobles collec-
tively taken, in  any country, owe great part of their influence
over the populace.  Riches, and magnificence in dress and equi-
pa;re produce much of their  effect  in procuring  respect, by
giving an artificial beauty  to the person.   How often does his-
tory remark that young princes  have attached their subjects,
and generals their armies by extraordinary beauty  of .person I
Ai'd y< ung and beautiful  queens have ever been followed and
seiveu with uncommon enthusiasm. 
                       19^
 the manners and pursuits, which may 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 a r an
 corporeal forms.   And whenever the  moral, not less
 than the physical causes, under the influence of which
 any people exist, have produced any visibu effect 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 aa
 dull and phlegmatic  as the  genius of  the people:
 and though Bceotia and Attica were in  the vicinity
 of each other, and inhabited  originally by  the same
 race,  the distinction between Boeotian 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 Boeotian 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 different faculties 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, will 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 before produced of the
ancient Germans, and the present nations of Europe, affords a
striking proof.
  t The exaggerated representations which we sometimes re-
ceive of the superior ingenuity of men in suvt.ge life, are usu-
ally the result of inconsideration.  Savages are the subjects of
eulogy for the same reason that we admire a monkeyj—that is, a
                         3 
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 society
 which was not expected  from the rudeness of their condition.
 There are doubtless degrees of genius among savages us 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 capable of acquii ing any
 new art, than those who  have grown up to maturity in the sava-
 gism of Africa. Whether they will ever become as suscepti-
ble of improvement as the. white races, which has been strenu- 
                       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 affinity 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 employed.  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,  com-
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. Jef-
ferson hi our own country, will be a subject of consideration
hereafter. 
                       196
ttially attended to this subject.  It is not unworthy of
being remarked, 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 t
the 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
entire 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 combination.  If both the eyes and the complex-.
ion be changed  in the  same person,  each  variety
affecting the  whole  s\stem  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, t]hc 
                       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 less
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.  I  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 uncxpressive—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—the 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 preceive 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, education
 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 will 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
uis aspect,  many degrees  nearer to the brutes, than 
200
 the civilized man.   The solitude in which he live*
 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,  w ith 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-
 cxpressive,  a  sad and  lugubrious  air.   The wild
 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 .his 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 si.vt.ges, ai d several
 of those  of the larger islands,they are distinguished by an air of
 mildness and  complacency, which is much increased in conse-
quence of their easy and soci.d  manner of living.  And this is
 greatly promoted by the mildness of their climate,  and tie
 abundance of simple and nutritious food spontaneously suppli-
 ed bv their 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, than 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 th«;
human character in that quarter of the world, be one reason cf
the greater elevation of the European above that of the Asiatic
countenance ?
                      A A
r 
                        202
gree  in which they prevail are found to be attended
with  a like effect.   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 vivid  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 affects, 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 experiment on ourselves, we may  render this
eff-ct  obvious.  By a protrusion of the lips,  or  by dr^wii:g
down the mouth at the corners, we shall perceive a stricture
on the nose, that, in an age when all the features are peculiarly
soft and pliant, would sensibly tend to dt press it. And, continu-
ed through the whoie of life, would fix it immovably in that habit. 
                       208
therefore, have this feature commonly more flat, and
sunk than civilized nations.  This, however, L> not
to be  regarded as the entire cause of that extreme
flatness which prevails on part of the coast of  Af• ica,
and  in Lapland.   Climate,  probably,  enters  the re
for part of the effect; and is aided  by  an  absurd
sense  of beauty which prompts 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 th<. ir usual apathy at home, are mostly
of the uneasy  kind; and to them they give an  wu
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 among the
posterity of the Africans in America, who are plated in e.sy
and comfortable circumstances, we frequently meet with ti  is
feature not only raised like that of the Angio-American, btt
beautifully turned. 
                       204
to heighten that disgusting coarseness which so many
other causes concur to create.
   I have now briefly examined the effects of climate,
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 many
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, why, 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 differences 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
numerous, 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 oi  de-
liberate falsehood, or of ignorant surprize.   Noth-
ing  can  appear  more  ridiculous aid 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 improbable that giants rmy have
been seen there.   And the same author admits the story of the
existence of a people in New Holland without teeth.
  L^-d Monbodo, in his treatise of the origin of languages, key
whimsically enough, supposes that mankind  originally had
tails; and that they lost this bruu.l excrescence only in  conse-
quence of the progress of civilization.  And he  believes that
there are some nations who yet ret. in this mark of affinity with
the  inferior tribes of animals.  Sir Walter 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 hi the upper part of
tl  breast.  O her writers  have described certain hordes of
Tartars in  a similar stile.   The necks of these Tatura are. 
                       30t
   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 disquisitions, in Europe.  We hear
 every day the absurd remarks and false reasonsings
 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-
 fluence of habits and ideas, framed in a different cli-
 mate,  and a different state of society.  They pro*
 nounce 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 in
the actions of men, and manners of nations, by diver-
sit}  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-
igy nas sometimes undertaken to annihilate them- 
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  disappear*


   *  It requires a more minute  and  accurate attention, and a
greater portion of reflection, and the true spirit of philosophy
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  the 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  the  size  of the people of different
nations beyond all the proportions of nature.   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 such 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^
by itself, without knowing its connexions ; or he would give it:
in his imagination those 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 the modesty and chas- 
                          209

ed.  And the same fate should have attended those of
the Ladrone islands to whom Buffon, after Gemelli
Carreri has been pleased to give an imaginary- exis-
tence.   Tavernier's tales of the smooth and hairless


tity of  the women of  Otaheite, which his after  experience
taught him to correct.  Many such false judgments i re t> ' e
found in almost every writer of voyiges or travels.  Tl>o A; •
rican savages have often been represented by Europ'\.n writ. :
as frigid towards the sex because they seldom av..ii  Liemsciv:. .-;
of the opportunities almost constantly offered by tneir st^tv. cf
society, to violate the chastity of tiicir tlnules.  Ai.d, oi  be
other hand, they are sometimes represented as licenticir, i;e-
cause they are seen to lie pi-omiscuousiy in the  same wigwam,
or round the same fire.—Both judgnieiits are Llse ; and residt
from prepossessions formed in society.   Simplicity or rather
rudeness of manners, and  the luidships of  their state, more
than constitution, or than climate, create that i ppcarar-ce of
indifference,  on  the one hand, which is esteemed an evidence
of frigidity ; and give occasion, on the other, to that promiscu-
ous intercourse which is supposed to be united  with  crirriiu.I
indulgence.  Luxury, restraints,  and  the nunifoid 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 p..tk nee
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 notion of property, ex-
cept in those things  which he has in present occupation, takes,
without scruple, what he 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 whole nation.
  The false and distorted representations  of  Europeans who
visit the United States are sufficient to. make us distrust the
narrations of all foreigners who pretend to depict the st^te and
manners of new and distant countries.   There is  hardiy a fact
which is.not perverted by such men as Weld and Ashe, and the
inferences which they draw from what they 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 the Alleghany
mountains on account  of wild beasts which never  disturb an
American: his  terrors, his disgusts,  and his wonderful de-
scriptions of thunder-storms,  fire-fiies, and snakes are 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 with lit-
tle more accuracy or discrimination than  these ignorant Eng-
lishmen.  One of the customs, he says, of the citizens  of Phi-
ladelphia is universally  to indulge themselves in  bed for two
hours in the afternoon, during which time the  streets arc abso-
lutely deserted.   He may have been acquainted with  one or 
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, are found, by more accu-


