l point of view, a
very desirable thing in any part of the world. But if there is a moral
consequence, we may also point to a mental one, which exercises an immense
influence: I mean the overwhelming sense of inferiority which is so apt to
depress casteless races. I believe, then, for savages, or for people in a
low state of civilization, it is of the greatest importance that they
should have points of difference which may not only keep them socially
apart, but which may enable them to maintain some feeling of superiority
when coming in contact with highly-civilized races. Nor is it necessary
that the feeling of superiority should be well founded. An imaginary
superiority will, I believe, answer the purpose equally well. "We don't
touch beef, nor would we touch food cooked by Englishmen or Pariahs," seem
but poor matters for self-congratulation. But if these considerations
prevent a man from forming a poor opinion of himself, they should be
carefully cherished. On these points, at least, a feeling of superiority
is sustained, and therefore the tendency to degradation is diminished. But
if on all points the white man makes his superiority felt, the weaker
people speedily acquire a thorough contempt for themselves, and soon
become careless of what they do, or of what becomes of them. Their mental
spring becomes fatally depressed, and this circumstance has probably more
to do with the deterioration and extinction of inferior races than most
people would be inclined to admit.[34] Nothing, then, I believe, chills
the soul and checks the progress of man so much as a hopeless sense of
inferiority; and, had I time, I might turn the attention of the reader to
the universality of this law, and to the numerous instances that have been
collected to prove the depressing and injurious effects that even nature,
on a grand and overwhelming scale, seems to exercise on the mind and
spirit of man--how it makes him timid, credulous, and superstitious, and
produces effects which retard his progress. But to advance further on this
point, however interesting it may be, would only tend to distract the
attention of the reader from the subject with which we are mainly
concerned.

If the remarks hitherto made are of any value, they undoubtedly tend to
prove that all inferior races have a tendency, in the first instance, to
adopt the vices rather than the virtues of the more civilized races they
may come in contact with. Assuming, then, as I think