Thus we perceive that the distinguishing complexions, hair and eyes, of the Celts, Goths, and Slavi, arc, at the present time, nearly as well marked as they were in the time of the Romans, and that a change of climate has not essentially altered them. In traversing Europe, we pass from the Celtic tribes to the Gothic, and from the Gothic to the Slavoni, without experiencing any change of climate ; and we find the comparatively dark complexioned Celts and Slavi, in the Highlands of Scot land, and in the latitude of Petersburgh, while the blue eyed, and comparatively fair-haired Goths, are found in the south of Germany•t As, therefore, the dark-complexioned varieties of man kind are found near the Poles ;—as people of the same complexion are found over the whole continent of Ame rica, under all its various climates; as there arc numer ous instances of comparative fairness of complexion under the heat of a burning climate ; as radical differ ences of complexion are found in the same regions, and even among the same people ; and as there arc numer ous instances where the original complexion has remain ed permanent, notwithstanding it has been exposed to a change of climate for centuries, it may fairly be inferred that the characteristic complexions of the different varie ties of the human race arc not the result of climate.
It is not meant to be denied that a burning climate will not render the complexion very dark; and that a climate of less extreme heatI wi.1 not bronze the complexion of the fairest European ; brit there are some material points, in which the dark complexion of the Caucasian, or na urally fair-skinned variety of mankind, caused by cli mate, differs from the dark complexion of all the other varieties of the race.
1. The offspring of the Caucasian variety is born fair ; —the offspring of the other varieties is born of the cc Fpcctive complexion of their parents. Ulloa informs us, that the children born in Guayaquil of Spanish parents arc very fair. (Ulloa, i. 171.) The same is the case in the 'West Indies. Long, in his History of Jamaica, ex pressly affirms, "That the children born in England have not, in general, lovelier or more transparent skins, than the offspring of white parents in Jamaica." But it may be urged, that this is not the case with respect to the other nations of the Caucasian variety, who have been settled in warm climates from time immemorial; and that the question ought to be decided by the Moors, Arabians, Ste. Their children, however, are also born fair complexioned ; as fair as the children of Europeans, who live under a cold climate. Russell informs us, that the inhabitants of the country round Aleppo are natural ly of a fair complexion; and that women of condition, with proper care, preserve their fair complexion to the last. (Russell's .4/•/ino, i. 99.) The children of the loors, according to Shaw, have the finest complexions of any nation whatsoever : and the testimony of Poiret is directly to the same effect: "The Moors are not na turally black, but are born fair ; and when not exposed to the heat of the sun, remain fair during their lives. Shaw, p. 304; and Poiret's Voyage en Barbaric, i. 31.
Respecting the complexion of the Negro and Indian children, when first horn, there appears to be some dif ference of opinion ; but this difference will be found on examination to be of little moment, and to have arisen from some authors speaking of their complexion at the very moment of their birth, while others describe it as appearing a few days afterwards. In fact, all children,
immediately when born, have a reddish hue; and the children of Negroes and Indians resembling the children of Litropeans in this respect, it has been inferred that they were born white. We should, therefore, endeavour to ascertain the complexion of Negro and Indian chil dren, after the reddish hue is gone off, and before they could possibly be affected by the heat of the climate. \Vinterbottom informs us, that Negro children are near ly as fair as Europeans at their birth, and do not acquire their colour till several days have elapsed." (Winterbot tom, i. 189.) And Ligon, in a passage in his account of Barbadoes already quoted, mentions that, when first born, the palms of their hands, and soles of their feet, are of a whitish colour. (Ligon, p. 52.) A friend of Mr Boyle's, tt ho kept between 300 and 400 Negro slaves in the West Indies, informed him, that their children were of a reddish colour when born, like Europeans, but in a few days became black. Boyle's Works abridged by Shaw, ii. 42.) And Andrew Patten (%\ hose travels are giver in Purchas) says, that the children in Longo are born white, and change in two days. The dark com plexion first appears round the nails, the nipples, and the private parts.
Humboldt affirms, that in Peru, Quito, on the coast of Caraccas, the banks of the Orinoco, and in Mexico, the children of Indians arc never born white ; but Gumilla, in a passage quoted by the translator of Humboldt, ex pressly asserts, that the Indian children, at their birth, arc white, except a small spot on the waist ; but in a few days acquire their natural colour. It is probable, that Humboldt speaks of them, not immediately on their birth, but when they had acquired this colour. (Hum boldt, i. 146.) As, therefore, there seems no doubt of the fact, that the children ol Negroes and Indians, what ever may be their colour immediately on their birth, be come in a very few days of a dark colour, it may be re garded as a fair and indubitable inference, that this change is not produced by the climate. Those, indeed, who contend, that the children of Negroes arc naturally fair, and acquire their dark complexion solely by the in fluence of the climate, wish to make out a case against their own hypothesis ; for if climate could, in a very few years, or even months, render the fair born children of Negroes like their parents, tho children of Europeans, born in Africa or the West Indies, should become equal ly black when they grow up; and we should not now be able to distinguish any difference between the Europeans and the Negroes in those countries. Besides, if this opi nion were true, the fair born children of Negroes in Eu rope ought to continue fair during their lives, since the alleged cause of a change of complexion, a burning cli mate, did not exist.