The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.) It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel’s Translation of Dr. Prichard’s Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a “very noble race” of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous! I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains! ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