rwo families in  which the ladies gave themselves Uiis 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 hi 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.—Hut the nation which appears to have de-
parted farthest from the ordinary laws of human nature, is that
of the Giagas,  a  people of Africa, mentioned by Lord Kaims
in his laudable attempts to disprove the truth  of the  Mosaic
history.  This people, he thinks, must be of  a distinct race
from die rest of mankind, because, unlike all others, they kiil
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 cause might
have suffered him to reflect, that they could not have continu-
ed a separate race longer than till the stolen children had grown
up to manhood.—An excellent specimen of the easy faith of
infidelity !—See  Ld. Kaims' prelim,  disc,  to  sketches of th*
hist, of man. 
                       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  known, 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
e-ssay ; 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 Africa 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  faculties 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 effect either  in subjecting
them  to considerable changes in their aspect, from. 
                       214
 the operation 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 their 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
 nation  should, in some centuries afterwards,  return
 to its original scats, 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
                                    I*; 
                      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 the 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  on
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 see 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  were
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 religious7
or national  prejudices are retained, and surround
them with those fences which prevent them from 
                       216
 amalgamating, and assuming one national character.
 And India, and the neighboring islands in the I ndian
 Ocean, will ever be filled with 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 are 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  people.   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 Asia:  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.1*

   r I had not long since a striking proof of the visible resem-
 blance between  the  figure, countenance, and whole appearance
 of the  Malay,  and  the American indian.  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  return from the
 East, fixed his  residence in 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 cf the
other.  They contemplated one anotlier with evident marks  of
                         c C 
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 writh a
refrigerating vapour, renders  the winds that fan its
numerous islands, and narrow peninsulas compara-
tively temperate.  The principal  masses of its lands
lie nearer to the northern tropic,  than  to the equa-
tor.  In the summer season the chief wmds that blow

surprize.  And> by their signs and gestures, discovered their
mutual astonishment at seeing such a likeness to themselves.
—Every person, indeed, who sees these Malays,  and is ac-
quainted 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
face 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
 the 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 over the  whole Asiatic
 zone, taking tlieir course in the two periods of the year accord-
 ing to the relative position to the sun of the great bodies of land
 which influence their direction.
   In the first edition of this essay, misled by the information of
 some navigators who 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 irfor-
 mation has convinced me that the natives, although black, have
 more of the Indian than the African feature, and like the former
 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 new
almost universally inhabited'by descendents of the Mah y tribes,
who, in some former period, have 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 remains of
indian magnificence, and monuments of  the Hindoo  supersti-
tion, which ure still discernible in several of the islands, in those
parts, from which the aboriginals, eow  the savage inhabitants
»f the mountainous 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
h, 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-Hope, 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 which
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 western coast.  The cause of die great
difference between the eastern and western  sides of
Africa will  be obvious to those who  consider  the
course of the tropical v. inds,  and the 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
eut 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 greatly 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.   Ail nature bears the
marks of a powerful  fire.  As soon as the traveller
leaves  the  borders of the  few rivers which 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 bushes, 
                        £22
 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 those of the Moors,  and make some  ap-
 proach  to the  European face.   When we leave the
 torrid zone, proceeding to the South,  we soon ar-

  * Buffon  speaks  of a nation in the center of Africa, the
 Zuinges, who, the Arabian writers say, are often almost entire-
 ly cut off by hot winds that rise out of the surrounding deserts.
And in the desert, the ancient Syrtis, the traveller is frequently
buried beneath hills of sand raised by hot whirlwinds, 
                       223
 rive among the Hottentots,  and approach the Caffre
 complexion which prevails near the Cape, and along
 the south-eastern coast.  The Hottentots, however,
 are of a deeper hue than the  Moors in  the  vicinity
 of the northern  tropic; because the Moors,  being
 more civilized,  have  been better able to defend
 themselves  against the impressions of the climate.
 But  the Hottentots, being the most savage of man.
 kind, suffer its influence in the extreme.  Another
 circumstance  contributes to the  difference of  the
 effect.  The Moors in the vicinity of the tropic re-
 ceive the influence of the climate on the basis of a
 European, or Asiatic, feature and complexion;  the
 Hottentot on  a  basis  formed  under  the  equator.
 They endeavour, likewise,  by every mean  in their
 power,  to preserve that primitive countenance with
 which the} must, by habit and  education, have  as^
 sociated the idea of beauty.  For  savage,  and  al-
 most brutal as they are,  they have, as well as  the
 most civilized people,  their  peculiar notions on this
 subject.   They  flatten the nose of every child  by
pressure;  and they endeavour to increase the blacky
ness of their complexion by rubbing the skin with
the most  filthy  unguents, and exposing it, without
any protection, to  the  full force of a scorching sun. 
                        224
 Their hair, at the same time, is injured by daubing
 it, constantly,  with the vilest compositions.   Yet,
 against all their efforts,  the climate, although it is
 but a few  degrees  declined from  the torrid  zone,
 visibly prevails.  Their hair is thicker and longer
 than that of the negroes, and their complexion, as
 they approach  the  southern point of the peninsula,
 becomes of the light cast of the Caffre.*
   But the phenomenon which principally merits our
 attention in the African zone is the Abyssinian per.
 son and complexion.   We  find  in  this Alpine re.
 gion,  and  between the ninth and fifteenth degrees
 from  the equator, a  race of men  resembling  the
 southern Arabians,  only of a darker hue, as they lie
 nearer to the  sun, but extremely dissimilar  from the
 negroes on  the West coast.   Their hair is long and
 straight, their features  tolerably regular, and their
 complexion a very dark olive, approaching to black.
 —This deviation from the general law of that zone
 is explained, according to the  principles already

  * Many peculiarities have been related of these people with
 regard to their figure and appearance,  by careless  voyagers,
which are either wholly false, or very greatly exaggerated.  If
 vve were to trust such narrations, we should suppose them to
be hardly distinguishable  from certain classes of  the brute
creation. 
                        225
laid down,  from their position on the continent,  in
the vicinity of the great Indian  or Arabian ocean,
and from the elevated and mountainous face of the
country,  rising  at  a  medium,  at least,  two miles
above the  level of the sea, * and, at this great ele-
vation, covered  with clouds, and drenched by al-
most  incessant  deluges of rain  during one half of
the year.|—This  altitude of the  general face of the
country in  Abyssinia raises it to  a region of the at-
mosphere which is equivalent, in  its temperature,  to
several degrees  of northern latitude.   Thus, the
partial civilization of the people, the elevation of the
face of the  country, the temperature of the tropical
winds coming from the Arabian ocean, and the can*
opy of clouds, and the incessant  rains which prevail
during that  season of the year in which the sun is

   * Philosophers who have visited that country inform us that
the mercury in the  barometer does not  rise there, on an aver-
age, more than twenty inches, which corresponds to the alti-
tude of about two miles above the level of Uic sea,
   t The periodical rains in Abyssinia are now known to be the
eause of the overflowing of the Nile.  And as the extent of this
deluge demonstrates the  prodigious quantities of rain which
fall in that mountainous region during five or six months in the
year,  so the  length of the river issuing from those mountains,
affords a new proof of their great elevation.
                        D D 
226
 v-ertical,  afford an adequate cause of that deviation
 which we find in this region from the ordinary com-
 plexion and form of the human person, presented in
 other parts of the African zone.*


   * After  these  descriptions of the varieties of  feature and
 complexion which exist under the same latitude, and  the rea-
 sons, I trust satisfactory to the  philosophic reader, assigned
 for them in the essay, it is surprizing to see these very varie-
 ties enumerated, by the Critical Reviewers, as objections to
 the principles of the essay, as if no explanation of them had been
 given, or attempted.—" If we examine the  globe, say they, we
 shall find a very considerable diversity in countries where the
 heat and dryness are nearly the same.  Let us take the 20th de-
 gree of latitude which is within the Tropic of Cancer, and pas-
 ses directly through the kingdom of the negi oes.   It cuts Nu-
 bia where the inhabitants are not black."—I say the inhabitants
 of Nubia are not so black as those on the western coast between
 the rivers Gambia and  Senegal; but when  they say that they
 are not black, or that Nubia  is  as hot as the  West coast,
 they have either been badly informed, or are greatly biased by
 their system.—They proceed, " it cuts  Arabia almost in its
 widest part; but  the Arabians are  only swarthy, and  when
 transported to more temperate climes, are  almost fair."—On
 the other hand, the widest part of Arabia lies above the tropic,
 and  there alone wc find the swarthy Arab to whom their re-
 marks can apply.   And though the  southern Arab is  not so
 black as the negro, sufficient reasons, I  presume, have been
 assigned in the essay, for this difference in the comparative
 temperature of the Arabian peninsula.—" It divides, say they,
 the Decan wh.: re those  best defended from the heat-are  only
 blown, and the poorer sort are of a darkish hue very different
from black."—How  much  the prepossession  of  system has 
227
   It now remains only to account for that peculiar
variety of complexion and countenance exhibited by
the savage natives of  America.  Their complexion
is not so fair as that of Europe or of Middle Asia ;
nor  so black as that of  Africa.  And there  is a
greater uniformity of countenance throughout this
whole continent than is found in any other region of
the globe of  equal  extent.
   That the natives of America are not fair results as
a  natural  consequence from the principles  already
established in  this essay.   Savages  will always be
discoloured, even in temperate climates, by different
shades of the tawny complexion.   And if we do not


