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
It is true that science has not discovered, and perhaps never will
discover, what physical differences correspond to the differences in
individual minds. Phrenology, starting with brilliant promises, and
bringing to the task powers of no mean order, has failed. But there is a
vast difference between the characteristics by which we distinguish
individuals of the same race, and those by which we distinguish
races themselves. The former are not strictly--at least not
immediately--hereditary, for the child most often differs from both
parents in body and mind, because no two individuals, as no two leaves
of one tree, are precisely alike. But, although every oak-leaf differs
from its fellow, we know the leaf of the oak-tree from that of the
beech, or every other; and, in the same manner, races are distinguished
by peculiarities which are hereditary and permanent. Thus, every negro
differs from every other negro, else we could not tell them apart; yet
all, if pure blood, have the same characteristics in common that
distinguish them from the white. I have been prolix, but intentionally
so, in my discrimination between individual distinction and those of
race, because of the latter, comparative anatomy takes cognizance; the
former are left to phrenology, and I wished to remove any suspicion that
in the investigation of moral and intellectual diversities of races,
recourse must be had to the ill-authenticated speculations of a dubious
science. But, from the data of comparative anatomy, attained by a slow
and cautious progress, we deduce that races are distinguished by certain
permanent physical characteristics; and, if these physical
characteristics correspond to the mental, it follows as an obvious
conclusion that the latter are permanent also. History ratifies the
conclusion, and the common sense of mankind practically acquiesces in
it.
To return, then, to our author. I would add to his two elements of
civilization a third--intellect _per se_; or rather, to speak more
correctly, I would subdivide one of his elements into two, of which one
is probably dependent on physical conformation. The combinations will
then be more complex, but will remove every difficulty.
I remarked that although we may consider all races as possessed of equal
moral endowments, we yet may speak of moral diversities; because,
without the light of revelation, man has nothing but his intellect
whereby to compass the immaterial world, and the manifestation of his
moral faculties must therefore be in proportion to the clearness of his
intellectual, and their preponderance over the animal tendencies. The
three I consider as existing about in the following relative proportions
in the three great groups under which Mr. Gobineau and Mr. Latham[28]
have arranged the various races--a classification, however, which, as I
already observed, I cannot entirely approve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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