The epithet Caucasian, applied to this branch of the human family, is derived from the high mountain range which stretches between the Black and Caspian Seas, and is justified by the fact that the finest specimens of man--physically considered--have in all ages been found in proximity to that region. The perfect forms and external beauty of the Circassian and Georgian people--male and female alike--are well known. The finest types of the white race (mere physical beauty alone being considered) are to be found within the elevated region of the Caucasian isthmus; and it has even been sought to show that the human form degenerates in proportion as its distance thence, in whatsoever direction, is increased. To the westward of the Caucasus (whatever may be the case in other directions), the grace which attends on moral and intellectual dignity is, however, added to that of merely personal beauty. Considered in reference to color, the Caucasian is the _white_ variety of the human family; but the latter epithet must be considered as applicable only in a general sense, for numerous shades of color intervene between the swarthy complexions of the sub-tropical regions that border on the Mediterranean and the fair skins of the people of Northern and Northwestern Europe. These differences are doubtless in some measure dependent on climate. Yet there must be a well-grounded difference due to other causes, since families of whites dwell during several successive generations within the tropics without acquiring the hue of the Negro, or settle within the western continent without gaining any external resemblance to the copper-colored native of the New World.