diluted their colours 1—But surely after this, they need not
complain, as they have  done, of the inaccuracy of terms by
which the grades  of complexion are distinguished in the essi.y.
—They have, at least,  implicitly acknowledged the great effect
upon the human skin which may result from die state of society
in which men are placed,  combined with the influ. nee of cli-
mate.  But, if these gentlemen would patiently idvert to the
comparative mildness of the Indian zone, to the great mixture
of northern nations, which time  has brought together, especi-
ally in upper India, and the vicinity of the twentieth degree of
latitude to the temperate climates, they would find little occa-
sion for their  remarks.—They observe fuitrer, "that li is
parallel passes  over the kingdom of Mexico and the  scuth-
western end of Cuba."—The insinuation hr.plu-d raher  than
expressed in this observation  will be *isw< red immediately
i^ien I come to speak of the climate of tropical America. 
                       228
find any tribes resembling  some of the nations ot
Africa  in the deep jet of their colour, it proceeds
from the mild temperature of the  tropical zone in
America.  Mexico, which forms the  northern porr
tion of that zone, consists chiefly of a narrow neck
of land  dividing the Atlantic from the Pacific ocean,
and  every where  rising into high hills.   As  you
proceed to the South immediately below the isthmus
of Darien, Terra  Firma,  on one  side, presents an
Alpine  bed of lofty mountains.   On  the other side
runs the chain of the Andes, with its elevated sum-
mits covered with snow.  On the West of these lies
the narrow empire of Peru,  constantly refreshed by
temperate winds from the  Pacific ocean, and over-
shadowed by a canopy of dense vapour which  pre-
vents the rays of the sun penetrating with great force
to the earth.   On the East  is spread  out the  im-
mense country  of Amazonia flooded during a great
portion  of the year by the waters of the Maragnon,
and its tributary rivers,  and covered with thick and
dark forests, beneath which grows a luxuriant tissue
of vines and weeds which can hardly  be penetrated
by the traveller, and utterly excludes the sun.  Here
are no arid deserts  of  sand; and  from such a .rich
vegetable growth arises a refrigerating perspiration, 
229
which, together with the vapour of so many streams,
iinited with the effluvia of  the  moist and  shaded
earth that cannot be  wholly absorbed even by the
thick vegetation on its  surface, produces an uncom*
mon coolness  in  the atmosphere.*  This moderate
temperature is increased by the East wind  which
perpetually follows the course of the sun through the
equatorial regions.  Having deposited in the Atlantic

ocean the excessive  heats acquired in  its passage
across the continent of Africa it regains a tempera-
ture  comparatively mild before  it  arrives  at the
American coast;  whence it continues its course over
thick forests and  flooded lands, till it meets the cold
ranges of the Andes.   The lofty and spreading for-
ests of tropical America are at once a proof of the
temperature of the atmosphere, and  contribute  to


  * Dr. Robertson quotes two eminent naturalists,  Piso and
Margrave, who had  resided long in Brazil,  who represent the
climate as being very temperate and mild compared with that of
Jfrica.   The air, they say, is not only cool, but chilly through
the night,  insomuch  that the natives kindle fires every even-
ing in their huts. This is confirmed by different writers con-
cerning various countries within that vast region, viz. Neuhoff
concerning Brazil; Gumilla concerning  the countries on the
Oronoco ;  Acugna concerning  those along the Amazon ; and
Biet in his voyage de la France Equinox, gives a similar  ao
c&unt of Cayenne.—Hist. Amer. Note 5th,  vol. 2d/ 
                       230
promote it.   Extreme heat parches the unprotected
soil of Africa, and converts  it into an arid sand.
The luxuriant vegetation which prevails  in the tro-
pical  latitudes of  America is the fruit of a 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  that 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 livi.:g, we add diat 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 oftlie
islands of the great  South  Sea, from whom,  it is
probable,  they  derive their  origin.   The Malays, 
                         232
who  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  either the ancestors of the  present inhabitants of
many of those islands, or the nations whom they have extiipat-
ed, possessed the knowledge 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 island of Easter which is so
deeply embosomed in the ocean, and approaches so near to the
American continent, which are beyond the skill or power of its
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 religious wor-
ship of the Peruvians bears a strong testimony to  their Asiatic
origin. 
                       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 appears  to have been founded about
three centuries  before  the  discovery.   From this
empire a few tribes probably found their way farther
up 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*
pies  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 generally, the
tribes in that vicinity between  the Mississippi and  Mexico
were of a milder character than the northern indians.
                        E E 
                       234
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 7W-
tows, 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 are exempted from  every
laborious  occupation; spending  their lives amidst
such pleasures and amusements as the climate  per-
mits,  and their uncultivated state of society affords.
The  former, besides the burdensome tasks which
they are 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, are
always well clothed,* and enjoy  not only a  sufn-

  • In a handsome and light cloth the peculiar fabric of those
islands. 
                        235
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 other
 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 ind succulent
 flesh, and dogs which are therekept onlyfor 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 h mple
 geople, appears agreeable. 
                       236
as the  Otaheiteans, though commonly of a more
muscular form.   And these effects are supposed, by
the naturalists whom I have before mentioned, to be
increased 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 strenuons exertion.
  From the inhabitants of the Marquesas,  the  peo-
ple 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 dark and  coppery in their complexion,  not
unlike the Peruvians of the neighboring continent,
Several relics of ancient art, however, bearing  a 
                      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  miserable 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  interior 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 savage condition.  The second have all
 the appearance of being the remnants of Hindoo co-
 lonies 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 
                      i 239

age,  issuing  from   the   North of  Asia,  having.
gubdued 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 evi-
dent vestiges of the same language, whioh those,  wh© are best
acquainted with them, discern  in the  vocabularies of all those
islands.
   Tivces of this language are perceived says Reland, [disser-
tationes miscellanese, 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-
baric, and even the Braminic.  And the common origin of so
many different dialects is most obvious in their vocabularies of
n.imes which express the most common, familiar, and useful
objects, and sucn as must have been known, and even neces-
sary, equally to them, and to their ancestors, in every stage of
their improvement. 
240
distinct.   In forming the  different  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.  the Caucasian or handsomest
race, the primary seat of which was about the  Euxine 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.
   Linnceus 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-East of  Asia ; Uie
southern Asiatic ; the European;  the Ethiopian, and the Ame-
rican.
  Various other divisions have  been made by different wri-
ters ; as, the  Abbede la Croix; Kant; Dr. John Hunter; Zim-
merman, and others.—The conclusion to be  drawn from all this
variety of opinions is, perhaps,  that it  is impossible  to draw
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 of the 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, thty 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 die 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 negroes,
                       F 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 twelfth or thirteenth degree  of latitude to  the
 tropic, and extending from the Atlantic ocean, to the mountains
 of Abyssinia.—-Mr.  Park  appears to regard the Foulah tribes,
 who are lighter in their complexion than  other negroes, with
 softer  and longer hair, as  related by mixture to the Arabs,
 whom  they  resemble in  their attachment to a pastoral life.
 Those wandering and predatory tribes which are cabed  by  the
 general denomination of Moors,  who surround and penetrate
 the great desert, and have dispersed themselves in  various
 hordes as far as the Niger, are, not improbably,  the remains
 of several civilized nations  of antiquity, Carthagir'ms,  Phoe-
 nicians, Romans who at different peiiods possessed the North
 of Africa, blended with the  Numidians and Mauritani<rns, and
 reduced almost to savagism by being scattered through the in-
 hospitable deserts of that arid and ungei.ial country.
   This is the circle which the Critical Reviewers have dexter-
 ously selected for examples of diversity of complexion within
 the tropical latitudes in order to impugn the principles of this
 essay while they have not had the candor to notice, as philoso-
phers,  the solution 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 facts 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 eonfir
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 different 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 Iris 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
I 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 corT
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-
fi'iiteiy  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 the same, there  may  be 
                       245
causes of difference depending on  many natural in-
fluences with which philosophy is not yet acquaint-
ed ; 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 Literary and
     Philosophical Society of Manchester in England.

