[56v]

make some allowance for our nice powers of [text excised] discrimination gained by the long habit of observing ourselves. In India, as Elphinstone remarks*(1), although the various native races cannot be distinguished by a newly arrived European, yet they soon appear to him extremely dissimilar; & the Hindoo cannot at first perceive any difference between the several European nations. Even the most distinct races of man, with the exception of certain negro tribes, are more like each other than

[57v]

(3

Ch 6

brought into play in classification; so that forms living in two widely separated areas, in which most of the other inhabitants are specifically distinct, are themselves usually looked at as distinct; but in truth this gives us affords no aid in distinguishing geographical races from so-called good or true species.

Now let us apply these principles, which are generally admitted, to the races of man, viewing him in the same spirit as a naturalist would any other animal. In regard to the amount of difference between the races, we must