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< 
A N
ESSAY
ON  THE
CAUSES of  the VARIETY
                       o F

COMPLEXION  and' FIGURE
                  I N  T H E

HUMAN   SPECIES.
•i "
         TO WHICH ARE ADDED     TTB^ J^T

S T R  I C  T U R E  S1'^*-
On LORD KAIMS's DISCOURSE, on the ORIGINAL
           DIVERSITY or MANKIND.
/
r
Br the Reverend SAMUEL STANHOPE SMITH, D. D. Vice-
 President, and Professor  of  Moral Philosophy in the
 College of New-Jersey; and  Member of the American
 Philosophical  Society,  held at  Philadelphia  tor pro-
 moting  Useful Knowledge.
       PHILADELPHIA:

Printed and Sold by ROBERT AIT KEN,  at Poi-e'
           Head,  Market Street.
                m.dcc.lxxxvu. 
 
     TH E fubftance of the  following Eflay
     was delivered in the annual Oration,
before  the  Philofophical Society  in  Phila-
delphia, February  28th,   1787.—And  the
whole  is publiflied at the  requeft  of the
Society.
At a Meeting  of  the  AMERICAN
  PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY,  on
  Friday Evening, the 28th of  Febru-
  ary, 1787.

    £DJ13  S£©€3|©ia £DiRD(2BiR(2BID,

 r~T*HAT the tIjanks of the Society be given
     to the  Reverend  Docleor  Samuel  S.
 Smith, for his ingenious and learned Oration
 delivered this evening, and that he be re-
 queued to furniJJj the Society ivith a copy of
 the fame for Publication.
               Extract from the Minutes,

 JAMES HUTCHINSON, 1
 ROBERT PATTERSON,  !
                          J>  Secretaries.
 SAMUEL MAGAW,      f
 JOHN FOULKE,        J
<L 
 
                [  I  ]       .'

                                  r

      ESSAY
                 ON THE
CAUSES  of  the  VARIETY
     COMPLEXION and FIGURE
                  I N )T H E

  HUMAN   SPECIES,


   IN the hiftory  and philofophy of human
    nature,  one of the firft objects that flrikes
    an obferver is the variety of complexion
and of  figure among mankind.  To  affign
the caufes of this phenomenon has been fre-«
quently  a  fubject of  curious fpeculation.
Many philofophers have refolved the difficul-
ties with  which this  inquiry is attended by
having  recourfe .to the  arbitrary hypothefis
that men are originally fprung from different
flocks, and  are therefore divided by  nature
into different fpecics.  But as  we are not at
liberty to  make this fuppofition, fo I hold it
                   B                   tQ
\ 
 2         Of Complexion and Figure

 to be  unphilofophical to recur to hypothefis-,
 when the whole effect may, on proper inves-
 tigation, be  accounted  for by the ordinary
 laws of nature*.

   On this difcuffion I am now about to enter;
 and {hall probably  unfold, in  its  progrefs,
 fome principles the full importance of which
 will not be obvious, at firft view, to thofe who
 have not been accuftomed to obferve the ope-
 rations of nature with minute and careful at-
 tention.  Principles, however, which, expe-
 rience leads me to believe,  will acquire addi-
 tional evidence from time and obfervation.

   Of the caufes of thefe varieties among man-
 kind I (hall treat under  the heads—

   I. Of Climate.

   II. Of the  State of Society.

   In treating this fubjedt, I {hall not efpoufe
 any peculiar fyftem of medical  principles
                                       which,
 * It is no fmall objection to this hypothefis, that thefe fpecies can never
 be afcertained.  We have no means of diftinguifhing how many were
originally formed, or where any of them are now to be found.  And
they muft have been  long fince fo mixed by the migrations of mankind,
that the properties of each fpecies can never be determined.  Befides, this
fuppofition unavoidably confounds the whole philofophy of human na-
ture.— Stc tenilitfiim of this 'Jfay. 
           in the Human Species.         3

which, in the continual revolutions of opini-
on, might be in hazard of being afterwards
difcarded.  I {hall, as much as poffible, avoid
ufing terms of art;  or attempting to explain
the manner of operation of the caufes,  where
diverfity of opinion among phyficians, has
left the fubjedt in doubt.

   And, in the beginning, permit me to make
one  general remark which muft often have
occurred to every judicious inquirer into the
powers both of moral and of jphyfical caufes—
that every permanent and charadteriftical va-
riety in human nature, is effected by flow and
almoft imperceptible gradations.   Great and
fudden changes are too violent for the delicate
conftitution'of man, and always tend to de.-
ftroy the fyftem.  But changes  that become
incorporated, and that form the  character of
a climate or a nation, are progreffively carried
on through feveral generations, till the caufes
that produce them have attained  their utmoft
operation.  In this way, the minuteft caufes,
acting conftantly,  and long continued,  will
neceffarily create great and confpicuous dif-
ferences among mankind.

   I. Of the firft clafs of caufes, I {hall treat
under the head of climate.              In 
4       Of Complexion and Figure

   In tracing the globe from the pole to the
fequator, we  obferve a gradation in the com-
plexion nearly in proportion to the latitude oi
the  country.  Immediately below  the arctic
circle a high and fanguine colour prevails*
From this you defcend to the mixture of red
in white.   Afterwards fucceed, the  brown,
the olive, the tawny, and at length the black,
as you proceed to the line.  The fame diftance
from the fun, however, does not, in every re^
gion, indicate the fame temperature of cli-
jnate.   Some fecondary caufes muft be taken
into confideration as correcting and limiting
its influence.  The elevation of the land, its
vicinity to the fea, the nature of the foil, the
ftate of cultivation, the courfe of winds, and
many other circumftances,  enter  into  this
View.   Elevated and mountainous countries
are cool in proportion to  their altitude above
the level of the fea—vicinity to the ocean pro-
duces oppofite effects in northern and fouth-
crn  latitudes ; for the ocean being of a more
equal temperature than the land,  in one cafe
corrects the cold, in the other, moderates the
heat.   Ranges  of mountains,  fuch  as  the
Appenines  in Italy, and Taurus, Caucafus
and Imaus in Afia, by interrupting the courfe
of cold winds, render the protected countries
                                     below 
           in the Human Species.         $

•Wlow them warmer, and the countries above
them colder,  than is equivalent to the propor-
tional difference of latitude.  The frigid zone
in Afia is much wider than it is in Europe;
and that continent hardly knows a temperate
zone.   From the northern ocean to Caucafus,
fays Montefquieu, Afia may be confidered as
-a flat mountain*  Thence to the ocean that
wafhes Perfia and India, it is a low and level
country without feas, and protected by this
immenfe range of hills from the polar winds.
The Afiatic  is, therefore,  warmer  than the
European continent below the fortieth degree
of latitude; and, above that latitude, is much
more cold.   Climate alfo receives fome diffe-
rence from the nature of the foil;  and fome
 from the degree of cultivation—SEtnd is fuf-
 ceptible of greater heat than clay; and an un-
 cultivated region, {haded with forefts, and co-
 vered with undrained marines, is more frigid
 in northern, and more temperate in fouthern
 latitudes, than a country laid open to the di-
 rect and conftant action of the fun.  Hiftory
 informs  that,  when Germany and Scythia
 were buried in forefts,  the  Romans often
 tranfported their armies acrofs the frozen Da-
 nube ; but,  fince the civilization of thofe bar-
 barous  regions, the Danube rarely freezes.
                                     Many 
6         Of Complexion and Figure

Many other circumftances might be enume-
rated which modify the influence of climate.
Thefe will be fufficient to give a general idea
of the fubject.   And by the intelligent reader
they may be eafily  extended, and applied to
the ftate of particular countries.

  From the preceding obfervations we de-
rive this conclufion,  that there is a general ra-
tio of heat and cold, which forms what we
call  climate, and a general refemblance of
nations, according to the latitude from the e-
quator;  fubject however, to innumerable va-
rieties from  the infinite combinations  of the
circumftances I have fuggefted.  After hav-
ing exhibited the general effect,  I {hall  take
up  the  capital  deviations from  it that  are
found in the world, and endeavour to {hew
that they naturally  refult from certain con-
currences of thefe modifying caufes.

  Our experience verifies the power of cli-
mate on the complexion.   The heat of fum-
mer darkens the {kin, the cold of winter
chafes it, and excites a fanguine colour.   Thefe
alternate effects in the temperate zone  tend
in fome degree to correct one another.  But
when heat or cold predominates in any regi-
                                      on, 
           in the Human Species.         y

on,  it impreffes,  in the fame proportion, a
permanent and  charadteriftical complexion.
The degree in which it predominates may be
confidered as a conftant caufe to the action of
which the human  body is expofed.  This
caufe will affect the nerves by tention or re-
laxation, by dilatation or contraction—It will
affect the fluids by increafing or leffening the
perfpiration,  and by altering the proportions
of all the fecretions—It will peculiarly affect
the {kin by  the immediate operation of the
atmofphere, of the fun's rays, or of the prin-
ciple of cold upon its delicate texture.  Eve-
ry {enfible difference in the degree of  the
caufe, will create a vifible change in  the hu-
man body.   To fuggeft at prefenta fingle
example.—A cold  and  piercing  air chafes
the countenance and exalts the complexion.
An air that is warm and  mifty  relaxes  the
qonftitution, and gives fome tendency, in  va-
letudinarians  efpecially, to a  bilious hue.
Thefe effects are tranfient, and interchangea-
ble in  countries  where  heat and  cold  alter-
nately fucceed in nearly equal proportions.
But when  the climate conftantly  repeats the
one or the other of thefe effects  in any  de-
gree, then, in proportion, an habitual colour
begins to be formed.  Colour and figure may
                                       be 
 8        Of Complexion and Figure

 be ftiled habits of the body.   Like other haJ
 bits, they are  created, not by great and fud-
 den impreffions, but by continual and almoft
 imperceptible  touches.  Of habits both of
 mind and body, nations are  fufceptible as
 well as individuals.   They are tranfmitted to
 offspring,  and  augmented  by  inheritance.
 Long in growing to maturity, national fea-
 tures, like national  manners become fixed,
 only after  a fucceflion of ages.   They be-
 come, however, fixed at laft.  And if we can
 afcertain any effect produced by a given ftate
 of weather or of climate, it requires only re-
 petition during a fufficient length of time, to
 augment and  imprefs it with  a  permanent
 character.   The  fanguine countenance will,
 for this  reafon, be perpetual >in  the  higheft
 latitudes of the temperate zone; and wefhall
 forever find the fwarthy, the olive, the taw-
 ny and the black, as we defcend to the fouth.

  The uniformity of the effect in the fame
 climate, and on men. in a fimilar ftate of foci-
ety, proves the  power and certainty of the
Qaufe.   If the advocates of different  human
 fpecies fuppofe that the beneficent Deity hath
created the inhabitants of the earth of diffe-
rent  colours, becaufe' thefe colours are beft
                                  adapted 
          in the Human Species*           9

 adapted  to  their refpedtive zones, it  furely
 places his benevolence in a more advantageous
 light to  fay,  he has given to human nature
 the power of  accommodating itfelf to every
 zone.  This pliancy of nature is favourable
 to the unions  of the moft diftant nations, and
 facilitates the  acquifition and the extenfion of
 fcience which would otherwife be confined to
 few objects, and to a very limited range.  It
 opens the way particularly to the knowledge
 of the globe  which  we inhabit;  a fubject fo
 important  and interefting  to  man.—It is
 verified  by experience.  Mankind  are fore-
 ver  changing  their habitations  by conqueft
 or by commerce.   And we find them in all
 climates  not only able to endure the change,
 but  fo afftmilated by time, that  we cannot
 fay  with  certainty  whofe  anceftor  was
 the native of  the clime, and whofe the in-
 truding foreigner.

  I will here propofe a few principles on the
 change of colour, that are not liable to dif-
 pute, and that  may tend to fried fome light on
 this fubject.

  In the beginning, it  may be proper to ob-
ferve that the {kin, though extremely delicate
                      C              . and 
I o        Of Complexion and Figure

and eafily fufceptible of impreflion from ex-
ternal caufes, is, from its ftructure, among the
leaft mutable parts of the body*.   Change of
complexion  does  for  this  reafon  continue
long, from whatever caufe it may have arifen.
And if the caufes of colour have deeply pene-
trated the texture of the {kin, it becomes per-
petual.   Figures  therefore,  that  are  ftained
with paints inferted by punctures  made  in its
fubftance, can never be effacedf.   An ardent
fun is  able  intirely to penetrate  its texture.
Even in  our climate, the {kin, when firft  ex-
pofed to  the direct and continued action of
the folar rays,  is inflamed into blifters, and
fcorched through its whole fubftance.   Such
an operation not only  changes its  colour,  but
increafes its thicknefs.    The ftimulus of heat
exciting a greater flux of humours to the fkin,
tends to incraffate its fubftance, till it becomes
denfe enough  to  refift the action of  the ex-
                                          citing

  * Anatomifls inform us that, like the bones, it has few or no veffeh,
and therefore is not liable to thofe changes of augmentation or diminuti-
on, and continual alteration of parts, ta which the fleih, the blood, and
whole vafcular fyftem is nibbed.
  + It is well known what a length of time is required to  efface the
freckles contracted in a fair flcin by the expofure of a fingle day, Freckles
are feen of all fhades of colour.  They are known to be created by the fun;
and become indelible by time.  The fun has power equally to change every
part of the (kin, when equally expofedto its action.  And it is, not im-
properly, obferved by fome writers that colour may be juftly confidered
as an univerfal freckle. 
            in the Human Species.         \ \

citing caufe*.   On the fame principle, fricti-
on excites blifters in the hand of the labour-
er, and thickens the {kin till it becomes able
to endure the continued operation of his in-
ftruments.   The face or the hand, expofed
uncovered during an intire fummer,  contracts
a colour of the darkeft brown.   In a torrid
climate, where the inhabitants are naked, the
colour will be as much  deeper,  as the ardor
of the fun is both more conftant and more in-
tenfe.   And if we compare the dark hue that,
among us, is fometimes  formed by continual
expofure, with the colour of the  African, the
difference is not greater  than is proportioned
to the augmented  heat and conftancy of the
climatef.

   The principle of colour is not, however, to
be derived folely from the action of the fun
upon the fkin.   Heat, efpecially, when unit-
ed with putrid exhalations  that copioufly im-
pregnate the atmofphere in warm and uncul-
tivated regions,  relaxes the nervous fyftem.
The bile in confequence is augmented, and
                                        fhed
 * Anatomifts know that all people of colour have their fkin thicker
than people of a fair complexion, in proportion to the darknefs of the hue.
 f If the force of fire be fufficient at a given diftance, to fcorch the fuel,
approach it as much nearer as is proportional to the difference of heat be-
tween our climate and that of Africa, and it will burn it black, 
  12       Of Complexion and Figure

  fhed  through  the whole  mafs of the body.
  This liquor tinges the complexion of a yel-
  low colour, which affumes by time a darker
  hue.   In many  other inftances, we fee  that
  relaxation,  whether  it be caufed by the va-
  pours of ftagnant waters, or by fedentary oc-
  cupations, or by lofs of blood, or by indolence,
 fubjects men to diforders of the bile, and dif-
 colours the {kin.  It has been proved, by
 phyficians,  that in fervid climates the bile is
 always augmented in proportion to the heat*.
 Bile expofed to the fun and air, is known to
 change its colour  to black—black is therefore
 the tropical hue.   Men who  remove from
 northern to fouthern regions are  ufually at-
 tacked  by dangerous  diforders that leave the
 blood  impoverifhed,  and fhed a yellow ap-
 pearance over the {kin.  Thefe diforders are
 perhaps  the efforts  of nature  in breaking
 down and changing the conftitution, in  order
 to accommodate it to  the climate;  or to give
 it that  degree of relaxation, and  to mingle
 with it  that  proportion of bile, which is  ne-
 ceffary for its new fituationf.   On this dark
                                    ground
  * See Dr. M'Clurg on the bile.
  f Phyficians differ in their opinions concerning the ftate of the bile in
warm countries. Some fuppofe that it is thrown out to be a corrector of
putridity.  Others fuppofe that in all relaxed habits, the bile is. itfelf in a
                                       putrid 
            in the Human Species,         13

ground  the hue  of the climate  becomes, at
length,  deeply and permanently impreffed.

   On the fubject of the phyfical  caufes of co-
lour I fhall reduce my principles to a few fhort
propofitions derived chiefly from experience
and obfervation, and placed in fuch connexion
as to illuftrate and fupport one another.  They
may be enlarged and  multiplied by men of
leifure and talents who are difpofed to purfue
the inquiry farther.

   1. It is a fact  that the fun darkens the fkin
although there be no uncommon redundancy
of the bile.

   2. It is alfo a  fact that redundancy of bile
darkens the fkin, although there be no un-
common expofure to the  fun*.

   3  It  is a fact equally certain that where
   J'                                     both

putrid ftate.  I decide not among the opinions of phyficians. Whichever
be true, the theory I advance will be equally juft.  The bile will be aug-
mented ; it will tinge the flcin, and there, whether in a found or putrid
ftate, will receive the a&ion of the fun and atmofphere, and be, in pro-
portion, changed towards black.
  * Redundancy of bile long continued, as in the cafe of the black jaun-
dice, or of extreme melancholy, creates a colour almoft perfedly black. 
 l4        Of Complexion and Figure

 both caufes co-operate, the effect is much
 greater, and the colour much deeper*.

   4. It  is difcovered by anatomifts that the
 {kin confifts of three lamellae,  or folds,—the
 external, which in all nations is an extreme-
 ly fine and tranfparent  integument,—the in-
 terior, which is alfo white,—and an interme-
 diate, wrhich is a cellular membrane filled with
 a mucous fubftance.

   5. This fubftance, whatever it be, is altered
 in its   appearance and colour  with  every
 change  of the conftitution—As  appears in
 blunting, in fevers,  or  in confequence of ex-
 ercife.   A lax nerve, that does  not propel
,the blood with vigour,  leaves it pale  and fal-
 low—it is inftantly affected with the fmalleft
 furcharge of bile, and ftained of a yellow co-
 Jour.

   6. The change  of climate produces a pro-
 portionable alteration in the internal ftate and
 ftructure of the body, and in the quantity of
                                         the

  # This we fee verified in thofe perfons who have been long fubject to
 bilious diforders, if they have been much expofed to the fun.  Their com-
 plexion becomes in that cafe extremely dark. 
          in the Human Species,           1$

the fecretions*.   In fouthern  climates parti-
cularly, the bile, as has been remarked, is al-
ways augmented.

   7. Bile, expofed to  the fun and air  in a
ftagnant, or nearly in a ftagnant ftate,  tends
in its colour towards black.

   8. The fecretions as they approach the ex-
tremities, become more languid in their mo-
tion till at length  they come almoft to a fix-
ed ftate in the {kin.

   9. The aqueous parts  efcaping eafily  by
perfpiration through the  pores of the  {kin,
thofe that are more denfe  and incraffated  re-
main in  a mucous or glutinous ftate in  that
cellular  membrane between the interior {kin
and the  fcarf,  and  receive  there,  during  a
long time,  the  impreffions of  external  and
difcolouring caufes.

   10. The bile  is peculiarly liable to become
mucous  and incraffatedf;  and  in this ftate,
                                        being
  * This appears from the diforders with which men are ufually attack-
ed on changing their climate; and from the difference of figure and af-
pect which takes place in confequencc of fuch removals.  This latter re-
flexion will afterwards be fuwher illuftrated.
  f In this ftate it is always copioufly found, in the ftomach and inte.tines
at leaft in confequence of a bilious habit of hody. 
 16       Of Complexion and Figure

 being unfit for perforation, and attaching it-
 felf ftrongly to that fpongy tiffue of nerves,
 it is there detained for a length of time till it
 receives the repeated action of the fun and at-
 mofphere.

   11. From all the preceding principles taken
 together it appears that the complexion in
 any climate will  be changed towards black,
 in proportion to the degree of heat, in the at-
 mofphere,  and to the quantity of bile in the
 fkin.

   12. The vapours of ftagnant waters with
 which uncultivated regions abound; all great
 fatigues and hardfhips; poverty and naftinefs,
 tend  as well as heat,  to augment the bile.
 Hence, no lefs than from their nakednefs,  fa-
 vages will always be difcoloured, even in cold
 climates.  For though cold, when affifted  by
 fucculent nourifhment,  and by the comfort-
 able lodging and clothing furnifhed in civil-
 ized fociety, propels the blood with  force to
 the extremities, and clears the  complexion ;
yet when hardfhips and bad living relax the
 fyftem, and when poor and fhivering favages,
 under the  ar&ic  cold, do not poffefs thofe
conveniencies that,  by  opening  the pores,
                                      and 
            in the Human Species.           x 7

 and cherifhing the body, affift the motion of
 the blood to the furface, the florid and  fan-
 guine principle is repelled, and the complex-
 ion is left to  be formed by the dark coloured
 bile; which, in that ftate, becomes the more
 dark, becauie the obftruction of the pores pre-
 ferves  it  longer  in a  fixed ftate in the {kin.
 Hence, perhaps,  the  deep Lapponian com-
 plexion which has been efteemed a pheno-
 menon fo difficult to be explained.

    13.  Cold, where it  is not extreme*, is  fol-
 lowed  by a contrary  effect.   It corrects the
 bile, it braces the conftitution,  it propels the
 blood to the furface of the body with vigour,
 and renders the complexion clear and floridf.

   Such are  the obfervations which I propofe
 concerning  the proximate caufe of colour in
 the human fpecies.  But I remark, with plea-
 fure, that  whether this theory be well found-
 ed  or not, the fact may be perfectly afcertain-
                     D                   ed,

  * Extreme cold is followed by an  effect fimilar to that of extreme heat.
 It relaxes the conftitution by overftraining it, and augments the bile.
This, togetht: with the fatigues and hardfhips and other evils of favage
life, renders the complexion darker beneath the arctic circle, than it is in
the middle regions  of the temperate zone, even in a favage ftate of fociety.
  f Cold air is known to contain a confiderable quantity of nitre ; and
this ingredient is known to be favourable to a clear and ruddy complexion. 
T xS       Of Complexion and Figure

 ed, that climate has all that  power to change
 the complexion which I fuppofe, and which
 is neceffary  to  the prefent  fubject.—It  ap-
 pears from the whole ftate  of the world—it
 appears from obvious and undeniable events
 within the memory  of hiftory,  and from
 events even within our own view*

 -  Encircle  the  earth in  every   zone,  and*
 making  thofe  reafonable  allowances which
 have been  already fuggefted, and which will
 afterwards be farther  explained,  you will fee
 every zone marked by its diftinct and charac-
 terifticai  colour.  The black prevails under
 the equator;  under the tropics, the dark cop-
 per ; and on this fide of the tropic of Cancer*
 to the feventieth degree of  north latitude, you
 fucceffively difcern the olive, the brown,  the
 fair and the fanguine  complexion.  Of each
 of thefe there are feveral tints or fhades. And
 under the  arctic circle,  you return again to
 the dark hue.  This  general uniformity  in
 the effect indicates an influence in the climate
 that, under the fame circumftances, wall al-
 ways operate in the fame manner.   The ap-
 parent deviations from the  law, of climate that
 exift in different regions of the globe will be
 found to confirm it, when I come, in the pro-
                                     grefs 
           in the Human Species.         19

grefs of  this difcourfe,  to  point out  their
caufes*.

   The power of climate, I have faid, appears
from obvious and undeniable events within
the memory of hiftory.  From the Baltic to
the Mediterranean you trace the different la-
titudes by various fhades of colour.   From
the fame, or from nearly refembling nations,
are derived the fair German, the dark French-
man, the fwarthy Spaniard and Sicilian.  The
fouth of Spain is diftinguifhed by  complexion
from the  north.   The fame obfervation  may
be applied to moft of the other countries of
Europe.   And if we would extend it beyond
Europe to the great nations of the eaft,  it is
applicable to Turkey, to Arabia, to Perfia and
to China.  The people of Pekin  are fair ; at
Canton they are nearly black.  The Perfians
near  the  Cafpian fea are among the  faireft
people in the worldf ;  near the gulph of Or-
mus they  are of a dark olive.   The inhabi-
tants of  the  Stony  and Defert  Arabia  are
tawny ; while thofe of Arabia the Happy are
                                         as
  * Independently on the effects of the ftate of fociety which will be here-
after illuftrated, there are, in reality, various climates under the lame
parallels,
  f The fair Circajian has become proverbial of the women of a neigh-
bouring nation. 
2o       Of Complexion and Figure

as black as the Ethiopians.   In thefe ancient
nations, colour holds a  regular progreffion
with the latitude from the equator.   The ex-
amples of the Chinefe.and the Arabians are
the more decifive  on this fubject becaufe they
are known to have continued, from the re-
moter! antiquity, unmingled with other nati-
ons.  The latter, in particular, can be traced
up  to their origin from one family.  But nq
example can  carry  with it greater force on
this fubject than that of the Jews.   Defend-
ed from one flock,  prohibited by their moft
facred. inftitutions from intermarrying with
other nations, and yet difperfed, according to
the divine predictions, into every country on
the globe, this one people is marked with the
colours of all.   Fair in Britain and Germany,
brown in France and in Turkey, fwarthy in
Portugal and in Spain, olive in Syria and in
Chaldea, tawny or copper coloured in Arabia
and in Egypt*.