           Published in London, in quarto,
                 in the year 1799. 
 
REMARKS,
lvlR. 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 in
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 skel-
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 produeed
 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 their society.  When this is the case,
 he  is commonly distinguished by a more  erect person,  and
 more open countenance than his companions, with 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 confirmed by the amelioration which their features
are undergoing in the United States, especially in the families
of wealthy and humane 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, in general;  but  it is
applicable especially to the domestic slaves of opu-
lent  families in  the  southern  states,  and the  free
blacks who are found in considerble  numbers in the
northern  portion of the  Union.    The  most  op-
pressed and destitute of these slaves, with very  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 all those 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
a'le  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 6afety necessarily pre-
vents a speedy accomplishment of an event so desirable to hu-
manity.
  But in justice to the southern planters I must add that  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 unnecessary, or improper to be mentioned
here, contribute  to  the  severity of the slavery that exists in
those islands. 
                        252
ble  difference, as I have formerly remarked, in the
appearance, as there is in the treatment  of those do-
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  more
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 following facts and reasonings may be applied also to
estimate at their just value those detached observations quoted-
in Mr. White's rppendix from professor  Soemmering's essay
on the comparative anatomy of the negro and European.
* 
                      253
  a The foot of the negro, says he, is much longer-9
broader, and flatter than that of the European.  The
os 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
much 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
tion 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 auditorius  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 that the muscles, 
255
the  complexion or the expression of  the counte-
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
Philadelphia 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 tftis 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 the
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
wonder at, his petulance, or his ignorance in the following re-
mark.  « The question respecting  the mutability of the com* 
256
meet 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 are
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 the doctrine of entire mutability 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 Chemistry 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 distinguishtdfor their christian zeal,
than for their knowledge of nature ?  Or has the young man,
in his zeal to throw out a malignant reflection against religion,
forgotten these real philosophers ?—If he has a spark remain-
ing of that ingenuousness which becomes a philosopher, or a
scholar, he will be ashamed of this annotation. 
                         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
 ehildren during the period of infancy.f  The cli-

  * See the proportions taken from young blacks, p. 261—263.
  f From the same cause many crooked and  deformed pcrs
 sons are seen in most of the 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 fi om many
hurtful accidents.  From a directly opposite cause, the facility
with which the poor procure subsistence  in the United Stazes,
ajid the leisure which they consequently enjoy for all these do-
                         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  in 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  frequent-
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 arc
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 the same effect, which
the pressure of too much labor does in many parts of Europe.
—See this subject more particularly treated in the  essay, pV
 139—144. 
                      259
gibbous  form to these limbs.  I am the more in-
clined to ascribe the effect to this cause for a reason
that 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-
lence 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  I  daily  see  persons of the  African 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
ascribed  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 mus~
clcs    And we perceive,  in this country, that the
one defect is diminished in proportion as the other is
corrected.—To the untoward structure of their limbs,
this  author attributes a  peculiar awkwardness 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 the ploughed  field in  his ordinary  gait.   Black
domestics among us, in general, walk with as much
propriety as our white servants, and black chamber
maids, in particular, imitate with great address, the
genteei 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 upon 
                      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,  differ  so consider-
ably from one another in their proportions, as to be
sufficient, one would think,  to have weakened his
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
•f the ulna in another.
                             Height of   Length of
                              person.       ulna.
                            Feet. Inches.   Inches.
   The first is of a female mea-
sured by Mr. White,         S   8 1-2   10
   The  second of  a man by
Mr. Ward,                  5   8        9  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
the standard of perfect beauty                    <
conceived  by the ancient art-
4 
                       262
                              Height of    Length of
                               person.       ulna.
                             Feet. Inched.  Inches.
 ists, gives the following pro-
 portions,                      5           9  3-4.
   An European woman mea-
 sured by Mr. White,          5           8  S-4
   Another European  woman
 \>y Mr. White,                5  4        9  3-4
   The  following  measures I
 have taken Qf four young wo-
 men in Princeton-^-viz. two
 young ladies,                5  2  3-5    9  1-4
   .    •    .    .    .     m  3  a         y O - D
   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 woman 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
ci iterion of diversity  of  species than those proper-
ties which have  been  already mentioned.   Climate,
toodes of living,  national  customs and ideas,  and
the degree of civilization to which a people have ar-


gave 9.7 inches,"—her nose from its rise to the end of the car*
tiluge 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 the
termination of the nose to the division of  the lips 1.7 inchesr
thence to the middle of the chin  1.2 inches  ; from the middle of
the chin to the meatus auditorius 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,  13
inches.  A black man belonging  to  one of  my neighbors
£ Mr. Craig] gives the following measures ;—his height 4 feet
finches.— the  length  of his foot  10 inches,—the length of
his nose from its rise to the end of the cartilage 1  9-10 inches,-—
its riclge is also a right line,  its elevation   1 inch;—from the
end of the nose to the division of the lips 1  inch,—thence to the
middle of the chin  16-10 inches,—from the middle of the chin
to the meatus auditorius  5 9-10 inches,—from the meatus of
one ear to that of the other round the most prominent part of
the occiput 15 inches,—the length of the  fore arm 9  9-10 in->
ches___The lips of the black girl were somewhat more protu*
bevant than is usu~l in white women of her size ;  those of the
black man exhibited rto difference in this respect from the gene-
ral appearance oftlie lips of  white men.   I see, however, as
much diversity in the features of our American negroes amonu
themselves, as in those of the 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.  Lavater  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*'
tion  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^ 
                        265
 saint 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 f   " Comparing them  [the  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
 condition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere

  * The critical reviewers are pleased  to insinuate that the
 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.
it 
                      266
in which they move.  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 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
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 cestrum 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
wild  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 in*
coherent and eccentric as is the course of a meteor
through the sky."—After  this, Mr. Jefferson 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, against the aspersions of Mr. Buf-
fon,  and the Abbe Raynal, and generally,  of the European
writers, who impute  to them great 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 on
Virginia. 
                       268
not result, as a necessary consequence, that if the elim-
inate, the mode of 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 slavery,
and toil.  Genius, in  order  to its cultivation, and

  * Seepages  95,96, also 153—156 of this essay. 
                         269

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,* conscious of his degraded state in the


  * How few are the negroes in America who enjoy access to
the first elements  of  knowledge by being enabled either to
read,  or write.  Mr. Jefferson says 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 master, and a slave ; not a polite and learned slave of
Greece, such as was often seen at Rome, but a wretched and
ignorant African slave ?   Besides, if they could enjoy an in-
tercourse much more free and  intimate than  is possible from
the nature of their respective situations, I ask, what would
there be in that society, when we consider the general charac-
ters, occupations,  and  conversations,  of those masters, fa-
vorable to improvement 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 Phillis 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
to 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
powers.  Judging by the criterion which Mr. White,
after Mr. Jefferson has endeavoured to establish,
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 descendents  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
iand reward them.   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
cumulated improvements of so many ages.  Many
particular instances America can alreadv 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 call
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  ht roes  who expelled the Persians from
their country;  with those illustrious scholars among 
                       275
 whom 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 Xenophon, 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
 Greeks who were held in slavery at Rome.  But has
 this philosopher sufficiently adverted to the  infinite
 difference that must subsist  between enslaved sava-
 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  practised  in  all
 the liberal arts, reduced to slavery by force of arms;
and, even  in  slaver}-, respected by their masters ? 
276
Epictetus was, indeed, a philosopher, Terence, and
Phoedrus were poets, and many of the most eminent
artists at Rome were slaves ; but Uiey 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-
ed a certain  elevation of  mind, which rendered them
capable of acquiring science, of cultivating the no-
bler 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. Jefferson'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 worksy"ro»»
abroad."—I have often seen these handicraft artists, their black-
smiths, coopers, house carpenters and others.  But, except in a
few instances, their whole design in learning these arts was to dp
the coarse work on their master's plantations, the competent skill
for which they acquired 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  writes
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 them  uith the same eyes with which other coach-
men, hostlers, and footmen view them.   And why are these 
                          277

