brought back to its original excellence."

"Who knows, then," said I, "what our missionaries and colonization
societies may effect in Africa."

He inquired of me what these societies were; and on explaining their
history, observed: "By what you tell me, it is indeed a small beginning;
but if they can get this grain of mustard-seed to grow, there is no
saying how much it may multiply. See what a handful of colonists have
done in your own country. A few ship-loads of English have overspread
half a continent; and, from what you tell me, their descendants will
amount, in another century, to more than one hundred millions. There is
no rule," he continued, "that can be laid down on this subject, to which
some nations cannot be found to furnish a striking exception. If mere
difficulties were all that were wanting to call forth the intellectual
energies of man, they have their full share on the borders of the Great
Desert. There are in that whitish tract which separates the countries
on the southern shores of the Mediterranean from the rest of Africa,
thousands of human beings at this moment toiling over that dreary ocean
of sand, to whom a draught of fresh water would be a blessing, and the
simplest meal a luxury.

"Perhaps, however, you will say they are so engrossed with the animal
wants of hunger and thirst, that they are incapable of attending to any
thing else. Be it so. But in the interior they are placed in parallel
circumstances with the natives of Europe: they are engaged in struggles
for territory and dominion--for their altars and their homes; and this
state of things, which has made some of them brave and warlike, has made
none poets or painters, historians or philosophers. There, poetry has not
wanted themes of great achievement and noble daring; but heroes have
wanted poets. Nor can we justly ascribe the difference to the enervating
influence of climate, for the temperature of the most southern parts of
Africa differs little from that of Greece. And the tropical nations, too,
of your own continent, the Peruvians, were more improved than those who
inhabited the temperate regions. Besides, though the climate had instilled
softness and feebleness of character, it might also have permitted the
cultivation of the arts, as has been the case with us in Asia. On the
whole, without our being able to pronounce with certainty on the subject,
it does seem probable that some organic difference exists in the various
races of