§ 3: On the Varieties of Colors in the Human Race

The great problem requiring solution is this: in what manner did the varieties unfold in the human race from a single primordial color? Did they arise from chance alterations in the members of the vast human family from which another variant form was shaped, or ought we to suppose a gradual darkening, according to the naturalists, by which reason certain nations or families passed gradually by successive compromises from one extreme to the other? We must confess that the present state of science, as the wise Cardinal Wiseman says, does not authorize us to assert with confidence either the one hypothesis or the other. But independently of these, science has advanced sufficiently so that it need not logically leave any room for doubt whatever regarding the common origin of each race. For I believe that, casting our eyes over all the evidences of its development, we can say that they enclose all the elements of the problem in a manner that is wholly satisfactory. Let us examine first whether chance or accidental alterations—what some call sporadic variations—can develop in a generation tending to produce from itself the characters of another kind; second, whether these varieties can be successive; and third, whether climate, diet, civilization, etc., can powerfully act upon the presence of similar varieties, or at least make them stable, characteristic, and perpetual.

I believe all the elements of the problem are contained in what precedes, which is this: “Can the varieties of colors which we see today in the human race have received their origin from a single stock?” For if this can be proved, we shall remove the foundation upon which superficial researchers, relying upon it, deny the unity of the human race and the primitive oneness of the nations.