   Having bestowed so much attention on this quali-
ty, which Mr. White, supported by the authority of
Mr. Jefferson,  supposes to constitute  an  essential
distinction  between  the negro and  the white man,.


exquisite works of genius said to be from abroad ?  If the in-
genious whites have never 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 oftlie
most affecting touches of poetry.   Among the blacks is misery
enough,  God knows, but no poetry."—When misery falls 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 seen
the miseries of Newgate or  the gallies produce a poet ?
   " Love," he adds, «is the peculiar oestrum  of the  poet.
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 with all the enchantment
of the imagination, this passion requires to be placed under cer-
tain moral restraints which  are sejdom 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 reserve and j;efine>.
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 tho
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 die 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 \pell. 
                       27f
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
6trong 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
/teat 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,
exclusivelv, 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 highly
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, are
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 from 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 far  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
is 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 the
dimate.  But to strangers  either from Europe, or the United
IjKates of America, it is almost certainly fatal. 
                       282
 in that district between the sea  and the  south east-
 ern range of the Apalachian mountains  where they
 have hitherto 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 .*
   This author is equally misinformed when he as-
 serts  that the mammee of negresses are  longer than
 those of white women.   This is never seen except
 in slaves 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 whatever  African nation they are
 descended,  known to possess that natural veil of
 modesty, 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  striking peculiarities,  certain it is

  * There i$ a negro man in the neighborhood of Princeton,
 upwards of a hundred years of age, who is able to walk several
 miles every day ; and  there are not a few of the same race be*
tween seventy and ninety. 
                       283
that their posterity in  America have entirely lost
them.*
  Facility of parturition in black women is assign*
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  climates;
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-
ical hour they retire apart from their neighbors and
friends:—they bear their infant, and do every thing
necessary in such  an emergency  with  their o"wn
hands.  The women of the German emigrants who
* See p. 135, 136 of the essay. 
                       284
 have settled in  Pennsylvania, and the western por-
 tions of Maryland and Virginia are  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 midwives 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  midwives 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. 
                       285
 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
 wi:h 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
chiefs who preceeded him.
   The wants, necessities,  and  dangers of savage life
 contribute likewise to give an acuteness, and quickr
 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  life.   As
the eye ranges through the forest, it catches a vari-
ation in the reflections of the light; 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 the leaves fall from the trees in autumn, they com-
Hionly 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 regular order in which those
leaves lie, by turning many of them upside down, which ena-
bles the savage hunter to follow  its direction.  Where the
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
on 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
                                           i
with the soil,  the surface, 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 tlieir severest colds*
and most frequent storms arise,
  * Pages 84th and 85th of his work.
  t Pages 87th—98th of his discourses. 
                       288
 more on that peculiar secretion which is deposited in
 the  cellular membrane of the skin,  and there  be-
 comes its  nutriment.   A doctrine  which  receives
 the strongest confirmation from the  case of  Henry
 Moss  already  stated  in  the essay.*   Moss  was
 among the blackest of the negro slaves in the state
 of Maryland ;—his wool  was precisely of the same
 appearance which characterizes the whole race ;—.it
 length, when he  was about  middle age,  or some-
 what above it, the black hue began to disappear and
 his skin to  assume the colour of a clear and healthful
 white ;—and in  proportion as the white colour ad-
 vanced round his head, the  woolly substance gave
 place to straight and soft hair.
  Finally,  this  writer conceives that the black col-
 our of the  African skin has  not  been  satisfactorily
 accounted  for, and  assigns for his opinion the fol-
 lowing reason,  which, for an ingenious naturalist,
 appears somewhat extraordinary ;  that the scarf, or
 exterior integument of the skin,  is always found to
 be colourless, which, he imagines, should be the only
 seat of the complexion if it is affected by the sun.\
  *  Pages 92—95.
  t  Page  102d of Mr. White's discourses.  How is it possi*
We that this writer should overlook the influence of the sun m 
                        289
   l*he scarf  skin is known to anatomists to be  en-
 tirely transparent. The rays of light, therefore, being
 easily transmitted through  its substance, it can be
 little,  if at all, affected in its colour by them.  The
 proper seat of the complexion is in the rete mucosum
 between the scarf skin, and the  cutis vera, where
 the mucous which fills its  cells, not being transpa-
 rent, arrests the rays  of the  sun, and suffers some
 change from  them  in its substance and colour in
 proportion to  their copiousness and strength.  And
 it should be  remembered that this mucous basis is
 itself changed in some of its most essential proper-
 ties, by the influence  of climate,  of disease, and of
 various other  physical causes.  For example,  ex-
 treme heat, or heat combined with the vapor of
 stagnant waters, tends to increase the bilious secre-
 tion, which, therefore, in hot,  and especially in tro-
 pical climates  forms  a large proportion  of that mu-
 cous deposit in the cellular  membrane which, by its
 various tinges,  gives the peculiar stain to the com-
 plexion.   According to the analysis of Dr. Blumen-

discolouring the  skin, notwithstanding the transparency of the
scurf, whenever he should see a Spaniard, or a Portuguese, or
compare the hand of a sailor with his own ?
M M 
                       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 hvdrogene,  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, 1 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-
 serts!  that " the aboriginal Americans,  both in the
 torrid, and temperate zones  are  of  a uniform,  red

