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Lindsly, Harvey, M.D. "Differences in the Intellectual Character of the Several Varieties of the Human Race," Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. 5 (1839): 616-620.
DIFFERENCES
IN THE INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER OF THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN RACE.
BY HARVEY LINDSLY, M.D.
In taking a survey of man, as he exists in different parts of the world, it cannot
have escaped the attention of the most casual observer, that he exhibits striking
differences of physical organization, and no less remarkable diversity of intellectual
character. We can see at a glance, that the civilized and polished European, is in
many respects an essentially different being, from the savage red man of America,
the wandering and ignorant Tartar, or the degraded and brutish Hottentot.
But it will hardly be expected, on a subject presenting so wide a field for discussion,
and entering so largely into all that is interesting in the moral and physical history
of man, that we shall do more than to notice a few leading facts and some of the
more prominent arguments by which these differences are established.
As a preliminary step in this discussion, it will be proper to present a brief view
of the several varieties of which the human race is composed, with their peculiar
and distinguishing characteristics. Physiologists generally make five distinctive
varieties, viz. Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American and Malay. The Caucasian
is regarded as the primitive stock. It deviates into two extremes, most remote and
different from each other–the Mongolian on one side and Ethiopian on the other. The
other varieties come in between these two extremes–that is, the American comes in
between the Caucasian and Mongolian; and the Malay between the Caucasian and Ethiopian.
The following marks will serve to define and distinguish these different classes.
But here, we must observe, that as in the brute creation the different species are
connected together, and pass into each other, by almost imperceptible gradations;
so in the human race, individuals of distinct but approximating varieties may often
be found, so nearly resembling each other, that it would be no easy matter to assign
each his peculiar and proper place. The changes in our world, consequent upon migration,
wars, invasions and conquest, and the intermarriage to which these lead, will account
for much of this uncertainty. Thus the Caucasian and Mongolian varieties have been
much intermixed in Asia; the latter and the Ethiopian in Africa.
The characters of the Caucasian variety are–a white skin, either with a fair rosy
tint, or inclining to brown; hair abundant, soft, and generally more or less curved
or waving. Large cranium with small face, and the upper and anterior regions of the
brain peculiarly developed. Face oval and straight, with a high and expanded forehead.
Moral and intellectual qualities most energetic, and susceptible of the highest development
and culture.
It includes all the ancient and modern Europeans except the Laplanders and Finns,
the former and present inhabitants of western Asia, as far as the rise of the Caspian
Sea and the Ganges, including the Assyrians, Medes and Chaldeans, the Sarmatians,
Scythians, and Parthians; the Philistines, Phenicians and Jews; the Tartars, Persians
and Hindoos of high caste; the northern Africans, Egyptians* and Abyssinians.
* I am well aware that the propriety of placing the ancient Egyptians in the Caucasian
variety, has been denied by some writers of high character. My attention, however,
was particularly directed to the consideration of this question, a few years since,
and after a careful examination, I came unhesitatingly to the conclusion stated above.
The paper, which was the result of this examination, may, perhaps, on a future occasion,
be spread before the readers of the Messenger.
2nd.–The Mongolian variety is characterised by olive color, straight and thin hair,
little or no beard, square head with small and low forehead, broad and fattened face,
nose small and flat, and stature generally inferior to the Caucasian variety.
It includes the numerous tribes which inhabit northern and central Asia–as the Mongols,
Calmucks, the Chinese and Japanese, the Finnish races of the north of Europe, and
the Esquimaux tribes in America, extending from Bhering's Straits to the extremity
of Greenland.
3rd.–In the Ethiopian variety, the skin and eyes are black; hair black and woolly;
the skull compressed laterally and elongated towards the front; forehead low, narrow
and slanting; the cheek bones prominent, and nose broad, thick and flat. All the
inhabitants of Africa not included in the first variety, belong to this.
4th.–The American variety is marked by a dark skin, of a more or less red tint; black,
straight and strong hair; little beard, which is generally eradicated; countenance
and skull very similar to the Mongolian tribes; forehead low, eyes deep, and face
broad; the mouth is large and lips rather thick.
This variety includes all the aboriginal Americans, except the Esquimaux.
5th.–The Malay division exhibits a brown color, from a slight tawny tint not deeper
than that of the Spaniards and Portuguese, to a dark brown approaching to black.