  Another example of the  power of climate
more immediately fubject to our own view
may be fhewn in  the inhabitants  of thefe
United States.  Sprung  within a  few years
from the Britifh,  the  Irifh and the German
                                   nations
* BufTcn's nat. hift. vol. 3d. 
           in the Human Species,        21

nations who are the faireft people in Europe,
they are now fpread over this continent from
the thirty firft to the forty fifth  degree  of
northern latitude.  And, nOtwithftanding the
temperature of the climate*—notwithstanding
the fhortnefs of  the period fince  their firft
eftablifhment  in America—notwithstanding
the continual mixture  of Europeans with
thofe born in the country—notwithstanding
previous ideas of beauty that prompted them
to guard againft the  influence of the climate
«—and notwithftanding the ftate of high ci-
vilization in  which they took poffeffion  of
their new habitations, they have already Suf-
fered  a  vifible  change.  A certain  counte-
nance  of palenefs and of foftnefs ftrikes a
traveller from Britain the moment he arives
upon our fhore.   A degree of fallownefs is
vifible to him  which, through familiarity,  or
the want of a general  ftandard of compari-
fon, hardly attracts  our obfervation.   This
effect is more obvious in the middle, and ftill
more,  in the  fouthern, than in the northern
ftates.   It is more obfervable in the low lands
near the ocean than as you approach the Apa-
lachian mountains; and more,  in the lower
and labouring  claffes  of people, than in fa-
milies of eafy fortune who poffefs the means,
                                      and 
ft 2       Of Complexion and Figure

and the inclination to protect their complex-
ion.   The inhabitants of New-Jerfey, below
the falls of the rivers,  are fomewhat darker
in their colour than the  people of Pennsyl-
vania, both  becaufe  the  land is lower in its
Situation, and  becaufe  it is covered with a
greater quantity of ftagnant water.  A more
Southern latitude  augments the colour along
the ftiores of  Maryland  and Virginia.   At
length the low lands of the Carolinas and of
Georgia degenerate to a complexion that is but
a few {hades lighter than that of the Iroquois.
I fpeak of the poor and labouring claffes of the
people who are always firft and moft deeply
affected by the influence  of climate and who
eventually give the national complexion to
every country.  The change of complexion
which has  already paffed upon thefe people
is  not eafily imagined by an inhabitant of
Britain, and furnifhes the clearest evidence to
an attentive obferver of  nature that, if they
were thrown,  like the native Indians, into a
favage ftate they would be perfectly marked,
in time, with  the  fame colour.   Not only
their complexion, but their whole constituti-
on feems to be changed.   So thin and mea-
gre is the habit of the poor, and of the over-
feers of their flaves, that, frequently,  their
                                    limbs 
           - in the Human  Species.             23


limbs appear to have a difproportioned length

to the body, and the fhape of the Skeleton is

evidently difcernible  through the Skin*.   If

thefe men had  been found in  a  diftant region

where  no memory of their  origin remained*

the philofophers  who  efpoufe the hypothefis

of different  fpecies of men would have pro-

duced them  in proof,  as they have often done

nations  diftinguifhed  by  fmaller differences

than diftinguifh  thefe  from their European

anceftorsf.   Examples taken from the natives

                                                     of


   * The dark colour  of the natives of the Weft-India IQands is well
known to approach very near a dark copper.  The defcendents of the Spa-
niards in fouth America are already become copper coloured:  [fee phih
tranf. of roy. foe. Lond. N° 476 feet. 4.] The Portuguefe of Mitomba in
Sierra Leona on the coaft of Africa have,  by intermarrying with the na^
tives, and by adopting their manners, become, in a few generations, per*
Fecth/ affimllated in afpect, figure and complexion,  [fee treatife  on the
trade of Great Britain to Africa,  by  an African merehant.]  And lord
Kaims,  who cannot be fufpected of partiality on this fubject, fays of an-
other Portug-uefe fettlement on the coaft of Congo, that the defcendents
of thofe poliilied Europeans, have become, both in their perfons and their
manners, more like beaftsthan like men. [fee (ketches of man, prel. difc]
Thefe_examples tend to ftrengthen the inference drawn from the changes
that have happened in the Anglo-Americans.  And they (hew how ea-
fily climate would  afimilate foreigners to natives in the courfe of time,
if they would adopt the fame manners,  and equally expofe  themfelvcs to
its influence.

   j- The habit of Amerua is, in general, more (lender than that of Bri-
tain.  But the extremely meagre afpect of the pooreft and loweft clafs of
people in fome of the fouthern dates may  arife from the following caufe,
that the changes produced by climate are,  in the firft inftancc,  generally
difeafes.  Hereafter, when the conftitution (hall be perfectly accomodat-
ed to the climate, it will by degrees affume a more regular and  agreeable
figure.  The Anglo-Americans, however/ will never refemble the na-
tive Indians.   Civilization will prevent fo great a degeneracy either in the
                                                   colour 
ft 4       Of Complexion and Figure

of the United States are the Stronger becaufe
climate has  not had time to  imprefs upon
them its full character.   And the change has
been  retarded by the arts of fociety, arid by
the continual intermixture of foreign nations.

   Thefe changes may, to perfons who think
Superficially  on the  fubject, feem more flow
in their progrefs than is confiStent  with the
principles hitherto laid down concerning the
influence of climate.   But in the philofophy
of human nature it is worthy of obfervation,
that all  national changes, whether moral or
phyfical,  advance  by imperceptible  gradati-
ons, and are not accomplished but in a feries
of ages.  Ten centuries were requifite to po-
lifli  the manners of Europe.  It is not im-
probable that an equal fpace of time may be
neceffary to form  the countenance, and the
figure of the body—to receive all the infen-
fible  and infinite  impreffions of climate—to
combine thefe with the effects that refult from
the ftate of fociety—to blend both along with
perfonal peculiarities—and by  the innumera-
                                          ble
colour or the features.  Even if they were thrown back again into the fa-
vage ftate the refemblance would not be complete; becaufe, the one would
receive the impreffions of the climate on the ground of features formed in
Europe—the others have received them on the ground of features formed
in a very different region of the globe.  The effects of fuch various combi-
nations can never be the fame. 
            in the Human Species.         25

ble unions of families to melt down the whole
into one uniform and national countenance*.
It is even queftionable whether, amidft eter-
nal migrations and conquefts,  any nation ir^
Europe has  yet  received  the full  effects of
thefe caufes.  China and Arabia are perhaps
the only civilized countries in the world in
which they have attained their utmoft opera-
tion ; becaufe they are the only countries in
which the people have been able, during a
long fucceffion of ages, to preferve themfelves
unmixed with other nations.   Each parallel
of latitude is, among them, distinctly marked
by its peculiar complexion.  In no other na-
tions is there Such a regular and perfect gra-
dation of colour as is traced from the  fair na-
tives of Pekin, to Canton, whofe inhabitants
are of the darkeft copper—or, from the olive
of the Defert Arabia to the deep black of the
province of Yemen.   It is plain then that the
caufes of colour, and of other varieties in the
human fpecies,  have not  yet  had their  full
operation  on the  inhabitants of thefe United
States.   Such an operation,  however,  they
have already had  as affords a  ftrong proof,
                      E                  and
  * In fivnce life men more fpeedily receive the churicterifl i: features of
the clim::^," and of the ftate of fociety : becaufe the habits and ideas <■;
fociety among them arc few and fimplc ; and to the action of the climui c
they are cxpoicd naked and defencelefs to fuller it-, f ill force at once. 
26        Of Complexion and-Figure


and an interefting  example of the powerful

influence of climate*.


   The preceding obfervations have been in-

tended chiefly to  explain the  principle of co-

lour.   I proceed  now  to illuftrate the influ-

ence of climate  on  other varieties of the hu-

man body.


   It would  be impoflible,  in the compafs  of

a difcourfe like the  prefent, to enter minutely

into  the defcription of every feature  of the

countenance and of every limb of the  body,

and to  explain  all  the  changes  in each that

may poffibly be  produced  by the  power  of

climate combined with other accidental caufes.

Our knowledge  of the human  conftitution,

or  of the globe, or  of the powers of nature  is,

                                        perhaps,

  *  The reader will pleafe to keep in mind that in remarking on the
changes that have paffed on the Anglo-Americans,  I have in view the
rhafs of the people.  And that I have in view likewife natives of the fe-
cond or third generation, and not fuch as are fprung from parents,  one
or both of whom have been born in Europe; though even with regard to
thefe the remarks will be found to hold in a great degree. I am aware
that particular inltances may be adduced that will feem to contradict each
remark.  But fuch examples do not overthrow general conclufions derived
from the body of the populace.  And thefe inftances, I am  perfuaded,
will be very rare among thofe who have had a clear American defcent by
both parents, for two or three generations.  They will be more rare in
the low and level country where the climate is more different, and the
defcents more remote from Europe,  than  in the countries to the weft
where the land rifes into hills.  Here the climate is more fimilar to that in
the mjddle of Europe, and the pepplc are more mingled with emigrants
rrom Ireland and Germany. 
         'In the Human Species.         1y

perhaps, not Sufficiently accurate and exten-
sive to enable us to offer a fatisfactory foluti-
on of  every  difficulty that  an attentive or a
captious obferver might propofe.  But if we
are able, on juft principles, to explain the ca-
pital varieties, in figure and afpect, that exift
among different nations, it ought to fatisfy a
reafonable inquirer; as no minuter differen-
ces can be fufficient to conftitute a  diftinct
fpecies.

   I fhall, therefore, confine my observations
at prefent, to thofe confpicuous varieties that
appear in the hair, the figure of the head, the
fize of the limbs, and in the principal features
of the face.

   The hair generally follows the law of the
complexion, becaufe, its roots, being planted
in the fkin, derive its nourishment and its co-
lour from the fame fubftance which there con-
tributes to form the complexion.   Every gra-
dation of colour in the fkin, from the brown
to the  perfectly black,  is accorApanied with
proportionable fhades in the hair.  The pale
red, or fandy complexion, on the other hand,
is ufually attended  with rednefs of the hair.
Between thefe  two points is found almoft
                                     every 
ft 8        Of Complexion and Figure

every other colour of this excrefcence, arifing
from the accidental mixture of the principles
of black  and red  in  different proportions.
White hair,  which is found only with the
faireft fkin, Seems to t>e the middle of the ex-
tremes, and  the ground in which they both
are blended*.   The extremes, if I may fpeak
fo, are as  near to each other as to any point
in the circle,  and are  often found to run in-?
to one another.   The Highlanders  of Scotr
land are generally either black or red.  A red
beard  is frequently united with  black  hair.
And if,  in a red or dark coloured family, a
child happens to deviate from the law of the
houfe, it is commonly to the oppofite extreme.
On  this  obfervation permit me  to  remark,
that thofe who deny  the identity of human
origin, becauSe one nation is red and another
is black, might, on the fame principle, deny,
to perfons of different complexion, the iden-
tity  of family.   But as the fact, in the latter
inftance, is certain ; we may, in the former,
reafonably conclude that,  the ftate of nerves
or fluids which contributes to produce one or
pther of thefe effects in a fingle family, may
                                         be

  * That black hair is fometimes fuppofcd to-be united with the faireft (kin
arifes from the deception which the contrail between the hair and fkin puts
upon the fight.                               ^ 
              in the Human Species.          20


 be  the  general  tendency of  a particular cli-

 mate.   In this example, at leaft, we fee that

 the  human  conftitution is capable of  being

 moulded, by phyfical caufes, into many of the

 varieties that diftinguifh mankind.   Ft is con-

 trary  therefore  to  found philofophy,  which

 never affigns different caufes, without necef-

 fity, for  fimilar  events, to have recourfe, for

 explaining  thefe varieties,  to the  hypothefis

 of feveral original fpecies*.


   Climate poffeiles  great and evident  influ-

 ence  on the  hair not only of men,  but of all

 other animals.   The changes which this ex-

 crefcence undergoes in  them is  at  leaft equal

 to what  it fuffers in man.   If, in one  cafe,

 thefe  tranfmutations are acknowledged  to  be

 confiftent with identity of kind, they ought

 not, in the other, to" be  efteemed criterions of

                                          diftinct


  " If we fuppofe different fpecies to have been created, how (hall we de-
 termine their number f Are any of them loft ? or where (hall we, at pre-
 fent find them clearly diftinguifhed from all others ? or were the fpecies
 of men made capable of being blended together, contrary to the nature of
 other animals, fo that they fhould never be difcriminated, fo rendering
 the end unneceffary for which they Were fuppofed to be created ? If we
 have reafon, from the varieties that ' xift in the fame family, or in the
 fame nation, to conclude that the Danes, the  French,  the Turks, and
 people even more remote are of one (pedes, have we not the fame reafon
 to conclude that the nations beyond them, and who do not differ from the
laft by more confpicuous diftinctions,  than the laft differ from the firft,
are alfo of the fame fpecies. By purfuing this p'rogrcffion we (hall find
hut one fpecies from the equator to the pole. 
 30       Of Complexion and Figur6

 diftinct fpecies.  Nature  hath adapted  the
 pliancy of her work to the fituations in which
 She may require it to be placed.   The bea-
 ver,  removed  to  the warm  latitudes,  ex-
 changes its fur, and the fheep its wool, for a
 coarfe hair that preferves the animal in a more
 moderate temperature.  The coarfe and black
 fhag of the bear is converted, in the arctic re-
 gions, into  the fineft and whiteft fur.   The
 horfe, the deer, and almoft every animal pro-
 tected by hair, doubles his coat in the be-
 ginning of winter, and fheds it in the Spring
 when  it is no longer ufeful.  The finene/s
 and denfity of the hair is augmented in pro-^
 portion to the latitude of the country.   The"
 Canadian  and Ruffian  furs are,  therefor^,
 better than the furs of climates farther fouth.
 The colour  of the hair is likewife changed
 by  climate.   The bear  is white under the
 arctic circle;  and in high northern latitudes,
 black  foxes are moft frequently found.   Si-
 milar effects of climate are difcernible  on
 mankind.   Almoft  every nation is diftin-
guifhed by fome peculiar quality of this ex-
crefcence.  The hair of the Danes is  general-
ly red, of the Englifh fair or brown, and of
the  French commonly black.   The High-
landers of Scotland are divided between red
                                      and 
            in the Human Species.          31

and black.   Red hair is frequently found in
the cold  and  elevated regions of the Alps,
although black be the predominant complexi-
on at the foot of thofe mountains.   The abori-
gines  of America,  like all people of colour,
have black hair; and it is generally long and
Straight.   The ftraightnefs of the hair may
arife  from the relaxation of  the  climate, or
from the humidity of an uncultivated region.
But whatever be the caufe,  the Anglo-Ame-
ricans already feel its influence.   And curl-
ed locks fo frequent among their  anceftors
are rare in the United States*.

   Black  is the  moft  ufual colour of the hu-
man hair, becaufe thofe climates that are moft
extenfive, and moft favourable to population,
tend  to the dark complexion.  Climates that
are not naturally marked  by a peculiar colour
may owe the accidental predominancy of one,
to the conftitutional  qualities of  an anceftral
family—They may owe  the  prevalence of a
variety of colours to the early fettlement of
                                      different

   * They are moft rare  in the fouthern ftates,  and in thofe families that
are fartheft dcfcended from their European origin.  Straight lank hair is
almoft a general characterise  of the Americans of the fecond and third
race. It is impoflible, however, to predict what effect hereafter the clear-
ing of the country and the progrefs of cultivation may have on the hair as
well as other qualities of the Americans.  They will neceffarily produce a
great change in the climate, and confequently in the human conftitution. 
 3 2       Of Complexion and Figure

 different families;  or to the migrations tii*
 conquefts of different  nations.   England is,
 perhaps for this reafon, the country in which
 is feen the greateft variety in the colour of
 the hair.

   But the  form  of this excrefcence which
 principally merits obfervation, becaufe it feems
 to be  fartheft  removed from  the ordinary
 laws  of nature,  is feen  in  that fparfe  and
 curled fubftance peculiar to a part of Africa,
 and to a few of the Afiatic iflands.

   This peculiarity has been urged as a deci-
 five character of  a diftindt fpecies with more
 affurance than became philofophers but tole-
 rably acquainted  with the operations of na-
 ture.   The fparfenefs of the African hair is
 analogous to the effect which a warm climate
has been Shewn  to have on other animals.
 Cold, by obftrudting the perfpiration tends to
throwr out the perfpirable matter accumulated
at the fkin in an additional coat of hair.   A
warm climate, by opening the pores, evapo-
rates this matter  before  it can be concreted
 into  the  fubftance of hair; and the laxnefs
and aperture  of the pores renders the hair li-
                                      able 
           in the Human Species.         33

able to be eafily eradicated by  innumerable
accidents.

   Its curl may refult in part, perhaps, from
external heat, and in part from the nature of
the fubftance or fecretion by which it is nou-
rifhed.   That it depends in a degree on the
quality of the fecretion is rendered probable
from its appearance on the chin,  and on other
parts of the  human body.   Climate is as
much  diftinguifhed  by the  nature and pro-
portion of the fecretions as by the degree of
heat.  Whatever be  the nutriment  of the hair
it feems to be combined, in the torrid zone of
Africa, with fome fluid of a highly volatile
or ardent quality.  That it is combined with
a ftrong volatile fait, the rank and offenfive
Smell of many African nations, gives us reafon
to fufpect.  Saline fecretions tend to curl  and
to burn the  hair.  The evaporation of  any
volatile fpirit would render its furface dry and
difpofed to contract,  while the center  conti-
nuing diftended  by the vital motion, thefe op-
pofite dilatations and contractions  would ne-
ceffarily produce a curve, and make the hair
grow involved.  This conjecture receives fome
confirmation by obferving that  the negroes
born in the United States of America are gra-
                    F              dually 
34       Of Complexion and Figure

dually lofing the ftrong fmell of the African
zone ; their hair is, at the fame time,  grow-
ing lefs involved,  and becoming denfer and
longer*.

   External and violent heat parching the ex-
tremities  of the hair tends likewife to involve
it.  A hair held near the Sire inftantly coils it-
felf up.   The herbs roll up their leaves, in the
extreme  heats  of fummer,  during  the day,
and expand them  again in the coolnefs of the
evening.   Africa is the hotteft country on the
globe.    The   ancients  who frequented the
Afiatic zone efteemed the African an uninha-
bitable zone of fire.   The hair as well as the
whole human conftitution Suffers, in this re-
gion, the effects of an intenfe heat.

   The manners of the people  add  to  the in-
fluence of the  climate.   Being favages they
have few arts to protect them from its inten-
fity.  The  heat and ferenity of the  fky pre-
ferving the life of children without much care
                                           of
    Many negroes of the third race in America have thick clofe hair,
extended to four or five inches in length. In fome who take great paiqs
to comb and drefs it in oil, it is even longer, and they are able to extend
it into a (hort queue.  This is particularly the cafe with fome domeftic
fervants who have more leifure and better means than others to cherifli
their hair. Many negroes, however, cut their hair as fail as it grows,
preferring it (hort. 
in the Human Species.            35
of the  parent, they  feem to  be the moft ne-
gligent people of their offspring in the  uni-
verfe*.    Able  themfelves  to  endure  the ex-
tremes  of that ardent climate, they inure their
children  from their moft  tender age.   They
fuffer them to lie in the afhes of their huts, or to
roll  in  the  duft and  fand beneath the direct
rays of a burning  fun.   The mother,  if fhe
is engaged, lays down the infant on the firft
fpot fhe  finds,  and is  feldom  at the  pains to
feek the  miferable fhelter of a barren Shrub,
which  is  all that the interior country affords.
Thus the hair is crifped, while the  complex-
ion  is  blackened by exceffive heatf.   There
                                                    is
  * T.he manners of a people are formed, in  a great meafure, by their
necefiitics.  The dangers of the North-American climate render the na-
tives uncommonly attentive to the prefervation of their children. The
African climate not laying its favage inhabitants under any neceflity to be
careful, they expofe their children to its utmoft influence without concern.
  f I have myfelf been witnefs of this treatment of children by the flaves
in the fouthern ftates where they are numerous -enough to retain many of
their African cuftoms.  I fpeak of the field (laves who, living in little vil-
lages on their plantations at a diftance from their mailers' manfions,  arc
flow in adopting the manners of their fuperiors.  There I have feen the
mother of a child, within lefs than fix weeks after it  was born, take jt
with her to the field and lay it in the fand beneath a hot fun while fhe
hoed her corn-row down and up.  She wquld then fuckle it a few minute,s
and return to her work, leaving the child in the fame expofure, although
(he might have gained, within a few yards, a convenient (hade.  Struck
at firft with the apparent barbarity of this treatment 1 have remonftrated
with them on the fubject; and was uniformly told that dry fand and a hot
fun were never found to hurt them.  This treatment tends to add to the
injury that the climate does to the hair.  A fimilar negligence among the
poor, who fuffer their children to lie in afhes, or on the naked ground, 
%6       Of Complexion and Figure

is  probably a concurrence of both the precede
ing  caufes in the  production of  the effect.
The influence of heat either external, or in-
ternal, or of both^ in giving the form to the
hair of the Africans, appears, not only from
its fparfenefs and its curl, but, from its colour.
It is not of a Shining, but an aduft black, and
its extremities tend to brown as if it had been
Scorched by the fire.

   Having treated fo largely on the  form of
this excrefcence  in that country where it de-
viates fartheft from the common lav/ of the
fpecies.   I proceed to  confider a  few of the
remaining varieties among mankind*

   The whole  of the Tartar race are of low
ftature—Their heads have a difproportioned
magnitude  to the  reft of the body-—Their
Shoulders are raifed, and their necks are  Short
■—Their eyes  are  Small,  and appear by the
jutting of the eyebrows over them,  to be funk
in the head^-^-The nofe is  Short, and rifes but
little from the face—The cheek  is elevated
and fpread out on the fides—The  whole fea-
                                        tures
and who expofe them without covering for their heads to the fun and
wind, we find greatly injures their hair.  We rarely fee perfons who have
been bred in extreme poverty, who have it pot (hort, and thin, and frit-
tered. ■ But the^ heat of the fand and of the fun in Africa muft have a
touch more powerful effect. 
in the Human Species.
37.
fcures are remarkably coarfe and  deformed*
And all thefe peculiarities are aggravated, as
you proceed towards the pole, in the Lapponi-
an, Borandian and Samoiede races, which, as.
Buffon juftly remarks, are Tartars reduced to
the  laft  degree  of degeneracy.—A race of
men refembling the Laplanders we find in a
fimilar  climate  in America.  The  frozen
countries round Hudfon's  bay are,  except Si-
beria,  the coldeft in the  world.   And here
the  inhabitants are between four and five feet
in height—Their heads are large—Their eyes
are little and weak—And their  hands, feet,
and  whole limbs uncommonly fmall.
   In
   Thefe effects naturally refult from extreme
col,d,  Cold  contracts the nerves,  as it does
all folid bodies.  The inhabitants  grow un-
der the conftri&ion of continual froft as un-
der the forcible compreiiion of fome power-
ful machine.  Men will therefore  be  found
in the  higheft latitudes, forever fmall and of
low  Stature*.  The exceffive rigors of thefe
frozen regions affect chiefly the extremities.
The blood circulating  to them with a  more
                                    languid
  * A moderate degree of cold is nece/Tary to give force and tone to the
nerves, and to raife the human body to its largeft fize.  But extreme cold
overftrains and contracts them.  Therefore thefe northern tribes are not
pnly fmall, but weak and timid. 
 3 8        Of Complexion diid Figure

 languid and feeble motion  has not fufficient
 vigour to refift the impreffions  of the  coldi
 Thefe  limbs  confequently  fuffer a  greater
 contraction  and diminution than the reft of
 the  body.   But   the   blood  flowing  with
 warmth  and  force  to the  breaft and head,
 and perhaps  with the  more  force,   that  its
 courfe  to the extremities  is obstructed,  dif-
 tends  thefe parts  to a difproportionate fize.
 There is a regular gradation in the  effect of
 the climate,  and in the figure of the people
 from the Tartars  to the tribes round Hud-
fon's bay.   The Tartars are taller and thick-
 er than the Laplanders or the Samoiedes, be-
 caufe their climate is lefs fevere—The northern
Americans  are the moft diminutive of all,
 their extremities  are  the fmalleft, and  their
 breaft and  head of the  moft difproportioned
magnitude,  becaufe, inhabiting a climate e*
 qually  fevere with the  Samoiedes, they are
 reduced to a more  favage ftate of fociety*.
                                      Extreme
  * The neighbourhood of the Ruffians, of the Chinefe, and even of the
 Tartars who have adopted many improvements from the civilized nations
that border upon them, give the Laplanders and Siberians confiderable
advantages over the northern  Americans who are in the moft abject ftate
of favage life, and totally deftitute of every art either for convenience or
protection.  The principles ftated above apply to all thefe nations in pro-
 portion to the degree of cold combined with the degree of favagenefs.
The inhabitants of the northern civilized countries of Europe are gene-
rally of lower flature than tbofe in the middle regions. But civilization
and a milder climate prevent  them from degenerating equally with the
 porthern Afiatics and Americans. 
           in the Human Species.           ?g

   Extreme  cold  likewife tends  to form the
 next peculiarities of thefe races,  their  high
 Shoulders, and their Short necks.   Severe froft
 prompts men to raife their fhoulders as if to
 proted the  neck, and  to cherifh  the warmth
 of the blood that flows to  the head.   And
 the  habits of an eternal  winter will fix  them
 in  that   pofition.—The  neck  will  appear
 fhortened beyond its due proportion, not on-
 ly becaufe it fuffers an equal contradion with
 the  other parts of the body;  but becaufe  the
 head and breaft being increafed to a difpro-
 portioned fize, will  encroach upon its length;
 and  the natural  elevation of the fhoulders
 will bury what remains fo deep as to give
 the  head an appearance of refting upon  them
 for  its fupport.   That thefe peculiarities  are
 the  effea of climate*,  the examples produ-
 ced  by French missionaries in China, of moft
 refpeaable  charaders,  leave us  no room to
 doubt,  who affure us that they  have  feen,
 even in the  forty eighth degree  of northern
                                      latitude,
   As climate is often known peculiarly to affect certain parts of the
 body,  philofophy,  if it were neceffary, could find no more difficulty in
 accounting for the (hort necks of the Tartars, and other northern jribes,
 a, a diieafe of the climate, than fhe finds in giving the fame account for th;
 thick necks fo frequently found in the regions of the Alps.  But the obfer-
 yations before made will probably convince the attentive reader that there
 is no need to refort to fuch a folution of the phenomenon, when it feems
fo eafily to be explained by the known operation of natural caufes. 
 40       Of Complexion and Figure

 latitude, the pofterity of Chinefe families who
 had become perfea Tartars in their figure and
 afped;  and that they were diftinguifhed,  in
 particular, by the fame fhortnefs of the neck,
 and by  the fame elevation of the Shoulders*.

