The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind

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THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY OF RACES.

With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence
in the Civil and Political History Of Mankind.

From the French of COUNT A. DE GOBINEAU:

With an Analytical Introduction and Copious Historical Notes.
By H. Hotz.

To Which Is Added an Appendix Containing a Summary
of the Latest Scientific Facts Bearing upon the
Question of Unity or Plurality of Species.
By J. C. Nott, M. D., of Mobile.







Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott & Co.
1856.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
J. B. Lippincott & Co.,
in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United
States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.




                                 TO THE

                          STATESMEN OF AMERICA,

                               THIS WORK,

          THE FIRST ON THE RACES OF MEN CONTEMPLATED FROM THE
              POINT OF VIEW OF THE STATESMAN AND HISTORIAN
                      RATHER THAN THE NATURALIST,

                                  IS

                        RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

                                BY THE

                           AMERICAN EDITOR.




EDITOR'S PREFACE.


It has been truly observed that a good book seldom requires, and a bad
one never deserves, a long preface. When a foreign book, however, is
obtruded on the notice of the public, it is but just that the reasons
for so doing should be explained; and, in the present case, this is the
more necessary, as the title of the work might lead many to believe that
it was intended to re-agitate the question of unity or plurality of the
human species--a question which the majority of readers consider
satisfactorily and forever settled by the words of Holy Writ. Such,
however, is not the purpose of either the author or the editor. The
design of this work is, to contribute toward the knowledge of the
leading mental and moral characteristics of the various races of men
which have subsisted from the dawn of history to the present era, and to
ascertain, if possible, the degree to which they are susceptible of
improvement. The annals of the world demonstrate beyond a doubt, that
the different branches of the human family, like the individual members
of a community, are endowed with capacities, different not only in
degree but in kind, and that, in proportion to these endowments, they
have contributed, and still contribute to that great march of progress
of the human race, which we term civilization. To portray the nature of
these endowments, to estimate the influence of each race in the
destinies of all, and to point out the effects of mixture of races in
the rise and fall of great empires, has been the task to the
accomplishment of which, though too extensive for one man, the author
has devoted his abilities. The troubles and sufferings of his native
country, from sudden political gyrations, led him to speculate upon
their causes, which he believes are to be traced to the great variety of
incongruous ethnical elements composing the population of France. The
deductions at which he arrived in that field of observation he subjected
to the test of universal history; and the result of his studies for many
years, facilitated by the experiences of a diplomatic career, are now
before the American public in a translation. That a work, on so
comprehensive a subject, should be exempt from error, cannot be
expected, and is not pretended; but the aim is certainly a noble one,
and its pursuit cannot be otherwise than instructive to the statesman
and historian, and no less so to the general reader. In this country, it
is peculiarly interesting and important, for not only is our immense
territory the abode of the three best defined varieties of the human
species--the white, the negro, and the Indian--to which the extensive
immigration of the Chinese on our Pacific coast is rapidly adding a
fourth, but the fusion of diverse nationalities is nowhere more rapid
and complete; nowhere is the great problem of man's perfectibility being
solved on a grander scale, or in a more decisive manner.