Hair black, more or less curled and abundant–head narrow, nose full and broad, and
mouth large. This division includes the inhabitants of the peninsula of Malacca,
Sumatra and Borneo–of New Holland, New Zealand, and the innumerable islands scattered
through the whole of the South Sea. It is called Malay, because most of the tribes
speak the Malay language.
Having thus given a rapid and cursory sketch of the physical distinctions
of the different varieties of the human race, it remains to be considered, whether
similar peculiarities exist in their moral and intellectual qualities. If there is
really no coincidence between the physical structure and moral and intellectual phenomena
which man exhibits, then it is self evident that the most lofty talents and splendid
intellect, which have ever adorned or dignified our race, may be combined with the
meanest organization; but if, on the contrary, the moral and intellectual character
bear a close analogy to the body it inhabits--if the former be nearly allied to,
and dependent upon the latter, the varieties of both will generally correspond.
That there is a marked and striking difference in the capacity for improvement and
the intellectual endowments of the most perfect and the most degraded of our species,
I think no one can doubt, who has attentively considered the progress of different
nations in civilization and refinement, in the cultivation of the arts and sciences,
and in the nature, character and excellence of their various forms of government.
How else can we account for the fact, that from the earliest periods of which history
presents any record, to the present day, the Caucasian variety has invariably held
the same undisputed and enviable superiority over all the other races? The highest
advances in civilization–the greatest improvements and most useful inventions in
the mechanic arts--the most profound discoveries in the various sciences, and their
application in innumerable modes to the relief of our wants and the supply of our
necessities–the most complicated, beneficial and perfect forms of government–the
most extensive and varied plans of charity and benevolence, and, in fine, every thing
that tends to adorn and elevate human nature, have been exhibited to the greatest
extent among the white races. While the other races, in precisely the same proportion
as their physical organization has varied from, and been inferior to ours, have manifested
those traits of character which belong to savage life–ignorance, debauchery, sensuality,
cruelty–idolatry in its most degraded and disgusting forms–indifference to the pains
and pleasures of others, and an almost total want of all that we comprehend under
the name of elevated sentiments, manly virtues and moral feelings.
A single glance at the history of the world, shows conclusively the truth of these
positions. There cannot be found either in ancient or modern times, a single tribe
or nation, among the four inferior varieties, which has made any advances in civilization
and learning, that will bear a comparison with the state of the white division of
the same period. That there have been and are individual exceptions to this general
rule, is readily admitted; but this proves nothing against the position, as our business
is not with individuals but with communities. We all know that the most talented
and intellectual persons of an inferior variety, may, and often do, equal and even
excel the lowest of a superior class. It must also be admitted, that all the white
races have not made those distinguished advances in knowledge and civilization, which
have been claimed as indicating their superior organization and endowments. But when
this is the case, some artificial causes can always be assigned for the deficiency.
Loss of liberty, a bad government, oppressive laws, fanaticism, bigotry and intolerance,
may counteract and wither the noblest gifts of nature, plunge into ignorance, degradation
and misery–nations, which are capable of the highest cultivation and are equal to
the most splendid morel and intellectual achievements. Modern Greece, Italy and Spain,are
most melancholy examples of this afflicting truth. But attentive and careful observers,
can find even among these victims of cruelty and fanaticism, the germs of those intellectual
powers, which require only an opportunity of developing themselves, to place their
possessors in a high rank for talents and accomplishments.
That the white nations may degenerate and fall from their high and elevated rank,
is rendered manifest by the history of the Greeks and Romans. The forum and the capitol,
which have been rendered illustrious through all future ages, by the Scipios, the
Brutuses and Catos–by Horace And Virgil and Cicero–by Hortensius and Caesar and Tacitus--are
now degraded and disgraced by ignorance and superstition and fanaticism--by monks
without learning, and priests without piety–and those streets which were once enlivened
by the splendid triumphs of returning conquerors, and which rung with the shouts
of happy and prosperous freemen, are now trodden by a priest-ridden populace, ignorant,
superstitious and servile. But notwithstanding all this weakness, degradation and
misery--this classic ground has still maintained a high intellectual rank, and has
sent forth men not unworthy to be the descendants of those who rendered Rome the
mistress of the world. What country can boast in the same period of time, of having
produced a greater variety of more splendid displays of genius, than the immortal
names which adorn modern Italy? Dante, Petrarch and Boccacio–Tasso, Ariosto and Alfieri–Raphael,
Michael Angelo, and a crowd of others.