  * Page 5 2nd of the essay.
t Page 106th of his discourses 
                        291
 copper 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 thtir 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  that of the aboriginal
 savages of America.  Their origin likewise they derived, more
 nearly or remotely from the fair inhabitants of Middle-Europe,
and the vicinity of the Euxine and Caspianseas. 
                      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 climatical 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. \. 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, 1  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 1  hope I may now appeal
to the essay itself as my best vindication.
   In the 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 
                       293
colour.   He  begins  with  the  following position,
that" the skin,  though delicate,  and easily suscepti-
ble of impression from external causes, is, from its
structure, among the least mutable parts of the body.
After  which  he adds, " We 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,*  I 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 senses :  1st. to signify the rete mucosum ; 2ndly. the cutis
vci-a ;  and lastly,  both together."  I presume the intelligent
reader will find the skin used in the essay in one sense only, ex-
cept in a  single passage, as the integument of the, body, but 
J94
   These remarks 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  different  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 judge  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 lamella—the cutis vera,  the rete
 mucosum,  and the scarf skin.  In  that passage the scarf skin
was compared to the bones, merely in its destitution of vessels,
and the little mutation to which each is subject.  The fact of
its wanting vessels is asserted by Blumenbach, p. 117, and by
other anatomists.  But as it is not necessary to the illustration
of the subject, it has been wholly omitted in the present edition^ 
295
rade of quoting authors,  as favoring  his opinions,
some at least of whom he cannot have read,  or,
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 seems
willing  also to  measure their respective degrees of
beauty, 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  mosF
projecting part of the forehead until it strikes the edge oftlie
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 th«
construction of the angle  from this description, but certainly
" the intersection of two lines parallel to the inferior part of the
nostri; is an unusual language  for an anatomical professor and
a mathematician to employ.  He then proceeds to say that one,
of tli'-se lines is to be  drawn from the most projecting part of
the forehead  till it strikes the  edge of the incisor teeth..—He
 should have said, according to  the author from whom he bor-
rows the idea, the bottom of that channel (limbum alveolarem)
containing the sockets  of those teeth.  It is the first time, I be-
lieve, that ever this has been called the edge of the incisors. 
                         -296
 eulogy as would lead us to believe that  it is receiv--
 ed by all  the Anatomists of  Europe as one of the
 highest improvements  in  anatomical  and  physiog-
 nomonical science.*  Yet, after extolling  this dis-
 covery 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 geometrical language
 he repeatedly speaks of the greater or less degree of obtusencss
 in the facial angle,  from that of 70° which is the measure of an
 African face, to that of 80Q 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
 would have taught him greater precision, at least, in his expres-
 sion. " Pour peu que Ton considere avec attention Tangle dans
 les  quartre  tetes," says he, speaking of some skulls which
were before him, " on reconiloitra Lcilcmentqu'ils deviennent
plus considerables," (not more obtuse) " a mesure qu'on e'eve
davantage la ligne faciale, d'ou il resulte que la plus grand di*
mention" (not  the most obtuse) «aura lieu dans  les Euio-
peens."—Pa/tie 1.  §viii. 
                       29?
enim vcro," says Blumenbach, speaking of this cele-
brated line," si quid  recte video, hsec regula non
uno vitio  laborare mihi videtur.— 1°. Enim, quod
equidem ex iis quae de varietatibus faciei gentilitia?
diximus (§56) per se  patet, universa hsecce linea fa-
cialis ad summum non nisi in eas generis  humani
varietates quadrat qua? mandibularum directione ab
invicem variant, neutiquam vero in eas qua? con-
traria plane ratione facie potius in latera diducta in-
sigues sunt.
  2.  Saepissime diversissimarum gentium  craniis
toto, quodaiunt, czelo ab invicem discrepantibus,una
tamen eademque lineas facialis directio esse solet;
vice versa, pluribus unius ejusdemque gentis craniis,
quae in universum eodem habitu invicem  convene
unt linea facialis valdopere diversa.   Parum enim
ex sola directione faciei in craniis a latere visis judi-
care licet,  nisi simul  respectus  habeatur latitudinis
eorum.  Ita v. c. dum haec scribo coram video cra-
niorum bigam iEthiopis scil. Congensis, et Sarma-
tae Lithuani;  utrisque linea facialis fere una eadem-
que ; habitus  tamen  maxime diversus  si angustum
et quasi carinatum -/Ethiopls caput cum quadrato
magis Sarmatcc comparaveris.  Contra vero alia bina
                       N N 
                       298
 iEthiopum crania ad manus habeo, faciali linea mi-
 nim quantum ab invicem abhorrentia, utroque vero,
 si a facie spectetur, angusta et quasi compressa cal-
 varia,  fronte fornicata iEthiopicam originem aperte
 testante.
   3.  Denique vero Camperus ipse, in iconibus operi
 suo subjunctis,  lineis suis binis normalibus adeo ar-
 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 hesitantem
 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
 thicker 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.   " Epidermis  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 coloris integumentorum ita con-j
 stituit, ut  in candjdis  hominibus,  &c.   In  fuscis
 vero, aut alio colore infectis,  princeps pigmentum
 cutaneum reticulo Malpighiano inhaereat et tyiofus-
 cius reticulum sit, eo crussius quoque,  et propius ad
 memhranulae 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,  sive a crassiore muci
 Malpighiani strato pendere,  in aprico est."
   What, now,  are we to think of Dr. J. A. Smith's
 acquaintance with Blumenbach ?   What are we to
 think of his acquaintance with his own profession,
 since he declares he  has never met with these #pin.
 ions,  nor with  any  thing like them ?*—Dr. J. A,

