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§0 The VhUosophp of the History of Mankind.
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not despise him ; and let us honour the impartiality ef the uni- > versal mother , -who makes up in one direction for what she takes away in another . Thoughtless and happy , in the vigorous and unfettered exercise of all his animal powers , the negro passes his life in a region where nature supplies all his wants in overflowing
abundance . Why should he be troubled with the sense of higher pleasures that were not made for him ? The materials for those higher pleasures were indeed within him , but Nature applied her hand , and wrought out of them what was better adapted to his country , and more necessary for the happiness of his existence . Either there should have been no Africa , or there must be negroes to dwell in it * . '
Perhaps the views of Dr . Prichard ^ , as quoted in the article Physical Geography in the Library of Useful Knowledge , ( Part II . p . 63 , ) most satisfactorily reconcile the varieties of the human race with the supposition of a common origin . In the earlier period of the world , when mankind were very few in number , it may easily be conceived that those varieties of colour , form , and structure , which even now spring up occasionally , though they do not propagate themselves , bat are soon lost in the surrounding
mass of population , would naturally , as society multiplied , become the characteristics of a whole nation ; especially if it be considered , that only those varieties would keep a permanent footing in a country that were associated with a constitution suited to the climate and local circumstances ; just as men of the Xanthous variety sometimes occur among the negroes in Africa , but , their constitution being entirely unsuited to the climate , can never become numerous on that continent .
After all , whether the human race , in all its varieties , has descended from a common origin or not , the fact is indisputable , that those varieties have now become the distinctive characters of different races , have their peculiar moral , intellectual , and social attributes , are transmissible from generation to generation , and perpetuate themselves after a removal to a different climate and an adoption of new modes of life . It is much to be regretted ,
that the question has ever been taken up in a theological sense . Whichever way it be settled , the credit of the Mosaic account of the creation does not appear to us to be compromised . Let it be supposed , that there were separate creations of a human pair at different points on the surface of the globe , the Mosaic
record , supported as it is by such a body of internal apd external evidence , would still be entitled to the firmest belief , as an authentic deduction , from its origin , of the history and progress of that portion of the human race , with which the fortunes of the Jewish people were connected , and over which the 3 ** ccessive dispensations of the Almighty , through a long line of patriarchs
• Book VI . iv . pp . 43 , 43 . f Researches into the Physical History pf Mauki » & .
§0 The Vhuosophp Of The History Of Mankind.
§ 0 The VhUosophp of the History of Mankind .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 90, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/18/
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