It is by these properties—the variability on the one hand, and non-variability on the other—that men of science have classified animated things into improvable and non-improvable species. Those unchangeable in reproduction, as the lion, the tiger, the leopard and the bear, who partake in exact proportions of the stripes, and spots, and colors of their progenitors, are assigned to the division of non-improvables, while the horse, the dog and the ox, who vary their colors in reproduction, are assigned to the division of improvable things. The non-improvable are also non-progressive, consequently, as the negro falls within that division, he must be assigned to the non-progressive department of animated beings. But how far the rule is general, we do not pretend to know, but apprehend that, like most other rules, it is subject to exceptions. Still, there can be no difficulty in perceiving that the little dark eyes, bullet head and inexpressive countenance of the negro are not the accompaniments of high mental unfoldings, nor is it likely that civilization, though forced into the mind, could long be retained when all these characteristics of inferiority are regularly transmitted in reproduction. By the constant power of tuition he may be forced to a particular limit, but, like the soft magnet, he lapses into his native condition whenever the charging power is withdrawn. In his native country his mentality, like a heavy fluid, has scarcely, if ever, presented a ripple. Does not this point to a non-progressive nature? The same sun which has risen and set upon the white man, has also, with the same brilliancy shone upon him, and for precisely the same number of revolving years. Why, then, has he remained so far below the white man, if he be not of an inferior species? By the flow may we determine the character of the fountain; and, as governments and laws are the outshoots of the minds which make them, by such productions may normal status be determined. “Show me your laws,” said a philosopher, “and I will tell you what you are.” Show me that you have no laws, and the rule will apply with equal force and precision, for then you prove yourself a barbarian. By this rule then, as well as by any other, let the negro be measured. All Africa, under the dominion of the negro mind—from the desert to the cape—with her fifty to a hundred millions of people, is a country of masters and slaves, nailed down by nature to the lowest possible level of barbarian life. Men, women and children mingle together in unbroken nudity, bask in their sands, feed on bugs and reptiles, and even on the flesh of one another. The men strut as warriors, though slaves to petty princes, and the women bend to their lots as bearers of burdens. Are these nature’s arguments in favor of negro with white equality before the law!