the human voice is a criterion, by which man may be readily distinguished from any of the animals of the earth. I shall proceed in the second place, directly to establish the identity of the human race. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. This expression teaches us, that all human beings upon the globe have the same kind of animal life. But the present discourse is designed, from natural and moral causes, to reconcile those varieties of figure, of features, and complexion, which exist among the human species. Some of the principal varieties in the aspect of mankind will be noticed. And I would observe in the first place, that the Esquimaux, the Laplanders, the Samoiedes, and the northern tribes of the Tartars, have their head and breast uncommonly large, the neck uncommonly short, the eyes, hands, and feet uncommonly small. The cause is doubtless owing chiefly to the climate; as they live in the northern parts of the globe, in which regions intense and almost perpetual cold reigns. The natural effect of a climate so cold, is to restrain the growth and expansion of the limbs most remote from the centre of warmth and circulating heat in the body. The natural consequence is, the size of the hands and feet are greatly diminished; whilst the head and breast, which receive the most forcible impulse of the blood, will be proportionably enlarged. And as the head and breast are so greatly expanded, the neck is apparently shortened. Moreover the inhabitants of those cold regions are habitually raising their shoulders to protect their necks from the uncomfortable effects of intense frost and cold; and their heads seem to rest on their breast, or sunk down even below their shoulders. This appearance is what gave rise to the fable of tribes, who had no necks. But should any of us be removed to those regions of the north, we should readily contract their habits, and by the intensity of the cold, should begin

to be assimilated to them, and in a few generations should partake of all their peculiarities. For illustration, suppose a tree, in a warm climate, to have a long and slender body, and very extended limbs. Let a young shoot of the same be transplanted to a cold climate, and re-produced for a few centuries; the body of the tree would become much shorter and thicker, and its branches not so extensively spread. In consequence of the unremitted constriction of cold, a particular habit of body, or disposition of features becomes incorporated into the system, and gives a form to the person, and lineaments to the features more or less strongly marked, as far as the cause is found to operate. On this same principle we may account for the dark and brown complexion, and the coarseness and roughness of the countenances of the inhabitants of the frozen regions. Their rough and harsh features are the natural result of the corrugations and distortions occasioned by the climate. In our own climate when a person is exposed to the severities of a bleak, north wind in a severe, cold morning, for only one hour, how is his visage changed by a momentary roughness and brownness. Coarse living, unpolished society, and severity of climate are reasons sufficient to account for all the peculiarities and irregularities of complexion, features, and stature, which characterize the inhabitants of the regions of the north.

2d. I shall now take a view of some of the fairest complexions of any people upon the globe. But such inhabitants must be found where climate is congenial by its temperature, and where the cultivation of the arts and sciences is carried to its greatest perfection. Some of the Europeans and the Americans in the United States are intended. Their residence is in the northern, temperate zone, where climate is favourable to a fair and ruddy complexion; and where learning and polished society are calculated to produce lively and interesting features in the counte

nance. The inhabitants, have by no means, uniformity in all respects; as their circumstances and opportunities are greatly varied in the same country. Some local situations, states of society, and modes of living are more favourable than others for the exertion of the mental powers, for refinement of manners, and for forming constitutional habits and complexion. And where a people have long cultivated the arts and sciences, and refined manners with success, a general aptitude becomes hereditary among their descendants. Thus this influence and these effects will in some degree be communicated from posterity to posterity. Birth and education not only peculiarize different nations, but different societies and families. The distinguished privileges, salubrious climate, and manner of living. give the superiority of some nations over others for stature, features, and complexion.

3d. The Jews will be next taken into consideration. The idea, which some entertain of their existing with the contrast of colours white and black, is incorrect. It is not proper to divide them into the two classes of white Jews and black Jews. They are dispersed through every country in the world; and they have four differences of complexion: the fair, swarthy, olive, and black. In whatever region they are found, they are marked with the common complexion of the natives. The Jews who live in Britain and Germany, and who are the descendants of past generations, have an intermixture of a fair and ruddy complexion, nearly resembling that of the English and Germans. Those of Spain and Portugal are swarthy, but little varied from the complexion of the Spaniards and Portuguese. In Syria, they, like the Syrians, are nearly of an olive colour. But in India they are said to be black. However, they have not the African black, although their complexion is peculiarly dark. But to what shall we ascribe these very different shades of complexion, if not to the varieties of climate, manner of living, and other con

comitant circumstances. They are known to be descendants of one family, and to have but very few intermarriages with other nations. The manner, in which the Jews are found to exist in different countries and climates, may serve to show, that there may be great differences of feature and complexion amongst mankind even from natural and moral causes. Hence a strong argument for human identity, that all are the descendants of our first parents.

4th. The blacks of Africa and their descendants in other nations, will demand our attention. Their sullen and dejected looks, and their coarsely wrinkled visage present a picture of the effects of a fervid sun upon the head and body. The silly and idiotick countenance, which is frequently observed in the wretched natives of Africa, evinces the effect of the pain, and the faintness, occasioned by the intense rays, of a vertical sun, beating upon them. Do they appear inferiour to some, compared with our own highly favoured nation; and scarcely worthy to be ranked among human beings? But what might not these degraded creatures be, in a few centuries, were they to possess our situations of climate, society, and mental improvement? In considering this class of mankind, let us consider them as inhabitants of the torrid zone, and brought up in poverty of diet, degrading ignorance, and filthiness in the manner of living, which tend greatly to debase the corporeal system, and debilitate the mind. A peculiarity of the Africans, which deserves to be noticed, is, their hair resembling wool. But universal experience demonstrates, that climate has a powerful effect upon the hair, fur, or wool of all animals, to render it coarse or fine, spare or thick, according to the temperature of the region, in which they are found. Why should not similar results be experienced by the human race, when exposed in like manner, as are the Africans. Neither is this a dire calamity of chance; but the care of a benevolent providence appears to be

exercised towards the natives of this fervid zone, Doctor Smith says, The covering of their head is a substance that is, properly, neither wool nor hair, but somewhat between them which is more comfortable to the head than either. It serves to protect the brain from the intense ardour of the sun, and does not, like hair, imbibe the perspirable moisture from the skin, which would render it, in that hot region, extremely unpleasant to the feeling, and unsafe to the health. The colour and curl of the hair depend in a great degree, upon a certain excrescence of that secretion in the skin, from which it derives its nutriment. Also, the evaporation of a volatile gas, rendering the surface quickly dry, and disposed to contract, while the centre continues distended, necessarily produces an involution or curling of the hair. It may be inquired, How comes the hair of the Africans to be so universally black? I answer, other tribes or nations of the torrid zone have black hair almost universally.

Another peculiarity, which should be mentioned, is the complexion of the Africans being so black, so very widely different from that of the inhabitants of this country. It should be kept in mind, that the colour of the inhabitants of the torrid zone, is generally black; modified, however, by various circumstances, such as the elevation of mountains, the vicinity of seas, and being open to wholesome or to scorching winds. As we advance towards the equator, we discern successively the various grades of dark complexion, from the swarthy to the blackest hue of the human skin. The features are most coarse and harsh in rigorous climates, and in a state of savage or barbarous manners, as among the natives of Africa. That climate possesses a powerful influence on the complexion of nations, we may infer from the effect of the solar rays upon the human skin in our own mild and temperate latitude. Take, for example, a pair of twins in childhood, of fair and