blood: it turned out, however, that her parents were both English; the mother dark, but not so deep a tint as the daughter, and the father fair."

This quotation is evidently in harmony with the preceding observations; but the design of the author was to lay a foundation for the succeeding examples, from which he intended to infer " that color is not an essential character of race;" and therefore that all men are of one species, but of several varieties. In regard to the girl he saw "whose dark olive skin and jet black hair" made him " "suppose that there was some mixture of blood," it was not only necessary, to clear the doubt, to ascertain “that her parents were both English;" but also to trace back, for four or five generations, particularly on the mother's side, who was "dark," to ascertain if there was not some remote mixture; because it is a known, and a very singular fact, that some remarkable peculiarity of a progenitor may disappear for several generations, and suddenly re-appear; as if it were the flickering of a dying lamp, which becomes more and more irregular, until, suddenly, it is lost for ever. But let us suppose her to have been dark without any mixture of blood: nay, let us suppose, what has never yet happened, that she was jet black, as Albinos are pearl white, would a single example of so strange a freak of nature, be thought sufficient to outweigh millions of examples to the contrary, annually being born, bearing the true types of the parents? About 33,000,000 of children are born annually in the world, reckoning the whole population of the world at 1,000,000,000, and the average duration of life thirty years. Each individual of all these

millions has some peculiarity, by which he or she may be distinguished from every other, and generally some peculiarity, resembling the parents. Is it surprising that these efforts of nature to preserve a likeness, and to produce distinct individuality, so important to the harmony and well being of the race, should sometimes run into excess and produce a monster? Is it not more surprising she so seldom errs? And yet more surprising, when she does commit an error, by reason of her lavish goodness, she so speedily repairs it, by recalling the wanderer, or suffering it to expire in a short time? Is it not manifest, that if it should happen that a black child should be born to white parents, that it could not propagate a black race, any more than the Negro Albiness propagates white children? Is it not evident that the progeny of a black child born of white parents, if such a freak of nature could arise, would return to its natural type, as those of the Negro Albiness returned to theirs?

It appears, therefore, to be a law of nature applicable to every species of man, that variety of form • and shades of color, to any degree consistent with the limits of species, may arise, and frequently occur, for wise purposes; but beyond the limits of species it is never tolerated, or sanctioned.

This is a most remarkable law, particularly as it does not appear to prevail with any of the class mammalia, but man; the reason for which we will endeavor to explain, when we treat of those laws which have kept all of the species of men distinct for ages, and probably will for ever.

We remark, in conclusion, that too much import

ance has been attached to a few,-to individual examples; too many important inferences have been drawn from casualties not of sufficient importance to amount to exceptions, while the universal law of nature, if not disregarded, has been postponed in its operations, that a favorite theory might be sustained. Almost anything can be proved, if single examples are sufficient for the purpose. Humboldt, in Sout America, saw a man suckle a child, for which he had sufficient nourishment. We might, with equal propriety, suppose, that, under favorable circumstances, he could propagate a race of men with female mammæ and lacteal apparatus, as that the porcupine men, or other "congenital" monsters, could perpetuate a new variety, a new species of men.

We therefore conclude that no "inferences can be drawn from accidental varieties springing up in the human family, to enable us to account for the dif ferences observed among men."

CHAPTER XI.

THE PSYCHICAL ATTRIBUTES PECULIAR TO MAN.

THE spiritual or mental powers of man have been, in general, called faculties. Sometimes they have been called attributes; but it has only been in a loose sense, and designed to be understood as synonymous with faculties. The two words, however, have very distinct significations which should be preserved. Attribute, from the Latin attributio, signifies a gift, an assignment. In this sense we use it to denote the original powers of the mind, given, assigned to, or bestowed upon man by the Creator. Faculty, from the Latin facultas, changed from facilitas, signifies apt, ready, dextrous, &c. In this sense we use it to denote the facility acquired by education, exercise, or experience, to accomplish any thing. Hence the word attribute signifies the original endowment, or germ of moral and intellectual capability, the gift of the Creator, in contradistinction to faculty, which is a facility, a readiness, an expert. ness, acquired by man by exercising the attribute, and developing its power; just as the muscles and limbs of man are the gift of God, but their strength and dexterity in particular employments result from cultivation. Without an attribute there can be no faculty, as there can be no superstructure without a foundation; but without a faculty there may be an

attribute, as there may be a foundation without a superstructure.

The word attribute has been more frequently appropriated to express the perfections of the Deity; as goodness, mercy, justice, &c. ; but it is plainly inapplicable to a Being self-existent, and self-endowed, in a literal sense. For the want of a word to designate what is to us, and must always be, incomprehensible, man has bestowed upon the Creator certain perfections, and calls them attributes, because he has assigned them to Him,—a species of impiety which can only be justified by the barrenness of language, and the limited power of the human mind to comprehend an Infinite, Uncreated Being.

We also call them attributes rather than faculties, because these last have often a technical physical and physiological signification, incompatible with spiritual agency. The faculty or facility of doing anything may arise from mere habit, when it is a mere physical property, qualifying the physiological constitution or it may arise from a peculiar idiosyncrasy, not common to the species, when it depends upon physiological constitution operating upon the functional, which qualifies the physical system.

Lastly, we call them attributes to distinguish them from instincts more perfectly than if we should call them faculties. Man has instincts as well as psychical attributes; but animals have no psychical attri butes, nothing of a moral constitution, and nothing of a mental constitution, if by this last we understand something superior to and controlling instinct, having a capability of progressive development.