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

The growth of the porous parts of the body must increase in the hot and moist climates. Hence the thick short nose and projecting lips. The skin must be oiled, not only to prevent excessive perspiration, but also imbibing the putrescent particles of the moist air. The surplus of the ferrugineous, or iron particles, which have lately been discovered to exist in the blood of man, and which, by the evaporation of the phosphoric acidities, of which all Negroes smell so strong, being cast upon the retiform membrane, occasions the blackness which appears through the cuticle; and this strong retention of the ferrugineous particles seems to be necessary, in order to prevent the general relaxation of the parts. Moist warmth is peculiarly favourable to the growth of animals, and produces the Negro, who, by the providence of nature, perfectly adapted to his climate, is strong, muscular, agile; but dirty, indolent, and trifling.

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

tain tribes of America, are observed to want some letters of the alphabet, which must originate in the same cause. Hence it happens, that the northern languages have more monosyllables, and are more clogged with consonants, the connecting and pronouncing of which is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to other nations.

A celebrated writer has endeavoured to account for the varieties of the Italian dialects, from the formation of the organs of speech. "For this reason (says he) the people of Lombardy, inhabiting a cold country, have a more rough and concise pronunciation. The inhabitants of Florence and Rome speak in a more measured tone; and the Neapolitans, under a still warmer sky, pronounce the vowels more open, and speak with more fulness."

Persons well acquainted with various nations, can distinguish them as justly from the form of their countenance, as from their speech. Therefore, since man has ever been the object of art and artists, the latter have constantly given the forms of face of their respective nations; and that art, among the ancients, gave the form and countenance of. man, is proved by the same effect having taken place among the moderns. German, Dutch, or French, when the artists neither travel nor study foreign forms, can be known by their pictures as perfectly as Chinese or Tartars. After residing many years in Italy, Rubens continued to draw his figures as if he had never left his native land.

Another Passage from Winkelmann.

The projecting mouths of the Negroes, which they have in common with their monkies, is an excess of growth, a swelling, occasioned by the heat of the climate; like as our lips are swelled by heat or sharp saline moisture, and also, in some men, by violent passion. The small eyes of the distant northern and eastern nations are in consequence of the imperfection of their growth. They are short and slender. Nature produces such forms the more she approaches extremes, where she has to encounter heat or cold. In the one she is prompter and exhausted, and in the other crude, never arriving at maturity. The flower withers in excessive heat, and, deprived of sun, is deprived of colour. All plants degenerate in dark and confined places.

Nature forms with greater regularity the more she approaches her centre, and in more moderate climates. Hence the Grecian, and our own idea of beauty, being derived from more perfect symmetry, must be more accurate than the idea of those, in whom, to use the expression of a modern poet, the image of the Creator is half defaced.

From the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, by M. de Pauw.

The Americans are most remarkable, because that many of them have no eyebrows, and none

have beards; yet we must not infer that they are enfeebled in the organs of generation, since the Tartars and Chinese have almost the same characteristics. They are far, however, from being very fruitful, or much addicted to love. True it is, the Chinese and Tartars are not absolutely beardless. When they are about thirty, a small penciled kind of whisker grows on the upper lip, and some scattered hairs at the end of the chin.

Exclusive of the Esquimaux, who differ in gait, form, features, and manners, from other savages of North America, we may likewise call the Akansans a variety, whom the French have generally named the handsome men. They are all tall and straight, have good features, without the least appearance of beards, have regular eyelids, blue eyes, and fine fair hair; while the neighbouring people are low of stature, have abject countenances, black eyes, the hair of the head black as ebony, and of the body thick and rough.

Though the Peruvians are not very tall, and generally thick set, yet they are tolerably well made. There are many, it is true, who, by being diminutive, are monstrous. Some are deaf, dumb, blind, and idiots; and others want. a limb when born. In all probability, the excessive labour to which they have been subjected by the barbarity of the Spaniards, has produced such numbers of defective men. Tyranny has an influence on the very physical tem

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