What may be the precise nature of the influences which have caused so much difference to exist between the individuals of the human race we are unable to say; but instances are constantly occurring which seem to show us how possible it is that all the varieties of human beings have occurred in a common family. Even amongst the races of our own island, when exposed to circumstances which deprive them of their usual nutriment and means of developing the civilized instincts of mankind, we find that they sink in character, and become physically degraded to a level with races whose

features, at first sight, are very far removed. We have given an illustration (Fig. 14), consisting of a group of Australians, who are receiving one of their number who has been clothed and presented with a looking-glass by the officers of the French ship Astrolabe. We need but to travel across the Irish Channel to see many groups of our Celtic_fellow-subjects who have been reduced by famine and disease to a degraded condition closely bordering on that of these savages.

Although the colour of the skin and the character of the hair give so very decided an appearance to many of the races of man, yet there are on record a great number of cases in which individuals, with hair and skin of one colour, have given birth to children with hair and skin of another colour and character. Dr. Prichard enumerates a great number of instances of individuals with yellow hair and fair skin, amongst tribes with dark hair and skin; and in the temperate regions of Asia whole tribes, evidently descended from dark-coloured races, presented the light colour. Jews, as we shall have occasion to see, were originally, undoubtedly, a darkskinned and woolly-haired race; but it is well known that the Jews of Europe very frequently present the characteristics of the lightest-coloured

The

races. On the other hand, we have constantly individuals, born of white parents, having woolly hair, a dark skin, and other approaches to the black varieties of men. Even whole nations-as the Germans-have presented a tendency to become darker.

There is also evidence to prove that even the forms which the bones of the head assume amongst different nations are not fixed. Amongst the most highly developed races, having the most perfect forms of skull, we constantly see individuals with the projecting maxilla, which is prevalent amongst the lowest tribes; whilst, on the other hand, individuals are often seen amongst the least civilized races presenting forms of the skull approaching those of the most cultivated nations. Facts such as these are constantly accumulating, and we are bound to say that they clearly point to the derivation of the human race from one pair; and we have already seen that evidence points to Asia as the original locality of the pair.

A very natural question arises here as to whether we have any naturalhistory evidence as to the length of time man has existed on the surface of the earth. The ready answer to the question of the age of man's race is the authority of the Bible, or rather our interpretation of its import. In this question, as in most others, the lover of the Bible need not fear the results of scientific investigation. Recent inquiries into the history of the human race have resulted in the confirmation of the historic record contained in the sacred books of the Israelites, and have also disproved the statements of those who, relying on fabulous accounts of documents in the possession of the Chinese and Hindoos, have given to the human race an absurd antiquity. Geology reveals to us very clearly the fact, that man has not been created from the earliest period at which animal and vegetable life have appeared on the surface of the earth. Geologists can point to strata which were successively deposited at the bottoms of oceans and great rivers, and which present, for a long succession of ages, no evidence of the existence of human beings. These rocks unfold a condition of the earth's surface, by which this world was gradually prepared to receive its highest and most potent inhabitant—man. Estimates have been formed by Sir Charles Lyell and others of the periods of time required for the production of certain changes upon the earth's surface; and comparing geological changes with the evidences of the existence of man, all the principles of the science of geology support the notion that man is one of the most recently created beings upon the surface of the earth. The same evidence is also in favour of the supposition that many of the animals and plants by which man is surrounded at the present moment are contemporaneous creations with himself. What the exact date of man's creation is, science cannot answer. Dr. Latham has, however, shown that the arguments raised in favour of a much higher antiquity than is given in the books of Moses, from the civilization of the Chinese, are of no value; and he has also pointed out* that that civilization is much more modern than the Chinese believe.

Some writers, again, looking to the great length of time that it takes at present to produce any change in a language, argue from hence that in order for the present languages of the earth to have all been produced from one stock must have taken periods of time much more vast than any granted

"Varieties of Man."

in the Mosaic chronology. Without, however, undertaking to vindicate literally the chronology of the interpreters of the Hebrew record, we would observe that all languages would undergo much more rapid changes before writing and printing were introduced than after, and that a few centuries might have effected, in the early history of our race, changes which could now only occur in thousands of years. We shall not here, therefore, attempt to decide for or against an antiquity somewhat higher than that ordinarily assigned, but content ourselves with remarking that all the scientific evidence is opposed to an age for the human race greatly exceeding that which is ordinarily deduced from the historical records of the Bible.

We shall now proceed to speak more in detail of the various races and nations of mankind; and, in order to do this, we must adopt some system of classification. It is not, however, an easy thing to select from the various classifications that have been given by writers on the natural history of man, that which, whilst it secured

the great objects of all classification -the bringing together those objects which most nearly resemble each other, and the separation of those which were most distinct-should be most readily comprehended and applied. Formerly writers on man thought it sufficient to classify his varieties-as black, red, and white -but such an arrangement is exceedingly artificial, and will not bear extensive application.

