"From a physiological point of view, we may speak of varieties of men, no longer of races. Man is a species, created once, and divided into none of its varieties by specific distinctions. In fact the common origin of the Negro and the Greek admits not of rational doubt."

The mental phenomena to which we have alluded, if furnishing proof less palpable to the senses, are in their specific correspondences, when carefully examined, equally decisive of essential oneness in mankind.

Vast as is the interval between the towering intellectual proportions of a Shakespeare, a Milton, a Bacon, or a Newton, and those of the groveling creatures known as Esquimaux or Fuegans, Hottentots or Guineans, there are not only countless links binding them to the same common kind, but certain great features making manifest their family relationship.

A ratiocinative and logical faculty marks man wherever he is found, and a creative genius varying with circumstances. On every soil and beneath every sky, is he characterized by the sense of responsibility which renders government possible, and binds him to the moral system of the universe. And the outworking of this element of his being, in some form of religious belief and custom, is coterminous with his diffusion.

Against this it is vain to urge, as indicating specific difference, the favorite allegation of diversity advocates, that the brain of the Indian, &c., is comparatively small, and that no instance can be adduced of a negro who has made high attainments in literature or philosophy.

Dr. Morton himself teaches, in an extract already given, that the Indian brain has, by peculiar habit of exercise, been in some tribes considerably enlarged. A fact indeed falling in with the commonly observed tendency of all human tissues to enlargement, within moderate limits, through a given process of action. Size of brain, however, at any rate, is no final test of mind. The quality of material must surely be quite as important as its quantity. Dr. Wyman testifies that other heads in Boston were notoriously larger than Daniel Webster's.

To demand instances of superior intellect among races long

degraded, is then, plainly unreasonable, and amounts in truth to a begging of the question, by the opponents of unity. Can they furnish such instances among the forty or fifty million of native Sclavonian Serfs, spread over the vast plains of European Russia? Instances can certainly be adduced, though they are rare, of pureblooded negroes making very considerable attainments in high learning. J. H. B. Latrobe, Esq., of Baltimore, has described one whom he knew, who became a quite profound mathematician. The census returns also exhibit some singular statistics, as to the education and employment of many negroes, alike in New Orleans and New York. And the sound judgment, good feeling, and steady principle which good planters so often discover in their well-trained slaves, certainly speak favorably of their position in the wide range of humanity. Moreover our laws themselves, by assuming the rational and responsible nature of the negro, and regulating thereby their important sanctions, bear testimony, incontestible, to an universal conviction on the subject. The truth unquestionably is, that while habit and other causes have greatly modified and extensively degraded the one mental, as well as the one bodily constitution of the greater part of mankind, the lowest tribes are not only improvable in the latter respect as well as in the former, but the mind in its most degraded state, by unmistakable movements, vindicates its high connections. How strikingly does the emotional nature of man every where respond to the stroke of grief or the touch of delight! Smiles and tears, laughter and groans, may be witnessed equally in the hovel and the palace, in the ice-burrow of the oil-fed Samoied, and the star-canopied sand-home of the half-starved BurAnd there is something in this single fact more convincing than whole volumes of materialistic speculation. The great poet of mankind has fitly spoken the truth in words that can never die : "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

man.

To this entire argument from nature, conclusive as it is, the Bible sets the seal of revealed verity. It not only affirms in the plainest terms that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," but it traces them

Acts xvii, 26.

down from one created pair and one reserved household. It not only makes known, as its supreme, all-comprehending disclosure, one "Son of man," at once the " Second Adam," and the "Lord from heaven," mysteriously accomplishing a great scheme of mediation for mankind, but it addresses its encouragement and admonitions, its precepts and its promises, with undiscriminating benignity, and commands them to be conveyed with universal comprehensiveness to every variety and every grade of human creatures, as constituting one great brotherhood. Children of one vast family. So thoroughly indeed is the doctrine of an actual blood-relationship between all human beings interwoven with the highest announcements and most practical inculcations of revelation, that it may be pronounced impracticable to reject the one and retain the other. We see not how it is possible to recognize ordinary fairness, far less inspired veracity, in the fundamental lessons of Scripture, and yet reject their uniform teaching concerning the co-ordinate relations of men towards each other, and to their common Father and one Mediator.

