XXIV. LETTER XXIV. DIVISIONS OF MANKIND INTO THE PERMANENT DIVERSITIES OF CIVILIZED AND UNCIVILIZED NATIONS-OUTLINES OF MY DEAR SYDNEY, LETTER THE dispersion of the renewed race of mankind, to which we have already alluded, has been followed by the consequence which must have been intended to result from it; the rise and spread of numerous populations on the globe, very dissimilar to each other in mind, manners, actions and improvements. From the time they first separated from each other at Babel, it has been a distinguished character of the human kind, as an order of beings, that they should exist on this earth, during their life upon it, in a state of very multifarious diversity, both mentally and morally. In every quarter of the world, the disparted race has grown up into distinct tribes and nations, of which each has such peculiarities, as to make its individual and collective state a contrast to all others. From the universality and perpetuation of this result, we must infer that it was meant to take place. It was not produced for any temporary purpose; but it has been steadily maintained, and made the continuing course and abiding character of human society, as if it had been designed to be its permanent condition. Hence, no one universal, absorbing and assimilating empire has been suffered to arise; and all advances to the formation of such a one have been resisted and soon nullified. Man has not been made to be a one uniform being, like the lion or the antelope. But the system of Providence has been, that he should be a very diversified being, varying in every new generation, and varying in each one, individually, as it subsists. In ancient time he appeared in those distinct nations which we read of; and altho these have passed away, the diversifying and separating principle has not closed its agency. On the contrary, it has been increasing in vigor and effect; for at no former period of the world, have there been so many varied forms of human nature on the earth together, as are now presented to us in its different regions. We are therefore entitled to say, that the Deity has chosen and preferred, that His human race should diverge into this multiform diversity, and at present remain in it. It has fulfilled His purposes better than any other form of society would have done; tho it is always possible that, as time rolls on, His plan may require that these discrepancies should be diminished, and that a more general union and assimilation should begin to take place. Such an event will not occur, until it is best and happiest for mankind that all should thus blend into greater resemblances; but as both moral and intellectual perfection might be promoted by it, and indeed lead to its production, it may be the ulterior state of our completed progression. The division and dispersion of mankind gradually occasioned, at an era so early as to be anterior to all the remains and memorials of profane history, two | very contrasted states of the human population, by which it has ever since been distinguished. These LETTER XXIV. LETTER XXIV. we habitually term, with sufficient distinctness of pyra Thus in all ages, one part of mankind has diverged into and lived in the uncivilized form of human life; while the other part has preferred that condition and those habits, with all their appendages and results, to which the name of civilization, under all its varieties, has been uniformly attached. These contrasted states are not very satisfactory to our imperfect judgment: the rude and savage offend it: the purposes and benefit of their existence are very little studied by us, and we depreciate whatever is unlike ourselves. Hence our national antipathies and hostile jealousies, and our contempt for all that we deem to be inferior. But the Divine philanthropy is not that small and feeble sentiment, which glimmers and vacillates in our bosom, and too often is absent 1 XXIV. from it. It has been solemnly declared to us, that LETTER 'God is no respecter of persons, but that, in every nation, whosoever feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." This sublime truth, which we are perpetually forgetting, is one of the leading articles in the Divine Charter granted to our race, and presents the whole world, uncivilized as well as civilized, as forming one common family, partaking alike His regard and favors. But His appreciations are perpetually differing from ours. We survey the external figure and station: He perceives the interior man. His plans extend, like His omniscience, beyond the limits of our knowlege and capacity; and we slowly advance in the art and power of deciphering them. Yet the more we succeed in discerning them, we always find wisdom and goodness both in their conception and execution. 2 We may believe that it is so in the instance before us. He deduces grand effects and utilities from the diversities which we may lament, and therefore permits and perpetuates them, as long as He thinks fit. Nor need the human spirit be without its moral value, in either the rude or the polished state; both may possess, and many of the individuals of each, have in all ages exhibited the four cardinal virtues of the ancient moralists, Prudence, Fortitude, Justice and Tem 1 Acts, x. 34, 5. 'There is no respect of persons with God.' Rom. ii. 6. The Lord your God regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.' Deut. x. 17. 2 This was the solemn declaration to Samuel: The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.' 1 Sam. xvi. 7. This was the principle of the prophetic description of the Messiah: He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.' Isaiah, xi. 3, 4. XXIV. LETTER perance. The higher standard presented to us by the Prophet Micah,---Justice, Benevolence and Piety, -was as practicable by either;3 for often has even Mercy appeared among the wildest people. Both then are but different compartments of His divine system of human society. The co-existence of these two contrary modes of their earthly existence, indicates that neither of them is unnatural or repugnant to the human race. They have been also found, at various periods, to be convertible into each other; portions of individuals of the civilized have deviated into the wild, and the savage has been repeatedly softened into a welcomed civilization; thus human nature is adapted for the one as much as for the other, and the differences seem to come more from individual inclination and transmitted habit, than from any essential principles in the human constitution. As far as these operate, they have been equally active in both conditions. The mind is as energetic in the savage as in the most cultivated; it is occupied with different subjects of thought and exercise, but is as acute and vigorous in its chosen course of action in the mountain and in the forest, as it is in the superior pursuits of the well-thronged, orderly and industrious metropolis. It is not therefore in original principles of our common nature, that they differ so much from each other; it is in both, one and the same mind, one and the same species of human soul, as it is the same form, limbs and functions of the body, which yet display themselves in such striking contrast of qualities and 3 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' Micah, vi. |