But even in a state of comparative barbarism, the superiority of the white races
over the dark colored tribes is almost equally manifest. To be convinced of this,
we need but read the account given by Tacitus and Caesar of the manners and habits
of the ancient Germans, and compare them with the hideous savages of New Holland
or Van Dieman's Land–or look at the difference between the ancient Spaniards or any
of the Celtic tribes and the modern Mongolians, Africans, or Indians of our own country.
And indeed the history and character of the aborigines of America, present, perhaps,
one of the strongest arguments in favor of our position–that there is an essential
and inherent difference in the capacity of the various races for improvement. Although
placed for more than three hundred years, almost in immediate contact with knowledge
and civilization and refinement–although every inducement has been held out and vast
exertions made, to reclaim them from their erratic mode of life, and to introduce
among them the arts and conveniences of their more polished neighbors –although missionaries
and teachers have devoted their time and talents for their instruction, and government
has extended its fostering aid–yet how little has been accomplished? And even
that little has been effected more by their intermarriages with whites than by any
actual improvement in the manners and habit of the Indians themselves.
The superiority of the whiles, is almost universally felt and acknowledged by the
other races. The most intelligent negro, whom Mr. Park met in his travels in Africa,
after witnessing only such evidences of European skill and knowledge as were exhibited
at the English settlement on the coast, would sometimes appear pensive–and exclaim,
with an involuntary sigh, " black men are nothing." Similar facts have
been noticed by other travellers. And indeed this consciousness of inferiority is
the only rational mode of explaining the docility and patience with which the blacks
submit to slavery–and especially when, as is the case in some of the West India islands,
they vastly outnumber their masters. Suppose the situation and proportions of these
people were reversed–that the Europeans were the slaves and the negroes were the
masters, and the former five or six times as numerous as the latter, how long would
such a state of things last? And even when an attempt at regaining their freedom
is made by this unhappy people, their plans are so illy contrived–and so often betrayed
through cowardice and ignorance and treachery, as to be frustrated with ease and
almost without an effort.
The distinction of color between the white and dark races, is not more striking than
the superiority of the former in intellectual energy and character. The latter, it
is true, sometimes exhibit astonishing acuteness in their external senses, particularly
in hearing and sight. But no doubt their preeminence here, is to be attributed entirely
to their want of those mechanical aids and contrivances, which civilized man adopts
to assist the powers of nature; and, therefore their excellence in this respect is
but another proof of their mental inferiority.
The wretched and degraded beings who inhabit Van Dieman's land and the adjacent islands,
are perhaps the lowest and most debased in the scale of human existence. Peron describes
them as examples of the rudest barbarism–" without chiefs, properly so called;
without laws, or any thing like regular government; without arts of any kind; with
no idea of agriculture, of the use of metals, or of the services to be derived from
animals; without clothes or fixed abode, and with no other shelter than a mere shed
of bark to keep off the cold winds; and with no arms but a club or spear."
Although these people inhabit one of the most fertile countries in the world with
a mild and equable climate, suited to all the productions which strengthen the body
and gratify the appetite of man–yet they derive no other sustenance from the earth
than a few roots and plants–and are frequently driven by the failure of these, and
of fish, which is their principal resource, to the most disgusting food, as frogs,
lizards, serpents, spiders, the larvae of insects, and especially a large kind of
caterpillar; which is found in great abundance on some of their trees.
Who can, for a moment believe, that this besotted and ignorant and degraded people
are cast in the same intellectual mould with those races who have produced a Homer,
a Demosthenes, a Milton, a Chatham and a Franklin?
And these general traits of character exist in a more or less modified form, in most
of the dark races–-in the American Indian, the Africans, and Mongolian nations of
Asia, in the Malays and most of the inhabitants of the South Sea islands--we see
every where the same unrelenting and exterminating cruelty to enemies--the same brutal
apathy and indolence–and the same unmanly treatment of their defenseless women.
We would not be understood however, as asserting that all the nobler qualities of
the mind are wanting in the dark races. We know that courage in repelling danger
and fortitude, in enduring suffering, and even some of the softer virtues, may be
occasionally witnessed among them, in all their native loveliness and beauty–but
when they are so exhibited, they are usually either exceptions to the general rule
or closely allied to the neighboring vice. The Mongolian tribal of central Asia,
when united under a Tenghis [sic] Ghan or a Tamerlane, could achieve the most brilliant
victories and overturn kingdoms and empires–-but their wars were wars of extermination,
to destroy and darken not to build up and enlighten.
