CHAP. XIX.

Some of the most remarkable Passages from an excellent Essay on National Physiognomy, by Professor Kant of Konigsberg.

THE supposition of Maupertius, that a race of men might be established in any province, in whom understanding, probity, and strength, should be hereditary, could only be realized by the possibility of separating the degenerate from the conformable births; a project which, in my opinion, might be practicable, but which, in the present order of things, is prevented by the wiser dispositions of nature, according to which the wicked and the good are intermingled, that by the irregularities and vices of the former, the latent powers of the latter may be put in motion, and impelled to approach perfection. If nature, without transplantation or foreign mixture, be left undisturbed, she will, after many generations, produce a lasting race, that shall ever remain distinct.

If we divide the human race into four principal classes, it is probable that the intermediate ones, however perpetuating and conspicuous, may be immediately reduced to one of these. 1. The race of Whites. 2. The Negroes. 3. The Huns (Monguls, or Calmucs.) 4. The Hindoos, or people of Hindostan.

External things may well be the accidenta but not the primary causes of what is inherit or assimilated. As little as chance, or physic mechanical causes can produce an organiz body, as little can they add any thing to power of propagation; that is to say, produce thing, which shall propagate itself by having peculiar form, or proportion of parts.

Man was undoubtedly intended to be the i habitant of all climates, and all soils. Hen the seeds of many internal propensities must latent in him, which shall remain inactive, or put in motion, according to his situation on th earth. So that, in progressive generations, shall appear as if born for that particular soil i which he seems planted.

The air and the sun appear to be these causes which most influence the powers of propagation and effect a durable development of germ an propensities; that is to say, the air and the su may be the origin of a distinct race. The variation which food may produce must soon disappear o transplantation. That which affects the propa gating powers must not act upon the support life, but upon its original source, its first prin ciple, animal conformation, and motion.

A man transplanted to the frigid zone mus decrease in stature, since, if the power or mo mentum of the heart continues the same, th circulation must be performed in a shorter time the pulse become more rapid, and the heat of the blood increased. Thus Crantz found the

Greenlanders not only inferior in stature to the Europeans, but also that they had a remarkably greater heat of body. The very disproportion between the length of the body and the shortness of the legs, in the northern people, is suitable to their climate; since the extremes of the body, by their distance from the heart, are more subject to the attacks of cold.

The prominent parts of the countenance, which can less be guarded from cold, by the care of nature for their preservation, have a propensity to become more flat. The rising cheek bone, the half-closed, blinking eyes, appear to be intended for the preservation of sight against the dry, cold air, and the effusions of light from the snow, (to guard against which the Esquimaux use snow spectacles) though they may be the natural effect of the climate, since they are found only in a smaller degree in milder latitudes. Thus gradually are produced the beardless chin, the flatted nose, thin lips, blinking eyes, flat countenances, red-brown complexion, black hair, and, in a word, the face of the Calmuc. Such properties, by continued propagation, at length, form a distant race, which continues to remain distinct, even when transplanted into warmer climates.

The copper colour, or red-brown, appears to be as natural an effect of the acidity of the air, in cold climates, as the olive brown of the alcaline and bilious juices in warm; without taking the native disposition of the American into the

estimate, who appears to have lost half t powers of life, which may be regarded as the fect of cold.

The growth of the porous parts of the bo must increase in the hot and moist climat Hence the thick short nose and projecting li The skin must be oiled, not only to prevent e cessive perspiration, but also imbibing the P trescent particles of the moist air. The surpl of the ferrugineous, or iron particles, whic have lately been discovered to exist in the bloo of man, and which, by the evaporation of th phosphoric acidities, of which all Negroes sme so strong, being cast upon the retiform mem brane, occasions the blackness which appear through the cuticle; and this strong retention of the ferrugineous particles seems to be neces sary, in order to prevent the general relaxation of the parts. Moist warmth is peculiarly fa vourable to the growth of animals, and produce the Negro, who, by the providence of nature perfectly adapted to his climate, is strong, mus. cular, agile; but dirty, indolent, and trifling.

The trunk, or stem of the root, may degene rate; but this having once taken root, and stifled other germs, resists any future change of form the character of the race having once gained

preponderance in the propagating powers.

CHAP. XX.

Extracts from other Writers on National Physiognomy.—From Winkelmann's History of Art.-From the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, by M. de Pauw.-Observations by Lintz.-From a Letter written by M. Fuessli. From a Letter written by Professor Camper.

From Winkelmann's History of Art.

WITH respect to the form of man, our eyes convince us, that the character of nation, as well as of mind, is visible in the countenance. As nature has separated large districts by mountains and seas, so likewise has she distinguished the inhabitants by peculiarity of features. In countries far remote from each other, the difference is likewise visible in other parts of the body, and in stature. Animals are not more varied, according to the properties of the countries they inhabit, than men are; and some have pretended to remark, that animals even partake of the propensities of the men.

The formation of the countenance is as various as language, nay, indeed, as dialects, which are thus or thus various in consequence of the organs of speech. In cold countries, the fibres of the tongue must be less flexible and rapid than in warm. The natives of Greenland, and cer

G