The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-02-10
Th~ nssssry Of Human Error.

affected blush on bis fair forehead, gratified
"A prayer frequently urged on him. and read
me some portions OF the great Work. |
cannot express the feelings this lecture Gre
ated-they were something akin To awe
For the design of this book was SO immense
land towards its execution, a learning so
vast and various had sdministered-tha il
seemed to me as If spirit had opened to
me new world, which had always been
before my feet, but which my own human
blindness had hitherto concealed from me.
The unspeakable patience with which all
these materials had been collected year after
year, the ease with which now, by the calm
power of genius, they seemed of themselves
to fall into harmony and systematic un-
conscious humility with which the scholar
exposed the stores Of laborous life; all
combined to rebuke my own restlessness
and ambition, while they filled me with
pride in my father, which saved my
wounded egotism from pang. Here, in
deed, was one Of those books which en-
brace an existence; like the Dictionary of
Bayle. or the History OF Gibbon, or the
FASH Hellenici OF Clinton--it was book
to which thousands Of books had contri-
buted, only to make the originality Of the
single mind more bold and clear. Into
the furnace all vessels of gold, of all
ages, had been cast, but from the mould
came the new coin, with its single stamp.
land happily the subject Of the work did
n0s forbid to the writer the indulgence OF
his n3pe, peculiar irony Of humor-so
quiet. yeeso profound. My fathers book
was the History of Human Error 1t
was, therefore. the moral history of man.
kind, told with truth and earnestness, yet
with an arch unmalignant smile. Some
times, indeed, the smile drew tears. But
in all true humor lis its germ, pathos. Oh!
by the goddess Moiia or Folly, but he was
at home in his theme! He viewed man
first in the savage safe, prefening in this
the positive accounts OF voyagers and trav-
elers, to the vague MYTHS Of antiquity, and
the dreams Of speculatcs on our pristine
state. From Australia md Abyssinia, he
drew pictures Of mortality unadorned, and
lively as if he had lived amongst Bushmen
and savages all his life. Then he crossed
over the Atlantic, and brought before you
the American Indian, with his noble ma
ture, struggling into the dawn of civilisa.
ton, when friend Penn cheated him out OF
bis birthright and the Anglo-Saxon drove
him into darkness. He showed both anal
ogy and contrast between this specimen OF
our kind and Others equally apart from the
extremes Of the savage state and the cul-
tured. The Arab in his tent. the Teu;on
in his forest, the Greenlander in his boat,
the Fin in his reindeer car. Up sprang the
rude gods OF the north, and the resuscitated
Druidism, passing from its earliest temple.
less belief into the latter corruption oil
crornmell and idol. Up sprang, by their
side, the Saturn of the Phenicians, the
mystic Budh Of India, the elementary deities
of the Pelasgians, the Naith and Scraps OF
Egypt, the Ormuzd OF Persia, the Bel Of
Babylon, the winged genii of the graceful
Etruria. How nature and life shaped the
religion; how the religion shaped the man.
ners; how, and by what influences, some
tribes were formed for progress; how others
were destined 10 remain stationary, or be
swallowed up in war and slavery by their
brethren, was told with precision clear
and strong as the voice Of Fate. Not
only an antiquarian and philologist, but
an anatomist and philosopher-my father
brought to bear on I'll these grave poiues
various speculations involved in the /dis
tinctions Of race. He showed how, sace in
perfection is produced, u to ..-certain point
by admixture; bow all mixed races kay,
been the most intelligent--how, in ptopor
ton as local circumstance and feligiou,
faith permitted the early fusion<of differins
tribes, races improved and quickened into
the refnements Of civilisation. He tracked
the progress and dispersion of the Hellenes
from their mythical cradle in Thessaly; anc
showed how those who settled near the sea
shores, and were compelled into commerce
and intercourse with strangers, gave tc
Greece her marvellous accomplishments in
arts and letters-the flowers Of the ancient
world. How others, like the Spartans
dwelling evermore in camp, on. guard
against their neighbors, and Iigidly pre-.
serving their Dorian purity of extraction,
contributed neither artists, nor poets, nor
philosophers, to the golden treasure-house
Of mind. He took the old race OF the
Celts, Cimry, or Cimmerians. He CON-
pared the Celt who, as in Wales, the Scot
fish Highlands, in Bretagne, and in uncom.
pretended Ireland, retains his old charac.
teristics and purity OF blood, with the Celt
whose blood, mixed by thousand chan.
nels, dictates from Paris the manners and
revolutions OF the world. He compared
the Norman in his ancient Scandinavian
home. with that wonder Of intelligence and
chivalry which he became, fused imper.
ceptibly with the Fank, the Goth, and the
Anglo-Sa1on. He compared the Saxon.
stationary in the land OF Horsa, with the
colonist and civilizer Of the globe, as he
becomes when he knows not through what
channels-French, Flemish, Welsh, Dan.
ish, Scotch and lrish-he draws his san
guine blood. And out from all these spec.
ulations, to which | do such hurried and
scanty Justice, he drew the blessed truth.
that draws hope to the land of the Caffre.
the hut Of the Bushman-that there is moth.
ing in the fattened skull and the ebon
aspect that rejects Gods law, improvement
that by the same principle which raises the
dog, the lowest of the animals in its savage
state to he highest after man, viz. adu,ixtuIc
Of race--you can elevate into nations of ma. |
jesty and power the outcasts OF humanity.