An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species : to which are added, animadversions on certain remarks made on the first edition of this essay, by Mr. Charles White, in a series of discourses delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester in England : also, strictures on Lord Kaims' discourse on the original diversity of mankind : and an appendix / by Samuel Stanhope Smith.

  • Samuel Stanhope Smith
Date:
1810
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species : to which are added, animadversions on certain remarks made on the first edition of this essay, by Mr. Charles White, in a series of discourses delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester in England : also, strictures on Lord Kaims' discourse on the original diversity of mankind : and an appendix / by Samuel Stanhope Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    While the spirit of fanaticism carries the sun-burnt Saracen to the North, the love of war, and of plunder transplants the Tartar from the snows of Scythia to the burning plains of India.—Why then should we, without necessity, assume the hypothesis that origi- nally there existed different species of the human kind ? And not only without necessity, but contrary to the principles of true philosophy, since all its vari- eties may be accounted for, which I hope to demon- strate in the course of this essay, by the known ope- ration of natural causes. Different species must be subject to different laws both in the physical and moral constitution of their nature. The whole philosophy of man, therefore, is confounded by that hypothesis which divides the kind into various specie^, radically different from one ano- ther. The laws of morals designed to regulate the mutual intercourse of mankind, we derive from ex- amining our own nature, or collecting the com- mon sentiments of men in society, united together by a common system of feelings and ideas. But how shall we apply rules, derived from these sour- ces, to different nations, and to different individuals whose moral principles, resulting, in like manner, from the constitution of their natures, respective-
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