(_For the Mirror_.)
There are few more familiar subjects than that of the varieties of
national character, and the resemblances and differences that exist
between ourselves and the inhabitants of other countries. Few
conversations occur upon circumstances which may have happened abroad,
in which some one has not an anecdote to relate to illustrate the known
peculiarities of the nation in question; and the greater part of the
travels and tours which now issue in such formidable numbers from the
press, are naturally filled with stories and incidents, either to show
the correctness of our ideas of the manners and opinions of our
neighbours, or (perhaps more frequently) to prove that the public were
in error in that respect, up to the time when the traveller in question
had discovered the truth, or a clue to it. The daily accounts of the
outrages perpetrated in Ireland, and the alarms that are sounded ever
and anon, touching the state of that unhappy country, are continually
exciting surprise, that the natives of the sister island should be so
unaccountably deficient in that sense of order and sobriety which
prevails in Great Britain. We associate with a Scotchman the ideas of
shrewdness and prudence; with a Frenchman, gaiety and frivolity; with a
Spaniard, gravity and pride; with an Italian, strong passions of love
and revenge: with a German, plodding industry and habits of deep
thinking; and with the northern nations, an honest sincerity and
persevering courage. We sometimes judge with tolerable correctness; at
others are wholly mistaken, and not unfrequently run into such extremes,
that having established a principle, that a particular people are
knavish, or cowardly, or stupid, we are unwilling to admit any
exceptions, but include the whole race in our sweeping censure. We are
prejudiced at first sight against a Portuguese or Italian, and are
careful of our communications with him, even though we meet him on the
high road, or by mere accident in a public place. There can, however, be
no mistake in the common notion, that each nation has a peculiar
collection of qualities and habits, distinguishing it in a greater or
less degree from its neighbours, and the rest of the world; and it is,
therefore, at all events, an interesting, if not an useful topic, to
reflect a little how these differences arise. Not that we intend here to
give even any particular description of the various races of mankind, or
to enter into any inquiry upon the degrees of their mental and bodily
capacities; such would be foreign to our purpose, and would exceed our
limits. We shall merely hazard a few observations upon the several
causes to which the diversities in men have been referred, not
pretending to any decided opinion on so nice a point, as whether these
causes are wholly of a physical or of a moral kind, or whether they are
compounded of both. The question is, perhaps, one of the most difficult
in the whole range of philosophical experience; we say experience,
because it is obvious that all theory on the subject must be the result
of observation and analysis; and that no general principles can be laid
down in the first instance, as the ground work of any hypothesis we
might be inclined to frame.
The scientific men to whom we are chiefly indebted for the facts
accumulated on this subject, are Dr. Blumenbach, of Göttingen, Dr.
Pritchard, of Edinburgh, and the eminent surgeon, Mr. Lawrence. It has
been a favourite matter of speculation with Lord Monboddo, as well as
with Voltaire, Rousseau, and the philosophers of the French school, who
have endeavoured to show that men and other animals are endowed with
reason or instinct of the same kind, but of different degrees. According
to these fanciful writers, the monkey is but another species of the
human race, and has been termed by them _Homo Sylvestris_. They made the
most diligent researches into all accounts concerning men in a savage
state, and were delighted beyond measure with the discovery alleged to
have been made in the island of Sumatra, of men with tails regularly
protruding from their hinder parts, who, according to Buffon, walked and
talked in the woods like other gentlemen:--
And backwards and forwards they switched their long tails,
Like a gentleman switching his cane.
