of perfection, the Western Asiatic nations have decidedly better formed crania than the nations of Eastern Asia. Have they a corresponding advantage over them in the arts and sciences? Is not the error equally perceptible when Craniology classes the western half of Asia, and North Africa, with Europeans by their skulls? We have in the progress of our work endeavored to show that Anatomy in general, and Craniology in particular, are subordi. nate to Physiology, to the functional system, as indicated by the temperaments.

The talented Heeren, in his "Preliminary Remarks" of his "Researches on Ancient Greece" has the following sensible and pertinent remarks :—“ To the student of the history of man, there is hardly a phenomenon more important in itself, or more difficult of explanation, than the superiority of Europe over the other parts of the earth. Whatever justice may be rendered to other lands and nations, it cannot be denied that the noblest and best of everything, which humanity has produced, sprang up, or at least ripened, on European soil. In the multitude, variety, and beauty of their natural productions, Asia and Africa far surpass Europe; but in everything which is the work of man, the European nations stand far above those of the other continents. It was among them, that, by making marriage the union of but one with one, domestic society obtained that form, without which the higher culture of so many parts of our nature could never have been attained; and if slavery and bondage were established among them, they alone, recognising their injustice, abolished them. It was

chiefly and almost exclusively among them that such constitutions were framed as are suited to nations who have become conscious of their rights. If Asia, during all the changes in its extensive empires, does but show the continued reproduction of despotism, it was on European soil that the germ of political freedom unfolded itself, and under the most various forms, in so many places, bore the noblest fruits; which again were transplanted to other parts of the world. The simplest inventions of the mechanic arts may perhaps belong in part to the East; but how have they all been perfected by Europeans! What progress from the loom of the Hindoo to the power-looms driven by steam; from the sun-dial to the chronometer, which guides the mariner over the ocean; from the bark canoe of the Mohawk to the British man-of-war! And if we direct our attention to those nobler arts, which, as it were, raise human nature above itself, what a distance between the Jupiter of Phidias and an Indian idol; between the Transfiguration of Raphael and the works of a Chinese painter! The East had its annalists, but never produced a Tacitus or a Gibbon; it had its poets, but never advanced to criticism; it had its sages, who not unfrequently produced a powerful effect on their nations, by means of their doctrines; but a Plato or a Kant never ripened on the banks of the Ganges or the Hoang-ho."

"Nor can we less admire that political superiority, which the nations of this small region, just emerging from savage life, immediately established over the extensive countries of the large continents.

The East has seen powerful conquerors; but it was only in Europe that great generals appeared, who invented a science of war really worthy of the name. Hardly had a kingdom in Macedonia of limited extent outgrown its childhood, before Macedonians ruled on the Indus as on the Nile. The imperial city was the heiress of the imperial nation. Asia and Africa adored the Cæsars. Even in the centuries of the middle age, when the intellectual superiority of the Europeans seems to have sunk, the nations of the East attempted to subjugate them in vain. The Mongolians advanced into Silesia; nothing but the wastes of Russia long remained in their power: the Arabs desired to overrun the West; the sword of Charles Martel compelled them to rest contented with a part of Spain; and the chivalrous Frank, under the banner of the Cross, soon bade them defiance in their own home. And how did the fame of Europeans beam over the earth, when, through Columbus and Vasco de Gama, the morning of its fairer day began to dawn. The new world at once became their prey, that it might receive their culture, and become their rival; more than a third part of Asia submitted to the Russian sceptre; merchants on the Thames and the Zuyder See seized on the government of India; and if the Turks have thus far been successful in preserving the country which they have robbed from Europe, will it remain to them for ever? will it remain to them long? The career of conquest may have been marked with severity and blood; the Europeans became not the tyrants only, but also the instructors of

the world. The civilization of mankind seems to be more and more closely connected with their progress; and if, in these times of universal revolution, any consoling prospect for the future is opened, is it not the triumph of European culture beyond the limits of Europe?

"From whence proceeds this superiority, this universal sovereignty of so small a region as Europe? An important truth presents itself at once. Not undisciplined strength, not the mere physical force of the mass-it was intelligence which produced it; and if the military science of Europeans founded their sovereignty, it was their superior political science which maintained it. But the question which was proposed remains still unanswered; for we desire to know the causes of this intellectual superiority; why it was in Europe that the faculties of human nature were so much more beautifully unfolded?

"To such a question no perfectly satisfactory answer can be given. The phenomenon is in itself much too rich, much too vast for that. It will be readily conceded that it could only be the consequence of many cooperating causes; of these several can be enumerated, and thus afford some partial solution. But to enumerate them all separately, and in their united influences, could only be done by a mind, to which it should be granted, from a higher point of view than any to which a mortal can attain, to contemplate the whole web of the history of our race, and follow the course and interweaving of the various threads.

"Here attention is drawn to one important cir

cumstance, of which the cautious inquirer almost fears to estimate the value. Whilst we see the surface of the other continents covered with nations of different, and almost always of a dark color (and, in so far as this determines the race, of different races); the inhabitants of Europe only belong to one race. It has not, and it never had, any other native inhabitants than white nations. Is the white man distinguished by greater natural talents? Has he by means of them precedence over his colored brethren? This is a question which physiology cannot answer at all, and which history must answer with timidity. Who will absolutely deny that the differences of organization, which attend on the difference of color, can have an influence on the more rapid or more difficult unfolding of the mind? But, on the other hand, who can demonstrate this influence, without first raising the secret veil which conceals from us the reciprocal connexion between body and mind? And yet we must esteem it probable; and how much does this probability increase in strength if we make inquiries of history? The great superiority, which the white nations in all ages and parts of the world have possessed, is a matter of fact, which cannot be done away with by denials. It be said this was the may consequence of external circumstances, which favored them more. But has this always been so? And why has it been so? And further, why did those dark nations, which rose above the savage state, attain only to a degree of culture of their own; a degree which was passed neither by the Egyptian nor by the Mongolian, neither by the Chinese nor by the Hindoo! And