  * He may find them in a weat variety of authors which arc.
"in the hands 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 coloris."  And further adds,  " utrumque
stratum ita constituit natura, ut princeps pigmentum
eutaneum reticulo Malpighiano  inhaereat."*
  Let the reader now judge of the modesty of that
gentleman in the following sentence in which he evir
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 the 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. Gottingse apud Vandenhoek et Ruprecht, 179 V 
                       302
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
the 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
proaching 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-
b ated 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 other hand,  I have in my family an  old black wo-
man with a true African forehead narrow and wrinkled, whc
gives a facial angle of 719.. 
                       304
improbable; nor is it very diflicult to divine the
cause that has awakened his  displeasure.   He hop^
ed to find in the anatomy of  man an in\ incible ob-
jcction  against the identity of the  human species,
which might furnish arms to  infidelity in her impo-
tent attacks against the truth of divine  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
its own  sphere  to  assail religion by this species of
wily ambuscade.  Let infidels  appear in their true
form;  if they seek  the combat, we only pray, like
Ajax,  to see die enemy in open day.  The  more
profoundly natural science has  been explored, the
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
eourse 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,
and 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,
JLdORD KAIMS, in a preliminary discourse to hi»
■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, are 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
ought to be so :  because men, in changing their cli-
mate, usually become sickly, and often degenerate."
   The power of climate  to affect the figure and
general appearance  of the person, which  his lord-
ship,  in tins 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
wouid 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 in
America;  and since 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 great 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 : 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 different 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, as
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 die
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,
who, 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 
                       314
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 egregiouslv deceived  with
regard to  certain facts on  which  he professes to
ground his opinion that the  climate of America is
not adapted to Luropean 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-
ly presume that he i3 still less informed with regard
to the state of the Asiatic, and African nations ; and 
                      315
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 the 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
blameiible, 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 futthan 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 been
endued by the  Creator, with such pliancy as ena- 
                       316
bles it  with facility 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 see,  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.
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 re- 
                       317
ceive 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 off
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 which  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 vv hich he
urges it,  the  proof of  an original difference in the
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 African, 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 Af. icans
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
seventy-five degrees, and the  subjects of the experi-
ment have  been perfectly tranquil, I have not been
able to perceive, by the thermometer, any sensible
difference in the warmth of  two persons, the one 
                       319
white, and the other black.   But, in order to render
such  an experiment as accurate as possible,  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 ?"
  1 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 two power- 
                      320
ful  and opposite causes are  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-
ed 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 
                      321
at which they had anived 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
civilisation, to  preserve some  resemblance to  the
features of their ancestors.   Their high and moun-
tainous elevation, raises them above die region of ex-
treme heat in the tropical latitudes of Africa.   The
Monomotapans arc 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 foundation 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
savs, whose inhabitants are  hostile, others are hos-
pitable  to strangers."—To this we may justly  an-
swer, that kindness, or  aversion to strangers de- 
                      323
pends  on so many contingent  causes  that a more
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 that 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 confirm 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  Milti ides, Agesilaus,
or Alexander.  That the Romans were not  of the 
                      324
same species under Caesar, when they conquered*
as under Augustulus,  when they lost a world.   And
that,  among 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>
ris< es 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 philosopher,  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 suffer torture like  the natives of  Ame-
rica.  Na ions have different ideas of courage and
of honor, and  they exert  these principles in dif-
ferent ways.  The  military education of an indian
consists in learning to make war by stealth and to
endure pain with fortitude.  The reasons of their 
                       325
conduct 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  born, and supply their places with  others
'stolen from the 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-
pause, when others  would kill their  enemies, they
* See Appendix. 
                      326
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
a 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, I presume, irresistible evidence.  I 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 
                       327
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 \ariety of situations.
The inferior animals have no  defence  against the
eviis of a new climate but the force of nature.   The
arts of human  ingenuity furnish a protection to man
against the dangers which surround him in every re-
gion.   Accordingly, we  see the same nation pass
into ail 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 Africa,  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
huzaidid,   nor without those precautions which ex-
perience has shewn to be useful for the preservation
of health.   But,   when they  are  prudently made,
hibit  soon accommodates the constitution to its new
posh ion ;  and  the  cb.anges 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 Suites, 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. 
                      329
And not only the hunters, who have long been ac-
customed to those habits of living,  are 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 States 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 fire in the center of  their
encampment, they sleep round it, extending their
feet towards the pile.  And, while  the  feet are kept
warm, as they have often informed me, they  seldom
suffer 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 all 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, as among tulips
in a garden ?  Instead of which we find men of dif-
                       R  R 
                      330
ferent kinds ; the individuals of each kind remarka-
bly 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
variation of  climate, or other causes, what can fol-
low, he asks, but  endless  varieties 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 individuals, but kinds.  For
the same climate, in similar circumstances, operat-
ing uiiiiormiy, 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
kind different  in  its appearance  from ail 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 are  not  governed  by uniform and
certain laws ?
  He adds,  " There is  another  argument that ap-
pears also to have weight;—horses, with respect 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 gradually,
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; the
• 
                       332
Europeans, whom he acknowledges to have degene-
rated by being renovedto Africa, Asia, and South-
A nerica, 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 per-
fection 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  tffaced.
   There resided in the college  of New-Jersey, in the
years seventeen hundred and eighty five, six : nd seven
a striking exemplification of the above remark, in
two voting gentlemen of one of the most respectable
fami:'k s of the state of Virginia.   They were descends
ed in the female line from the  indian emperor Pow-
hatan, and were in the fourth descent from the prin-
cess Pocahuntis, a high-spirited and generous woman.
Altiiough ail  their ancestors in Virginia had retain- 
                       333
•ed  some  characteristics, more or less obvious, of
their maternal race, in these young gentlemen they
appeared 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
own 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 they were placed, whatever change
may have happened in later times, by war, or by
commerce."
  Let us ask, why ftted by a different organization,
for the different climates in  which 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 
                       334
 from their original soil to other climes; and have
 continued to exist, and to flourish.  Foreigners 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 we have  seen,  the existence of origi.
 nal varieties  among mankind, proceeds in a similar
 strain  of reasoning;—" There is a remarkable fact
 which  confirms the foregoing conjectures; as far
 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 different
 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  by 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 suffered 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
 gion of Lapland.  If the common language of mea
 had not been confounded upon their attempting the
 tower of Babel, I affirm that there never could have
 been  but  one language.   Antiquaries constantly
 suppose a  migrating  spirit in  the  original inhab-
 itants of the earth, not only without evidence, but
 contrary to all probability.  Men  never desert their
 connexions,  nor  their country without necessity.
 Fear of enemies, and of wild beasts, as well as the
 attractions of society, are  more than  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 affects 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,
do 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 cli-
mate  was sufficient to have destroyed the builders of
Babel, 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 jthe 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  obnoxious doctrine,
easily overlook.
                       s  s 
                       333
   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
h 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-
ges 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
miraculous interposition in this or in any other case,
and shew that,  in the nature of things, many tribes 
                       339
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 desceqplents.   And in this
occupation we find the first elements of civ iiized so-
ciety,  which  we can trace,  without  interruption,
from the countries in which they resided, and the
period in  which they lived, down  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 inclined to aban-
don the toils of clearing and cultivating the ground,
to  seek  their provision, and  their pleasure,  in the
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 another, and to disui. 
                       310
 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
 inhabitants 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
 follow ing 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 ail experience,  that mankind would  never have
 separated from one another, and from the  pleasures
 of that social  intercourse which 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 nei-
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 stonger
emotions, easily breaks the feeble ties of such  soci- 
                       342
ety;  and hunters, like beasts of prey, delight in
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 effect 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 farther
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
hunti >g to all the advantages to be derived from the
arts; he  might have seen that mankind often find
charms  in the  indolence  and independence of the
savage state, superior to the attractions  ofsocietyr 
                       344
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 whole tribes rise from their seats at
once, and, carrying with them the  bones of then-
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 what?Ae has seen ; and is
led to form wrong conclusions from his own prepos-
sessions.
  According to  his principles a state of savagism
Qever 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-
persion."  Every art   of agriculture  would have 
                      345
been  tried before they would have extended their
habitations into the dangerous wilderness.   A  civ-
lized community would have risen round the dwell-
ing of the progenitor of each race.   And when they
should have been compelled by necessity to  enlarge
their limits, 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 x 
                       346
assertion which is certainly, not  a little surprizing
in a great philosopher, who has undertaken to treat
of human nature, and to present to  us a philosophic
history 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.been
a natural consequence of  the universal civilization of
mankind continued down from a wise and  virtuous
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 : and when he does speak, he is obliged,  for 
                      347
want of a sufficient copiousness of terms, to express
himself chiefly in figures.   This artifice the effect of
necessity, 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
a fox,—a warrior of strength or courage is a bear.—
The union and harmony of peace is expressed by a
chain; and  putting an end to the cruelties and distress
of war, by covering the tomahawk, or xvashing 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
A 
                     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 career 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
represent the same ideas.—Jn 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 one 
                       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
   Defendi poss?nt? etiam hac defensa fuissent. 
 
APPENDIX.
. JTfff ■ x 
 
APPENDIX.
6f 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.

 1 HE 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
                      u u 
                       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 suffering, 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 powerful influence  of
 moral  causes  in forming the characters of nations.
 Both these phenomena which have induced him, to-
 gether with many other European  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 among them which have originated, in a 
                      355
great measure, from 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 manner, 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, notwithstanding 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 conjec-
tures, it has been  generally agreed, that they are de-
rived from the Tartar hordes dispersed alongthe 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,  in this
part,  separate the two continents,  soon forgot even
the imperfect arts of Siberia and Kamtschatka, ex-
cept those simple  stratagems which were necessary 
                      356
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
new  situation.  In the milder and  more fertile re-
gions of the southern continent,  which had derived
their population, through 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.   They 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.
The powers of life w ere  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 
                                 357
          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  w hich he is
          surrounded, to  employ both courage  and address,
          for his subsistence, and defenct.  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  eithi r 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 cn>
|          tiUed 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
          Resigned to exhibit the influence of various slides of society oh
          the human character.

I 
                       358
peculiarities  of this extraordinary race  are  chiefly
displayed.   Except hunting, which is the necessary
means of their subsistence, war forms their favourite
occupation, and to excel in it is their siipre.  e 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 efforts 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 
                       359
 every transgression of its limits, and prompt to repel,
 or to punish every 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 cannot be minute-
 ly acquainted  with  their course.   The uncertainty
 of such lines,  likewise,  must often afford to neigh-
 bouring  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 who consider  themselves possess-
 ed of the right of property, the intruders usually pay
 with their lives the forfeit of their rashness ; or if the
 force on each side  be nearly equal,  their meeting
 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 unfrequently it happens that
parties of  young hunters from different tribes meet-
ing in the  forest, and roused by that spirit of rival-
ry, and that pride of  national atchievement so natu-
ral to man, enter into contests of emulation.   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  arty
place in a state of society entirely destitute of wealth;
or from the  cool dictates of a  calculating and 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
 metdesome warriors, little acquainted with  the  re-
 strains of government, and presumptuous from inex-
 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 slightest 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 offer their counsels.   To ad-
vise is all that is in their power;  which,  however,
is not without its influence when the general inflama-
tion is not  already  excited  to too high a  pitch.
                      w w 
                       362
 Having no laws to punish crimes among themselves,
 stiil 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 w ith
 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 violent
 and daring actions.  Hence the multiplication, and
the sanguinary complexion of their wars.
  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
faonor, and above all, the ardor of their youth, win,
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 die questions which  are  proposed to their
deliberation, wiU  often  be  estimated, and  balancr
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-i
emies for some favourite  warriors 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 rtvenge  of  the offend- 
                        361
ed party.   And what is  not less singular than this
pub'ic abandonment, is  the calm resignation with
which those who are 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 peace; 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,  w ith a variety of coarse,
fantastic,  colours and figures,  which they suppose