   That coarfe and deformed features are the
 neceffary  produdion  of  the  climate  cannot
 have efcaped the attention of the moft incuri-
 ous obferver.—Let us attend to the effeas  of
 extreme cold.   It contrads the aperture  of
 the eyes—it draws down the brows—it raifes
 the cheek—by  the  preffure of  the  under
jaw againft  the upper it  diminishes the face
 in length and fpreads it out at the  fides—and
 diftorts the Shape of every feature.

   This, which is only a  tranfient impreffion
 in our climate,  foon effaced by the conveni-
 ences of fociety, and by the changes  of the
 feafon, becomes a heightened and  permanent
effea in thofe extreme regions,  arifing from
the greater intenfity,  and the conftant  aaion
of the caufe. The naked and defencelefs con-
dition of the people augments its  violence—
and beginning  its operation from infancy
when the features are moft tender and fufcep-
                                     tible
• See Recueil 24 des lettres edifiantcs. 
            in the Human Species.         41

 tible of impreffion, and continuing it, with-
 out remiffion, till they have attained their ut-
 moft growth, they become, fixed at length in
 the point of greateft deformity, and form the
 charaaer of the Hudfon or Siberian  counte-
 nance.

   The principal peculiarities that may require
 a farther illuftration are the fmallnefs of the
 nofe, and depreffion of the middle of the face
 —the prominence of the forehead—and the
 extreme weaknefs of the eyes.

   The middle of the face is that part which
 is moft expofed to the cold, and confequently
 fuffers  moft  from its power of contradion.
 It firft  meets the wind, and it is fartheft re-
 moved  from the feat of warmth in the head.
 But a circumftance of equal, or, perhaps,  of
 greater importance on this fubjea, is that the
 inhabitants of frozen climates naturally draw-
 ing their breath more through the noie, than
 through the mouth*, thereby direa the great-
 eft  impulSe of the air on that feature, and the
 parts adjacent.   Such a  continual  flream of
                   G                    air

  * A frofty air inhaled by the mouth chills the body more than when
it is received by the noftrils; probably becaufe a greater quantity enters at
a time.  Nature th refore prompts men to k^ep the mouth doled during
the prevalence of inLenfe froft. 
42        Of Complexion and Figure

air augments the cold, and by increafing the
contraaion of the parts,  restrains the free-
dom of their growth*.

  Hence, likewife, will arife an eafy folution
of the next peculiarity, the prominence of the
forehead.   The fuperior warmth and force of
life in the  brain  that fills the upper  part of
the head, will naturally increafe its fize, and
make it overhang the contraaed parts below.

  Laftly the eyes in  thefe rigorous climates
are fingularly affeaed.  By the projedion of
the eye-brows, they  appear to be funk into
the head ;  the cold naturally diminishes their
aperture ;  and the intenfity of the froft con-
curring with the glare of eternal  fnows, fo
overftrains thefe tender organs,  that they are
always  weak,  and the  inhabitants are often
liable to blindnefs at an early age.

  In the  temperate zone on  the other hand,
and in  a point rather below than above the
middle  region of temperature, the agreeable
                                    warmth

  * On the fa,me principle the mercury in a thermometer may be contract-
ed and funk into the bulb, by directing upon it a conftant dream of air
from a pair of bellows, if the bulb  be frequently touched during the ope-
ration with any fluid that by a fpeedy evaporation tends to increafe the
cold. 
            in the Human Species.           43

warmth of the air difpofing the nerves to  the
moft free  and eafy expanfion, will  open  the
features and  increafe  the  orb  of the eye*.
Here a large full eye, being the tendency of
nature, will  grow to be efteemed a perfeaion.
And in  the Strain  of Homer, £•**/« *M* n?\
would   convey  to  a  Greek an idea of  di-
vine beauty that is hardly intelligible to an
inhabitant of  the north of Europe.    All  the
principles  of  the human  conftitution unfold-
ing themfelves freely in  fuch a region,   and
nature aaing without conftraint will be there
feen moft  nearly in that perfeaion which  was
the original defign and idea of the  Creatorf.

   II. Having endeavoured  to afcertain  the
power of climate in producing many varieties
in the  human  fpecies, I proceed to illuftrate
the influence  of the ftate of fociety.
                                              On
  * It is perhaps worthy of remark, that, in the three continents, the
temperate climates, and eternal cold border fo nearly upon one another
that we pafs almoft inftantly from the former to the latter. And we find
the Laplander, the Samoiede, the  Mongou, and the tribes round Hud-
fon's bay in the neighbourhood of the Swede, the Ruffian, the Chinefe,
and the Canadian. Without attention to this remark hafty reafoners will
make the fuddeq change of features in thefe nations an objection againft
the preceding philofophy.
  f It may perhaps gratify my countrymen to reflect that the United States
occupy thofe latitudes that have ever been moft favourable to the  beauty
of the human form. When time fhall have accommodated the conftitution
to its new ftate, and cultivation fhall have meliorated the climate, the
beauties of Greece and Circaffia may be renewed in America 5 as there are
not a few already who rival thofe of any other quarter of the globe. 
44       Of Complexion and Figure

  On thi^fubjea I obferve,

  i. In the firft place,  that the effect of cli-
mate is augmented by a favage ftate, and cor-
reaed by a ftate of civilization.  And

  2. In the next place, that by the  ftate of
fociety many varieties in the human perfon
are  intirely formed.

  In the firft place,  the effea of climate is
augmented by a favage  ftate  of fociety and
correaed by a ftate of civilization.

  A naked favage, feldom enjoying the pro-
teaion of a miSerable hut, and compelled to
lodge on the bare ground and under the open
Sky, imbibes the influence of the fun  and at-
mofphere at every pore.   He inhabits an un-
cultivated region filled with ftagnant  waters,
and covered with putrid vegetables that fall
down and corrupt on the  fpot where they have
grown.   He pitches  his wigwam on the fide
of a river, that he may enjoy the convenience
of fifhing as well as of hunting.  The vapour
of rivers, the exhalations of marfhes,  and the
noxious effluvia of decaying vegetables, fill
the  whole atmofphere  in an  unimproved
                                 country, 
in the Human Species.          45
 country, and tend to give a dark and bilious
 hue  to the complexion*.   And the Sun aaing
 immediately on the fkin in this ftate will ne-
 ceffarily imprefs a deep colour.

   This effea is augmented by the praaice of
 painting,  to which favages are  often obliged
 to have recourSe in order to protea themfelves
 from the impreffions of the humid  earth on
 which they lie,  or of a noxious atmofphere to
 which  they arc  expofed  without   covering.
 Painting taken  up at firft through neceffity  is
 afterwards employed as an ornament; and a
 favage is feldom feen without  having his fkin
 covered  with fome compofition that  fpoils the
 finenefs of its texture, and impairs the beauty
 and  clearnefs of  its natural colour.   This  is
 known to be the effea of the fineft paints and
                                           wafhes
  ' The forefts in uncultivated countries abforb a great part of thefe pu-
trid vapours, otherwife they would be contagious and mortal.  But as na-
ture never makes her work perfect, but leaves the completion of her
fchemes to exercile the induftry and wifdom of man, the growing vegeta-
bles do not abforb the whole effluvia of the decaying, and of the noxious
marfnes that overfpread the face of fuch a region.  Nothing but civiliza-
tion and culture can perfectly purify the atmofphere.  Uncultivated as
well as warm countries therefore naturally tend to a bilious habit, and a
 dark complexion.  It may feem an obje6lion againft this obfervation, that
in America we often find bilious diforders augmented in confequence of
cutting down the timber, and extending the plantations.  The reafon of
which probably is that the indolence or neceffities of a new country fre-
quently lead men to clear the ground without draining the marfhes; or
fmall plantations are furrounded by unimproved forefts.   Thus, the ve-
getables that abforbed the noxious moiilure being removed, it is left tq
fall in greater abundance on man. 
46       Of Complexion and Figure

wafhes that are ufed for the fame purpofe in
polifhed  fociety.  Much  more will it be the
effea of thofe coarfe  and filthy  unguents
which are employed by Savages.   And as we
fee that coloured  marks impreffed by punc-
tures in  the Skin become indelible,  it is rea-
fonable to believe that the particles of paints
insinuated into its  texture by forcible and
frequent rubbing  will tend,  in  like manner,
to create a dark and permanent colour.

   To this may be  added that  the  frequent
fumigations by  which they are obliged  to
guard againft the annoyance of innumerable
infeas in undrained and uncultivated coun-
tries ; and the fmoke with which their huts
unSkilfully built,  and without chimneys, are
eternally filled, contribute to augment the na-
tural  darknefs  of the favage  complexion.
Smoke we  perceive difcolours  the Skin of
thofe labourers and mechanics who are habi-
tually immerfed in  it—it Stains every objed
long expofed to  its aaion, by entering the
pores, and adhering ftrongly to the Surface.—It
infinuates itSelf in a fimilar manner into the
pores of the Skin,  and there  tends to change
the complexion,  on the fame principles that
it is changed by inierted paints.
                                     And 
           in the Human Species.        47

  And laftly, the hardfliips of their condition
that weaken and exhauft the principle of life—
their fcanty and meagre fare which wants the
fucculence and nourifhment which give frefh -
nefs and vigour to the conftitution—-the un-
certainty of their provision which fometimes
leaves them to languish with want, and fome-
times enables them to overftrain themfelves
by  a  furfeit—and their intire  inattention  to
perfonal and domeftic cleanlinefs,  all have a
prodigious effea to darken  the complexion,
to relax and emaciate  the conftitution, and to
render the features coarfe and deformed. Of
the influence of thefe  cauSes we have an ex-
ample in perfons reduced to extreme poverty,
who are ufually as much diftinguifhed by their
thin habit, their uncouth  features, and their
fwarthy and fqualid afpea as by the mean-
neSs of their garb.  "Nakednefs, expofure, ne-
gligence of appearance, w7ant of cleanlinefs,
bad lodging, and meagre diet, fo difcolour and
injure their  form as to enable  us to  frame
fome judgment of the degree in  which fuch
caufes will contribute to augment the influence
of climate  in favage life.   Independently on
climate, thefe caufes will render it impoffible
that a favage Should ever be fair.  And the
co-operation of both,  wTill ufually render men
                                        in 
 48           Of Complexion and Figure


 in that ftate of fociety extremely dark in their

 complexion.   And   generally  they  will   be

 more   coarfe  and hard  in  their  features  and

 lefs  robuft  in  their  perfons, than  men who

 enjoy with temperance  the advantages of ci-

 vilized  fociety*.

                                                          As


   * One of the greateft difficulties with which a writer on this fubject has
to combat, is the ignorance and fuperficial obfervation of the bulk of tra-
vellers who travel without the trueJpirit of remark.   The firft objects that
meet their view in a new country and among a new people, feize their fan-
cy and are recited with exaggeration ; and they feldom have judgment
and impartiality fufficient to examine and reafon with juftnefs and caution;
and from innumerable facts which neceffarily have many points of differ-
ence among themfelves, to  draw general conclufions.  Such conclufions,
when  moft juftly drawn,  th<■■•? think they have  refuted when  they difco-
ver a fingle example that feems not to coincide with them.  In reafonings
of this kind there are few perfcns who fufficiently confider that, however
accurately we may inveftigate caufes and "effects, our limited knowledge
will always leave particular examples that will feem to be exceptions from
any general principle.—To apply thefe remarks.—A few examples per-
haps may occur, among favages, of regular and agreeable features,  or of
ftrong and  mufcular bodies; as in civilized fociety we meet with fome rare
inftances of aftonifhing beauty.   If, by chance, a perfon of narrow obfer-
vation, and incomprehenfive mind, have feen two  or three examples of
this kind, he will be  ready on this (lender foundation, to contradict the
general remark, I have made concerning the coarfe and uncouth features
of favages,  and their want of thofe fine and mufcular proportions, if I may
call them fo, in the human body, that indicate ftrength combined with
fwiftnefs.  Yet, it is certain that the general countenance of favage life is
much more uncouth and coarfe, more unmeaning and wild,  as will after-
wards be feen when I come to point out the caufes of it than the counte-
nance  of polifhed fociety:  And the perfon is more (lender,  and rather
fitted for the chace, than robuft and capable of force and labour.__An Ame-
rican Indian, in particular,  is commonly fwift; he is rarely very (Iron?.
And it has  been remarked, in the many expeditions which the people  of
thefe ftates have undertaken againft the favages, that, in clofe quarters,
the ftrength of an Anglo-American is ufually fuperior to that of an Indian of
the fame fize. The mufclcs, likewife, on which the fine proportions of per-
fon fo much depend, are generally fmaller and more lax, than they are in
improved fociety that is not corrupted by luxury, or debilitated by fedentary
                                                    occupations 
           in the Human Species.           49

   As a favage  ftate contributes to augment
the influence of climate; or,  at leaft, to  ex-
hibit its worft effeas upon the human confti-
tution ; a ftate  of civilization,  on  the other
hand, tends tO correa it, by  furnifliing  innu-
merable means of guarding againft its power.
The  conveniencies of clothing  and of lodg-
ing—the plenty,  and healthful quality of
food—a country drained, cultivated, and freed
from  noxious  effluvia—improved ideas of
beauty—the  conftant  ftudy Of  elegance, and
the infinite arts for attaining  it, even in  per-
fonal figure and  appearance, give cultivated
an immenfe advantage over favage fociety in
its attempts to counteraa the influence of cli-
mate, and to -beautify the human form.

   2. I come now to obferve, what is of much
more importance on this part of the  fubjea,
                        H                   that

occupations—Their limbs, therefore, though ftraight, are lefsbeautifully
turn.d.—A deception often paffes on the fenfes in judging of the beauty of
fa-rages—and defcription is often more exaggerated than the fenfes are de-
ceived." We do not expect beauty in favage life.  When, therefore, we
happen to perceive it, the contrail with the ufual condition of that ftate
impofes on the mind.  And the exalted reprefentations of favage beauty,
which we fometimes read, are true only by comparifon with favages.—
There is a difference, in-this refpect between man,' and many of the infe-
rior animals which were intended to run wild in the foraft.  They are al-
ways the moft beautiful when they enjoy their native liberty and range.
They decay and droop when attempted to be donlefticated or confined.
But man, being defigned for fociety and civilization, attains, in that ftate,
the gf eatcft perfection of his form, as well as of his whok nature. 
 50       Of Complexion and Figure

 that all the features of the human  counte-
 nance  are modified, and  its intire exprefjion
 radically formed, by the ftate of fociety.

   Every objed that imprefles the fenfes, and
 every emotion that rifes in the mind, affeas
 the features of the face the index of our feel-
 ings, and contributes to form the infinitely
 various countenance  of  man.   Paucity of
 ideas creates a vacant  and unmeaning afpea.
 Agreeable and cultivated  fcenes compofe the
 features, and render  them regular and gay.
 Wild, and deformed, and folitary forefts tend
 to imprefs on the countenance, an image of
 their own rudenefs.  Great varieties are cre-
 ated by diet and modes of living.   The deli-
 cacies of refined life give a foft and elegant
form to the features.  Hard fare, and conftant
 expofure to the injuries of the weather, ren-
 der them coarfe and uncouth.  The infinite
 attentions of polifhed fociety give variety and
expreffion to the face.   The want of interest-
ing emotions leaving its mufcles lax and un-
exerted, they are fufferedto diftend themfelves
to a larger and groffer fize, and acquire a foft
unvarying fwell that is not diftinaiy marked
by any idea.   A general ftandard of beauty
has its effea in forming the human counte-
                                    nance 
          in tloe Human Species.          51

 nance and figure.  Every paffion, and mode of
 thinking has its peculiar expreffion—And all
 the preceding charaaers have again many va-
 riations according to their degrees of ftrength,
 according to their combinations with other
 principles,  and according to the peculiarities
 of conftitution or of climate that form the
 ground on which the different impreffions are
 received.  As the degrees of  civilization,  as
 the ideas, paffions,  and objeas of fociety in
 different countries, and under different forms
 of government are  infinitely various, they
 open a boundlefs field for variety  in the hu-
 man countenance.  It is impoffible to enume-
 rate  them.—They are not the fame in any
 two ages of the world.—It would be unnecef-
 fary to enumerate them,  as my objea is not
 to become a phyfiognomift, but to evince the
 poffibility of fo many differences  existing in
 one fpecies ; and to fuggeft a proper mode of
 reafoning on new varieties as they may occur
 to our obfervation.

  For this purpofe, I fhall, in the firft place,
 endeavour, by feveral faas and illuftrations
 to evince, that the ftate of fociety has a great
effea in varying the  figure and complexion
of mankind.
                                   I Shall 
52       Of Complexion and Figure

  I fhall then fhew in what manner fome of-
the moft diftinguifhing features of the favage,
and particularly of the American favage with
whom we are belt acquainted, naturally refult
from the rude condition in  which they exift.

  To evince that the ftate of fociety has a
great effea  in varying the figure  and com-
plexion of mankind, I  Shall derive my firft
illuftration from the feveral claSTes of men in
polifhed nations.   And then I fhall fhew that
men in different ftates of fociety have chang-
ed,  and that they have it continually in their
power to change,  in a great degree,  the afpea
of the fpecies, according to  any general ideas
or ftandard of human beauty which they may
have adopted.

   i. And in the firft place,  between the feve-
ral  claffes of men in polifhed nations, who
may be confidered as people in different ftates
of fociety, we difcern great and obvious dif-
tindions, arifing  from  their focial habits,
ideas and employments.

  The poor and  labouring part of the com-
munity are ufually more fwarthy and fqualid
in their complexion, more  hard in their fea-
                                    tures, 
in the Human Species.
53
jtures, and more coarfe and ill-formed in their
limbs, than  perfons of  better fortune,  and
more liberal means of fubfiftence. They want
the delicate tints of colour, the pleafing regu-
larity of feature,  and the elegance and  fine
proportions of perfon.   There may be parti-
cular exceptions.   Luxury may disfigure the
one—a fortunate coincidence of circumftances
may  give a  happy affemblage of features to
the other.  But thefe exceptions do not inva-
lidate the general obfervation*   Such distinc-
tions become more considerable by time, after
families have held for ages the fame ftations
in  fociety.   They are  moft  confpicuous in
thofe countries in which the laws have made
the moft complete and permanent divifion of
ranks.  What an immenfe difference exifts,
in Scotland, between the chiefs and the com-
monalty of the  highland  clans ?  If they had
been  feparately  found in  different  countries,
the philofophy of  fome writers  would  have
ranged  them in different fpecies.  A fimilar
(diftinaion takes place between  the nobility
                                          and!
  ' It ought to be kept in mind through the whole of the following il,.
luftrations that, when mention is made of the fuperior beauty and pro-
portions of perfons in the higher claffes of fociety, the remark is general.
It is not intended to deny that there exift exceptions both of deformity
among the great, and of beauty among the poor.  And thofe only are
intended to be deferred who enjoy their fortune with temperance ; be-
caufe luxury and excefs tend tqually with extreme poverty, to debilitate
and disfigure the human conftitution. 
 54       Of Complexion and Figure

 andpeafantry of France, of Spain, of Italy, of
 Germany.  It  is even  more confpicuous in
 many of the eaftern nations, where a wider
 diftance exifts  between the higheft and the
 loweft claffes in fociety.   The naires or nobles
 of Calicut, in the Eaft-Indies, have, with the
 ufual ignorance and precipitancy of travellers,
 been pronounced a different race from  the po-
 pulace ; becaufe the former elevated by their
 rank, and devoted only to martial Studies and
 atchievments, are diftinguifhed by that manly
 beauty and  elevated ftature  fo  frequently
 found with the profeffion of arms, efpecially
 when  united with  nobility of defcent ;  the
 latter, poor and laborious, and expofed to
 hardfhips, and left, by their rank, without
 the fpirit or the hope to better  their conditi-
 on, are much more deformed and diminutive
 in their perfons ;  and in their complexion,
 much  more black.   In  France, fays Buffon,
 you may diftinguifh by  their afpea not only
 the nobility from the peafantry, but the fu-
 perior orders of nobility from  the  inferior,
 thefe from citizens, and citizens from pea-
sants.  You may even diftinguifh the peafants
 of one part of the country  from thofe of an-
 other according to the fertility of the  foil, or
 the nature of its produa.  The fame obfer-
                                    vation 
              in the Human Species.           $$


ration  has  been  made on  the  inhabitants of

different  counties  in England.   And  I  have

been  affured  by  a  moft judicious and careful

obferver that the difference between the  peo-

ple in  the  eaftern,  and thofe  in the weftern

countries  in  Scotland, is fenfible and Striking.

The  farmers who cultivate  the fertile  coun-

tries of the Lothians have  a  fairer  complexi-

on, and a better figure, than thofe who live in

the weft,  and obtain a more  coarfe  and fcanty

fubfiftence from  a barren foil*.

                                                    if.

  • It is well known that coarfe and meagre  fcod is ever accompanied in
mankind with hard features and a dark complexion.  Every change of
diet, and every variety in  the manner of preparing it has fome effect on
the  human conftitution.  A fervant now lives in" my  family who was
bound to me at ten years of age.  Her parents were in abject poverty.
The child was, in confequence, extremely fallow in her complexion, fhe
was emaci&ted, and as is common to children who have lain in the afhes
and dirt of miferab'e huts, her  hair was frittered and worn away to the
length of little more than two inches. This gvrl has by a fortunate change
in her mode of living, and indeed by living  more like my own children
than like a fervant, become, in the fpace of  four years, frefh and ruddy
in her complexion, her hair is long and flowing, andjhe is not badly made
iit her perfon.  A fimilar  inftance is now in  the family of a worthy cler-
gyman,  a  friend  and neighbour of mine.  And many  fuch inftances of
the influence of diet, and modes of living will occur to a careful and atten-
tive obferver. It equally affects the inferior animals. The horfe, according
to his treatment, may be infinitely varied in fhape and fize. The flefh of
many fpecies of game differs both in tafte and colour according to the na-
ture of the grounds on which they have fed.  The flefh of hares that have
fed on high lands is much fairer than of thofe that have fed in vallies and
on damp grounds.   And eve'ry keeper of cattle knows how much the firm-
nefs and flavour of the meat depends upon the manner of feeding.  Nor
ie this unaccountable.  For as each element has  a different effect on the
animal fyftem ; and as the elements are combined in various proportions
in different kinds of food, the means of fubfiftence will  neceffarily have a
great influence on the human figure and complexion.    '1 he difference,
                                                however, 
 5 6        Of Complexion and Figure

   If, in England, there exifts lefs difference
 between the figure  and appearance of per-
 fons in the higher and lower claffes of focie-
 ty, than  is feen in many other countries of ■
 Europe, it is becaufe a more general  diffufion
 of liberty  and wealth has reduced the  diffe-
 rent ranks more nearly to a level.   Science
 and military  talents  open  the way to  emi-
 nence and to  nobility.  Encouragements to
 induftry, and ideas of liberty,  favour the ac-
 quifition  of fortune by the loweft  orders of
 citizens—And, thefe not being prohibited, by
 the laws  or cuftoms  of the  nation from af-
 piring to conneaions with the higheft ranks,
 families  in  that  country  are frequently
 blended.   You  often  find  in  citizens  the
 beautiful figure and  complexion of the no-
 bleft blood; and, in noble houfes, the coarfe
 features that were formed in lower life.