In order to appreciate fully the intellectual differences in the human race, we must
not take two approximating varieties, between which, perhaps, the distinction is
not very striking, and in some aspects of the case hardly perceptible--but we must
compare the two extremes–-as for instance the Caucasian and Malay or the Caucasian
and Ethiopian–and the most incredulous, I think, can hardly doubt, that here
an essential difference exists. And indeed a regular gradation in their intellectual
powers, can be observed through the Caucasian, Mongolian, American, and Ethiopian
varieties. And this gradation is in pretty exact proportion to the more or less perfect
form of the head–the anterior and superior parts of the brain, being larger and more
fully developed in the first, and more and more fattened and compressed as we descend
in the scale.
It may be objected to this theory that some of the white races have, in former times,
been in a semi-barbarous state, little, if at all superior, to that of many of the
inferior varieties at the present day. But this objection, upon examination, will
be found rather specious than solid.
In the first place, no period can be found in the history of the Caucasian race,
when their situation was in any respect as low and degraded as that of the dark races.
Agriculture and the pastoral state, and even some of the mechanic arts have--so far
at least as the most minute resear ch into their former history and manners have
informed us--always existed among them. And besides, if we admit that this race were
once sunk to the lowest depth of ignorance and barbarism, how does it happen that
they, and they only, have emerged from this state–-have gone on progressively
advancing in civilization and knowledge to their present pitch of refinement, while
the other races remain in nearly the same situation in which they existed centuries
ago?
The present and past state of the Chinese empire, is another striking illustration
of the truth of the position we are endeavoring to establish. Here we behold a whole
nation, which three thousand years ago enjoyed a considerable share of civilization–which
had made some progress in the arts and sciences, and advanced far enough, if they
had been endowed by nature with a high intellectual capacity for improvement, to
have reached the noblest pitch of mental greatness,and, taken an elevated rank among
the most gifted nations of the earth; but instead of this, we see them year after
year, and century after century, plodding on in the same beaten path, with no inventions
in the arts or discoveries in science to mark and distinguish their progress–resembling
in this respect the brute creation– which, guided by instinct, never excels or falls
short of the skill displayed by their predecessors, rather than rational beings–endowed
with natures susceptible of continued-and indefinite advancement. A single glance
at the history and present situation of any European nation, will present in vivid
colors the great difference between them and the Chinese in this particular. Look
at the English, the French, or the Germans–five Hundred years since, they were perhaps,
little if at all superior to the inhabitants of China or Japan–but while the one
has remained nearly stationary, or made but trifling advances, the others have marched
on, with rapid and gigantic strides, in the path of knowledge and improvement. Science
has diffused its genial influence over every corner of Europe, dispelling the dark
clouds of ignorance and superstition–and the various mechanic arts have been carried
to a degree of perfection, never dreampt of in the philosophy of the Chinese.
It is worthy of remark too, that it is only among the white races that any correct
notions of religion, or rational views of a superintending Providence can be found.
While the darker varieties have, from time immemorial, been immersed in the lowest
and most disgusting species of idolatry, or have been totally ignorant of the existence
of a God, and of a future state of rewards and punishments–the Caucasian race has
either possessed a perfect form of religion, as Judaism and christianity–or where
they have been Pagans and ignorant of the Bible, their ideas of their own responsibility,
and of the true character of the Supreme Being, have been more rational and more
nearly allied to the truth. The comparatively reasonable system of Heathenism,
contained in the Grecian and Roman mythology, with its elegant and fanciful allegories,
when compared with the senseless and often disgusting jargon of the Hottentot and
Ethiopian, strikes us, at least, as the production of a higher and more cultivated
intellect.
In forms of government, also, is the same marked superiority manifest. Not only are
the white races the only ones who have enjoyed a free and republican government--but,
with the exception of the Mongolian variety, the only race among which a form
of government can with strict propriety be said to exist at all. For surely, the
casual and irregular and ill-defined authority, which the chiefs exert over savage
tribes, can hardly be dignified with the name of government. The complicated and
extended, but useful and important machinery of a well regulated empire, can no where
be found among savage nations–and hence the number subject to the same authority,
must necessarily be very limited–and in fact seldom exceeds a few hundreds or thousands.