The appearance of Peter the Wild Boy, who was found in the woods of
Hamela, in Hanover, living on the bark of trees, leaves, berries, &c.
threw Voltaire into transports of joy. He declared the event to be the
most wonderful and important that ages had recorded in the annals of
science, as it demonstrated the fact of man living after the fashion of
beasts, without the least spark of civilization, and without speech;
thereby forming a species of a nature having more in common with monkeys
than with men, and presenting the regular degree, or intermediate class,
between the _homo civilis_ and the _homo sylvestris_. The circumstance,
however, which afterwards transpired, of Peter's having been found with
the remains of a shirt-collar about his neck, threw considerable
discredit on the whole story; and the young savage, on being brought to
England by order of Queen Caroline, lived in Hertfordshire for many
years, perfectly harmless and tractable, and behaving pretty much the
same as other idiots. The idea, therefore, of a race of men, in a
healthy, natural condition, having ever existed without the possession
of reason, is now deemed wholly fallacious. It is even maintained by
Schlegel, and other authorities of great weight, that the civilized
state is the primitive one, and that savage life is a degeneracy from
it, rather than civilized society being a graft upon barbarity. By
Schlegel's theory, the East, especially India, was the earliest seat of
arts and sciences; from the Sanscrit, or Indian language, now extinct,
are the Hebrew, the Chaldaic, the Greek, and many others of the most
ancient tongues, derived; and from the wisdom and learning of the East
"was the whole earth overspread." Undoubtedly it is difficult to imagine
by what gradation language could have proceeded, from the howl of
savages, and the cries of nature, till it reached the eloquent music,
the heart-stirring oratory of the Greek; and besides this, and other
considerations, Schlegel is supported by the opinions of Adelung, the
learned author of "Mithridates, oder Allgemeine Sprachenkunde," upon the
probable habitation of the first family of the human race. Adelung says,
that civilization began in Asia, as is, indeed, universally admitted to
have been the case; and that when the waters of the flood subsided, the
highest ground, we may naturally conclude, must have been the earliest
inhabited. We may also reasonably presume that a beneficent Providence
would place the first family in a situation where their wants could be
easily satisfied; in a garden, as it were, stocked with all herbs and
fruits, fit and agreeable to their use and taste. Now such a country is
actually to be found in Central Asia, between the degrees of 30 and 50
North lat. and 90 and 110 long. E. of Ferro; a spot as high as the
Plains of Quito, or 9,500 feet above the level of the sea. It contains
the sources of most of the great rivers of Asia; the Seleuga, the Ob,
the Lena, the Irtisch, and the Jenisey flow from hence to the North; the
Jaik, the Jihon, and the Jemba to the West; the Amur and the Hoang Ho to
the East; and the Indus, Ganges, and Burrampooter to the South. The
valleys within this space, which our readers, by referring to a map,
will find to be correctly delineated, abound with nutritive fruits and
vegetables, and with all animals capable of being tamed. There is
evidently, therefore, some plausibility in the notion that mankind
sprung originally from the East, and that from that quarter civilization
is derived; but what portion of knowledge was allotted to the primitive
people, or how far their descendants have surpassed or fallen short of
these olden times, must, we fear, be for ever beyond the reach of our
investigation.
If we call to mind a summary of the general divisions of human beings
throughout the world, we shall find little room to doubt of the identity
of their genus, and shall, without much trouble of reflection, class
them as different species of that genus:--
------Facies non omnibus una,
Nec diversa, tamen.
Such seems to be the result of Mr. Lawrence's judgment; and though we
are aware that the descent of mankind from one common stock has been
much questioned and controverted, particularly in Germany, we prefer
resting upon the received opinion at present, to running the risk of
shocking established notions, by entering into the merits of the
contrary theory.
Men are classed by Dr. Blumenbach under five great divisions, viz. the
Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay. The Caucasian
family may be asserted, though by its own members, to have been always
pre-eminent above the rest in moral feelings and intellectual powers,
and is remarkable for the large size of their heads. It need not be more
minutely described, than by saying it includes all the ancient and
modern Europeans, (except the Laplanders and Fins;) the former and
present inhabitants of Western Asia as far as the Ob, the Caspian Sea,
and the Ganges, viz. the Assyrians, Medes, Chaldeans, Sarmatians,
Scythians, Parthians, Philistines, Phoenicians, Jews, and Syrians; the
Tartars on the Caucasus, Georgians, Circassians, Mingrelians, Armenians,
Turks, Persians, Arabs, Hindoos of high caste, Northern Africans,
Egyptians, Abyssinians, and Guanches. They are supposed to have
originally had brown hair and dark eyes.
