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256 meet with men of straight, active, and vigorous persons, who present to you foreheads as open, full, and finely arches as the whites. And among the females it is not uncommon to meet with good fea-tures, and a pleasing expression of countenance. And if we consider beauty of form in the mixed race as of any account in this question, there are not perhaps in the world of persons of finer figure and proportions than are found among the mulattos of St. Domingo or Jamaica. — The nose of the American negro, though not yet so much raised as that of the whites, is, in general, far from being so much depressed as that of the natives of Africa. The teeth of that race are almost universally beautiful; and, in [[note]] plexion of man, is a philosophical one. And it is remarkable that the doctrine of entire mutability on this subject," a strange expression for a critical annotator, "is, and always has been advocated, by men much more distinguished for their piety, and christian zeal, than for their knowledge of nature." — What then! does a little smattering of Chemistry and Medicine, cre-ate a philosopher? Were Bason and Buffon, and Blumen-bach, and Camper, and a thousand others among the most eminent naturalists, more distinguished for their christian zeal, than for their knowledge of nature? Or has the young man, in his zeal to throw out a malignant reflection against religion, forgotten these real philosophers? -- If he has a spark remain-ing of that ingenuousness which becomes a philosopher, or a scholar, he will be ashamed of this annotation. 257 the cases which I have already indicated, and which should be preserved in mind in all these re-marks, where their servitude has been mild, through several races, they are found not to project more at the points than those of the handsomest Europeans. In proportion as the feature of the nose rises, the lips are becoming less protuberant. And the dis-tance from the bottom of the nose to the aperture of the lops, and thense to the middle of the chin, dif-fers little, in many of them, from the proportions that are seen among the whites.* How far the gib-bousness of the legs and thighs, which is so com-mon to the natives of Africa, is to be ascribed to climate, I will not venture to pronounce : but I am inclined rather to attribute it to neglect of their children during the period of infancy. † The cli- [[note]] *See the proportions taken from young blacks, p. 261—263. † From the same cause many crooked and deformed per-sons are seen in most of the great manufacturing towns in England; and indeed wherever the necessities of the poor press upon them so constantly that they have not leisure to pay those attentions to their children which are requisite to improve the beauty of their form, or even to preserve them from many hurtful accidents. From a directly opposite cause, the facility with which the poor procure subsistence in the Unites States, and the leisure which they consequently enjoy for all these do- H H