   Such diftinaions are, as yet, lefs obvious
 in America, becaufe, the people enjoy a greater
 equality; and the frequency of migration has
 not permitted any foil, or ftate of local  man-
                                        ners,
however, between Ihe common people in the eaftern and weftern coun-
tries of Scotland, in feveral counties in England, and in other nations,
arifes, perhaps, not only from their food, and the foil which they inhabit,
but, in part likewife, from their occupations, ashufbandmen, mechanics,
or manufacturers. Hufbandry has generally a happier effect on pcrfosal
appearance, than the fedentary employments of manufacture. 
           in the Hurnn Species.         5 J

hers,  to imprefs its charaaer deeply on the
conftitution.   Equality of rank and fortune,
in the citizens of the United States, fimilarity
of occupations, and of fociety, have produced
fuch uniformity of charader,  that, hitherto,
they are not  ftrongly marked by fuch differ-
ences of feature as ariie folely from focial  di-
ftinaions.   And yet there are  beginning to
be formed, independently on climate, certain
combinations of features,  the refult of  focial
ideas, that already Serve, in a degree, to dif-
tinguifh the ftates  from one another.   Here-
after  they will advance into more considera-
ble and characteristic diftinaions.

   If  the white inhabitants of America afford
us lefs confpicuous inftances, than fome other
nations, of the power of Society,  and of the
difference  of- ranks,  in varying the human
form, the blacks,  in* the fouthern republics,
afford^ one that is highly worthy the attenti-
on of philofophers.—It has often occurred to
my own obfervation.

   The field  flaves  are badly fed, clothed  and
lodged.   They live  in  fmall  huts on  the
plantations where they labour, remote from
the fociety and example  of  their fuperiors.
                      I              Living 
 $8       Of Complexion and Figure

 Living by themfelves, they  retain many of
 the  cuftoms and manners of their African
 anceftors.   The domestic fervants, on the o-
 ther hand, who are kept near the  perfons, or
 employed in the families of their mafters, are
 treated with great lenity, their fervice is light,
 they are fed, and clothed like their fuperiors,
 they  fee their  manners, adopt their habits,
 and infenfibly receive the fame ideas of ele-
 gance and beauty.   The field flaves are, in
 confequence, flow in changing  the afpea and
 figure of Africa.   The domeftic fervants have
 advanced far before  them in  acquiring  the
 agreeable and  regular features, and the  ex-
 preffive  countenance  of civilized  fociety.—
 The former are frequently ill Shaped.   They
 preferve,  in a great degree, the African lips,
 and nofe, and  hair.   Their  genius is dull,
 and  their countenance  fleepy  and Stupid—
 The  latter are  Straight and well proportion-
 ed; their hair extended to three,  four, and,
 fometimes even, to Six  or eight inches;  the
 fize and Shape of the mouth handfome, their
 features regular, their  capacity good, and
 their  look animated*.              Another

 * The features of the negroes in America have nndergone a greater
change than the complexion ; becaufe depending more on the ftate of fo-
ciety than on the climate, they are fooner fufceptible of alteration, from
its cmotions, habits and ideas.  This is ftrikingly verified in the field and
                                       domeftic 
in fhe Human Species:
59
    Another  example of the power of fociety

 is well known to every  man  acquainted with

 the  favage tribes difperfed along the frontiers

 of thefe republics.    There you frequently fee

 perfons  who have  been captivated from the

 ftates, and grown up, from infancy to middle

 age,  in the  habits  of  favage  life.   In  that

 time, they univerfally contraa  fuch a Strong

 refemblance  of the natives  in their  counte-

 nance,  and  even in their complexion, as to

 afford a Striking  proof  that  the  differences!

 which exift, in the  fame latitude, between the

 Anglo-American  and   the   Indian,   depend

 principally on the State of fociety*.

                                                 The


 domeftic (laves.  The former, even in the third generation,  retain, in a
 great degree, the countenance of Africa.  The  nofe though lefs fiat, and
 the lips though lefs thick than in the native Africans, yet are much more
 flat and thick than in the family fervants of the fame race.  Thefe have
 the nofe riifed, the mouth and lips of a moderate fize, the eyes lively and
 fparkling, and often the whole compofition of the features extremely agree-r
 able.  The hair grows fenfibly longer in each fucceeding race; efpecially
 in  thofe who drefs and cultivate it with care.  After many  inquiries,  I
 have found that, wherever the hair is (hort and clofely curled in negroes of
 the fecond or third race, it is becaufe they frequently cut it, to fave them-
felves the trouble of dreffing. The great difference between the domeftic
and field flaves, gives reafon to believe that, if they were perfectly free,
enjoyed property, and were admitted to a liberal participation  of the foci-
ety, rank and privileges of their mailers, they would change their Afri-
can peculiarities much fafter,

  * The refemblance between thefe captives, and the native favages fs
fo ftrong, as at firft to ftrike every obferver with aftonifhment.  Being
taken in infancy, before fociety could have made any  impreffions upon
them,  and fpending  in the folitude and rudenefs of favage. life  that tender
and forming age, they grow up with the fame apathy of countenance, the
                                                  fame. 
Co          Of Complexion and Figure


   The college  of  New-Jerfey  furnishes,   at

prefent,  a  counterpart to  this  example.    A

young Indian,  now about fifteen years of age,

•was brought from his nation a number of years,

ago to receive an education in  this institution.

And  from  an   accurate  observation  of  him

during the  greater  part of that time,  I have

received  the moft perfea conviaion  that the

   s                                                  fame

Tame lugubrious wildnefs, the fame fwelling of the features and mufcles

J*-?"' thC famC f°rm and a"itude of the Iimbs' and the fame cha-
raclemtic gait, which is a great  elevation of the  feet when they walk'
and the toe iomewhat turned in,  after the manner of a duck.  Growing
up perfectly naked, and  expofed to the conftant  action of the fun and
Weather, ammftall the hardfhips of the favage ftate, their colour becomes
very deep. As it is but a few fhades lighter than that of the natives  it
», at a lmall diftance, hardly diftii.guifhahle.  "This example affords an-
other proof of the greater eafe with which a dark colour can  be imprefled
tL.ui effaced from, a fkin originally fair.  The caufes of colour are afiiJe
m their operation, and fpeedily make a deep impreflion.  White is the
ground on which this operation is received.  And a white  fkin is to be
preferved only by protecting it from the aftion of-thefe caufes.  Protec-
tion has merely a negative influence, and muft therefore be flow in its ef-
fects ; efpecially as long as the fmalleft degree of p,fnh,c agency is fufftred
from the ordinal caufes of colour.  And as the fkin retains  with gltat
conftancy, impreffions once received, all dark colours will, on both ac-
counts, be much lefs mutable than the fair complexion.   That period of
time, therefore, which would lie  fufficient in a favage ftate, to change a
white fkin to the darkeft hue the ch'rnate  can impfefs, would,  with the
moft careful protection, lighten a black colour, only a few fhades.   And
becaufe this pofitive and active influence produces its effect fo much more
fpeedily  and powerfully than the negative influence that confifts merely
in guarding againft its operation ; and  fince we fee that the fkin retaini
impreffronsfo long, and the tanning incurred by expofing it one day (tJ the
fun,  is not, in many days, to be effaced, we may  juftly  conclude that a
dark, colour once contracted, if it be expofed but a few days in the year
to the action of the fun and weather, will be many ages before it can be
mtirely effaced.  And unlefs the difference of climate be fo confiderable
as to operate very great changes on fhe internal  conftitution and to alter
the whole ftate of the fecmions,  the negroe colour, for example,  may,
1 y the expofure of a poor aud iu vile ftate,' h% rendered almoft perpetual. 
        ,  in the Human Species.          $\

fame State of fociety, united with the fame
climate, would make the Anglo-American and
the Indian countenance very nearly approxi-
mate.   He was too  far advanced in  favage
habits to render the obfervation complete, be^
caufe, ail  impreffiqns received in the tender
and pliant ftate of the human conftitution be-
fore the age of feven years, are more deep
and permanent, than in any future, and equal
period of life. There is an obvious difference
between him  and  his fellowvftudents in the
Iargenefs of the  mouth, and thicknefs of the
lips, in the  elevation of the  cheek,  in  the
darknefs of the complexion, and the contour
of the face.   But  thefe differences are fenfi-
bly diminifhing.   They  feem, the falter, to
diminifh in proportion as he lofes  that vacan-
cy of eye, and  that  lugubrious wildnefs of
countenance peculiar to the favage ftate, and
acquires the agreeable cxpreffton of civil life.
The expreffion of the eye, and the foftening
of the features to civilized emotions and ideas,
feems  to  have removed  more than half the
difference between him and us.   His colour,
though it is much lighter than the complex-
ion of  the native  favage,  as is evident from
the Stain of blufhing, that, on a near infpec-
tion, is inftantly  difcernible,  Still forms the
                                  principal 
 6i       Of Complexion and Figure

 principal diftinaion*. There is lefs difference
 between his features and thofe of his fellow-
 ftudents, than we often fee between perfons
 in civilized fociety.   After a careful attention
 to each particular feature, and comparifon of it
 with the correfpondent feature in us, I am now
 able to difcover but little difference.   And yet
 there is an obvious  difference in  the whole
 countenance.   This circumftance has led me
 to conclude that the varieties among mankind
 are much lefs than they appear to be.  Each
 fingle trait or limb,  when  examined apart,
 has,  perhaps, no diversity that may not be
 eafily accounted for from known and obvious
 caufes.   Particular differences are fmall.  It is
 the refult of the whole that Surprizes us, by
 its magnitude.  The combined effea of many
 minute varieties, like the produa arifing from
 the multiplication of many  fmall  numbers,
 appears  great and  unaccountable.   And we
 have  not patience, or Skill it may be, to divide
 this combined  refult  into its leaft portions,
 and to fee, in that ftate, how eafy it is of com-
 prehenfion or folution.

  The ftate of fociety comprehends diet, cloth-
 ing, lodging, manners,  habits, face of the
                                   country,
 * See  the preceding note for a reafon why the complexion is lefs chang-
ed than many of the features. 
in the Human Species.
e3
  country, objeasof fcience, religion, interests,
  paffions and ideas of all  kinds,  infinite  in
  number and variety.   If each of thefe caufes
  be admitted to make, as undoubtedly they do,
  a  fmall variation on the human countenance,
  the different combinations and refults of the
  whole  muft neceffarily be  very  great;  and
  combined with  the effeas of climate  will be
  adequate  to account  for all  the varieties we
 find among mankind*.

    Another  origin of the varieties  fpringing
 from the ftate of fociety is found in the pow-
 er which men poffefs over themfelves of pro-
 ducing  great changes in the human form,
 according  to any common ftandard of beauty
 which they  may have adopted.   The ftand-
 ard of  human beauty,  in any country,  is a
 general idea formed from the comhjped effea
 of climate and of the ftate of fociety.   And
                                              it

  *  As all thefe principles may be made to operate in very different ways,
 the effect of one may, often, be counteracted, in a degree, by that of an-
 other.  And climate will effentially change the effects of all." The people
 in different parts of the fame country may, from various combinations of
 thefe caufes, be very different.  And, from the variety of combination,
 the poor of one country may have better complexion, features and pro-
portions of perfon, than thofe in another, who enjoy the moft favourable
ad vaatages of fortune.  Without attention to thefe circumftances, a hafty
obferver will be apt to pronounce the remarks in the effay to be ill-found-
ed, if he examines the human form in any country by the effect that is faid
to arife from one principle alone, and do not, at the fame time, take in'
the concomitant or correcting influence of other caufes. 
o"4       Of Complexion and Pigure

it reciprocally  contributes to increafe the ef-
fea from which it Springs,   Every nation
Varies as much from others in ideas of beau-
ty as in perfonal appearance.   Whatever be*
that Standard,  there is a general effort to at-
tain it,  with more or lefs  ardor and  fuccefs,
in proportion  to the advantages which  men
poSTeSs  in fociety,  and to  the effimation  in
which beauty  is held.

   To this objea tend the infinite pains  to
compofe the features,  and to  form the atti-
tudes of children, to give them the gay and*
agreeable countenance that is created  in com-
pany,  and to  exStiriguifh all deforming emo-
tions of the paffions.   To this objea  tend
many of the' arts of polluted life.  How
many drugs are fold, and how many  applica-
tions are made for the improvement  of beau-
ty ? how- many artifts of different kinds live
upon this idea of beauty?  If we dance, beau-
 ty is the objea;  if we ufe the fword,  it  is
 more for beauty than defence. ^ If this ge-
 neral effort after appearance fometimes leads
 the decrepid and deformed into abfurdity, it
 has,  however,  a great and national  effea.—
 Of its  effea  in creating  diftinaions among
 nations in  which different ideas prevail and
                                   different
I 
          in the Human Species.          65

different means are employed for attaining
them* we may frame fome conception,  from
the diitinaions  that exift in the fame nation*
in which Similar ideas and Similar means are
ufed, only in different degrees.  What a dif-
ference  is there between  the foft and elegant
tints of complexion in genteel life, and the
coarfe ruddinefs of the vulgar ?—-between the
uncouth features and unpliant limbs of an un*
poliShed rultic, and the complacency of coun-
tenance, the graceful and eafy air and figure
of an improved citizen ?—between the fhaped
and meaning face of a well bred lady, and
the foft and plump Simplicity of a country
girl ?—We now eafily account for thefe dif-
ferences, becaufe they are familiar to us,  or,
becaufe we fee the operation of the caufes.
But if we fhould find an intire nation distin-
guished by one of thefe charaaers, and an-
other  by the contrary,  fome writers would
pronounce them different races ;  although a
true philofopher ought to understand that  the
cultivation of oppofite ideas of beauty muft
have a  greater effea in diversifying the hu-
man countenance, than  various degrees,  or
modes,  of cultivating the fame  ideas.  The
countenance  of Europe was more  various,
three centuries ago, than it is at prefent.  The
                    K            diverfitiea 
66       Of Complexion arid Figure

diverfities that depend upon this caufe are iri-«
fenfibly wearing away as the progrefs of re-
finement is gradually approximating theman-^
ners and ideas of the people to one ftandard.
But the influence of a general  idea, or ftand-
ard, of the human form; and the pains taken,
or  the  means employed, to bring our  own
perfons to  it,  are  through  their  familiarity
often little obferved.   The means employed
by other nations, who aim at a different  idea,
attraa  more notice by  their novelty.__The
nations beyond the Indus,  as well as the  Tar-
tars, from whom they feem to have derived
their ideas of beauty with their origin*,  uni-
verfally admire fmall  eyes  and  large  ears.
They are at great pains, therefore, to com-
prefs their eyes at the corners,  and to Stretch
their ears by heavyweights appended to them,
bf drawing  them frequently with  the hand,
and by cutting their rims, fo  that they  may
hang down to their Shoulders, which they  con-
fider as  the  higheft beauty.   On the fame
principle, they extirpate the hair  from their
                                     bodies;
  * It is probable that the countries of India and China might have been
peopled before the regions of Tartary ; but, the frequent conqaefts which
they have fuffered, and particularly the former, from Tartarian nations,
have changed their habits, ideas and perfons, even more perhaps than
Europe was changed by the deluge of barbarians that overwhelmed it in
the fifth century  The preftnt nations beyond the Indus are, in effect
Tartar* changed by the power of climate, and of a new ftate of fociety 
in the Human Species.
67
bodies;  and, on the face, they leave only a
few  tufts  here  and  there which they fhave.
The Tartars often extirpate the whole hair of
the head, except a knot on the crown, which
they braid and adorn in  different  manners.
Similar  ideas  of  beauty  with  regard to the
eyes, the ears and the hair ; and fimilar cuf-
toms, in the Aborigines of America, are no in-
considerable proofs  that  this  continent  has
been peopled from the north-eaftern regions
of Afia*.   In  Arabia  and Greece  large eyes
are efteemed beautiful;  and in  thefe coun-
tries they take extraordinary pains to Stretch
the lids, and extend their aperture.   In India,
they dilate  the forehead  in infancy,  by the
application of broad plates of lead.   In China
they  comprefs the  feet.   In  Caffraria,  and
many  other  parts of Africa, and in Lapland,
                                              they
  * The  celebrated Dr. Robertfon, in his hiftory of America, deceived
by the mifinformatiOn of hafty or  ignorant obfervers, has ventured to affert
that the natives of America have no hair on their face or on their body ;
and like many other philofophers, has fet himfelf to account for a fact that
never exifted. It may be laid down almoft as a general maxim, that the
firft relations of travellers are falfe.  They judge of appearances in a new
country under the prejudices of ideas and habits contracted in their own.
They judge from particular inftances, that may happen to have occurred
to them,  of the ftature, the figure and the features of a whole nation.
Philofophers ought never to admit a fact on the relations of travellers, till
their characters for intelligence and accurate obfervation be well afcertain-
ed; nor even then, till the obfervation has been repeated, extended, and
compared in many different lights, with other facts.  The Indians have
hair on the face and body ; but from a falfe fenfe of beauty they extirpate
it with great pains.  And traders among them arc well informed, that
tweezers for  that purpofe, are profitable articles of commerce. 
(53        Of Complexion and Figure

they flatten the nofe in order to accomplifh a
capricious idea of beauty. The fkin, in many
nations is darkened  by art;  and all favages
efteem certain kinds of deformity to be per-:
feaions ;  and Strive  to heighten the admira-
tion of their performs, by augmenting thewildr
nefs of their features.  Through every coun-
try  on the globe we might proceed  in this
manner, pointing out the many arts which the
inhabitants praaife to  reach  fome favourite
idea of the human form.   Arts that infenfi-
bly, through a courSe of time, produce a great
and confpicuous effea.   Arts which are ufu-
ally fuppofed to have only a perfonal influ-
ence ;  but which really have an operation on
posterity alfo.  The procefs of nature in this
is as  little known as in all her other works.
The effea is frequently feen.  Every remark^
able change of feature that  has grown into a
ha^it  of the body, is tranfinitted with other
perSonal properties, to offspring.   The coarfe
features of labouring people, created by hard-
Ships,  and  by long expofure to the weather,
are  communicated. —The broad feet of the
ruftic, that have been fpread by often treading
the  naked ground \  and the large hand and
arm, formed by conftant labour, are  difcern-
ible in children.   The increafe or diminution
                                        of 
in the Human Species.
69
 of any other limb or feature formed by habits
 that aim at an idea of beauty,  may, in like
 manner, be imparted.  We  continually fee
 the effea of this principle on the inferior anir
 mals.   The figure, the colour and properties
 of the horfe are eafily changed according to
 the reigning tafte.   Out of the fame original
 Stock the  Germans who are  fettled in Penn-
 fylvania,  raife large and heavy horfes  ; the
 Irifli raife fuch as are much lighter and fmall-
 er.  According to the pains beftowed, you
 may raife from the fame race, horfes for the
 faddle and horfes for the draught.   Even the
 colour can be "fpeedily changed according  as
 fafhion is pleafed to vary  its  caprice.   And,
 if tafte prefcribes it, the fineft horSes fhall,  inv
 a Short time, be black, or white, or bay*.  HuT
 man nature much more pliant, andaffeaed by
 a greater variety  of caufes from food,  from
 clothing, from lodging and from manners, is
 Still more eafily fufceptible of change, accord-
 ing to any general  Standard,  or idea of the
 human form.  To this principle, as  well as
 to the manner of living, it may be, in  *part,
 attributed that the Germans,  the Swedes and
the French, in different parts of the  United
States, who live  chiefly among themfelves,
                                       and
  * By chufing horfes of the requifite qualities, to fupply the ftuds.
   / 
70        Of Complexion and Figure

and cultivate the habits and ideas of the coun-
tries from which they emigrated, retain, even
in our climate, a ftrong refemblance of their
primitive Stocks.  ThoSe, on the other hand,
who have not confined themfelves to the con-
traaed circle of their countrymen, but have
mingled freely  with the Anglo-Americans,
entered into their manners, and adopted their
ideas, have affumed  fuch a likenefs to them,
that it is not eafy now to diftinguifh from one
another  people  who  have Sprung from fuch
different origins.

   I have faid that the procefs of  nature in
this, as in all her other works, is  inexplica-
ble.   One fecondary  cauSe, however, may be
pointed out, which, feems to have considera-
ble  influence  on  the  event*.   Connexions
in marriage will generally be formed on this
idea of human beauty in any country.  An
                                      influence

  * Befides this, men will foon difcover thofe kinds of diet, and thofe
modes of living that will be moft  favourable to their ideas.  The power
of imagination in pregnant women, might perhaps deferve fome confider-.
ation on this fubject.  Some years fince, this principle was carried to ex-
cefs. I am ready to believe that philofophers, at prefent, run to extremes
on  the other hand.  They deny intirely the influence of imagination.
But fince the emotions of fociety have fo great an influence, as it is evi-
dent they have, in forming the countenance;  and fince the refemblance
of parents is communicated to children, why fhould it be deemed incredi-
ble that thofe general ideas which contribute to form the features of the
parent, fhould contribute alfo to form the features of the child. 
           in the Human Species.        71

influence this which wTill  gradually approxi-
mate the countenance towards one  common
ftandard.  If men in the affair of marriage,
were as  much  under management as fome
other  animals,  an abfolute ruler might  ac-
complish, in his dominions almoft any idea
of the human form.   But, left as this connex-
ion is to the paffions and interests of individu-
als, it is more irregular and imperfea in its
operations.  And the negligence of the vul-
gar, arifing from their want of tafte, impedes,
in fome degree, the general effea.  There is
however a common idea which  men infenfi-
bly to themfelves, and almoft without  defign,
purfue.   And they purfue it with more or
lefs fuccefs in  proportion to the rank  and
tafte of different claffes  in  fociety,  where
they do  not happen in particular  inftances,
to be governed in connexions of marriage by
intereft ever void of tafte.   The fuperior ranks
will always be firft,  and,  in general,  moft
improved, according to the prevalent idea of
national beauty;  becaufe, they have,  it more
than others, in their power to form matrimonial
connexions favourable to this end.  The Per-
fian nobility, improved in their  idea of beau-
tv, by their removal to a new climate, and a
new ftate of fociety, have, within a few races,
                                   almoft 
 7 2        Of Complexion and Figure

 almoft effaced thecharaaers of their Tartari-
 an origin.  The Tartars, from whom they are
 defcended, are among the moft deformed and
 Stupid nations upon eafth.  The Perfians by
 obtaining the moft beautiful  and  agreeable
 Women from every country,  are  become a
 tall, and well featured, and ingenious  nation.
 The prefent nations of Europe have with the
 refinement of their manners and ideas changed
 and refined their perfons.   Nothing can ex-
 ceed the piaures  of barbarifm and deformity
 given  us of their ancestors, by  the Roman
 writers.  Nothing  can exceed  the beauty of
 many of the prefent women of Europe  and
 America  who  are defcended  from   them.
 And the Europeans, and Americans are, the
 moft beautiful people in  the w^orld, chiefly*
 becaufe  their ftate of fociety is the moft  im-
 proved.   Such  examples  tend  to  fhew how
 much the varieties of nations may depend on
 ideas created by climate,  adopted by inheri-
 tance,  or formed  by the infinite, changes of
 fociety and manners*.   They fhew, likewife
                                       how

 * Society in America is gradually advancing in refinement: and if my
obfervation has been juftthe prefent face furnifh.es more women of exqui-
fite beauty than the laft, though they may not always be found in the
fame families.  And if fociety fhould continue its progreffive improve-
ment, the next race, may furnifh more than the prefent.. Europe has cer-
tainly made great advances in refinement of'fociety, and probably in beau-
                                          ty- 
           in the Human Species.        73

how much the human race might be improv-
ed both in perfonal and in mental qualities,
by a well-direaed care.