The

colour of the skin and hair, however, is by no means an unimportant element in the characters of any particular groups of human beings. Cuvier, the great French naturalist, in his work on the animal kingdom, refers all the varieties of men to three families-the Caucasian, or white; the Mongolian, or yellow; and the Ethiopian, or Negro.

The Caucasian group has been so named on account of its supposed origin in the group of mountains called Caucasus, situate between the Caspian and Black Seas, whence it has extended all around. In this group are included ourselves and the principal European families. It is characterized by the oval form of the head, and the fair complexion of the face. It includes Asiatic as well as European races.

The Mongolians are supposed to have originated in the Altai Mountains. They are distinguished by their projecting cheek-bones, flat visage, narrow and oblique eyebrows, scanty beard, and olive complexion (Fig. 15). The Chinese are regarded as typical of this race. It includes also the Japanese, the Kalmucks, the Tartars, the inhabitants of the South Sea islands, and the Americans.

The Ethiopian, or Negro race, is confined to the south of the Atlas chain of mountains in Africa. Their skin is black, their hair crisp, the skull compressed, and the nose flattened (Fig. 16). They are regarded as the lowest types of the human race; and Cuvier says that "the projecting muzzle and thick lips evidently approximate them to the apes." Those, however, who will visit the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park at the present moment, and compare the habits and antics

of the orang-outang, the highest of the ape tribe, with the lowest types of this degraded form of the human race, will see that the approximation of these men to apes is only comparative, and not real. These divisions by Cuvier have been very generally adopted; but many writers have separated the American-Indian and the Malay and Polynesian races. Thus Lawrance, in his Lectures on Man, includes all the native Americans under a separate class, as well as the natives of the islands of the South Seas and the Indian Archipelago. Dr. Priehard, to whose labours ethnology owes so much, recognizes seven classes, of which we need but give the names.

1. The Iranians; including the European races, and all the Caucasians of previous writers.

2. The Turanian; having the characters of the Mongolian variety of others.

3. The Native Americans, excepting the Esquimaux.

4. The Hottentots and Bushmen (Fig. 17).

5. The Negroes.

6. The Papuas, or woolly-haired nations of Polynesia. 7. The Alfouran and Australian races.

A recent writer, Dr. Pickering, who was attached to an exploring expedition made at the request of the government of the United States, has arranged his observations on the varieties of men under eleven heads. He says, "I have seen, in all, eleven races of men; and though I am hardly prepared to fix a positive limit to their number, I confess, after having visited so many different parts of the globe, that I am at a loss where to look for others."

The following is the arrangement with the definitions given by Dr. Pickering, in his work On the Races of Men :

a. WHITE.

1. Arabian. The nose prominent, the lips thin, the beard abundant, and the hair straight or flowing.

2. Abyssinian. (Fig. 11, p. 369).-The complexion hardly becoming florid, the nose prominent, and the hair crisped.

b. BROWN.

3. Mongolian.-Beardless, with the hair perfectly straight and very long. 4. Hottentot.-Negro features, and close woolly hair, and the stature diminutive (Fig. 17).

5. Malay.-Features not prominent in the profile, the complexion darker than in the preceding races, and the hair straight or flowing.

C. BLACKISH BROWN.

6. Papuan.-Features not prominent in profile, the beard abundant, the skin harsh to the touch, and the hair crisped or frizzled.

7. Negrillo.-Apparently beardless, the stature diminutive, the features approaching those of the Negro, and the hair woolly (Fig. 12, p. 370).

8. Indian or Telingan.-The features approaching those of the Arabian, and the hair, in like manner, straight or flowing.

9. Ethiopian.-The complexion and features intermediate between the Telingan and Negro, and the hair crisped (Fig. 16).

d. BLACK.

10. Australian.-Negro features, but combined with straight or flowing hair (Fig. 14).

11. Negro. Close woolly hair, the nose much flattened, and the lips very thick.

In our next chapter we will give the classification of Dr. Robert G. Latham, which, as it is the most recent, and appears in one of the most able works on the subject of ethnology, we propose to follow in our remarks upon the various families of mankind.

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE RACES OF MEN.-THE PRIMARY VARIETIES OF MANKIND.

IN classifying the races of men, it must be remembered that the divisions and subdivisions which are employed do not resemble those which are used in the systematic classification of plants and animals. When the whole of the species of the vegetable or the animal kingdom have to be arranged, then we divide them into various primary and subordinate groups, which are called classes, families, or orders, genera, species, and varieties. Now man himself is but a species; he belongs to a subordinate group of a large division of the animal kingdom. Zoologically considered, man is an animal