Among barbarous tribes, no institutions can be found which secure freedom of conscience
and opinion to all--which protect the feeble and defenseless against the strong and
powerful--and which are administered upon principles, and according to rules, which
have obtained the consent of all. In the language of another–"The spirit of
liberty, the unconquerable energy of independence, the generous glow of patriotism,
belong chiefly to those nobler organizations,in which the cerebral hemispheres have
received their full development. The republics of Greece and Rome, of Italy in the
middle ages, of Switzerland and Holland, the limited monarchy of England, and the
United States of America, have shown us what the human race can effect, when animated
by these sacred feelings–without which, nothing has ever been achieved truly great
or permanently interesting. This is the charm, that attaches us to the history, the
laws, the institutions, the literature of the free states of antiquity--and that
enables us to study again and again with fresh pleasure, the lives and actions of
their illustrious patriots."
Notwithstanding, however, the decided superiority of the white races, we do not mean
to assert, that there are not individuals among our darker brethren, capable of fathoming
the most abstruse questions in philosophy, and of taking a high comparative rank
among the gifted spirits of our race--nor even that the whole of the inferior varieties
are not susceptible, to a limited degree of civilization and refinement.
Numerous examples may be found among the Africans even, of individuals who have made
great proficiency in some of the sciences, in polite learning, and the useful and
ornamental arts.
A negro by the name of Hannibal, became a colonel in the Russian service, and was
much distinguished for his attainments in mathematics and physics
In 1734, Arno, an African from the coast of Guinea, took the degree of Doctor of
Laws at the University of Wirtemberg, and, according to Blumenbach, displayed extensive
and well digested reading in the physiological books of the time.
John Capitein, who was bought by a slave dealer when eight years of age, studied
theology at Leyden, and published several sermons and poems. His dissertation, "
de servitude Libertati Christianae non contraria," went through four editions
in a very short time.
These, and numerous other instances which might be adduced, however, are merely individual
cases, and prove nothing as to the general comparative capability of these races
for intellectual improvement–as this is a question, which must be decided by more
extended and varied observations.
The different varieties of the human race, do not exhibit the same difference in
their moral, which is so manifest in their intellectual character. And indeed, it
is very doubtful, whether any well founded superiority in this respect can
be established among the white over the darker nations. That particular vices are
more prevalent in some portions of the world than in others, and even that some nations
are more moral and more virtuous than others, cannot be denied--but this is generally
owing to local and peculiar circumstances in their situation; and at any rate, this
superiority of virtue and order can never be predicated of a whole variety, which
should be the case, if it were commensurate with the intellectual distinctions we
have been endeavoring to demonstrate.
Most travellers among the more barbarous and uncultivated nations agree in representing
them as hospitable, generous, and benevolent, to as great an extent, as the same
virtues will be found among the civilized nations.
The travels of Barrow, Park, and others, in different parts of Africa, abound with
anecdotes highly honorable to the moral character of the ignorant and unpolished
inhabitants of that quarter of the globe. In speaking of the Hottentots, Barrow observes:
"They are a mild, quiet and timid people; perfectly harmless, honest and faithful;
and though extremely phlegmatic, they are kind and affectionate to each other and
not incapable of strong attachments. A Hottentot would share his last morsel with
his companions. They have little of that art or cunning which savages generally possess.
If accused of crimes of which they have been guilty, they generally divulge the truth.
They seldom quarrel among themselves, or make use of provoking language. Though naturally
fearful, they will run into the face of danger, if led on by their superiors–-and
they suffer pain with patience and fortitude."
I am aware, that the inferiority of the dark to the white races, has been abused
as an argument in favor of involuntary slavery. It has been contended, that as the
difference between them and ourselves is so great, it is obviously the order of nature
that they should be subservient to our wishes, and be made to minister to our wants
and caprices. But a precisely contrary inference would be drawn from this fact by
every well regulated and benevolent mind–that it gives them so much the stronger
claim upon our charity and humanity--that if we have more knowledge than they, we
should instruct them–if we are more refined and polished, we should civilize them--if
we are more powerful, we should protect them–if we alone possess a knowledge of the
true God, we should deem it a privilege, as well as a sacred duty, to extend to them
the light of revelation and the blessings of christianity.
