Having examined into the philosophy of this question, with a view solely of removing certain doubts inherited from the professions of a warlike ancestry, and, predisposed to err in the opposite direction, we have arrived at the conclusion, _once for all_, that the "git up and git" tendencies of mankind, when the proper incentives are at hand, are as absolutely irresistible as the water-fall at Niagara, and as necessary to the happiness of the subject as the barriers that separate him from his mother-in-law. Having solved this problem, and satisfied ourselves of the universality of its conditions, it next occurred to us to examine its terms as applicable to the different races of men. And here we found that while all races are equally gifted in this respect, yet its elementary conditions are not always the same in different branches of the Adamic tree. Taking the extremes in color as the representatives of a fair contrast in other respects, we have confined our investigations to the white and black races,--and with a view to our own profit, and to being fully comprehended by the reader,--these races as they exist on our own shores. Without any reference whatever to the vain science known as metaphysics, our conclusions are as follows: With the white man this element of his being is less on the surface, and he wears it uneasily, as though it were foreign to his genius, and at the same time a curb on his actions. With the other it is a loose-fitting garment, worn on the outside, and he seems rather pleased than otherwise that he is thus rendered a spectacle to his fellow-men. The white man attempts to conceal it, and above all would persuade himself that it is an illusion of the fancy. The black, contrariwise, has no qualms of conscience on the subject, and if pressed for argument, might adduce it as a crowning evidence of his homogeneity.