mix, and _genus_, race:
from these, miscegenation--a mingling of the races. The word is as
euphonious as "amalgamation," and much more correct in meaning. It has
passed into the language, and no future dictionary will be complete
without it. Next, it was necessary to give the book an erudite
appearance, and arguments from ethnology must form no unimportant part
of this matter. Neither of the authors being versed in this science,
they were compelled to depend entirely on encyclopedias and books of
reference. This obstacle to a New York editor or reporter was not so
great as it might seem. The public are often favored in our journals
with dissertations upon various abstruse matters by men who are entirely
ignorant of what they are writing about. It was said of Cuvier that he
could restore the skeleton of an extinct animal if he were only given
one of its teeth, and so a competent editor or reporter of a city
journal can get up an article of any length on any given subject, if he
is only furnished one word or name to start with. There was but one
writer on ethnology distinctly known to the authors, which was Prichard;
but that being secured, all the rest came easily enough. The authors
went to the Astor Library and secured a volume of Prichard's works, the
perusal of which of course gave them the names of many other
authorities, which were also consulted; and thus a very respectable
array of scientific arguments in favor of Miscegenation were soon
compiled. The sentimental and argumentative portions were quickly
suggested from the knowledge of the authors of current politics, of the
vagaries of some of the more visionary reformers, and from their own
native wit.

The book was at first written in a most cursory manner the chapters got
up without any order or reference to each other, and afterward arranged.
As the impression sought to be conveyed was a serious one, it would
clearly not do to commence with the extravagant and absurd theories to
which it was intended that the reader should gradually be led. The
scientific portion of the work was therefore given first, and was made
as grave and terse and unobjectionable as possible; and merely urged,
by arguments drawn from science and history, that the blending of the
different races of men resulted in a better progeny. As the work
progressed, they continued to "pile on the agony," until, at the close,
the very fact that the statue of the Goddess of Liberty on the Capitol,
is