  The ancient Greeks feem to have been the
people moft feufible of its influence.   Their
cuftoma, their exercifes, their  laws, and their
philofophy, appear to have had in view, among
other objeas, the beauty and vigour of the
human  conftitution.   And it is not an im-
probable conjeaure, that the fine models ex-
hibited,  in  that  country,   to Statuaries and
painters, were one caufe of the high perfeai-
on to which  the arts of fculpture and paint-
ing arrived in Greece.  If fuch great improve-
ments were introduced by art into the human
figure, among this elegant and ingenious peo-
ple,  it is a proof at once  of the  influence of
general ideas, and of how much might be ef-
feaed by purfuing a juft fyftem upon this
fubjea.   Hitherto, it has been abandoned too
much to  the government of chance.   The
great and noble have ufually  had it more in
their  power  than others  to felea the beauty
of nations in  marriage :   and  thus,  while,
                     L             without
t.y. And if exact pictures could have been preferved of the human coun-
tenance and form in every age fince the great revolution made by the
barbarians, we fhould, perhaps, find Europe as much improved in its fea-
t-res as in its manners. 
74        Of Complexion and Figure

without fyftem or defign,  they gratified only
their  own tafte, they have generally diftin-
guifhed their order,  as much by elegant pro-
portions of perfon, and beautiful features, as
by its prerogatives in fociety.    And the tales
of romances that defcribethe Superlative beau-
ty of captive princeffes, and  the  fiaions of
poets, who  charaaerife their kings and  no-
bles,  by uncommon dignity of carriage  and
elegance of perfon,  and by an elevated turn
of thinking, are  not to be afcribed folely to
the venality of writers prone  to flatter  the
great, but have a real foundation in nature*.
The  ordinary   Strain  of language,  which is
borrowed  from nature,  vindicates this criti-
cifm.  A princely perfon,  and a noble thought,
are ufual figures  of fpeechf.—Mental capa-
city,  which is  as  various as climate,  and as
                                         perfon al

  * Coincident with the preceding remarks on the nations of feurope, is
an obfervation made by Capt.  Cook, in his laft voyage, on the iiianJ
Ohwyhee, and on the  iflands in general, which he vifited in the great
fouth fea.  He fays, " the fame fuperiority which is obfervable in the
*' Erect [or nobles] through all the other iflands, is found alfo here. Thofe
" whom we faw, were, without exception perfectly well formed; where-
" as the lower fort, befides their general inferiority, are fubject to all the
" variety of make and figure that is feen in the populace of other countries."
Cook's third voyage, book 3d,  chap. 6th.
  f Such is the deference paid to beauty, and the idea of fuperiority it in-
fpires, that to this quality, perhaps, does the body of princes and nobles,
collectively taken, in any country, owe great part of their influence over
the populace.  Ruhwi  and magnificence in drefs and equipage, produce
                                               much 
            in the Human Species.         75

perfonal appearance, is, equally with the lat-
ter, fufceptible of improvement, from Similar
caufes.   The body and mind have fuch mu-
tual influence,  that whatever contributes  to
change the human conftitution in its form or
afpea,  has an  equal influence on its powers
of reafon and genius.   And thefe have  again
a reciprocal effea informing the countenance.
One nation may, in confequence of constitu-
tional peculiarities, created more, perhaps, by
the ftate of fociety,  than by the climate,  be
addiaed  to a grave and thoughtful philofo-
phy ;  another  may poffeSs  a  brilliant and
creative imagination ;  one may be endowed
with  acuteneSs and wit; another may be dif-
tinguifhed  for  being  phlegmatic  and  dull.
Bceotian and Attic wit was not a fanciful, but
real diftinaion,  though the remote origin of
Cadmus and of Cecrops was the fame.   The
State of manners and fociety in thofe repub-
lics produced this difference  more than the
Boeotion air, to which it has been fo often at-
tributed.  By fhe alteration of a few political,
or civil, or commercial institutions, and con-
                                   sequently,

much of their effect by giving an artificial beauty to the perfon. How
pf»en does hiftory remark that young princes have attached their fubjctts,
and generals their foldiers, by extraordinary beauty ?  And young and
beautiful queens have ever been followed and ferved with uncommon en-«
thufiafm. 
76
Of Complexion ami Figure
fequently,  of the objeas of fociety and  the
train of life, the eftablifhment of which  de-
pended on  a  thouiand  accidental caufes,
Thebes might  have  become  Athens,  and
Athens Thebes.  Different periods of fociety,
different manners, and different objeas, un-
fold and  cultivate  different powers of  the
mind.   Poetry, eloquence,  and philofophy
feldom flourifh together in their higheft luftre.
They  are brought to  perfection by  various
"combinations of circumftances, and are found
to fucceed one another in the fame nation at
various periods,  not becaufe the race of men,
but becaufe manners and objeas are changed.
If as faithful a piaure could be left to polle-
rity of perfonal as of mental qualities,  we
Should probably find the one, in thefe feveral
periods,  as various as the  other; and  we
fhould derive from them a new proof of  the
power of fociety to multiply the varieties  of
the human fpecies.  Not  only  deficiency of
objeas to give fcope to the exercife of the hu-
man intelka is unfavourableto its improve-
ment ; but  all  rudenefs of manners is un-
friendly to the culture, and the exiftence of
tafte,  and even coarfe and meagre  food may
have fome tendency to blunt the powers of
genius.  Thefe caufes have a more powerful
                                 operation 
/
in the Human Species.
11
operation than has hitherto been attributed to
them by  philofophers;  and merit  a more
minute  and  extenfive illustration  than  the
fubjea  of this  difcourfe  will  admit.   The
mental capacities of favages,  for thefe caufes,
are ufually weaker than the capacities of men
in civilized  fociety*.   The powers of  their
minds,  through  defea of  objeas to employ
them, lie dormant, and even become extina.
The faculties  which, on fome occafions, they
are  found to  poffefs,  grow  feeble through
want of motives  to  call  forth  their exerciie.
The coarfenefs of their food, and the filthinefs
of their manners  tend to blunt their genius.
And the Hottentots, the Laplanders, and  the
people of  New-Holland  are  the moft Stupid
of mankind for  this,  among  other reafons,
that they approach, in thefe refpeas, the near-
eft to the brute creation")*.
                                            I  am

  * The exaggerated r, preformations which we fometimes receive of the
ingenuity and profound wifdom of favages, are the fruits of weak and ig-
norant furprize.  And fe vages are praifed by fome writers for the fame rea-
fon that a monkey is—a certain imitation of the actions of men in fociety,
which was not expected from the rvo-.'it/- of their condition. There are
doubtlefs degrees of genius • rnong favages as well as among civilized nati-
ons ; but the comparifon fhould be made of favages among themfelves;
and not of the genius of a favage, with that of a poU/hcd people.
  f It is well known that the Africans who have been brought to Ameri.
ca, are daily becoming, under all the difadvantages cf fcrvitude, more in-
genious and fufceptible of inflructiorj. This effect, which has been taken
notice of more than once, may, in part perhaps, be attributed to a change
ia their modes of living, as well as to fockty, or climate.   f 
78        Of Complexion and Figure

  I am now come to fhew in what manner
ttie features of favage life  are affeaed by the
State of fociety.

  Civilization creates fome affinity in  coun-
tenance among  all  polifhed  nations.  But
there is Something fo peculiar and fo  Stupid
in  the  general  countenance  of  favages,
that they  are liable to be confidered as  an in-
ferior  grade in the defcent from the human
to the  brute creation.   As the civilized nati-
ons inhabit chiefly the temperate  climates,
and favages, except in America, the extremes
of heat and cold, thefe differences in point of
climate, combined with  thofe that neceffarily
arife out of their ftate of fociety, have produ-
ced varieties fo great as  to aftonifh hafty ob-
fervers, and hafty philofophers.—The  varie-
ties indeed produced in the features by favage
life are great; but  the  real fum of them is
not fo great as the apparent.   For  the eye
taking in at one view,  not only the  aaual
change made in each feature, but their mul-
tiplied and mutual relations to one another,
and  to the whole; and each new  relation
giving the fame feature a different  afpea, by
comparifon, the final refult appears  prodigi-
ous*.—For  example,  a  change made  in the
                                      ev©»
     * See pages 63 and 64. 
           in the Human Species.         79

eye, produces a change in the whole counte-
nance;  becaufe it prefents to us, not fingly
the  difference  that  has  happened in that
feature, but all the differences that arife  from
its  combinations  with every feature in the
face.   In like manner, a change in the  com-
plexion prefents not its  own difference  only,
but a much greater effea by a fimilar combi-
nation with the whole countenance.   If both
the eyes and the complexion be changed in
the fame perfon, each change affeaing the
whole  features,  the combination of the two
refults  will produce a  third incomparably
greater than either.  If, in the fame way,  we
proceed to  the lips, the nofe, the cheeks, and
to every fingle  feature in the  vifage,  each
produces a multiplied  effea, bycompariSon
with the whole, and the refult of all, like  the
produa of a geometrical  feries, is fo much
beyond our firft  expeaation, that  it con-
founds common obfervers, and will fome-
times embarrafs the moft  difcerning philofo-
phers,  till  they learn, in this manner,  to di-
vide and combine effeas.

   To treat this fubjea fully, it would be  ne-
neffary, in the firft place,  to afcertain the ge-
neral  countenance of  favage  fociety—and
                                     then, 
So        Of Complexion and Figure
then,  as there are degrees in the favage as
well  as in the civilized ftate, to distinguish
the feveral  modifications which each degree
jnakes in the general afped—and, in the laft
place,  to confider the almoft boundlefs vari-
eties  that arife from combining thefe general
features with the effeas of  climate and of
other  caufes  already  mentioned.—I do not
propofe, however, to  purfue the fubjea to
fuch  extent.  I Shall endeavour only to draw
the general outlines of the favage countenance
as it is formed by the ftate  of  fociety; and
fhall leave its changes refulting from the dif-
ferent  degrees of that  ftate,  and from the
combinations of thefe with other caufes and
effeas, to exercife the leifure and obfervati-
on of the ingenious.

  The eye of a favage  is vacant and unex-
preffive—The whole  compofition   of his
countenance,  is fixed and ftupid—and over
thefe unmeaning features is thrown an air of
wildnefs and melancholy—The mufcles of
the face are foft and lax—and the face is di-
lated  at the fides—the mouth is large—the
lips Swelled and protruded—and the nofe, in
the fame proportion, depreffed*.         T, .
  * In this reprefectation of the favage countenance, I have chiefly.in view
the American favage ; although its general lineaments, and the caufes jtf-
figned for them, may, in a great degree, be univerfally applied. 
in the Human Species.         8l
  This  is the piaure.—To explain it I ob-
ferve, that the expreffion of the eye, and of
the whole countenance depends on the nature
and  variety  of thought  and emotion.   Joy
and grief, folitude and company, objeas of >
attention, habits, manners, whatever occupies
the mind, tends to imprefs upon the counte-
nance its peculiar traits.   Mechanical occu-
pations, and civil  profeffions, are often diftin-
guifhed by peculiarities in manner and afpea.
We frequently difcriminate with eafe religious
denominations by  a certain countenance form-
ed by the habits  of their profeffion.   Every
thought has an influence in forming and di-
verfifying the charaaer of the  countenance,
and  vacuity  of  thought  leaves it unmeaning
and  fixed.   The  infinite variety of ideas and
emotions in civilized fociety, will give every
clafs of citizens fome diftinguifhing expreffion,
according to their habits and  occupations;
and will beftow on each individual fome An-
gular and perfonal traits, according to his ge-
nius, education, or purfuits.  Between favage
and civilized fociety there will be all the dif-
ference that can arife from thinking and from
want of thought.  Savages will have all that
uniformity  among themfelves in  the fame
climate, that arife from vacancy of mind, and
                     M              want 
82        Of Complexion and Figure

want of emotion.  Knowledge is various, but
ignorance is ever the fame.   A vacant eye, a
fixed and unmeaning countenance of ididtifm,
feem to reduce the favage in his afpea many
grades  nearer  than the citizen,  to the brute
creation.   The folitude  in which he  lives,
difpofes him  to  melancholy.    He feldom
fpeaks or laughs.   Society rarely enlivens his
features.   When not  engaged  in  the chace,
having no objea  to  roufe him,  he reclines
fluggifhly on the ground,  he wanders care-
lefsly through the foreft,  or he  fits for hours
in one pofture, with his eyes fixed to a fingle
point,  and his fenfes  loft in fullen  and un-
meaning reverie.   Thefe folitary and melan-
choly  emotions ferve  to caft over his vifage,
which  other caufes render fixed, and unex-
preffive, a fad and lugubrious air.  The wild
fcenes of nature  in an uncultivated country
imprefs fome  refemblance of themfelves on
the  features—and  the paffions of war and
rage, which are almoft the only ones that oc-
cupy the mind of a favage, mingle with the
whole an afpea of brutal ferocity*.
                                     Paucity
  ! Jhe inhabitants of the numerous fmall iflands in the great Southern
and Pacific oceans form an exception to this remark.  Prevented, by their
.iolated ftate from engaging in perpetual hoftilities with  neighbouring
tribes, like the continental favages, they are diftinguifhed by an air of
imldnefs and complacence which is never feen upon the continent. 
in the Human Species,         83
   Paucity of ideas, folitude and melancholy,
contribute  likewife  in  no  fmall  degree, to
form the  remaining  features of a favage—
a large and protruded mouth, a dilated face,
and a  general  laxnefs  and fwell of all its
mufcles*.

   Society and thought put a Striaure  upon
the mufcles of the face, which, while it  gives
thefn meaning and expreffion, prevents  them
from dilating  and fwelling  as much as they
would  naturally do.  They colka the coun-
tenance more towards the center, and give  it
a  greater  elevation  theref.   But the vacant
mind of the favage leaving the face,  the in-
dex of fentiment and paffion, unexerted, its
mufcles are relaxed, they confequently fpread
at the  fides, and render the middle of the
face broad.

    Grief,  peculiarly  affeas the figure of the
lips, and makes them fwell.—So do  all fo-
                                          litary
   * That thefe are natural tendencies of folitude, and vacancy of thought,
we may difcern by a fmall attention to ourfelves, during a fimilar ftate, or
fimilar emotions of mind.
   + The advancement of fociety and knowledge is probably one reafon.
why the Europeans in general have a more elevated countenance than  the
Afiatics.  The reader will be kind enough to remember that all remarks
of this nature are only general, and not intended to reach every particular;
inftance, or to infinuate that there may not, in the infinite variety ot  n»r
ture, be many particular exceptions. 
 84        Of Complexion and Figure

 litary  and  melancholy  emotions.    When,
 therefore, thefe are the  natural refult of the
 ftate of fociety—when they operate from in-
 fancy, and  are feldom  counteraaed  by the
 more gay and intenfe emotions of civil life,
 the effea will at length become confiderable.
 The mouth of a favage will generally be large,
 and the lips, in a lefs or greater degree thick
 and protruded*.

   The nofe affeas,  and is  affeaed  by the
 other features  of the face.   The whole fea-
 tures ufually bear  fuch  relation to one ano-
 ther,  that if one be  remarkably enlarged,  it
 is  accompanied with a proportional  dimi-
 nution of others.   A prominent nofe is com-
 monly conneaed with a thin face,  and thin
 lips.   On the other hand,  a broad face, thick
 lips,  or a large and  a blunt chin,  is accom-
 panied with  a  certain depreffion  of the fea-
 ture  of the nofe.   It  feems as  if the extenfion
 of the nerves in one  direaion, reftrained and
 Shortened them in anotherf.   Savages, there-
                                         fore,
  * The ruftic ftate, by its folitude and want of thought and emotion,
bears fome analogy to the favage.  And we fee it accompanied by fimilar
effects on the vifage. The countenance vacant, the lips thick, the face
broad and fpread, and all its mufcles lax and fwelling.
  f By a fmall experiment on ourfelves we may render this effect obvious.
By a protufion of the lips, or by drawing down the mouth at the corners,
                                           we 
             in the Human Species.         85

fore, commonly  have this feature more funk
and flat, than it is feen in civil fociety.   This,
though a partial,  is  not the whole' caufe of
that  extreme flatnefs which is  obferved in
part of Africa, and in Lapland.    Climate en-
ters there, in a great degree,  for the  effea;
and it  is aided  by an abfurd  fenfe of beauty
that  prompts  them  often  to deprefs it by
art*.

   The  preceding  obfervations   tend to  ac-
count  for  fome of  the moft diftinguifhing
features  of favages.   To thefe  I might have
added another general reafon of their peculi-
ar wildnefs and  uncouthnefs in  that  ftate of
fociety.—The feelings of favages, when  they
deviate from their ufual apathy, are moftly
of the uneafy kind; and  to  thefe they  give
an unconftrained expreffion.  From this caufe
will  neceffarily  refult a habit of the face, in
                                             the
we fhall find a ftricture on the nofe that, in an age when the features wore
foft and pliant, would fenfibly tend to deprefs it. A like  tendency conti-
nued through the whole of life, would give tiitm an habitual pofition very
different from the common condition of civilized fociety ; and the effect
would be much greater than would readily occur to our firft reflections
upon the fubject.
  • That fuch an effect fhould be the refult of climate is not more wonder-
ful than the thick necks created by the climate of the Alps; or than other
effects that certainly fpring from this caufe, within our own knowledge.
That it arifes from climate, or the ftate of fociety, or both, is evident, be-
caufe the nofe is becoming more prominent ij the pofterity of thof. v.liu
have been  removed from Africa to America. 
86       Of Complexion and Figure

the higheft degree rude  and uncouth.  As
we fee,  a fimilar negligence among the vul-
gar adds  exceedingly,   to  that  difgufting
coarfenefs  which fo many other  caufes con-
tribute to create.

  I have now finifhed the difcuffion which I
propoSed3 as far as I defign at prefent to pur-
fue it.—Many of the observations which have
been made in the progrefs of it may, to per-
fons not accuftomed to a nice examination of
the powers of natural caufes, appear minute
and unimportant.   It  may be thought that I
have attributed  too much to, the influence of
principles  that are fo flow in their operation
and  imperceptible in their progrefs.  But,
on this fubjea,  it deferves to be remembered,
that the minuteft caufes,  by aaing conftant-
ly, are often produaive of the greateft confe-
quences.  The  inceffant drop wears a cavity,
at length in the hardeft  rock.  The impref-
fions  of education which fingly  taken are
fcarcely difcernible, ultimately produce the
greateft differences  between  men in fociety.
Jiow  flow the progrefs of civilization which
the influence of two thoufand years  hath as
yet, hardly ripened in the nations of Europe I
How  minute and imperceptible the operation
                                       of 
in the Human Species.
87
of each particular  caufe that has contributed
to the final refult? And, yet, how immenfe
the difference between the manners of Europe
barbarous, and of Europe civilized ? There is
furely not  a greater difference between  the
figure and afpea of any two nations on  the
globe.  The pliant nature of man is fufcep-
tible of change from the minuteft caufes, and
thefe changes, habitually repeated,  create at
length, confpicuous  diftinaions.  The effea
proceeds increafing  from one generation to
another, till it arrives at that point where the
conftitution can yield no farther to the power
of the operating  caufe.  Here it affumes a
permanent form and becomes the charaaer
of the climate or the nation.

   Superficial thinkers are often heard to afk,
why, unlefs there be an original difference in
the  fpecies of men,  are not all born  at leaft
with the fame figure, cr complexion ?  It is fuf-
ficient to anfwer to  fuch enquiries, that  it is
for  the fame reafon, whatever that may be,
that  other refemblances of parents are com-
municated to children.  We  fee that figure,
ftature,  complexion, features, difeafes,  and
-even powers of the  mind become hereditary.
To thofe who can fatisfy themfelves with re-
                                      gard 
 83       Of Complexion and Figure

 gard to the communication of thefe proper-
 ties, the tranfmiffion of climatical or national
 differences ought not to appear furprizing—
 the fame law will account for both.—If it be
 afked  why a fun burnt  face or a wounded
 limb  is not alfo  communicated by the fame
 law? It is fufficient to anfwer that thefe  are
 only  partial accidents which do not change
 the  inward form and  temperament of  the
 conftitution.  It  is the  conftitution  that is
 conveyed by birth.  The caufes which I have
 attempted to illuftrate, change, in time,  its
 whole ftruaure and compofition—And  when
 any  change  becomes  incorporated,  fo  to
 fpeak, it is, along with  other constitutional
 properties, tranfmitted to offspring.

   I proceed now to confider the  exceptions
 exifting among mankind that feem to contra-
 dia the general principles that have been laid
 down concerning the influence of climate, and
of the ftate of Society.

  I begin  with obferving that thefe excepti-
ons are neither fo numerous nor  fo great as
they have been reprefented by ignorant and
inaccurate travellers, and by credulous phi-
lofophers.   Even  Buffon feems to be credu-
                                     lous 
in the Human Species.
s9
 lous when he only doubts concerning the re-

 lations of Struys, and other prodigy-mongers,

 who have  filled the hiftories of their voyages

 with crude and hafty obfervations, the effeas

 of falfehood, or of ftupid furprize.  Nothing

 can appear  more  contemptible than philofo-

 phers  with folemn faces, retailing like maids

 and nurfes,  the  Stories  of  giants*—of tailed

 menf—of a people without teeth J—and of

 fome abfolutely without necks §.   It is a fhame

 for philofophy at  this  day to  be  fwallowing

 the falfehoods, and accounting for the abfur-

 dities  of failors.   We  in America, perhaps,

 receive  fuch  tales  with more  contempt than

 other nations ;  becaufe  we  perceive in fuch a

                       N                     Strong

  * Buffon, defcribirg the inhabitants of the Marian, or Ladrone iflands,
 fuppofesthat they are, in general, a people of large  fize;  and that fome may
 have been feen there of gigantic ftature.  But before Buffon wrote, there
 was hardly a navigator who did not fee many giants in remote countries.
 Buffon has the merit of rejecting a great number of incredible narrations.

  f Lord Monboddo fuppofes that mankind, at firft, had tails—that they
 have fallen off by civilization—Lut that there are ftill fome nations, and
 fome individuals who have this honorable mark of affinity with the brutes.
 What effect might refult from the conjunction of a lavage with an ape, or
 an Orang-Outang, it is impoffible to fay.   But a monftrous birth, if it
 fhould happen, however it may be exaggerated by the ignorance of failors,
 fhould never be dignified as a fpecies in the writings of philofophers.
                                         1
  f A moft deformed and deteftable people whom Buffon fpeaks of as na-
 tives of New-Holland.

 § Sir Walter Raleigh pretends to defcribe a people of that kind in Guiana.
 Other voyagers have given a fimilar account of fome of the Tartar tribes.
The necks of thefe Tartars are naturally extremely fhort; and the fpirit
of travelling prodigy has totally deftroyed thein. 
06         Of Complexion and Figure


ftrong light, the falfehood of fimilar wonders*

with  regard to this continent, that were a few

years ago reported, believed, and philofophifed

on in Europe.   We hear every day the abfurd

remarks, and the falfe reafonings of foreign-

ers on almoft every  objea  that comes under

their  obfervation in this new region.   They

judge of things, of men, and of manners un-

der the influence of  habits  and ideas framed

in a different climate,  and a different ftate of

fociety ;  or they  infer general and erroneous

conclufions from fingle and  miftaken faas,

viewed through  that prejudice,  which  previ-

ous habits always form in  common minds*.

                                              Since


  * It requires a greater portion of reflexion and philofophy than falls to
the lot of ordinary travellers to enable them to judge with propriety  of
men and things in diftant countries.  Countries are defcribed from a fingle
fpot, manners from a fingle action, and men freni the firft man that i«
fcen on a foreign fhore, and perhaps him only half feen, and at a diftance.
Fiom thifr fpirit, America has been reprefented by different travellers v..
the moft fertile or the moft barren region on the globe. Navigators  to
Africa often fpeak of the fpreading forefts and luxuriant herbage of that
arid continent, becaufe fome fcenes of this kind are prefented to  the eye
along the fhores of the Gambia and the Senegal.  And furprize occafioned
by an uncommon complexion or compofition of features, has increafed  or
diminifhed the ftature of different nations beyond all the proportions  of
nature.—Such judgments are fimilar, perhaps, to thofe which a Chinefe
failor would form of  the United States who had feen only cape May ;  or
would form of Britain of of France, who had feen only the ports of Dover
or of Calais.   What  information concerning thofe kingdoms could fuch a
vifitant afford his countrymen from fuch a vifit ? Befidc the limited fphere
of his obfervation, he would fee every thing with aftonifhment or with dif-
guft, that would exaggerate, or diftort his representation.  He would fee
each action by itfelf without knowing its connexions; or uc would fee it
with the connexions which it would have in his own country.  Aliniihu-
                                                 wiror 
                 in the Human Species.            91


     Since America is better known, we  find  no

 canibals in Florida ;  no men in  Guiana with

 heads funk into their breafts ;  no martial A-

 mazons.    The giants  of  Patagonia have dis-

 appeared ; and the fame fate fhould have at-

 tended  thofe  of  the Lad rone  iflands,   whom

 Buffon  after  Gamelli Carreri has been  pleafed

 to  mention.    Tavernier's tales of the  fmooth

 and hairlefs bodies of the Mogul women, may

                                                        be


 error induced Capt. Cook in his firft voyage, to form an unfavourable opi-
 nion of the modefty and chaftity of the women of Otaheite, which more
 experience taught him to correct.  Many fuch falfe judgments are to be
 found in almoft every writer of voyages or travels.  The favages of Ame-
 rica are rcprefented as frigid, becaufe they are not ready for e\er to avail
 themfelves of the opportunities offered by their ftate of fociety, to violate
 the chaftity of their females.  They are fometimes reprefented as licenti-
 ous,  becaufe they often lie promifcuoufly round the fame fire.  Both judg-
 ments are falfe, and formed on prcpoffeffions created in fociety.  Simpli-
 city of manners, more than conftitution, or than climate, produces that
 appearance of indifference,  on the one hand, that is called frigidity,  and
 that promifeuous intercourfe, on  the other, that is fuppofed to be united
 with licence,  I.fxury, reftraints, and the arts of polifhed fociety inflame
 defire, which is allayed by the coarfe manners,  and hard fare of favage
 life, where no ftudied excitements are ufed to awuken the paffions.  The
 frontier counties of all thefe  ftates at prefent afford a ftriking example of
 the truth of this reflexion.   Poor, and approaching the roughnefs and
 fimplicity of favage manners, and living in cabins that have no divifions of
 apartments, whole families, and frequently ftrangers lodge together in the
 fame inclofure without any fenfe of indecency, and with fewer violations
 of chaftity than are found amidft the reftraints and incitements of more
 polifhed fociety.  On a like foundation cowardice has been imputed to the
 natives of America, becaufe they profecute their wars by ftratagem—-in-
 fenfibility, becaufe they fuffer with patience—and thievifhnefs, becaufe a
 favage,  having no notion of perfonal property but that which he has in
 prefent occupation and enjoyment, takes without fcruple  v.liat be wants
 and feesyo» do not need.  In innumerable inftances the act of one man,
 the figure or ftature of the firft vagrant feen upon a diftant fhore, has fur-
 nifhed the character of a whole nation.  It is abfurd to build philofoDbic.
theories on the ground of fuch (lories. 
92         Of Complexion and Figure


be ranked with thofe which have fo long, and

fo falfely attributed this peculiarity to the na-

tives of America.   The fame judgment may

we form of thofe hiftories which reprefent na-

tions without natural affeaion; without ideas

of religion;  and without  moral  principle*.

