of the southern ocean and of the continent
of the antipodes.** The view of so many varieties of the same species,
of so many extravagant inventions of the same understanding, and of so
many modifications of the same organization, affected me with a thousand
feelings and a thousand thoughts.*** I contemplated with astonishment
this gradation of color, which, passing from a bright carnation to a
light brown, a deeper brown, dusky, bronze, olive, leaden, copper, ends
in the black of ebony and of jet. And finding the Cassimerian, with his
rosy cheek, next to the sun-burnt Hindoo, and the Georgian by the side
of the Tartar, I reflected on the effects of climate hot or cold, of
soil high or low, marshy or dry, open or shaded. I compared the dwarf of
the pole with the giant of the temperate zones, the slender body of
the Arab with the ample chest of the Hollander; the squat figure of
the Samoyede with the elegant form of the Greek and the Sclavonian; the
greasy black wool of the Negro with the bright silken locks of the Dane;
the broad face of the Kalmuc, his little angular eyes and flattened
nose, with the oval prominent visage, large blue eyes, and aquiline nose
of the Circassian and Abazan. I contrasted the brilliant calicoes of the
Indian, the well-wrought stuffs of the European, the rich furs of the
Siberian, with the tissues of bark, of osiers, leaves and feathers of
savage nations; and the blue figures of serpents, flowers, and
stars, with which they painted their bodies. Sometimes the variegated
appearance of this multitude reminded me of the enamelled meadows of the
Nile and the Euphrates, when, after rains or inundations, millions of
flowers are rising on every side. Sometimes their murmurs and their
motions called to mind the numberless swarms of locusts which, issuing
from the desert, cover in the spring the plains of Hauran.

* This species of the palm-tree is called Latanier. Its
leaf, similar to a fan-mount, grows upon a stalk issuing
directly from the earth. A specimen may be seen in the
botanic garden.

** The country of the Papons of New Guinea.

*** A hall of costumes in one of the galleries of the Louvre
would, in every point of view, be an interesting
establishment. It would furnish an admirable treat to the
curiosity of a great number of persons, excellent models to
the artist, and useful subjects of meditation to the
physician, the philosopher