In starting with a preconceived idea one arrives most often, in science, at false allegations, always at uncertainties. It is upon reasons of this sort that some have not feared to rest the theory of the unity of the human race;[9] since this hypothesis being accepted, they have caused, willingly or otherwise, their observed facts to correspond with it. Were the generally-admitted principles of classification irksome to them? They passed on; they shut their eyes to the most profound, the most positive, the most evident differences. Ought not, then, unity to triumph? What did it signify, besides, whether the Negro descended from the white man, or the contrary—for these two opinions have been defended; for some, a few generations have been sufficient to transform the fine Greek blood, which gave models to Phidias and Praxiteles, into an Australian aboriginal. For others, the Negroes were the true representation of our first parents, that perfect work which last of all left the hands of God. Lieut.-Colonel H. Smith[10] would admit that in the beginning were created separately certain groups of men, if revelation were not positive on this point. We notice especially in Kaempfer a specimen of what we may call orthodox ethnology, which is curious above all things; having discovered that the Japanese have nothing in common with the Chinese, he decides, with a marvellous assurance, that they are directly descended from the men on the scaffoldings of the Tower of Babel. And as their language resembles no other tongue, he draws the conclusion that their ancestors must have travelled very fast, so as not to have become acquainted with anybody else![11]
And let no one say that it is obsolete matter to treat of science. Orthodox physics and chemistry are indeed no myths. M. Marcel de Serres, who has also occupied himself with anthropology, speaking of the discussions which have been raised between the partisans of emission and those of luminous undulation, adds, that this latter theory has more chances of being exact, “because the facts related by the legislator of the Hebrews seem to him to be more favourable to truth.”[12] The Congregation of the Index, judging Galileo, reasoned in the same way.[13] We arrive thus at once at the proscription of certain inquiries, and we ask ourselves, How two men, so eminent as Humboldt and Bonpland, could have approved of such lines as the following? “The general question of the first origin of the inhabitants of a continent is beyond the limits prescribed to history, perhaps it may not be even a philosophical question.”[14] It is true that the work in which this singular declaration is to be found is dedicated to his Catholic Majesty Charles IV.
Thanks to these fatal influences, thanks to the interdicts with which some would have desired to stifle the natural history of mankind, as if they were afraid of seeing the spark, which should accomplish the ruin of the past, disappear with the full light; thanks to all these obstacles, anthropology was for a long time thrown into the background.
It is in America where we behold it reinstated in its rank, in that country of every kind of liberty. It is there that our old continent ought to go in order to find masters who have known how to enter into scientific pursuits with this free and independent mind which, in old times, according to Epicurus, freed mankind from the yoke of superstition, and gave to intelligence the sceptre of the world.
The eighteenth century, with all its scepticism, had not done little in this way; its fault, indeed, was in this scepticism, in this doubting à priori. It rejected without examination, therefore its work was not lasting, and the few lines of Voltaire which his good sense had written with a Polygenistic tendency, had no influence at all.[15]
At present France and England walk entirely in the scientific path opened by the American school. It is some years since it was vainly endeavoured to establish in these two countries learned societies for the study of ethnology; that time has passed. Now Paris and London maintain two prosperous anthropological societies.[16] We do not hesitate in attributing the reason of this success to the profound discredit in which the continued blending of matters of faith with matters of science, has justly fallen.
Apart from religious influence, there is another which may make itself felt as regards anthropology. We mean those very honourable sentiments about equality and confraternity which an honest heart will feel towards all men, whatever may be their origin, whatever the colour of their skin, but of which the searcher[17] after truth must disembarrass himself, cost what it may to him as a man. Such feelings honour those who are animated by them, but when they interfere with science, they can only injure it. How many years, how many centuries, have anatomy and medicine been obliged to wait until they could take a lasting and an upward flight! Respect for the dead is doubtless a human sentiment, if any; but it used to paralyse these two branches of our knowledge; they are only possible to be learnt by profaning mortal remains reverenced by the religions of antiquity. Physiology, rendered so clear by vivisection, knows no pity; mankind feels it, but the physiologist shuts up all knowledge of it from himself; it is momentarily destroyed, since it would injure any inquiry into the laws of life.
It must be owned that the science which engages our attention has not been able entirely to disembarrass itself among us of that which we may call moral propriety.[18] It has a powerful influence on certain minds, sometimes unwittingly, sometimes of their free will.[19]
We have ourselves heard eminent professors make a noble appeal to the fraternity which ought to exist among men,—plead in their chairs the cause of inferior races, and proclaim the equality of the African people with ourselves. Such noble theories were received as they ought to be, with the most ardent applause. There remains only to inquire if this is truly philosophical progress, and if kindness, pity, or compassion, have any value in the great balance of facts.
It was time, indeed, that a new method—an independent one—should see the light in anthropology, as it has already done in astronomy, as it also has begun to do in geology. It was time to return to the human mind its wings. Facts, reasonings supported by facts, are the sole basis of every solid work—of every certainty in scientific matters; it is the only method which can lead us—by a slow path, perhaps, but a sure one—to the solution of the most difficult and the most obscure problems. We do not except that of the origin of man.