An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species. To which are added Strictures on Lord Kaims's [sic] discourse, on the original diversity of mankind / By the Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith.

  • Samuel Stanhope Smith
Date:
1787
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species. To which are added Strictures on Lord Kaims's [sic] discourse, on the original diversity of mankind / By the Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    104/164 (page 90)
    96 Of Complexion and Figure firong light, the falfehood of fimilar wondergj with Wepard to this continent, that were a few years ago reported, believed, and philofophifed onin Europe. We hear every day the abfurd remarks, and the falfe reafonings of foreign- ers on almoft every object that comes under their obfervation in this new region. They judge of things, of men, and of manners un= der the influence of habits and ideas framed in a different climate, and a different ftate of fociety ; of they infer general and erroneous conclufions from fingle and miftaken fads, viewed through that prejudice, which previ- ous habits always form i in common minds™. Since * Tt requires a greater portion of reflexion and philofophy than falls to the lot-of ordinary travellers to enable them to judge with propriety of men and things in diftant countries. Countries.are defcribed from a fingle ~ {pot; manners froma fingle action, and men from the firft man that is feen ona foreign fhore, and saa him only half feen, and ata diftance. From this fpirit, America has been repr refehted-by different travellers as the moft fertile or the moft barren region on the globe. Navigators to Africa often fpeak of the fpreading forefts and luguriant heirs of that arid continent, becaufe fome fcenes'of this kind are prefented to the cye: along the fhores of the Gambia and the Senegal. And furprize occafioned. by an uncommon complexion or compolition of features, has increafed or diminithed the ftature of different nations beyond all the proportions of nature.—Such judgments are fimilar, perhaps, to thofe which a Chinefe failor would form of the United States who had feen only cape May ; or. would form of Britain or of France, who had feen only the ports of Dover or of Calais. What information concerning thofe kingdoms could fuch a vifitant afford his countrymen from fuch a wvitit % ? Befide the limited {phere. of his obfervation, he would fee every thing with aftonifhment or with dif- guit, that would exaggerate, or diftort his reprefentation. He would fee each action by itfelf witout knowing its connexions; or he would fee it with the connexions which it would have in ies own country. A fimilar error * -