The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-20
From the Prederieksburg (Va.) Christian Banner
Unity of Races,

We are happy 10 find that the celebrated phi
losopher and traveller, Humboldt, maintains the
christian and humane doctrine Of the unity of
the human species. The following extract is
from his last work, Cosmos, and is distinguished
by noble spirit of humanity:
whilst we maintain the unity of the human
species, we at the same time repe the depressing
assumption of superior and inferior races Of
nen. There are nations more susceptible of
cultivation, more highly civilized more ennobled
by mental cultivation, than Others but none, in
themselves, nobler than others. All are in like
degree designed for freedom; freedom which
in the ruder conditions of society belongs only
to the individual but which in social States en-
oying political institutions, appertains M RICH,
to the whole body of the community.
off we would indicate an idea which through
out the whole course of history has even more
and more widely extended its empire, or which
more than any other testifes TO the much con-
tested and still more decidedly misunderstood
perfectibility of the whole human race ii is that
of establishing our common humanity-of
striving TO remove the barriers which prejudice
and limited views of every kind have erected
amongst men, and to treat all mankind, without
reference to religion, nations, or order, as one
fraternity, the great community, fitted for the
attainment of one object, the unrestrained de-
velopments of the physical powers. This is
the ultimate and highest aim of society, ident-
cal with the direction implanted by nature in
the mind of man towards the indefinite extern
sion of his existence. He regards the earth in
all its limits, and the heavens as far as his eye
can their bright and starry depths, as in
wardly his own, given TO him as the objects of
his contemplation, and as field for the devel-
opement of his energies Even the child longs
To ha hiIio ,.b;,b ,p,lnuo
narrow home; yet when his eager steps have
bore him beyond those limits, he pines like the
plant, for his native soil and it is by this
touching and beautiful attribute of man-this
longing for that which is unknown, and this
fond remembrance of that which is lost-that
he is spared from an exclusive attachment to
the present. Thus deeply rooted in the in
nermost nature Of man, and even enioined
upon him by his highest tendencies, the recog
milton of the bond of humanity becomes one of
the nobcst leading principles in the history of
mankind" Wilhelm ron Humboldt, Ueber die
KaDi Spraehe 3D. iii, S, 426.
"Witb these words, which draw their charm
from the depths Of feeling, let a brother be per-
mitted to close this general description of the
natural phenomena of the universe. From the
remotest nebu@, and from the revolving double
stars we have descended TO the mnutest organ
isms of animal creation, whether manifest in the
depths of ocean or on the surface of our globe,
and to the delicate vegetable germs which clotbe
the naked declivty Of the ice-crowded mountain
summit and here we have been able to arrange
the phenomena according to partially known
laws; but other laws of more mysterious ma
ture rule the higher spheres of the organic world,
in which is comprised the human species in all
its varied conformation, it's creative intellectual
power, and the language to which It has given
existence. A physical defamation of nature ter
inmates at the point where the sphere of intel
lect begins and new world Of mind is opened
to our view. 1t marks the limit but does not
pass il"