resembling or approximating to the typical Negro, are hybrids and mongrels, the effete and expiring remains of the mighty populations and imposing civilizations that once flourished upon its soil. There may be also other species besides the Mongol in Asia, and beside the Malay in Oceanica, and it is quite probable that some species have totally perished. But it is certain that those thus briefly discussed now exist; that their location, their history, as far as they can be said to have a history, their physical qualities and mental condition, in short, their specific characters, are plainly marked and well understood. Nevertheless, and though all this belongs to the domain of fact, and it is as absurd to question it as it would be to question the existence of diverse species in any of the genera or families of the animal creation, the “world” generally holds to the notion of a single human race. It is not designed to expressly argue this point, for, to the American mind, it is so obvious, if not self-evident, that the 51Human Creation is composed of diverse species, that argument is misplaced if not absolutely absurd. The European people rarely see the Negro or other species of men, and therefore the notion of a single human race or species (with them) is natural enough, indeed a mental necessity. Ethnologists—men of vast erudition, of noble intellect and honest and conscientious intentions—have devoted their powers to this subject, and volume upon volume has been published to demonstrate the assumption of a single race. Buffon, Blumenbach, Tiedemann, Prichard, even Cuvier himself, have given in their adherence to this dogma, or rather it should be said have set out with the assumption of a single race and collected a vast amount of material—of fact or presumed fact—to demonstrate its supposed truth. Nor is it an easy matter to explode their sophistries or to disprove their assumptions. With great and admitted claims to scientific acquirement and powers of reasoning, they combine undoubted honesty of intention and seemingly careful and patient investigation, and the amount or extent of evidence adduced, the elaborate and mighty array of fact, of learned and imposing authority appealed to, and the fatiguing if not unwarrantable argument put forward, made it, and still make it difficult to reply to them or to disprove their assumptions. Any question, no matter what its nature, or however deficient in the elements of truth, still admits of argument, and falsehood may often lead astray the reason even when the judgment itself is convinced to the contrary. And these European advocates of the dogma of a single race have such a boundless field for discussion, can so bewilder and fatigue the reason as well as pervert the imagination by their plausible arguments, 

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