The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of MankindGobineau, Arthur, comte de
Philosophy
The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind
When we compare the highest and lowest races with each other, the
contrast becomes still more striking, viz: the Teutonic with the
Hottentot and Australian. The former family gives a mean capacity of 92
inches, while the latter two yield but 75, or a difference of _17 cubic
inches_ between the skulls of these types!
Now, as far back as history and monuments carry us, as well as crania
and other testimonies, these various types have been _permanent_; and
most of them we can trace back several thousand years. If such
permanence of type through thousands of years, and in defiance of all
climatic influences, does not establish _specific_ characters, then is
the naturalist at sea without a compass to guide him.
These facts determine clearly the arbitrary nature of all
classifications heretofore adopted; the Teuton, the Jew, the Hindoo,
the Egyptian, &c., have all been included under the term _Caucasian_;
and yet they have, as far as we know, been through all time as distinct
in physical and moral characters from each other, as they have from the
negro races of Africa and Oceanica. The same diversity of types is found
among all the other groups, or arbitrary divisions of the human family.
Rich and rare as is the collection of Dr. Morton, it is very defective
in many of its divisions, and it occurred to me that this deficiency
might to some degree be supplied by the hat manufacturers of various
nations; notwithstanding that the information derived from this source
could give but one measurement, viz: the _horizontal periphery_. Yet
this one measurement alone, on an extended scale, would go far towards
determining the general size of the brain. I accordingly applied to
three hat dealers in Mobile, and a large manufacturer in New Jersey, for
statements of the relative number of hats of each size sold to adult
males; their tables agree so perfectly as to leave no doubt as to the
circumference of the heads of the white population of the United States.
The three houses together dispose of about 15,000 hats annually.
The following table was obligingly sent me by Messrs. Vail & Yates, of
Newark; and they accompanied it with the remark, that their hats were
sent principally to our Western States, where there is a large
proportion of German population; also that the sizes of these hats were
a little larger (about one fourth of an inch) than those sold in the
Southern States. This remark was confirmed by the three dealers in
Mobile. Our table gives, 1st. The number or size of the hat. 2d. The
circumference of the head corresponding. 3d. The circumference of the
hat; and lastly, the relative proportion of each No. sold out of 12
hats.
Size--inches. Circum. Circum. Relative
of head. of hat. prop. in 12.
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