Accordingly we find the most frivolous air of levity, the bitterest tone of mockery, and the fiercest spirit of hostility, directed against the belief of any thing supernatural in the Bible, associated with the latest phase of the diversity theory. And at the same time, with strange inconsistency, the attempt is made to represent the issue, so far as revelation is concerned, as a mere question of interpretation, like those involved in the solution of astronomical and geological facts under their phenomenal instead of their scientific relations.

This alternative, Dr. Van Evire has the prudence from the first to announce, and his more copious co-laborers in the cause, mingle it in part with their dire denunciations, but it cannot be admitted. Man, his relations, his duties, his prospects, his origin, and his destiny, constitute the essential, all-pervading topic of revelation. And there is no interpretation that can change these in the manner proposed, without rending the whole fabric to its base and scattering the dishonored fragments to the winds.

In the Bible, as in common parlance, there is no necessary conflict between the incidental mention of natural events according

Not

to their appearances, and the scientific realities of the case. so however with its account of the position and relations of the human family. If its historical, preceptive, and spiritual exhibitions so distinctly conveyed, be not reliable, it is discredited throughout. There is in fact nothing left to credit.

Could science necessitate such interpretation, it would really prove Christianity a fable, and revelation an imposture; Bacon a dupe, Newton a driveler, and the sober judgment of the Christian world an insane infatuation or a childish delusion.

Of all this, however, there is, as we have seen, happily not the remotest danger. Science really speaks here as every where, in harmony with Scripture.

Truth now, as heretofore, is found like its Author, one.

ART. V.-HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN, FORMATION AND ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, with notices of its principal framers. By GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS. In two volumes. Vol. I. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1854.

No subject can deserve more attention from the American. reader, than the history of the Constitution of the United States. Every citizen is, by the structure of our institutions, the expositor of that charter. No law can be framed by Congress under its provisions, which does not, directly or indirectly, affect his interests, no less than the exercise of his political power. Consequently every book, written intelligently upon this subject, possesses a marked value. Lord Bolingbroke has well said that "when histories and historical memorials abound, even those that are false serve to the discovery of truth. Inspired by different passions, and contrived for opposite purposes, they contradict; and, contradicting, they convict one another." The light of truth is elicited in the clashing of opinions, and knowledge is increased, and our view of the whole system made more accurate, by observing it from different points.

This is especially true of all writings, which are political in their character, or which relate to questions dividing the opinions of parties. Few or none can write, an impartial history of the causes of a war, while they are engaged in the campaign, among the actual combatants. Our reasonable expectations are fully gratified, when the facts are truly presented in a political history. If we have right upon our side, and the premises of the author are correctly stated, we may give him all credit for his candor and learning even while we differ from his conclusions. And although we would more highly esteem a history that commended itself to our judgment by its conclusions, no less than by its narrative, yet, if we are satisfied that the author expresses in his work an honest conviction, it is our duty to accord him just praise for the manner in which his labor has been performed.

We believe that the history of the Constitution by Mr. Curtis is entitled to commendation, for its learning, earnestness, and candor; and although we may find occasion to dispute the soundness of some of the more important political lessons which are taught in his volume, we shall endeavor to perform that duty with the amenity due to the largeness of his purpose, to the purity of his intent, and to the dignity of his style. We shall remember always that his work was performed with the sanction of Daniel Webster, and in partial exposition of the theories maintained by that great statesman. We shall respectfully discuss argument that accords with the tenor of the public life and opinions of the Massachusetts Senator, whose great talents so long adorned the Congress of the United States. But we shall not forget that we are sustained in our differences of opinion by that other noble intellect, whose fame will increase always as the years advance, and whose memory is precious to the people of the Southern States, and truly honored throughout the length and breadth of the land.

The political theory of the author, to which we have alluded, is made apparent in his first chapter, and pervades the whole current of his after narrative. We shall briefly examine its de