II. The question of the unity of the human race, or the descent of the race from a single pair, has given rise to much discussion of late, after it had been thought to be finally settled. It may be stated thus : " Did the Almighty Creator produce only one man and one woman, from whom all other human beings have descended? or did he create several parental pairs, from whom distinct stocks of men have been derived? The question is usually regarded as equivalent to this : whether or not there is more than one species of men? But we cannot, in strict fairness, admit that the ques- tions are identical. It is hypothetieally conceivable that the adorable God might give existence to any number of creatures, which should all possess the properties that characterize identity of species, even
without such differences as constitute varieties, or with any degree of those differences. But the admis- sion of the possibility is not a concession of the reality. So great is the evidence in favor of the derivation of the entire mass of human beings from one pair of an- cestors, that it has obtained the suffrage of the men most competent to judge upon a question of compara- tive anatomy and physiology.
" (1.) The animals which render eminent services to man, and peculiarly depend upon his protection, are widely diffused — the horse, the dog, the hog, the do- mestic fowl. Now of these, the varieties in each species are numerous and different, to a degree so great that an observer ignorant of physiological history would scarcely believe them to be of the same species. But man is the most widely diffused of an}- animal. In the progress of ages and generations, he has natu- ralized himself to every climate, and to modes of life which would prove fatal to an individual man sudden- ly transferred from a remote point of the field. The alterations produced affect every part of the body, in- ternal and external, without extinguishing the marks of the specific identity.
" (2.) A further and striking evidence is, that when persons of different varieties are conjugally united, the offspring, especially in two or three generations, be- comes more prolific, and acquires a higher perfection in physical and mental qualities than was found in either of the parental races. From the deepest African black to the finest Caucasian white, the change runs through imperceptible gradations ; and, if a middle hue be assumed, suppose some tint of brown, all the varieties of complexion may be explained upon the principle of divergence influenced by outward circum- stances. Mr. Poinsett saw in South America a fine healthy regiment of spotted men, quite peculiar enough to be held by Professor Agassiz a separate race. And why were they not? Simply because they were a known cross-breed between Spaniards and Indians. Changes as great are exhibited by the Magyars of Europe, and by the Ulster Irish,.as quoted b}r Miller. Sir Charles Lyell was of opinion that a climatic change was already perceptible in the negro of our Southern states. Professor Cabell {Testimony of Modem Science, etc.) ably and clearly sustains the doctrine that propa- gability is conclusive proof of sameness of species. He denies, on good authority, that the mulatto is feebler or less prolific than either unmixed stock. He furnishes abundant proof of the barrenness of hybrids. The fact that the connection of different varieties of the human species produces a prolific progeny, is proof of oneness of species and family. This argument, sustained by facts, can hardly be considered less than demonstration.
" (3.) The objection drawn from the improbability that the one race springing from a single locality would migrate from a pleasanter to a worse region is very completely dispatched. Ample causes, proofs, facts, and authorities are furnished to show that, were mankind now reduced to a single family: only time would be wanting, even without civilization, to over- spread the earth. European man and European- American man, as all history agrees, came from Asia. Whence came our aboriginal men? As Professor Cabell shows, they came by an antipodal route from the same Asia. Pursue the investigation, and the clue of history will lead our tremulous feet to about the Mosaic cradle of man.
" (4.) Ethnology, or rather Glottology, the gradu- ally perfecting comparison of languages, is bringing us to the same point. The unscientific attempt to trace the striking analogies of languages to the mere similarity of human organs, and the still more unscien- tific attempt of Professor Agassiz to attri Irate them to a transcendental mental unity in races sprung from dif- ferent original localities, look like desperation. Mean- while, comparison is educing wonderful yet rarely
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demonstrative laws, and laws are guiding threads con- verging to unity.
" (5.) Another argument is derived from the real mental unity of the universal human soul. Races dif- fer, indeed, in mental power, as do individuals, wide- ly, even in the same family. But there is the same programme of mental philosophy for all. The same intellect, affections, instincts, conscience, sense of su- perior divine power, and susceptibility of religion. For the European, the Esquimaux, the Hottentot, there is the same power in the cross of Christ.
"(6.) Finally, Geology, with her wonderful demon- stration of the recent origin of man, proves the same thing. The latest attempts to adduce specimens of fossil man have been failures. Not far back of the period that our best but somewhat hypothetical cal- culations from Mosaic chronology would assign, Geol- ogy fixes the birth of man.