The Mongolian family is of an olive colour and black eyes, flat nose and
face, small stature, black hair, no beard, and thick lips. It comprises
the people of Central and Northern Asia, Thibet, Ava, Pegu, Cambodia,
Laos, and Siam; the Chinese, Japanese, Fins, and Esquimaux.
The Ethiopian family is black, with black and woolly hair, compressed
skull, low forehead, flat nose, and thick lips. It includes all Africans
not comprehended in the Caucasian family.
The American family has a dark skin, a red tint, straight hair, a small
beard, low forehead, and broad face. It includes all the American
tribes, except the Esquimaux.
The Malay family is brown, varying from a light tint to black. Their
hair is black and curled, head narrow, bones of the face prominent, nose
broad, and mouth large. They inhabit Malacca, Sumatra, Java, and the
adjacent islands; Molucca, the Ladrones, New Holland, Van Dieman's Land,
New Guinea, New Zealand, and the South Sea Islands. They speak generally
the Malay language.
The difference of character and disposition of these five families is
familiar to every one; they are as well known as is the superiority of
the Caucasian to the other races, and as the outward distinctions of
their bodies and complexions. The reasons of this difference have been
variously assigned, some ascribing it to natural, others altogether to
moral causes. By natural causes we understand either that the
constitutions of the races are such, that their capabilities of
informing their minds, and raising their intellectual powers, are
essentially not the same; or that the climate has an influence over both
their bodies and minds. By moral causes, we mean artificial or
accidental ones arising out of the state of society; such as the nature
of the government, the plenty or poverty in which people live, a period
of war or peace, the power of public opinion, and such circumstances.
The effect of climate cannot of itself be sufficient to change the
manners and habits of a people. The instances of migratory nations seem
to show this; the Jews are as cunning and fond of money in Asia or
Africa as they are in Poland or England; that extraordinary race, the
Gipsies, (which are now ascertained to be a Hindoo tribe, driven from
their country in the fifteenth century,) are not less thievish in
Transylvania than in Scotland. The Armenians of Constantinople, and
other parts of the Levant, are represented to be of the same mild and
persevering temper, of the same honesty and skilfulness in their
dealings, and the same kindness and civility of manners, as before they
were driven from their country by Sha-Abbas the Great. The changes,
however, in the habits and character of this people seem to mark the
influence of their several domestic situations. They were originally the
most warlike of the Asiatic tribes; after their subjection by the
Persians, they engaged themselves entirely in the patient cultivation of
the soil; and since the period of the depopulation of Armenia, and their
migrations into Persia, Russia, Turkey, and other countries, they have
been celebrated for their industry in commercial concerns. They are
bankers, money-brokers, merchants, surgeons, bakers, builders,
chintz-printers, and of all trades that can be imagined, and are
represented as the most useful subjects in the Ottoman empire, retaining
at the same time an almost patriarchal simplicity in their domestic
manners. The English in the East and West Indies, in New South Wales,
and in Canada, seldom lose a relish for the habits and enjoyments they
have been bred up in, whether they migrate to the extremes of heat or of
cold. John Bull is an Englishman in heart, and will remain so under
whatever sun his lot of life may be cast; for,
Coelum, non animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt.
We rarely find the Spaniards or Italians, or the natives of the South of
Europe, lose their ideality of character and their warm passions when
settled permanently in England; the only alteration in them seems to be
such as the forms of society and intercourse with others has led them
to. Still the man is the same, though he may have adopted a new regime
in the fashion of his clothes, or the dishes of his dinner.
(_To be continued_.)
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