OCR Rendition - approximate

lereditary: Talent and Character. 321 numerous republics, Members of the race quered and ruled by m from Spain and Port been subjugated to numerous settlements by stranners on its soil north of the continent has been colonized by European races.. E4 cellent observers have watched the American Indians under all these influences, and their almost unanimous conclusion is as follows : The race is divided into many varieties, but it has fundamentally the same character throughout the whole of America. The men, and ' in a less degree the women, are naturally old, melancholic, patient, and taciturn. father, mother, and their children, ro said to live together in a hut, like persons assembled by accident, not tied by affection. The youths treat their parents with neglect, and often with such harshness and insolence as !to horrify Europeans who have witnessed their conduct. The mothers have been seen to commit infanticide without the slightest discomposure and numerous savage tribes have died out in consequence of this practiced : The American Indians are eminently non-gregarious.. They nourish a sullen reserve, and show little sympathy with each other, even when in great distress The Spaniards had to enforce the coiumon duties of humanity by positive aws. They are strangely taciturn. W fen not engaged in action they will sit whole days in one posture without opening their lips, and wrapped up in their narrow thoughts. They usually march in Indian, file, that is to say, in along fine, at some distance from each other, witho4it exchanging a word. They keep the same profound silence 'in rowing a ca foe, unless they happen to be excited by ome extraneous cause. On the other llairl, their patriotism and local attachments are strong, and they have an asto ishing sense of personal dignity. Th nature of the American Indians app ars to contain the minimum of affecti nate and social qualities compatible' w' h the continuance of their race. No. 70.-VOL. X11. Here, then, is a well-marked typo of character, that formerly prevailed over a large part of the globe, with which other equally marked types of character in other regions are strongly contrasted. Take, for instance, the typical West African Negro. He is more unlike the Red man in his mind than in his body. Their characters are, almost opposite, one to the other. The Red man has great patience, great reticence, great dignity, and no passion ; the Negro has strong impulsive passions, and neither patience, reticence, nor dignity. Ho is warmhearted, loving towards his master's . children, and idolised by the children in return. He is eminently gregarious, for he is always jabbering, quarrelling, tom-tom-lng, or dancing. He is remark ably domestic, and ho is endowed With such constitutional vigour, and is so prolific, that his race is irrepressible. The Hindu, the Arab, the Mongol, the Teuton, arcl very many more, have each of them their peculiar characters. We have not space to analyse them on this occasion ; but, whatever they are,.. they are transmitted, generation after generation, as truly. as their physical ,forms. What is true for the entire race is equally true for its varieties. If we were ,to select persons who were born with a type of character that we desired to intensify, 'suppose it was one that approached to some ideal standard of perfection-and if we compelled marriage within the limits of the society so selected, generation after generation ; there can be no doubt that the offspring would ultimately be born with the qualities we sought, as surely as if we bad been breeding for physical features, and not for intellect or disposition. Our natural constitution seems to bear as direct and stringent a relation to that of our forefathers as any other physical effect does to its cause. Our bodies, minds, and capabilities of development have been derived from them. Everything we possess at our birth is a heritage from our ancestors. Can we hand anything down to our children, that we have fairly won by t T arge and small. have been conlitary adventures gal ; others have Jesuitical rule ; have been made and, finally, the