In a word, the greater part of thofe extraor-

dinary deviations  from  the  laws of  climate,

and of fociety, which formerly obtained cre-

dit, are difcovered, by more accurate obferva-

tion, to have no exiftence.   If a few  marvel-

lous phenomena are ftill retailed by credulous

writers,  a Short  time will explode them all,

or fhew that they are mifunderftood, and en-

                                                able


   * Nations have been judged to be without religion becaufe travelleri
have not  feen temples; becaufe they have not underftood their cuftoms^
or their language ; or have not feen them engaged in any act of worfhip.
Nations have been judged to be without natural affection* becaufe one man
has been feen to do an act of barbarity.  But one of the nations which
feems to have departed fartheft from the laws of human nature is mention-
ed by lord Kaims in his laudable attempts to difprove the truth of reve-
lation.  He thinks it certain  that the Giaujas, a nation of Africa, could
not have defcended from one  origin with the reft of mankind, becaufe,
totally unlike all others, they are void of natural affection.  They kill,
fays his lordfhip, all their own children as foon as they are born, and fup-
ply their places with youth ftolen from the neighbouring tribes.  If this
character had been true, even his lordfhip's zeal for a good caufe, might
have fuffered him to reflect that the Giagas could not havev continued a
 feparate race,  longer than the firft flock fhould have lived.  The ftolen
 youth would refemble their parents, and would, at length, compofe the
 nation.  And yet the Giagas, according to his lordfhip, would continue
 to kill their children, and to be a ftanding monument of the falfehood of
 the fcriptures ! An excellent fpecimen of the eafy faith of infidelity!——7
 Prelim. Difc. to Sketches of the Hift. of Man, by lord Kaims. 
in the Human Species*
93
able philofophers  to  explain  them  on  the
known principles of human nature.

  Leaving fuch  pretended faas and the rea-
fonings to which they have given rife, to de-
fended contempt, I fhall confider  a few ap-
parent deviations from the preceding princi-
ples that have been afcertained.   It will not
be neceffary to go into an extenfive detail of
minute differences.  Thefe might  be tedious
and  unimportant: I fhall  propofe only the
moft confpicuous,  perfuaded that, if they are
fatisfaaorily explained, every reafonable in-
quirer will reft convinced that natural caufes
exift in every country fufficient to account for
fmaller diftinaions.

  In tracing the fame  parallels from eaft to
weft, we do not always difcern the fame fea-
tures and complexion.   In the countries of
India, and on the northern coafts of Africa,
nations are mingled together who are diftin-
guifhed from one another by great varieties.
The torrid zone  of Afia is not marked by
fuch a deep colour nor by fuch  parched  hair
as that of Africa ; and the colour  of tropical
America is. in general, lighter,  than that of
A"a.
                                    Africa 
94
Of Complexion and Figure
   Africa is not uniform.   The complexion
of the weftern coaft is a deeper black than that
of the eaftern.   It is even deeper on the north
of  the  equator than on the  fouth.    The
Abyffinians form an exception from all the
other inhabitants of  the African zone—and
when we go beyond that zone to the fouth,
the Hottentots  feem  to  be a race by  them-
felves.   In their manners the  moft beaftly,
and in their perfons and the faculties of their
minds approaching the neareft to brutes of any
of the human fpecies.

  For the explication of thefe  varieties  it is
neceffary to obferve that the fame parallel of
latitude does not uniformly indicate the fame
temperature of  heat  and cold.   Vicinity to
the fea, the courfe of winds, the altitude of
lands, and even the nature of the foil, create
great differences in the fame climate.  The
ftate of fociety in which any nation takes pof-
feffion of a new country has a great effea in
preferv: ng, or in changing their original ap-
pearance.   Savages neceffarily undergo great
changes by fuffering the whole aaion  and
force of climate without proteaion.  Men in
a  civilized ftate enjoy innumerable arts by
which  they are enabled to guard againft its
                                influence, 
           in the ituman Species.         95

 influence, and to retain fome favourite idea of
 beauty formed in their primitive feats.   Yet,
 every migration produces a change.  And the
 combined effeas of many migrations, fuch as
 have been made by almoft all the prefent na-
 tions of the temperate zone, muft have great
 influence in varying the human countenance.
 For example—A nation which  migrates to a
 different climate will,  in time,  be impreffed
 with the charaaers of its new ftate.   If this
 nation fhould afterwards return to its original
feats,  it wrould not perfeaiy recover its pri-
 mitive  features and complexion, but  would
 receive the impreffions of the firft climate, on
 the ground  of thofe  created in the fecond.
 In a new removal the combined effea of the
 two climates, would become the ground, on
 wfiich would be impreffed, the charaaers of
 the third.  This exhibits a new caufe of end-
 lefs variety in the human countenance.

   Thefe principles will ferve to explain many
 of the differences that exift in thofe countries
 wmich  have  been the  fubjeas  of moft  fre-
 quent conqueft*.  India and  the northern
                                   regions

  * Efpecially if religion, manners, policy, or other caufes, prevent peo-
 ple from uniting freely in marriages, and from fubmitting to the fame
 fyftem of government and Jaws. 
g6
Of Complexion and Figure
regions of Africa, have been often conquer-
ed, and many nations have eftablifhed colo-
nies in thefe countries for the purpofes of
commerce.  All  thefe nations before  their
migrations,  or their conquefts,  were in a lefs
or greater degree, civilized.   They were able
therefore, to preferve, with fome fuccefs their
original features againft the influence  of the
climate.  Their diet, their habits, their man-
ners and their arts,  all would contribute to
this effea.  As thefe caufes are capable of
creating great varieties among men,  much
more are they capable of preferving varieties
already created.  The Turks therefore, the
Arabs, and the Moors in the north of Africa,
will remain, forever, diftina in their  figure
and complexion, as long as their manners are
different.  And the  continent and iflands of
India will be filled with a various race of peo-
ple while the produaions of their climate con-
tinue to invite both  conquefts and commerce.
The climate will certainly change  in a de-
gree the appearance of all the nations who re-
move thither; but the difference in the degree
and the combination of this effea with their
original charaaers,  will ftill preferve among
them effential and confpicuous diftinaions*.
                                   Another
 * From the preceding principles wt may juftly conclude that the Anglo-
                                   Americans 
in the Human Species.
   Another  variety which feems to form an
 exception from  the principles hitherto laid
 down;  but  which really eltablifhes them, is
 that the torrid zone of Afia is not marked by
 fuch  a deep  colour,  nor,  except  in  a few
 countries, by  fuch  curled  hair, as that  of
 Africa.   The  African zone  is  a  region  of
 burning  fand  which augments  the heats of
 the  fun  to a degree  almoft inconceivable.
 That of Afia, confifts chiefly  of water which,
 abforbing the rays of the fun, and  filling the
 atmofphere  writh a cool  and  humid vapour,
 creates a wind comparatively temperate over
 its numerous  iflands and narrow peninfulas.
 The principle body of its lands lies nearer to
 the northern tropic than to the equator.   In
 fummer the winds blow from the fouth acrofs
 extenfive  oceans; in the winter from conti-
                      O                    nents

 Americans will never refemble the native Indians.  Their civilization will
 prevent fo great a degeneracy.  But were it poffible that they fhould be-
 come favage, the refemblance could never be complete, becaufe the one
 would receive the impreffions of the climate on a countenance, the ground
 of which was formed in Europe, and in a ftate of improved fociety; the
 other has plainly received them on a countenance formed in Tartary. And
 yet the refemblance becomes near and ftriking in thofe perfons who have
 been captivated by the Indians in infancy, and have grown up among them
*in the habits of favage life.  Thefe principles likewife will lead us to con-
 clude that the Samoiedes are Tartars degenerated by the effects of extreme
 cold—and that the empire of China and moft of the countries of India have
 been peopled from the north.  For their countenance feems to be coni-
 pofed of the foft feature of the Lower Afia, laid upon a ground formed in
 the Upper Afia. 
gS        Of Complexion and Figure

nents that the fun has long deferted*.   Yet*
under all the advantages  of climate which
Afia  enjoys, we find in Borneo and New-
Guinea,  and perhaps in fome others of thofe
vaft.infular countries, which, by their pofiti-
on  and extent,  are  fubjea  to greater heats
than the  continent, or by the favage conditi-
on of the inhabitants, fuffer the  influence of
thofe heats, in a higher degree, a race of men
refembling the African negroes.  Their hair,
their complexion and their features, are near-
ly the fame.   At the diftance of more than
three thoufand miles acrofs the Indian ocean,
it is impoffible that they fhould have fprung
from the favages of Africa, who have not the
means of making fuch extenfive  voyages")".
Similarity of climate, and of manners, have
created this  ftriking refemblance, between
people fo remote from one another.

  The next  apparent exception, we  difcover
in Africa itfelf.  Africa, like Europe and Afia,
is  full of varieties,   arifing from the fame
caufes, vicinity to the fun,  elevation of the
land, the heat of winds, and the manners of
                                        the*
 * The monfoons are found to blow over the whole Afiatic zone.
 •j- The Europeans were highly civijized before they difeovered the con-
tinent of America, which is not fo remote from their ihores a. Borneo or
New-Holland is from the coaft of Africa. 
            in the Human Species.         99

the people.  But the two principal diftinai-
ons of colour,  under  which the reft may be
ranged, that prevail from the northern tropic,
or a little higher to the cape of Good-Hope,
are the Caffre and the negroe.  The  Caffre
complexion prevails along the eaftern coaft,
and in the country of the Hottentots.  The
negroe, on the weftern coaft between the tro-
pics.   The negroe is the blackeft colour of
the human Skin, the  Caffre is much lighter
and  feems to be the intermediate  grade be-
tween the  negroe and the native of India.
The caufe of this  difference will be obvious
to thofe who are acquainted with that conti-
nent.   The winds  under the equator, follow-
ing the courfe of the  fun,  reach  the eaftern
coaft of Africa, cooled by blowing over im-
menfe  oceans,  and render the countries of
Aian,  Zanguebar and Monomotapa, compa-
ratively temperate.  But after  they have tra-
verfed that extenfive continent, and in a paf-
fage of three thoufand miles  have colleaed
all the fires of the burning defert  to pour
them  on the countries of Guinea, of Sierra-
Leona, and of "Senegal*, they glow with an
                                      ardor
  * Thefe countries receive the wind after blowing over the wideft and
hotteft part of Africa, an(l confequently fuffer under a more intenfe heat
than the countries of Congo, Angola, or Loango to the fouth of the equa-
tor. Accordingly, we find the people of a deeper black in the northern
than in the fouthern fection of the torrid zone. 
ioo      Of Complexion and Figure

ardor unknown in any other portion of the
globe.  The intenfe heat, which, in this re-
gion, makes fuch a prodigious change on the
human conftitution,  equally transforms the
whole race of beafts and. of vegetables.   All
nature bears  the marks of a powerful  fire*.
And the  negroe  is  no more  changed  from
the Caffre, the Moor, or the European, than
the proportional laws of climate, and of foci-
ety give us reafon to expea.   Above the Se-
negal we find in the nation of the Foulies a
lighter fhade of the negroe colour;  and im-
mediately beyond  them to  the  north, the
darkeft copper of the  Moorifh complexion.
There is  a fmaller interval  between the cop-
per colour and the perf eaiy  black on the north
than on the  fouth of the torrid zone; becaufe
the  Moors  being  more civilized than the
Hottentots are better  able to defend them-
felves  againft the impreflions of the climate.
But the Hottentots, being the moft favage of
mankind, fuffer the influence of their climate
                                           in
  * The luxuriant, y of the trees and herbage along the banks of the great
rivers has deceived fome traveller- who have reprefented Africa as a rich
and fertile country.  As foon as you leave the risers, which arc very few,
you enter on a parched and naked foil.  And the whole interior parts of
that continent as far as they h;.ve been explored, are little elfe than a de-
fert of burning land, that often rolls in waves like the ocean. Buffon
mentions a nation in the center of Africa, the Zuinges, who, the Arabian
writers fay, are often almoft intirely cut off, by hot winds that rife out of
the furrounding deferts. 
in the Human Species.
101
in the extreme.   And  they endeavour, by
every mean to preferve the features and the
complexion of the equator, from whence, it
is probable,  they derived, with  their ancef-
tors,  their ideas  of beauty.   It is more eafy
to preferve acquired  features or complexion,
than to regain them after they have been loft.
The Hottentots  preferve with fome fuccefs,
thofe that they had acquired under the equa-
tor.   They flatten, by  violence, the nofe of
every child foon  after it  is born;  they endea-
vour to deepen the colour of the Skin by rub-
bing it with the moft filthy unguents, and by
expofing it to the  influence of a fcorching
fun; and their  hair they burn up by the vileft
compofitions.  Yet,  againft  all their efforts,
the climate, though  it  is but a few degrees
declined from the torrid zone, vifibly prevails.
Their hair is thicker and longer than that of
the negroes;  and their complexion  near the
Cape is  the lighten Stain of the Caffre colour.
Allowing for the effeas  of their  favage con-
dition, and of their brutal manners, they are
marked nearly with the fame hue that distin-
guishes the correspondent northern latitudes*
                                         As
  * With regard to other peculiarities that have been related of this peo-
ple, and that reduce them in their figuie the neareft to the brute creation
of any of the human fpecies, great part of them are falfe, others exaggerat-
ed, and thofe that are true are the natural offspring of their brutal nu-uncrs. 
 102      Of Complexion and Figure

   As you afcend along the eaftern coaft from
 Cafraria  to Aian,  the complexion  becomes
 gradually deeper, till fuddenly you find, in
 Abyffinia, a race of men refembling the fou-
 thern Arabians.    Their  hair  is long  and
 Straight,  their features tolerably regular,  and
 their complexion a very dark olive approach-
 ing to the black.  This Singularity is eafily
 explained on the principles already  eftablifh-
 ed : and  it is an additional  confirmation of
 thefe principles that they are found to reach
 all the effeas to which they are applied.  The
 Abyffinians are  a civilized people,  and bear
 evident marks of Afiatic origin.  They are
 fituated in the mildeft region of tropical Africa,
 and are fanned by the temperate  winds that
 blow from the  Indian ocean.  Abyffinia is
 likewife a  high  and mountainous  country,
 and is wafhed during half the year by deluges
 of rain which impart  unufual coolnefs to the
 air.   It is, perhaps, one of the moft elevated
 regions on earth, as, from its mountains fpring
 two of the largeft and the longeft rivers in the
 world, the Niger and the Nile*.   This alti-
                                       tude

   The prodigious and inceffant deluges of rain that fall in Abyffinia
during fix months in the year, are the caufe of the overflowing of the Nile.
They render the atmofphere temperate, and are a proof of the elevation
of the country, no lefs than the length of the rivers that originate in its
                                     mountains. 
           in the Human Species*         ioj

tude of the lands, raifes it to a region of the
atmofphere that is equivalent to many degrees
of northern latitude*.   Thus, the civilization
of the people, the elevation of the  country,
the temperature of  the winds,  and  inceffant
clouds and rain during that feafon of the year
in which the fun is  vertical, all contribute to
create that form and  colour of the human
perfon in Abyffinia,  which is confidered as a
prodigy in the torrid zone of Africa.

   Having  confidered the principal objeaions
to the preceding theory existing in India and
Africa,  it may be expeaed that I  fhould not
omit to mention the white Negroes of Africa,
and the white Indians of Darien, and of fome
of the oriental  iflands, which are  fo often
quoted upon this fubjea.   Ignorant or inte-
rested writers have  endeavoured to magnify
this phsenomenon into an argument for the
original diftinaion of fpecies.  But thofe who
                                          have

mountains.  The greateft quantity of rains ufually fall on mountains and
the higheft lands; and their elevation may, in a great meafure, be deter-
mined by the length of the rivers that iffue from them.
  * Some writers inform us that the barometer rifes in Abyflinia, on an
average,  no higher than 20 inches.   If this be true, that  kingdom muft
be fituated more  than two miles above the level of the fea. But if we
fhould fuppofe this account to be exaggerated, ftill we muft judge its alti-
tude to be very great, confidering that it is almoft intirely a region of
mountains, which are the fources of thofe vaft rivers. 
i 64       Of Complexion  and Figure


have examined the faa with greater accuracy,

have  rendered  it evident that  their  colour is

the effea of fome diftemper.   Thefe whites

are rare ;  they have all the marks of an  ex-

treme imbecility ; they do not form a feparate

race,  or continue their own fpecies; but are

found to  be the  accidental and difeafed  pro-

duaion of parents who themfelves poffefs the

full charaaers of the climate*.


   It now  remains  only to  account for the

afpea of the favage natives  of America, which

varies from the examples we have confidered

in  the  other  portions of the  earth.    Their

complexion is not fo fair as that of Europe or

of  Middle Afia.   It  is not  fo black as  that of

                                           Africa,

  *  Mr. James Lind, a phyfician of great reputation, has recorded a fi-
milar deviation from the law of climate in a black child born of white
parents.  The fact he affures us occurred to his own obfervation. See
Phil. Tranf. of Roy. Soc. Lond. N° 424.
  The fmall tribe of red people,  which Dr. Shaw, in his travels, relates
that he faw in the mountains of Aurefs, a part of the vaft ridge of Atlas,
are probably a remnant of the Vandals who, in the fifth century, conquer-
ed the northern countries of Africa.  Their manners, and the altitude of
their fituation, in thofe cold mountains, may have contributed to preferve
thisdiftinction between them and the Moors and Arabs, who live in the
low lands.  Lord Kaims, who writes with infinite weaknefs on this fub-
ject, exclaims with an air of triiimph, if the climate in a thoufand years
has  not changed thefe people into a perfect refemblance of the aborigines,
we may fafely pronounce it never will change them,—I confefsit, if th< y
preferve their prefent elevation.  But to conclude that the climate cannot
change them on the plains, becaufe it has not changed them on the moun-
tains, is the fame kind of reafoning as it would be to conclude that the fun
could not melt fnow at the bottom of ./Etna or Pambamurci becaufe it con-
tinues eternally frozen at the top. 
          in the Human Species. .        105

Africa, and many of the oriental iflands. There
is a greater uniformity of countenance through-
out this whole continent than is found in any
other region of the globe of equal extent.

   That the  natives of America are not fair,
is  a natural  confequence of the  principles al-
ready eftablilhed in this effay; in which it has
been Shewn that favages, from their expofure,
their  hardfhips, and their manner of living,
muft,  even  in  temperate climates,  be difco-
loured by different fhades of the tawny com-
plexion.

  The uniformity of their countenance refults
in fome degree from that of the climate, which
is  the  lefs various, that America poffeffes the
cooleft tropical  region in the world.   But it
refults principally from their ftate of fociety,
their manners, their means of fubfiftence, the
nature and  limitation of thdir ideas,  which
preferve an uncommon refemblance from Ca-
nada  to cape Horn.   Though complexion is
lefs diverfified in  America than in other regi-
ons of the earth ; yet there is a fenfible gra-
dation of colour*, till you arrive at the darkeft
                     P                  hue
 * In travelling from the great lakes to Florida or Louifiana, through the
Indian nations, there is a vifible progreffion i.i the darknuh of their com-
                                       plexion. 
3t o6       Of Complexion and Figure

hue of  this  continent  in the  nations on the
weft  of Brazil.   Here the  continent being
wider,  and confequently hotter, than in any
other part between the  tropics, is more deep-
ly  coloured.   And  the Toupinamboes  and
Toupayas, and  other  tribes of that  region,
bear a near refemblance, in their complexion,
to the inhabitants of the oriental zone.   We
find indeed no people in America fo black as
the Africans.  This is  the peculiarity that at-
traas moft obfervation and inquiry ; and the
caufe, I propofe  now to explain.

   The torrid zone of America is uncommon-
ly temperate.  This effea arifes in part from
its fhape; in part from its high mountains,
and extenfive lakes and rivers;  and  in  part
from its uncultivated ftate.   All uncultivated
regions, covered with forefts and with waters,
are naturally cold*.  The torrid zone of Ame-
                ♦                           rica
plexion. And at the councils of confederate nations, or at treaties for ter-
minating an extenfive war, you often fee fachems and warriors of very dif-
ferent hues.  But the colour of the natives of America, though diverfified,
is lefs various than in other quarters of the globe of equal extent of latitude.
And as the fame ftate of fociety univerfally prevails, there is a fyftem of
features that refults from this, which is every where fimilar. Thefe fea-
tures giving the predominant afpect to the face, and being united with a
complexion lefs various than in Africa or Afia, form what is called th$
uniformity of the American countenance.
  * The difference, in point of climate, which cultivation has produced
between modern and ancient Europe, is well known.  And it is probable
                                             that. 
            in the Human Species.        107

 rica is narrow—its mountains and its  rivers
 are immenfe—and Amazonia may be  confi-
 dered, during a  great portion of the year, as
 one extenfive lakef.   Let us advert to the
 influence of thefe circumftances.  The empire
 of Mexico is a continued ifthmus of high and
 mountainous lands.   Cool by their elevation,
 they are fanned on each fide by winds from
 the eaftern and weftern oceans.   Terra Firma
 is a hilly region.  Amazonia, though  low and
 flat, is fhaded by boundlefs forefts, and cool-
 ed by the numerous waters that flow  into the
 largeft rivers in the world.  The mildnefs of
 its atmofphere is augmented by the perpetual
 eaft wind that blows under the equator.  This
 wind  having depofited in the Atlantic  ocean
 the heats acquired in its  paffage acrofs  the
 continent  of Africa,  regains a moderate tem-
 perature  before  it  arrives  at the American
 coaft.   In America it continues its courfe over
 thick forefts and  innumerable waters, to the
 mountains of the Andes.   The Andes  are
 colder  than the Alps.   And the empire of
 Peru defended, on one fide, by  thefe frozen
                                     ridges;

that, if civilization fhall, in future time, be introduced into Tartary, that
frozen climate will be mollified, and the deformed  Tartars may, with
change of climate and of manners, become perfonable men.
f On account of it3 numerous rivers and its flooded Jands, 
 108      Of Complexion and Figure

 ridges; fanned on  the other by a perpetual
 weft wind from the Pacific ocean ;  and cover-
 ed by a canopy  of denfe  vapour,  through
 which the fun never penetrates  with force,
 enjoys a temperate atmofphere.  The vaft fo-
 refts of America are an effea of the tempera-
 ture of the air, and contribute to promote it.
 Extreme heat  parches the foil, and converts
 it into an arid fand—luxuriant vegetation is
the fruit of a  moift earth,  and a temperate
 Sky.  And the natives,  inhabiting perpetual
Shade, and refpiring in  the grateful and re-
frigerating effluvia of vegetables, enjoy, in
the midft of the torrid zone, a moderate cli-
mate.

