covers the head protects it from mischief. The negro hair is then designed solely for the protection of the negro head, and not only differs widely from that of the Caucasian, but from that of all other races, for the negro is a tropical race, and the hair, like all other attributes of the negro being, physical and moral, is adapted to a tropical clime, and in perfect accord with the physical wants and moral necessities of the race. But the mere covering of the head, or the mere protection of the brain, is not all that distinguishes the different races in these respects. The beard is equally radical and universal, though not so palpable a specialty as color, and in some respects it may be said to be a more important one. The Caucasian alone has a beard, for though all others approximate to it in this respect, it is the only bearded race, and some writers on ethnology have been so impressed with this imposing and striking distinction that they have sought to make it the basis of a classification of races. And there certainly is no physical or outward quality that so imposingly impresses itself on the senses as a mark of superiority, or evidence of supremacy, as a full and flowing beard. Color, when in repose, or when it does not give expression to the inner nature, does not, in reality, constitute a distinction at all, but the beard is an evidence of superiority, that, however varied the action or whatever the circumstances, is equally distinct and universal as an attribute of supremacy. This is sufficiently illustrated in our own race and our every day experience. The youth is beardless, and _pari passu_ as he approaches to the maturity of manhood there is a corresponding development of beard. The intellect—the mental strength—the moral beauty, all the qualities of the inner being, as well as those outward attributes tangible to the sense, harmonize perfectly with the growth of the beard, and when that has reached its full development, it is both the signal and the proof of mature manhood—an exact admeasurement and absolute proof of the maturity of the individual as well as the type and standard of the race. This is equally true when applied to different races. The Caucasian is the only bearded race, but all others approximate in this respect, and the negro is furthest removed of all, for the tropical woolly-haired African or negro, except a little tuft on the chin and sometimes on the upper lip, has nothing that can be confounded with a beard. People sometimes see negroes with considerable hair on their faces, and hence conclude that they are as likely to have beards as white men; but they forget that all in our society who are not whites are considered negroes, and therefore those bearded negroes have a large infusion, and doubtless sometimes a vastly predominating infusion of Caucasian blood. The beard symbolizes our highest conceptions of manhood—it is the outward evidence of mature