  * This resignation appears to be the result of a noble senti-
ment of patriotism to save their  countrymen from the calami-
ties which would otherwise fall upon Uiem; or of a full convic-
tion th -t, when abandoned by their tribe, it is no  longer possible
to escape the vengeance of their  enemies :  and,  as they do not
fcar death, 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
sound  the  charge;  and  must often  direct their 
                      366
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 Le follow-
ed by her warriors with the greatest confidence.
  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 notions 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 s
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, are 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 
                       36T
perfectly voluntary.   A spirit of enterprize, and at*
t ehment to their leader are their only motives, and
th ir only reward,  besides glutting their vengeance,
the applauses of their countrymen. No legal penalty
could be inflicted on desertion.  But after an indian
has once fixed his tomahawk  in the  tree, to  retract
his engagement would brand him  with  indelible
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 tlhis 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
Without this proof of his success, his courage or his
dexterity is dishonored  in the esteem of his nation.
And, with them, it is nearly an equal disgrace to be
deficient in stratagem as in bravery.  If he  brings
home several of these barbarous  trophies, it fixes his
character as a brave and skilful warrior.
   But,  by following the  principal  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 their 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 huntil:g,  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 atjthe  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
either knock down an enemy,  or cleave his skull.
In place of these clubs, they would frequendy erri>
                      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 worked 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 ghdle, 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 their line of march,
which  is always in  single  file.  They proceed,  one
following  another,  exactiy in  the  same  path;  and
each succeeding one preserves an interval of several
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 future
progress  in  the manner  which will  be afterwards
described.   In their march they carry themselves in
the  most  erect posture, casting a  vigilant  eye
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 customary  among
 civilized nations.  As the) advance, they observe
 the most profound silence, unless  some danger is
 suddenly discovered.   When this happens it is in* 
                       372
 timated to the line by a peculiar kind of hoot, 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 w?ounded, 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 have fallen, which  would entitle them
to the highest praise in the most civilized  nations.
The victors scalp the dead,  and put to death the
wounded  whom their friends have  been obliged to
abandon, and who are not able  to travel at the pace
with which they find it necessary to retreat.  For
even the  victors are  obliged to retreat; otherwise 
                       373
they  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 are
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 ploce
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- 
                      374
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 day they lie  concealed in thickets,  or be-
hind the bodies of decayed timber, and often so cov-
ered with dry leaves that the place of their conceal-
ment 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 in ease, or in pleasure,
and wholly off their guard.   Then follows a horrid
scene of carnage and butchery, in which is  display*
ed all 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
bv no ramparts, and watched by no guards.   Some,
bearing 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
confounded 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'
same 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.
Despair 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 dreadful in 
1
                      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 oftlie 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 thev 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.
                      y y 
                       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 women
in those labors of drudgery to which the sex is des-
tined by the customs of savage life.
   But, before such distribution is made, they 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
ue bruised  and  beaten  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 war,  and who  now  feel the  want of their
assistance in their domestic occupations,  will select
a part of the prisoners whom they resolve to 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
immediately 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
which is as  well attested  as any in their history, 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
frighriin forms.  Before  his sentence,  however, is
intimated  to him, he is, by one of those strange
contradictions 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 indifference.  He
eats, 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—
Well! 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
afford  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 
                       382
 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
with 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 
                       333
 human blood, and  are taught  to  steel their hearts
 against commiseration.
   Such is the force of education, and of habit unit-
 ed with 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 their 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 slaii ;
 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  revenue
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  their  last
 moments.  Sometimes savage  ingenuity  protracts
 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  feel 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
his 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-
tacter and habits of the American  savage 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 hot 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 pain 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 wiH
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
mou'ded, by these circumstances, into an  infinite
diversity  of  forms.   Apply this reflection  to the
military habits of our American indians, and so far
win uiiey be found from indicating that natural  cow- 
                       387
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 their political  state, and their total want of im-
provement in the arts.—The defences 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
respective countries.   The bravest armies  cover
themselves by fortifications, and take advantage  of
high grounds, of ravines, of villages, or thickets for
their  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 establish magazines of provisions for the purposes
of conquests, or to facilitate the march of armu s  In
a country, therefore, overgrown with forests they are
necessarily obliged  to prosecute their wars in small
parties, both for the purpose of obtaining ;^ovi ion
on their  route, and for more effectually concealing 
                       388
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, compels 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
such address and  care, or because, when engaged
in action, they fight from  behind trees, or other
object i 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.*
No, 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  courage but madness in them to abandon their
* General Braddocfc, 
                       389
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 SGenes of extreme barbarity
acted on the countrymen and fellow prisoners o,f
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 this 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
 their  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
 of 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 their 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
the way, she sets  the  example, she incites  the ac-r 
                       391
 tors in all the torments he is  made to suffer.   Hef
 rage makes her ingenious in inventing  new modes
 ©f 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 bounds
 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-
 ly admit the returning sentiments of humanity.
   But there are other motives  which govern them
in 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-
mory, and no delicacies of sentiment and of manners,
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
of nature. 
                      392
  This transition is greatly aided by the peculiarly
hard condition of women,  and of agfcd 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
wars, 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 in
these savages,  as it is in some modern  queens and princesses
to elevate common soldiers from tfieir 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 law* of delicacy, the former have never understood
them.
                        3 a 
                      394
(torn enemies whom the fortune of war has throwa
Into a situation to become useful to them, and even,
as we shall presendy 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.
   Notless difficult  to be understood by a civilized
people than the act of adoption is the acquiescence of
}he prisoner.  How  does he reconcile  himself to a
situation, and to connexions so novel I   Why does 
                       395
he never attempt to escape from the midst of stran-
gers, and return to his  native tribe ?  How can he
so easily relinquish old, and enter with cordiality into
new relations ?   To explain this phenomenon so ex-
traordinary in 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 suffer 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 suffering the extremities of torture without
shrinking, or seeming to feel  them.  As this is so 
                       896
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  de motion
to his nation : he would refuse adoption as a dishon-
ourable 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 membersk
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 in 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-
deiiibiy stained by the discolouring juice of certain vegetables. 
                      397
■reconciled conquerors, than  to  return to the con*
tempt and hatred of their alienated countrymen.
   There  are  many circumstances  besides  whicli
render 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 quest 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 propert}-.   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 odier 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. 
                       599
 of war.  Refined and polished nations correct the ex-
treme viloence of the  passions by the improvements
of reason.  The education o  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 pres erve.  Thei
armies combat for glory, not for revenge: their opera- 
                       400
tions, consequently, guided by a  cool policy, ar*.
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 the
injuries meditated against themselves excite their pas-
sions to the wildest fury.   They  make a festival of
cruelty.  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 happeh to rise
in their breasts,  is effectually extinguished.  There
is, indeed, a kind of  wantonness in  cruelty which
forms  a part   of  the character  of the  American
savage,  that resembles the  pleasure which chil-
dren  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 societv,
 every man depends upon himself in the most haz
 ardous  or mos't 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 wound.  The  savages of America, still  more
 rude, and conversing only with the wildest scenes
 of nature, know nothing of those finer feelings of the
 heart, and that soft interchange of affections which 
                      40S
give birth to the sentiments  of compassion  and
sympathy.  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 Rot 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 ©f the heart 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  the  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, with 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 suffering  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 affronts, languid  in  his  resentments, tardy
in his  revenge ?
   The true explanation of this phenomenon we shall
probably discern, not in the phvsical 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 thrown,
whether one or other of these characters be chiefly
drawn  forth, and called into  action.  It was not
physical temperament, 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
                                              i
which they were exercised at  the shrine 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 defying
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  whole
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 paiil 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
*uffer 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 1  combat, look for the cause of this astonish-
ing constancy in the humidity of the climate, or in
«ome 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  the
mind.  An energetic will, created by sublime sen-
timents,  by strong passions, or even induced by the
habit of conflicting with dangers and sufferings, im-
parts to  the soul a strength which suspends, in a 
                       408
great measure, the sensation of ipain, and wholly
deprives it of those additional terrors  with which a
timid imagination  invests it.
   Our savages understanding the hardships of their
own lot, and foreseeing the trials to which 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 who shall endure the deepest punc-
tures, or the hardest blows  without complaining; or
who shall hold a burning brand in their hands  with- 
                       40$
the most persevering steadiness, and for the longest
time.  Sometimes  they 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 their extraordinary fortitude in
death.—Virtue, in their esteem,  consists entirely
in those elevated and enterprizing qualities which are
associated with 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 c. 
                       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 souI#
 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, when 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 dif-
ference of nature or organization.
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