  Thefe obfervations tend to fhew that, as far
as heat is concerned in the effea, the colour
of the American muft be much lefs deep than
that of the African,  or  even of the Afiatic
zone.  And to me  it appears, and, I doubt
not, to every candid  and  intelligent inquirer,
that the co-operation of fo many caufes is fully
adequate to account for  the differences be-
tween the complexion of the Negroe, and of
the Indian.
Thus 
           in the Human Species,        109

   Thus  have I concluded the examination,
which I propofed, into the caufes of the prin-
ciple  varieties of perfon that appear in the
different nations  of the earth.  And I am
happy to obferve, on  this  fubjea,  that the
moft  accurate inveftigations into  the power
of nature  ever  ferve  to confirm the  faas
vouched  by the authority of revelation.  A
juft philofophy  will always be found to be
coincident with true theology.  The writers
wrho, through ignorance of nature, or through
prejudice againft religion, attempt to deny the
unity of the  human fpecies do not advert to
the confufion which fuch principles tend to
introduce.  The fcience of  morals would be
abfurd; the law of nature and nations would
be annihilated; no general principles of hu-
man condua, of religion, or of policy could
be framed; for, human nature,  originally,
infinitely various, and,  by the changes of the
world, infinitely mixed, could not be compre-
hended in  any  fyftem.  The rules which
would refult from  the ftudy of our own na-
ture, would not apply to the natives of other
countries who would be of different fpecies;
perhaps,  not to two families in our  own
country,  who might be fprung from a diffiV
milar compofition of fpecies.  Such principles 
no     Of Complexion and Figure

tend to confound all fcience, as well as piety;
and leave us in the world uncertain whom to
truft, or what opinions to  frame of others.
The doarine of one race, removes this uncer-
tainty, renders human nature fufceptible of
fyftem,  illuftrates  the  powers  of  phyfical
caufes, and opens  a rich and extenfive field
for moral fcience.   The unity of the human
race I have confirmed by explaining the caufes
of its variety.—The firft and chief of thefe I
have fhewn to be climate; by which is meant,
not fo much the latitude of a country from the
equator,  as the degree of heat or cold,  that
depends  on many  conneaed circumftances.
The next, is the ftate of fociety, which great-
ly augments or correas the influence of cli-
mate, and is' itfelf the  independent caufe of
many confpicuous  diftinaions among man-
kind.  Thefe caufes may be infinitely varied
in their  degree, and in  their combinations
with other  principles.  And in the innume-
rable migrations of mankind,  they are modi-
fied by their own previous effeas in a prior
climate, and a  prior ftate of fociety*.  Even
where all external  circumftances feem to be
the fame, there may be fecret caufes of  dif-
ference, as there are varieties in the children
                                       of
  * Vide pages, 95 and 96. 
in the Human Species.         m
of the fame family.  The fame country often

exhibits differences among individuals fimilar

to  thofe which diftinguifh  the  moft  diftant

nations. Such differences prove, at leaft, that

the human conftitution is fufceptible of all the

changes that are feen among men.   It is not

more  aftonifhing that nations, than that indi-

viduals  fhould differ j*.   In the one  cafe, wre

know with certainty,  that  the varieties  have

arifen out of the  fame  origin;  and,  in the

other, we  Have reafon to conclude, indepen-

dently on  the facred authority of revelation,

that from  one pair have fprung all the fami-

lies of the earth.


  fit would be lawful, if it were neceffary, to have recourfe to accident-
al caufes to account for the varieties of nations; and to fuppofe that a
country  might have, at firft, been peopled by fome anceftor moft like the
natives in features and in figure.  It would not be a (trained fl^jpoficion,
becaufe we frequently fee deformed perfons in civil fociety refemble almoft
every favage nation.  And thofe who are acquainted with American mi-
grations know,  that, commonly, the moft poor, and lazy, and deform-
ed, are  the firft to pufh their fortune in a rude and favage wildemefs,
where they can  live, without labour, by fifhing and hunting.
FINIS. 
• 
STRICTURES

                     O N

  LORD  KAIMS's   DISCOURSE

                  O N T H E

ORIGINAL  DIVERSITY OF MANKIND.
     LORD Kaims, in a preliminary difcourfe to his
      fketches of the hiftory of man, has undertaken
to combat the principle which I have endeavoured to
maintain,  that all mankind are Sprung from one pair.
His reputation  Stands fo high in the literary world,
that we may juftly prefume he has comprehended in
that diiTertation whatever can be urged with Solidity
againft  this  opinion.   Every  reader will probably
deem the refutation of fuch an antagonift, no incon-
siderable addition  to the force of the preceding ar-
gument.

   The character  of lord Kaims, as an author,  ap-
pears in this difcourfe, far inferior to that which he
has  juftly obtained from his other works.  And in
fome ftrictures  which I am now to make upon it, I
propofe to Shew that many of the fuppofed fafts on
which his lordfhip relies in the train of his argument,
have no exiftence, and that almoft  the whole of  his
reafoning  is inconclufive.
                        Q^                     In 
                     (   2  )

   In the firft: place he fays,  " certain  it is that all
" men, more than all animals, are not equally fitted
" for  every  climate.   There  were therefore created
ct different kinds of men at firft, according to the na-
" ture of the  climate in  which  they  were to live.
" And if we have any belief in providence, it ought
" to be fo.   Becaufe men, in changing their climate
" ufually become fickly and often degenerate."

   This power of the cliinate to change the perfon
which  his lordfhip confefies, when he calls it the de-
generating of mankind,  is the principle for which I
plead; and which,  united with the influence of the
ftate of fociety, is fufficient to explain all the changes
that are vifible in the different nations  of the earth.
Are not the inhabitants of Guinea  and of Lapland,
degenerated races compared with the inhabitants of
France and  England?  If  thefe people had,  in their
own climates,  attained  the  perfection of  their na-
ture, and the civilized Europeans? had, by being tranf-
planted thither, degenerated far below them, the ar-
gument then would have had fome force.  But fince
the greateft degeneracy  of Europeans is only  a re-
femblance of  thefe favages,  the example  concludes
againft his lordfhip's principle.

   But men, he contends were not made for different
climates, " becaufe, in changing their climate,  they
" ufually become fickly."

   This argument  fuppofes that man was not made
for fituations in which he is liable to encounter dan-
                                               ger 
(  3   )
ger or difeafe.   And yet we fee him, as it were by
the appointment of providence,  continually encoun-
tering both.  If this argument  were of weight, man
is only an intruder on this world;  for, every where
he meets with ficknefs, and  with death.  True it is,
men, by making great and fudden changes of climate
or of country,  are  expofed  to difeafe.  But it is e-
qually true  of fimilar changes even in the modes of
living.    And the argument  proves only that all fuch
alterations  fhould be  made gradually,  and with pre-
caution.  If this prudential  conduct be obferved, the
human  conftitution, as is known from actual experi-
ment,  is capable of enduring  the influence of every
climate.   It becomes, in time, afilmilated by its fitu-
ation.    And the  progeny  of  foreigners  come  at
length to refemble the natives, if they adopt the fame
manners.—In America we are  liable  to diforder, by
removing incautioufly from  a northern to  a  fouthern
ftate; and even from one part to another of the fame
ftate: but it would be abfurd to conclude thence, that
we are  not  of  one fpecies from  New-Hampfhire  to
Georgia.   Shall  we  conclude  that the top of every
hill, and the bank of every river are inhabited by dif-
ferent fpecies, becaufe the latter are lefs healthy than
the former ?  The conftitution becomes attempered, in
a  degree even to an unhealthy region,  and then it
feels augmented fymptoms of diforder, on  returning
to  the  moft falubrious air  and water: but does this
prove  that nature never intended fuch men to drink
clear water, or to breathe in a pure atmofphere ? This
argument deftroys  itfelf by  the extent of the confe-
quences which it draws after it.
                                               His 
(  4   )
   His lordfhip's fecond argument which is only a re-
petition of part of the firft, is certainly an extraordina-
ry example  of philofophic reafoning-—" Men,  fays
" he,  muft  have been  originally  of different ftocks,
" adapted to their refpective climates, becaufe an Eu-
" ropean  degenerates  both in vigour and in colour
" on being removed to fouth America, to Africa, or
" to the Eaft .Indies."

   The fact is as his lordfhip ftates it.   An European
changes his  colour on being removed to thefe diftant
climates.  But one would think that true philofophy
fhould have  drawn  from this fact a contrary conclu-
fion.   Certainly if an European had  not degenerated^
as he expreffes it,  in colour and in vigour, on being
removed  to  other  climates,  it would have been a
ftronger proof of the original difference of races.

   He confirms this obfervation, however, by the ex-
ample of " a Portuguefe  colony on the coaft of Con-
" go, who in a courfe of time, he affirms,  have  de-
" generated fo much, that they fcarce retain the  ap-
" pearance of men."

   A fact  more to the purpofe of the preceding effay
could not  be adduced.  Let it be applied to the neigh-
bouring tribes of negroes and of Hottentots.   Though
they, in like manner, are become  fo rude that fcarce-
ly do they retain the appearance of men,  does not his,
lordfhip's  example prove  that, in fome remote period,
they might have defcended from the  fame origin with
£hefe degenerated Portuguefe ?
                                              Hi> 
(  s   )
   His lordfhip has been egregioufly deceived in the
principle on which he attempts to prove that Ameri-
ca is not adapted to European conftitutions.   He af-
ferts that " Charleftown in  Carolina  is infufferably
"  hot;  becaufe fays  he, it  has no lea-breeze—that
"  Jamaica itfelf is a more temperate  climate— and
"  that the inhabitants of both die fo faft that if con-
"  tinual recruits did not arrive from Europe to fup-
ft  ply  the places of thofe  that perifh the countries
"  would be foon depopulated."—How cautious fhoufd
philofophers be of  afTerting facts, without well ex-
amining the  authority on  which they receive them!
All  thefe affertions are equally  and entirely falfe.
And if a philofopher, and a lord of fefliODS in Scot-
land, talks fo ignorantly of that country which, from
its long  and  intimate  connexion with Britain,  he
fhould have underftood better than  any  other,  we
may  jviftly  prefume that he is lefs acquainted with
the Afiatic and African nations;  and  that the objec-
tions drawn from them by him, and by inferior writ-
ers,  againft the doctrine of  one race,  are  ftill more
weak and unfounded.

   His lordfhip ufes, as another argument for the ori-
ginal  diverfity of fpecies among mankind that com-
mon European miftake, that,  " the natives of Ame-
<c rica are deftitute of hair on the chin and body."

   That philofophers fhould  fometimes be deceived in
their information is not furprizing; but they are cer-
tainly blameable, after  having  found in fo  many  re-
peated examples the falfehood  of voyagers, or their
                                         incapacity 
(   6   )
  incapacity for obfervation,  to reft,  on fuch  dubious
  tales, an argument againft the moft  common and fa-
  cred opinions of mankind*.

     His lordfhip, in the next place fays with truth,  that
  " the northern nations, to protect them from the cold,
  have more fat " than the fouthern."—But from  this
  principle he draws a falfe conclufion, that " therefore
  the northern and fouthern nations are of different ra-
  ces, adapted by  nature to their refpective  climates."
  —He ought to have drawn the contrary conclufion,
  that nature hath given fuch pliancy to the human con-
  ftitution as to enable it to adapt itfelf to every clime.
  The goodnefs of  the Creator appears in forming  the
  whole world for man, and not confining him, like  the
  inferior animals,  to a bounded range, beyond which
  he cannot pafs either for the acquifition of fcience,  or,
  for the enlargement of his habitation.   And  the  di-
  vine wifdom is feen in mingling in the human frame
 fuch principles as always tend to counteract the ha-
 zards of a new fituation.  Fat  protects the vitals from
 the too piercing influence of cold*.   But this  cover-
 ing being too warm for fouthern regions, nature hath
 enabled the conftitution t;o throw it off by perfpiration.
                                                  The

  * I have fhewn in the effay that this  peculiarity has been falfely im-
puted to the  natives of America; and that they are not, in this refpecl,
diftinguifhed, by nature,  from the reft of mankind.  They have a cuf-
tqm, founded on a capricious idea of beauty, of pulling out their hair with
tweezers.  And hafty and fuperficial travellers have been deceived, by the
apparent fmoothnefs of the chin and body, into the imagination, that they
are naturally deftitute of this excrefcence.
  •(• Almoft all animals that run wild in the foreft, grow fatter at the
approach of winter; and they ftill augment their fat by being removed to
a latitude farther north. 
(  7   )
The phyfical caufe of this effect ought to have beea
no fecret to a philofopher who treats of human nature
Not to mention the  natural effects of the relaxation
of heat; or the bracing of cold, on the nourifliment
of the body; it is fufficient to obferve, that the pro-
fufe perfpiration that takes place in fouthern latitudes,
carries off the oily with the aqueous parts, and ren-
ders the conftitution thin ; but a frigid  climate,  by
obftrufting the evaporation of the oils condenfes them
in a coat of fat that contributes to preferve the warmth
of the animal fyftem.  Experience verifies this influ-
ence of climate.   The northern tribes which, iffued
from the  forefts of  Germany, and overrun the fou-
thern provipces of the Roman Empire, no longer re-
tain their original groffnefs,  and their vaft fize.  The
conftitution of Spain,  and of other countries in  the
fouth of Europe is thin; and the Europeans in gene-
ral have become  more  thin  by  emigrating to Ame-
rica.  Here is a double experiment, within the  me-
mory of hiftory, made on intire nations.   Many fin-
gle examples will occur to every man's  obfervation.
The argument, therefore, which this writer derives
from the fatnefs of  one nation, and the leannefs of
another is inconclufive for the purpofe for which he
urges it, the proof of different fpecies of men.

   His next  attempt  is to prove that  negroes  are of a
different fpecies from whites.  He fays,  " their fkin
" is  more cool and adapted to their fervid  climate.
" For a thermometer applied to the body of an Af-
" rican, will not indicate the fame  degree of heat as
" when applied to the body of an European."
                                             The 
(   8   )
   The fact I will not difpute.   But admitting it to be
 true with regard to the Europeans who travel to Af-
 rica, it  is capable of explanation on the known prin-
 ciples cf natural fcience.  Perfpiration from the hu-
 man body is analogous to the evaporation of fluids,
 which is one of the moft cooling proceffes in  nature;
 It becomes a conductor to the internal heat, which it
 carries off as faft as it is excited,  and thereby preferves
 the  body in a moderate temperature.  But when per-
 foration is obftrudled,  the retained heat immediately
 raifes a fever rn the fyftem.   The more profufe there-
 fore the  perfpiration is, under the fame degree of ex-
 ternal heat, the more temperate will be the warmth of
 the  fkin*.   In  fweating,  the fkin  is  fenfibly cooler
 than before the  fvveat begins to  iffue from the pores.
 In the torrid zone  the heat relaxing and  opening the
 pores of the natives will render  both fenfible and in-
 fenfible  perfpiration in  them more copious and con-
 fhmt, than  in  the natives of northern regions who
 remove  thither.   Their  conftitution  not  being yet
 perfectly accommodated to the  climate,  they do not
 perfpire  fo  freely.  Being more full  of blood, and
 highly toned, they fuffer, in that fervid  climate, the
 additional heat of an habitual fever..  If the fact how-
 ever be, as his lordfhip ftates it,  the experiment  muft
 have been made  on the whites in Africa, before the
                                          conftitution
  * For a fimilar reafon likewife among others the furfaces of all fluids,
preferve a greater coohiefs under the action of the direct rays of the fun
than the furfaces of folid  bodies.  The action of the fun produces evapo-
ration ; and by this vapour the  excited heat is conducted off, which, by
remaining in :olid bodies, renders them warmer than fluids.  And this
is equally true, whether we confider heat, with modern philofophers as
an element,  or vwJi the old philofophers as only an internal commotion
of parts. 
C  9   )
 conftitution was  properly  reduced  to fuffer the in-
 tenfe  heats of that region.  For,  in this  climate,  I
 can affirm from actual experiment,  that the fkin of a
 negroe is not cooler than that of a white perfon.   I
 have applied the thermometer fucceffively to two per-
 fons in my family of the  fame fex,  and nearly of the
 fame age,  the one  white,  and the other black ; and
 after making the trial in all refpects as equal as poffible,
 I have not  been  able  at  the end of half an hour  to
 difcover any difference in the elevation of the mercury.

   Some of his lordfhip's following  remarks and rea-
 fonings, I beg leave to treat a little more briefly.

   cc  Is it poffible, he afks, to account for the low fta-
 " ture,  and little feet, and large head of the Efqui-
 tl maux ? or for the low ftature and ugly vifage of the
 " Laplanders, by the action of cold ?"

   I have endeavoured  to account for them  from the
 aclion of cold in conjunction with the Jiate of fociety.

   if But the difference of latitude,  he  fays, between
 " the Laplanders,  and the Norwegians and Fins,  is
*cc not fufficient to  account for the difference of fea-
 " tures."

   I have already explained the reafon of this phseno-
 menon.   The temperate climates border upon eternal
 cold,  and civilized on favage fociety, in every quar-
 ter of the globe.    I have  fhewn that the forces of
                         R                   thefe
w 
(  io   J
thefe two powerful caufes combined, are fully ade-
quate to account for thefe different effects.

   His lordfhip confeffes, that " it has been lately dif-
"  covered by the Pere  Hel, an Hungarian, that the
"  Laplanders were originally Huns."

   Pere  Hel  has.no doubt given authentic evidence of
the fact, as appears by the conviction  it has produced
in his lordfhip.   But it is ftrange that it fhould not
have occurred to this  ingenious writer, that, from
the fame Huns are defcended, likewife, fome  of the
moft beautiful nations in Europe.

   As an objection  againft the  power of climate to
change  the  complexion, he  fays, " the Moguls and
"  the fouthern Chinefe are white."  If he means that
they are not black,  it is true : If he means that they
are as  white as the  Europeans, it is falfe.   If the
Moguls are  lefs difcoloured than fome other nations
in the fame  latitude, I have before affigned the rea-
fon.  The ftate of civilization to which they had ar-
rived,  previoufly to  their taking poffeffion of  their
prefent  feats, enabled them to defend  themfelves with,
fome fuccefs againft the impreffions of a new climate.

   His  lordfhip adds,  " Zaara  is as hot as Guinea,
" and Abyffinia is hotter than Monomotapa, and yet
" the inhabitants of the former are  not fo black as
" thofe of  the latter."   His lordfhip's hiftorical, as
well as  phyfical knowledge,  needs a little emendation.
Zaara is not fo hot as Guinea, nor is Abyffinia fo hot
                                                as 
(   II   )
as Monomotapa.   But if it were  equally hot, there
are other caufes that produce a wide difference be-
tween the figure and  complexion  of thofe  nations*.
The Abyffinians are civilized,  the Monomotapans are
favage.  The  Abyffinians derive  their  origin from
Arabia; and civilization enables  them to  preferve
their  original features.   The Monomotapans are  evi-
dently defcended  from  the  negroes of the equator,
and their favage habits  have continued the figure of
their  anceftors with little variation.
                      .
   His lordfhip  proceeds,  "  there  are many inftances
"  of  races of people preferving their original colour
"  in climates very different  from  their own."  This
is nearly true of civilized nations, the reafons of which
have  been already affigned.   It is  not,  however,  by
any means true, in  the extent in which he afferts itf.
He adds, "  and there is not a fingle inftance to the
f(  contrary."   To  his lordfhip,  the Portuguefe of
Congo might have been that inftance.

   Another argument for the original diverfity of na-
tions, on which fome  reliance  is placed in this preli-
minary difcourfe, is taken from the  variety  of difpo-
fition, fpirit and genius exifting in different countries.

   On this part of the fubject fome of his remarks are
fo ridiculoufly weak, that it is difficult to treat them
with  a ferious face.  Some  of the oriental iflands he
mentions whofe inhabitants are hojiile, and others -whofe
                                         inhabitants

  * See page ioz of the EfTay.
  \ This has been fufficiently  fhewn in the  preccdng effay. 
(   12   )
inhabitants are hofpitable  to flrangersy  and thence
concludes a diverfity of fpecies.  Kindnefs or averfion
to ftrangers depends on fo many contingent caufes
that there cannot be a more equivocal foundation on
which to reft the argument for different races.   Nar
tions that have been often expofed to hoftile attacks,
will  be  fufpicious of foreigners,  and  prone to  repel
them.   Nations who have feldom feen the face of an
enemy will be  difpofed  to receive them with kindnefs
and  hofpitality.   As well might he have  proved, that
Europe  in the tenth,  and in the eighteenth century,
was inhabited  by different fpecies  of men,  from the
facility  and fecurky with which  a ftranger can now
pafs through  all  its kingdoms, and the hazards to
which he was  then expofed.  His lordfhip goes on to
confirm this argument  by  the example of  fome nati-
ons ivho 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 hi battle.  With equal
reafon I might conclude that the Geeeks are not the
fame fpecies now as when they gave birth to Agefi-
laus, Miltiades, and Alexander.   That the Romans
were not the  fame fpecies under Caefar  when they
conquered,  as under  Auguftulus when they loft a
world.   And  that, among the Jews, the EfTenes, who
xvere peaceful hermits in the foreft, were  not the fame
fpecies with the martial Pharifees  who refifted Titus.
But the argument  is  too  abfurd  to  merit  even this
anfwer.
                    •                 «
   He fpeaks in the next place of the <c cowardice of
V the American Indians"  of whom he  is manifeftly
                                         ignorant. 
(  1.3   )
ignorant, as a  criterion  of a  diftindt fpecies.   He
proves the character, becaufe they  do not fight like
the Europeans in an open field.   An Indian philofo-
pher, who fhould have examined the fubject as fuper-
ficially  as  lord  Kaims,  would   probably  retort  the
charge of  cowardice on the Europeans, becaufe they
do  not  fuffer  torture  like the  natives of  America.
Nations  have different ideas of  courage and honour,
and they exert thefe principles in different ways.  The
military  education of an Indian  confifts in learning to
make war  by ftealth, and to fuffer with heroic forti-
tude.  The reafons of their conduct in both, arife
naturally out of their ftate  of  fociety*.   No people
have fuperior  courage.   They differ from civilized
nations only in  the manner of exercifing it.

   Another example of difference of difpofition, which
proves, in his lordfhip's opinion, diverfity of race, he
gives in  " the Giagas,  a nation  of Africa, who bury
" all their own children as foon as born, and fppply
" their  places with others ftolen from the neighbour?
" ing tribes."   On this tale I have made the proper
comment already.   If his lordfhip's opinion were not
well known, we fhould fufpedt that he reafoned in this
weak manner only to expofe to ridicule his favourite
doctrine of the  difference of  fpecies  among men.
Surely no  devotee  was ever guilty of more implicit
faith than this  unbeliever !

    The Japanefe, his lordfhip efteems, on this fubject,
2 valuable example.   " The Japanefc, fays he, differ
                                        " effentially
  * Thefe reafons are well illuftrated in Dr. Robertfon's hiftory of America, 
                     (   14   )

 " eflentially from the reft of mankind, becaufe when
 " others would kill their enemies, they kill themfelves
 ft through fpite."  If I miftake  not, a native  of this
 felf-murdering country  might find many of the fame
 tribe under London bridge.

   The Japanefe furnifh his lordfhip with another ex-
 ample equally good.  " They  never fupplicate the
 " gods, like other men,  in diftrefs."  That difference
 is certainly very ftriking, between them  and a certain
 clafs of men who never fupplicate their Maker at any
 other time.   And yet I have known many Japanefe,
 in my time, who have  even curfed their  Maker,  in
 diftrefs, as the author of their misfortunes.

   His lordfhip acknowledges indeed that thefe argu-
 ments are not altogether conclufive ; and therefore he
 proceeds to produce others that he efteems more per-
 fect in their kind.  Thefe I fhall quote at full length
 that  I may diminifh nothing of their force ; and en-
 deavour to anfwer in as few words  as poffible.

   " But not to reft upon prefumptive evidence, fays
*' he, few animals are more affected than men gene-
" rally are,  not   only with change of feafons  in the
" fame  climate,  but with change of weather in the
" fame feafon.   Can fuch a being be fitted for all cli-
" mates equally ?  Impoffible—horfes and horned cat-
" tie fleep on  the bare  ground  wet or dry without
" harm, and yet  were not made for every  climate :
 (f can a man then be made  for every climate, who is
 " fo much more  delicate, that he cannot fleep on wet
                                        " ground 
(  i5   )
" ground withoti t the hazard of fome mortal difeafe ?w
—This is the argument.   But  it  is refuted by the
whole experience of the world.  The human conftitu-
tion is the moft delicate of all animal fyftems :  but it
is alfo the moft pliant, and capable of accommodating
itfelf to the greateft variety of fituations.   The lower
animals have no defence againft the evils of a new cli-
mate but the force of nature.   The arts  of human
ingenuity furnifh a defence  to man againft the dan-
gers that furround him in every region.  According-
ly we fee the fame nation pafs into all  the climates of
the  earth—refide   whole  winters  at  the pole-
plant colonies beneath the equator—purfue their com-
merce and  eftablifh their factories, in Africa,   Afia,
and America.   They can equally  live under a burn-
ing, and a frozen fky, and inhabit regions where thofe
hardy animals could not exift---It is true, fuch great
 changes ought not to be hazarded fuddenly and with-
 out precaution.  The greateft evils  that  have  arifen
 from change of climate  have  been occafioned  by the
 prefumption of health that refufes to ufe the neceffary
 precautions, or the neglect of  ignorance that  knows
 not what precautions  to ufe*.   But when changes are
 gradually,  and prudently effected, habit foon accom-
 modates the conftitution to a new fituation, and hu-
 man  ingenuity difcovers the means of guarding  againft
 the dangers of every feafon, and of every  climate.

