Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon.

  • Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    772/800 (page 716)
    Within the past five years, various sectaries (momentarily suspending polemics amongst one another) had entered into a sort of tacit combination to assail those who, like Morton, Nott, Yan Amringe, Agassiz, and others, were devoting themselves to anthropological researches. Each of the above-named gentlemen has successfully repelled the intrusions of dogmatism into his especial scientific domain. In these literary “ meldes,” it has so happened that my surname has been frequently made the target for indiscreet allusions on the part of certain leologaslri; without any provo- cation having been given on my side, through a single personality, in the course of ten years’ lectureship upon Oriental archaeology in the United States. To treat such in any other manner than with silent indifference would have been unbecoming, as well as, at the moment of each offence, unavailing. I preferred abiding my own convenience; and, in the foregoing Part III., have indicated an easy method of carrying “ the war into Africa.” I believe that, thereby, good service is done in the general cause of the advancement of knowledge, and in the special one of my favorite study, Archceology. Geologists, Natural- ists, and Ethnologists (absorbed in the promotion of positive science through the discovery of new facts), have rarely devoted time adequate to the mastery of Hebraical literature; and, in consequence, they are continually laying themselves open to chagrin and defeat in the arena of theological wranglings. My former pursuits (in Muslim lands) were remote from Natural Science, and as they disqualify me from sharing the labors of its votaries, I have thought that a contribution like the present, to the biblical armory of scientific men, might be of utility; even if it should merely spare them the trouble of ransacking for authorities generally beyond the circumference of their higher sphere of research: at the same time that a work such as “Types of Mankind” would be deficient unless the Hebrew department of its themes were to some extent complete. To future publication [supra, pp. 626, 627], I reserve further analyses which, without these preliminary Essays, would be unintelligible to ordinary scriptural readers. Confident of her own strength, Archseology (let one of this science’s thousand followers hint to her opponents) neither courts nor depre- cates biblical or any other agitation, and will prosecute her investigations peaceably while she can, otherwise when she must. Repeating the direct and manly language of Luke Burke — to whose conception of a real “Ethnological Journal” scientific minds will some day accord the homage that is its due:— “For all our arguments, there is the ready answer that our statements directly contra- dict the express words of Scripture, and must therefore be false, however plausible they may appear. We may reply that the word of God cannot be in opposition to genuine his- tory, any more than it can oppose any other truth, and that therefore the passages in question cannot be a portion of this word, or if so, that they cannot have hitherto been properly understood. But experience has abundantly proved that such answers as these give satisfaction to very few, until facts have become so numerous and unequivocal that further opposition is madness. In the meantime, a war of opinion rages, embittered by all the virulence of sectarian partisanship, and the credulous and simple-minded are taught to look upon the advocates of the new doctrines as the enemies of morality, religion, and the best interests of man. For ourselves, we have no ambition to appear in any such light, nor shall we quietly submit to be placed in such a position.” (571) And for myself — whilst thoroughly endorsing the sentiments of a valued friend and colleague — I cannot better express the feelings with which I close my individual portion of an undertaking that has occupied the thoughts and hands of some men not unknown in the world of science, than by applying to our antagonists the last words ever written by me at the dictation of him to whom, with being itself, I owe all that mind and heart still hold to be priceless after more than forty years’ experience of a wanderer’s life : — “ La medicina dwcnta amara. Spero che sard salutifera. Intanto, siprenderd.(572) G. R. G. (Howard’s — Mobile Bay, 20tb July, 1853.) (3/1) •‘Critical Analysis of the Hebrew Chronology” — Ellin. Jour.; London: No. I., June, 1848; pp. 9, 10. (572) John Gliddon, United States’ Consul for Egypt (1832-’44): Letter to H. Ex. Boghos Youssouf Bey — Mo- hammed Aij's Prime Minister — “ Cairo, li 5 Febbrajo, 1841.”