                                                But

   * Captain Cook has merited gre at praife for the fervice he has rendered
to  mankind, by improving the art of preferving health in long voyages,
through the moft diftant climates. 
(   i<5   )
   But " men, fays his lordfhip,  cannot fleep on the
 " wet  ground without hazard of  fome mortal  dif-
 " eafe:" and  therefore  concludes that  "they were
 " not fitted for all climates."—I fuppofe  by men he
 means  Europeans; becaufe the  favages  of  America
 fleep on the ground without hazard, in every change
 of weather.    Whether, he admits the favage into the
 rank of men or not,  he concludes, from this circum-
 ftance,  that they  are of a different fpecies from  the
 civilized and polifhed people  of Europe.—If his lord-
 fhip had vifited the forefts of America  he would have
 found in this,  as well as in other inftances, how little
 he was acquainted with human  nature.   He  would
 have feen this argument,  on which he refts as a ca-
 pital proof,  totally overturned.   He would have feen
 Europeans, or the defcendents of Europeans, become
 by habit, as capable as favages, of  ufing  the naked
 earth for  their bed, and of enduring all the changes
 of an inclement fky.    The  Anglo-Americans on the
 frontiers of the ftates, who  acquire their  fuftenance
 principally by hunting, enter with facility into all the
 habits of  favages, and endure with equal hardinefs
 the  want of every convenience  of polifhed  fociety*.
                                                   So

   ' Not only the  hunters,  who have been long ufed to that mode 6f
life, are able to lodge, without injury, on the wet ground, and  under
all feafons; but the large companies of men, women and children who
are continually rcfrioving from  the  interior parts of the United States, to
the weftern countries for the fake of occupying new lands, encamp, every
night,  in the open air.  They fleep on the earth, and frequently under hea-
vy fhowcrs of fnow or rain.  They kindle a large fire, in the center of
their encampment, and fleep round it, extending their feet towards the pile.
And many of them have affured me that, while their feet are warm they
fuffer little inconvenience from the, vapour of the ground, or even from
rain or fnow. 
(  17   )
So  that  this argument,  like all the reft,  is not only
inconclufive to his purpofe, but militates againft him.

   " But the argument I chiefly rely on, fays his lord-
<c fhip,  is  that were all  men of  one fpecies, there
" never could have exifted, without a miracle, diffe-
" rent kinds, fuch as exift at prefent.   Giving allow-
" ance for every  fuppofeable variation of climate, or
" of other caufes, what can follow but endlefs varie-
"  ties among individuals, as among tulips in a gar-
" den?   Inftead  of  which we  find men of different
tc kinds,- the individuals of each kind remarkably uni-
tf form,  and differing no lefs remarkably from the in-
"  dividuals of every other kind.   Uniformity without
"  variation is the offspring of nature, never of chance."

   How often do philofophers, miftake the eagernefs
and perfuafion of their  own minds for the light  or
truth and  reafon!—The  firft part of this argument
is  no more  than an  ardent and zealous  affertion.
As it refts  on  no proof, it needs  no  refutation.
And  I confidently appeal to the attentive and reflect-
ing reader to judge,  whether I have not affigned ade-
quate caufes of this effea, without the fuppofed necef-
fity of recurring to miracle.

   The fecond part of this argument, on which fo much
reliance is  placed, contains a fine fimilitude ;  but that
"  fimilitude operates directly againft his principle. What
"  can follow, he afks, but endlefs varieties among in-
"  dividuals,  as among  tulips in a garden ?"—I anfwer,
that  fuch  varieties among individuals  are  found in
                         S                    every 
(  18   )
      every climate, in every region, in every family. But di&
      ferent climates muft neceffarily produce varieties not a-
      among individuals but among kinds.  For the fame cli-
      mate or the fame ftate of fociety, operating uniformly as
      far as it extends, muft produce a certain imiformity  in
      the kind, and operating differently from every other cli-
      mate, or every other ftate of fociety, muft render that
      kind different from all others.—" Uniformity, fays he,
      " is the offspring of nature never of chance."   Could
\     his lordfhip mean to infinuate by this remark that the
      operations of climate are the effect of chance, or that
      all its varieties are not governed by uniform and cer-
      tain laws ?  Philofophy is afhamed  of fuch reafoning
      in one  of her  champions !

        He adds,  " there is another  argument that ap-
      " pears alfo  to have weight,  horfes with refpect to
      " fize,  fhape  and fpirit differ widely in  different cli-
      " mates.   But let a male and female of whatever cli-
      " mate, be  carried to a country where horfes are in
      " perfection, their progeny will improve gradually,
      " and will acquire,  in time, the perfeaion  of their
      " kind.  Is not this a proof that  all horfes  are of
      " one kind ?"

        His lordfhip hardly needs an opponent, he reafons
      fo ftrongly  againft himfelf.   The fpecies of men, no
      lefs than that of horfes,  changes its  appearance  by
      every removal to a new climate,  and by  every altera-
      tion of the ftate of fociety.   The  prefent nations of
      Europe are  an example in the way  of improvement;
      the  Europeans which he  acknowledges have degene-
                                                 rated 
(   *9  )
rated by removing to Africa, Afia, and South-Ameri-
ca, are an example in the contrary progreffion. Carry
the natives  of Africa  or America  to  Europe,  and
mix the breed, as you do that of horfes, and they will
acquire in time, the high perfeaion of the human
form which is feen in  that polifhed country.   Men
will acquire it in the  fame number of defcents as  thefe
animals.   No, fays his  lordfhip, " a mullatto will be
"  the refult of the union of a white with a black*.,"

   That is true  in  the firft defcent, but not in the
fourth  or fifth,  in  which, by a proper mixture of
races, and by the habits of civilized life,  the  black
tinge may be  intirely effaced.

   There  is, at prefent, in the college of New-Jerfey,
a ftriking example of a fimilar nature, in two young
gentlemen of one of the firft families in the ftate of
Virginia, who are defcended, in the female line,  from
the Indian  emperor Powhatan.   They are  in the
fourth defcent from  the princefs Pocahuntis, a  high-
fpirited and generous woman.   And though all  their
anceftors in  Virginia have retained fome charaaers,
more  or lefs  obvious,  of their  maternal race, yet, in
thefe young gentlemen,  they feem to be intirely  cffa-p
ced.  The hair and complexion, of one of them in par-
ticular, is very fair,  and the countenance and figure
of the face  is  perfeaiy Anglo-American. He retains
only the dark   and  vivid eye  that has  diftinguifhed
                                                the

   * The fame thing, his lcfrdfhip might have remarked, takes  place hi
horfes as in the human race.  The properties of two different breeds, will
in the firft defcent, be equally blended in th offspring. 
(  2°   )
the whole family, and  rendered fome of  them re-
markably beautiful.   His lordfhip's a.i-,v "uent, there-
fore,  if it be good,  is a clear ■  oct •  -u.it himfelf,
that all men are of one  kind.

   He  concludes,  however, from  the p. ;ceding re-
marks which he has made, " that mankind uiuli have
" been originally  created  of different fpecies,  and
*' fitted for the different climates in which they  were
" placed, whatever change may have happened,  in
" later times,  by war or  commerce."

   Let us afk,  why fitted for  the different climates  in
which they were placed ?—The  proper anfwer  is be-
caufe  they could not exift in other climates ; or, be-
caufe  they attain the greateft perfeaion of their na-
ture only in their own.   Both  thefe reafons, in the
prefent cafe, are inconfiftent with experience.  Let us
remember " the changes that have been  produced by
" war and by commerce."  Nations have tranfplanted
themfelves to other climes ;  yet they continue to exift
and flourifh—foreigners have become, affimilated  to
the natives.   Inftead  of attaining, in their  primitive
abodes, the perfeaion of their nature, they have im-
proved by migrating to new habitations.  The Goths,
the Moguls, the Africans  have  become infinitely me-
liorated by changing thofe fkies, for which it is faid
they were peculiarly  fitted  by  nature.   They muft
therefore have defeated,   or improved upon the  in-
tentions  of  their Creator ; or,  at leaft,  have fhewn
the precautions attributed  to him, by this author, to
have been unneceffary.   Lord Kaims, having endea-
                                           voured 
(  21   )
voured to deraonftrate, in the manner we have feen,
the exiftence of original  varieties among  mankind,
proceeds to  the conclufion in an equal ftream of co-
gent reafoning.  " There is  a remarkable  faa,  fays
'* his lordfhip, which confirms the foregoing conjee-
" tures : as far back as hiftory goes, the earth was in-
" habited by favages divided into many fmall tribes,
ts each tribe having  a language peculiar  to itfelf.
<c Is it not natural then to fuppofe that thefe original
" tribes, were different races  of men placed in proper
" climates, and left to  form their own language ? But
" this opinion we  are not permitted to adopt, being
" taughta different leffon by revelation.   Though we
" cannot doubt of the authority of Mofes, yet, his ac-
" count  of the creation is not a little puzzling.   Ac-
" cording to that  account all  men muft have fpoken
4< the fame language, viz. that of  our firft parents.
" But what of all feems the moft  contradiaory to that
" account is the favage ftate.   Adam, as  Mofes in-
" forms us, was endued  by his Maker, with an emi-
" nent degree of-knowledge; and  he certainly muft
" have been an excellent preceptor to  his  children,
'* and  their progeny,  among whom he lived feveral
" generations.   Whence then the  degeneracy of ail
" men to the favage ftate ? To account for that dif-
" mal cataftrophe mankind muft have  fuffered fome
" terrible convulfion.   That terrible convulfion is re-
" vealed to  us in  the hiftory of the tower of Babel.
" By confounding the language of all men, and fcat-
" tering them abroad upon the face of the earth,  they
" were  rendered favages.  And to harden them for
?• their  new habitations, it  was neceffary  that  they
                                         " fhould 
(  2?   )
 fi fhould be divided into different kinds, fitted for dif-
 tf ferent climates.  Without an immediate change of
 " bodily conftitution, the builders of Babel could not
 " poffibly have  fubfifted,  in the burning region  of
 " Guinea,  or  in the frozen region of Lapland.  If
 " the common language of men had  not been con-
 ** founded upon  their attempting the tower of Babel,
 " I affirm that there never could have been  but one
 (( language.  Antiquaries conftantly fuppofe a migra-
 i{ ting fpirit in the original inhabitants of the earth,
 " not only without evidence, but contrary to all pro-
 " bability.  Men never  defert  their connexions nor
 " their country without  neceffity.   Fear of enemies,
" and of wild beafts as well as the attraaion of fociety,
<{ are more  than fufficient to reftrain them from wan-
*' dering; not to mention that favages are peculiarly
 " fond of their natal foil."

   When  ignorance pretends to fneer  at revelation,
and at opinions held facred by mankind, it is too  con-
temptible  to provoke refentment, or to merit a retali-
ation in kind.—When a philofopher defcends to the
difhoneft tafk,  the  moft  proper treatment is to  hold
out to the world  his weaknefs and miftake.  Mankind
will heap upon him the contempt he deferves for in-
termeddling with a fubjea he  does BOt underftand.
Abfurdity and error are  at no time fo defpicable as
when,  in a ridiculous confidence of flirewdnefs and
fagacity, they affume airs of fuperiority and fneer.  It
would be  tedious  to remark all the weakneffes of the
paragraph I have  juft quoted.   One I will point  out,
and then I fhall  fhew, that  the whole foundation of
                                              this 
(  23   )
this reafoning is falfe, and indicates an utter ignorance
of human nature in that ftate  of fociety of which he
fpeaks.

   " Without an immediate change of bodily confti-
" tution, fays he, the builders of Babel could not pof-
t( fibly have  fubfifted in the  burning region  of Gui-
" nea,  or the  frozen region of Lapland."   Yet  ex-
perience teaches us  that mankind can exift  in every
climate.   The  Europeans, to mention no others, have
armies,  or colonies, in all the  regions of the globe.
And  if  his lordfhip believes that the intenfity of  a
frozen, or a  torrid climate was  fufficient. to have de-
ftroyed the builders of Babel, he fhould have no ob-
jeaion furely, after fuch a declaration, to acknowledge
that they might have altered the figure, or changed the
complexion.    Yet his whole objea is to combat  this
principle.  He allows the greater, he denies the lefs
effea.   But  errors  or  contradiaions  of this kind,
lord Kaims,  in his zeal againft an obnoxious doarine,
eafily overlooks.

   I propofed  in the  next place to fhew,  that the
whole foundation on which the reafoning in this pa-
ragraph refts is falfe, and only proves  his ignorance
of human nature in that ftate of fociety of which he
fpeaks.—It  refts on two principles, ift, That the chil-
 dren of Adam  or Noah could never have becomefavage
if thefe fathers of the race were the wife men which
Mofes  reprefents them to be—and  2dly, That there
 never could  have exifted a diverfity of languages.  On
 the  other hand, I  doubt not of being able to prove
                                               that 
(  24   )
that the favage condition of the greater part of the
world was  the neceffary confequence of one family,
and of the ftate of the earth as Mofes reprefents it
immediately after the deluge---And that out of the
favage  ftate,  diverfity of languages would naturally
arife.

   I am not now going  to explain the hiftory  of Ba-
bel, or to unfold or defend  the miracles recorded in
the facred fcriptures.   I take the matter on his lord-
fhip's ground, who, no  doubt, moft devoutly and fer-
vently difbelieves  all miraculous interpofition of the
Deity,  and fhew that,  in the nature of things,  man
would  become favage,   and  language  would  become
divided.

   Man  defcended after the deluge into  an immenfe
wildernefs in which the beafts would naturally multi-
ply infinitely fafter than the human race.  Agricul-
ture would probably, from habit and inclination, be
ihe employment of Noah, and his immediate defcend-
ents ; and  with them would commence the civilized
ftate which can be traced without interruption, from
the countries which they occupied and the period in
which they lived, down to our  own country,   and to
the prefent times.—But agriculture furnifhes too flow
and laborious a fubfiftence to be grateful to all men.
Many,  in the midft of a wildernefs  filled with beafts,
would be ready to forfake the toils of clearing and cul-
tivating the ground, and to feek their provifion from
the chace, which has been ever  a favourite exercife of
mankind, particularly,  in rude ages.  Hunting would
                                             foon 
(  25   )
foon fpread them over extenfive regions, and difperfc
them widely from one another.  Single families, or
colleaions of a few families, feated in feparate diftrias
of a  country  almoft boundlefs,  would become inde-
pendent tribes, and the mode of procuring fubfiftence
would render them favage.  His  lordfhip fuppofes
that  there is an invincible objeaion againft fuch dif-
perfion, and fuch manners, in the example and advice
of a venerable anceftor,  and in the focial difpofition
of mankind.—-The example and advice of Noah and
his fons would doubtlefs have great influence on  that
civilized people, which would naturally grow up round
their immediate  habitation.  But  how  fhould  they
influence their remote defcendents  who were ranging
the forefts at the diftance of an hundred or a thou-
fand leagues ?  To anfwer this queftion, he confident-
ly pronounces that mankind would always have been
within the reach  of this example, becaufe they  never
would  have  feparated from one another, and  from
the pleafures of improved fociety.—" Men, fays he,
" never defert their  connexions,  nor their country
" without  neceffity.—fear of enemies, and of wild
" beafts, as well as the attraaions of fociety, are more
" than fufficient to reftrain them from  wandering :
" not to mention that favages are  peculiarly fond of
" their natal foil."

   Thefe ideas are derived from  civilized fociety, and
are not applicable to favage life.  'Tis ridiculous to
talk of the fear  of wild beafts to men whofe diverfion
it is to purfue  and flay them-—and not much lefsabfurd
is it, to talk of  the attraaions of fociety, and  of at-
                        T              tachments 
(  26  )
 tachments to a natal foil,  to people  in a wildernefs,
 to whom migration is a habit—to whom  every fpot
 of ground is equal where they can find game—and
 who feel the charms  of the chace more fenfibly  than
 the charms of fociety.  What is  the pleafure of foci-
 ety in that rude  ftate?—Deflitue of fentiment,  or
 converfation,  it is little more  than the pleafure that
 dumb  animals  feel at the approach of other animals
 of the fame fpecies.   The chace, which to them is
 produaive of higher  and ftronger  enjoyments, eafily
 breaks the feeble  tic, of fuch fociety; and hunters,
 like beafts of .prey, delight in folitudes and  deferts___
 Met: in fuch a ftate migrate through caprice, or through
 curiofity, or for the convenience of hunting___The in-
 fluence of extenfive lands lying in  common, and ready
 to be occupied by the firft comer,  is extremely vifible
on the inhabitants  of thefe United States.   Their fa-
 thers came from Europe  with all thofe fixed  habits,
 and thofe  tendencies to local attachments which can
 rcafonably be imputed to any people.  They took pof-
 feffion  of a boundlefs  foreft,  which had a fpeedy
 :i:id  an  aftonifhing effea on  their  manners.   The
 Anglo-Americans difcover comparatively little attach-
 ment to a  native foil.   No hereditary  poffeffion, no
 objeas of antiquity feize the imagination, and fix it to
 a certain fpot.   The people, migrate without  reluc-
 tance, to the greateft diftances—they change their ha-
 bitations as  foon  as  they become ftraitened in their
 quarters—and forfake their friends, and the place of
 their   nativity,  for apparently fmall  conveniences.
 This is more the cafe as you pafs from the cultivated
 lands near the  ocean, towards the weftern frontiers.
                                               la 
                      (   27   )

 In proportion  as the citizens of the ftates approach
 the vicinity of the Indian  tribes, fimilarity of fituation
 produces alfo a great approximation  of manners.   If
 his lordfhip had feen  America, he would  have feen
 men  forever migrating from the mid ft of fociety  to
 uncultivated deferts—he  would have often  feen them
 forfake the constraints of civilization, for the inde-
 pendence, and  the charms of a ftate approaching to
 favage—he  would  have feen the frontiers of all the
 United States filled with the defcendents of Europeans,
 who have, in a great meafure,  adopted the  manners
 of the native Indians, along with their mode of pro-
 curing  fubfiftence—he would have feen thefe people,
 as fociety advances upon them from the cities, and the
 fea-coaft,  retreating before it  into the wildernefs- —
 he would have  feen men  decline the  labours of agri-
 culture as a toil, and prefer the fatigues of hunting to
 all other  pleafures—he  would  have feen that man-
 kind often find  charms in the indolence and independ-
 ence of the  favage ftate  fuperior to  thofe that refult
 from the refinements and attraaions of civil fociety,
 which muft  be  purchafed with labour, and held  by
 fubordination—he would have  feen that wanderers
 have  no  attachment, as  he fuppofes,  to their natal
foil-—he would  have feen multitudes  of the people of
 thefe United States, change their habitations without
 regret—he would have feen the Indians, either fingly,
 or  in companies, travel for many moons fucceffively,
 to explore other forefts, and to feek for other rivers—'
 he might have feen whole tribes rife from their  feats
 at once, and carrying with them the bones of their fa-
 thers,  feek new habitations at the diftance of an hun-
                                               dred 
                    (   28  )

dred or two hundred leagues.—But his lordfhip has
not feen them, and he fpeaks of the favage ftate with-
out underftanding it, and of human nature, in the be-
ginning of time, without knowing how it would ope-
rate then, or how it has operated, in fimilar fituati-
ons, in later periods. Like many other philofophers
he judges and reafons, only from what he has feen in
a ftate of fociety highly  improved ;  and  is led to form
wrong concluGons from his own habits and prepoffef-
fions.   On his principles, a favage ftate could  never
have exifted, on the fuppofition  of many  races of men,
more than of one.   Fear of -wild beafts, and the at-
tractions of fociety would have  held each race toge-
ther and  prevented their difperfion.   Everv art  of
agriculture  would  have been  tried,  before   they
would have extended their habitations  into the dan-
gerous wildernefs.  A civilized community would  have
arifen round their firft habitations.  And when they
fhould  have been compelled  by  neceffity  to enlarge
their limits, they would have done it in fociety.   The
foreft would have fallen before them as they advanced;
and fear and the  focial principle  would have equally
contributed to  reftrain them  from the  hazards, and
the difperfion confequent upon the fpirit of the chace.
The world, inftead  of  being  filled with  numerous
tribes of favages,  would  have every where prefented
fo us civilized  and polifhed nations.   His  lordfhip,
on this fubjea, forever  reafons againft himfelf.   He
means to  combat the doarine of  one race by the ex-
iftence of the favage ftate ; which yet, is  a neceffary
confequence of that  doarine, and would be certainly
precluded on his own principles.
                                              His 
(   29   )
    His lordfhip?s next error  confifts in afferting that,
 "  on the fuppofition of one race, there never could
 have exifted a diverfity of languages".   This error is
 the confequence of the preceding.   Both principles
 are intimately conneaed together.   Similarity  of lan-
 guage would  naturally have  arifen out of tiniverfal
 civilization,  continued  down from the original of the
 race.   Diverfity of language  neceffarily fprings  out
 of the favage  ftate.   The favage  ftate has few  wants,
 and furnifhes few ideas that require terms to exprefs
 them.  The habits  of folitude  and filence incline a
 favage rarely  to fpeak.   When he fpeaks it is  chiefly
 in fisures,  and  the  fame terms are  ufed for different
 ideas*.  Speech muft,  therefore, be extremely  nar-
 row,  in this rude condition of men.   It  muft,  like-
 wife,  be extremely  various.   Every new region,  and
 every  new climate  will prefent   different   ideas,  and
 create different  wants,  that will naturally be expreffed
 by various terms.   Hence will originate great diver-
 fity in the firft  elements  of fpeech  among all  favage
                                               nations.

   - Savages fpeak fo much by  figure, and even by gefture, that it greatly
contracts the limits of their l.in;_''.iag' .  They have no adjeclives, no par-
ticles, no abftract terms, no fingular denominations.  They have no parts
of  fpeech but the fubftantive and the verb.  Their verbs are confined to
a very few ftates and actions of animals ; and perhaps fome other objects of
nature that are moft  familiar.   Their fubftantives confift of a few general
names of animals, of vegetables and of fome of the moft obvious parts of the
inanimate world, fuch as rocks, rivers, mountains.  When they would ex-
prefs a quality, they do it figuratively by applying the name of one fenfible
object to another.  A deer is a fwift man—a fox is a wife or an artful man
—a bear is a ftrong, a furious, or a courageous man.  Thus by applying the
fame term to fignify feveral ideas, by having but two parts of Ipeech, and
thefe derived from few objects, and by ufing gefture 3 frequently to lim-
ply the  place of the verb, fpeech is reduced, among them, to a narrow
c^mpalb. 
(  3°   )
 nations.   If a  few common  principles  fhould  bo
 handed down from the original family;  yet  thefe, in
 time, would be changed by the ufual flux of language.
 Tongues would become as various as the tribes of men.
 Speech being*, therefore,  in  the firft ages,  both ex-
 tremely narrow, and extremely diverfified, thefe rude
 people Would begin their progrefs towards improvement,
 with few, or with no elements in common.  And in
 the infinite multitude of words which civilization and
 refinement add to language, no two nations,  perhaps,
 have ever agreed upon the fame founds  to reprefent
 the fame  ideas.   Superior refinement,  indeed, may
 induce imitation, conquefts  may impofe  a language,
 and extenfion of Empires may melt down  different
 nations,  and different  dialeas  into one  mafs.   But
 independent tribes naturally give rife to  diverfity of
 tongues.   Thus, perhaps, the fpeech of men was at
 firft one—it  became gradually divided into  a multi-
 tude of tongues—and the progrefs of civilization, and
 the mixing of nations  by conqueft  or by commerce,
 tends to bring*it back again towards one ftandard---
 His lordfhip fails in every proof.  And this laft ar-
 gument, which he deemed among the ftrongeft, againft
 the hiftory of the fcriptures, and the common origin
 of mankind, militates like the reft againft  himfelf,
 and confirms the doarine that he oppofes.

   Such  is the attack which this celebrated  philoso-
pher has made on  the  doarine of  one race.  In all
the writings of this author, there is not  another ex-
ample of fo much weak and inconclufive  reafoning.
"This ought in juftice to be imputed to the caufe, and
                                             not 
f
(  31   )
 not to the writer.  His  talents are univerfally ack-
 nowledged.   It was for that reafon I chofc  to make
 thefe  ftriaures  on  him,  rather  than  on  an  au-
 thor of inferior  name.  He has probably fhewn the
 utmoft force of  that  caufe which he has undertaken
 to defend.   If he has failed, it is only becaufe it is in-
 capable of defence.   For, to him I may apply the lines
 which, on another fubjea,  he applies to Dr. Robert-
 fon.

   -------------------------------Si Pergama dextrd
Defcr.di poffent, etiam  hdc defenfa fuiffmt.

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