Digitalphilologie

Titel

On the races of man

Jahr

1850

Ort

London

Nachweis

in: The Christian’s Penny Magazine, and Friend of the People 5 (1850), S. 93.

Sprache

Englisch

Typografischer Befund

Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen.

Identifikation

Textnummer Druckausgabe: VI.50
Dateiname: 1845-Alex_v_Humboldt-07-neu

Statistiken

Seitenanzahl:	1
Spaltenanzahl:	2
Zeichenanzahl:	3289

Weitere Fassungen
	Alex. v. Humboldt über das Menschengeschlecht (Augsburg, 1845, Deutsch)
	Volksstämme (Wien, 1845, Deutsch)
	Sur les races humaines et sur les langues, aperçus ethnographiques, extraits du Cosmos ou Essai d’une description physique du monde, par M. A. de Humboldt, tome Ier, dont la traduction française par M. Faye, revue par l’auteur et par MM. Arago, Élie de Beaumont et Guigniaut, paraîtra prochainement chez Gide (Paris, 1845, Französisch)
	De l’unité native de l’espèce humaine (Paris, 1846, Französisch)
	The Universal Brotherhood of Man (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1849, Englisch)
	On the Races of Man (Hartford, Connecticut, 1850, Englisch)
	On the races of man (London, 1850, Englisch)
	The univseral brotherhood of man (Edinburgh, 1850, Englisch)
	The universal brotherhood of man (London, 1850, Englisch)
	[Kurzer Textauszug] (Sheffield, 1851, Englisch)
	Die Einheit des Menschengeschlechts (Breslau, 1852, Deutsch)
	Man – races – language (Edinburgh, 1853, Englisch)

|93| |Spaltenumbruch|

ON THE RACES OF MAN.

Whilst we maintain the unity of thehuman species, we at the same timerepel the depressing assumption ofsuperior and inferior races of men.There are nations more susceptible ofcultivation, more highly-civilized, moreennobled by mental cultivation thanothers: but none in themselves noblerthan others. All are, in like degree,designed for freedom—a freedom which,in the ruder conditions of society, be-longs only to the individual, but which,in social states, enjoying political insti-tations, appertains as a right to thewhole body of the community. If wewould indicate an idea which, through-out the whole course of history, hasever more and more widely extendedits empire, or which, more than anyother, testifies to the much-contestedand still more decidedly misunderstoodperfectibility of the whole human race,it is that of establishing our commonhumanity—of striving to remove thebarriers which prejudice and limitedviews of every kind have erectedamongst men, and to treat all man-kind, without reference to religion,nation, or colour, as one fraternity,one great community, fitted for theattainment of one object—the unre-strained development of the physicalpowers. This is the ultimate and high-|Spaltenumbruch| est aim of society, identical with thedirection implanted by nature in themind of man, towards the indefiniteduration of his existence. He regardsthe earth, in all its limits, and theheavens, as far as his eye can scantheir bright and starry depths, as in-wardly his own, given to him as theobjects of his contemplation, and as afield for the development of his ener-gies. Even the child longs to pass thehills or the seas which enclose his nar-row home; yet when his eager stepshave borne him beyond those limits,he pines, like the plant, for his nativesoil; and it is by this touching andbeautiful attribute of man—this long-ing for that which is unknown, andthis fond remembrance of that whichis lost, that he is spared from an ex-clusive attachment to the present.Thus deeply-rooted in the innermostnature of man, and even enjoined uponhim by his highest tendencies, the re-cognition of the bond of humanity be-comes one of the noblest leading prin-ciples in the history of mankind.With these words, which draw theircharm from the depths of feeling, let abrother be permitted to close this gene-ral description of the natural pheno-mena of the universe. From the re-motest nebulæ, and from the revolvingdouble stars, we have descended to theminutest organisms of animal creation,whether manifested in the depths ofocean, or on the surface of our globe,and to the delicate vegetable germswhich clothe the naked declivity of theice-crowned mountain summit; andhere we have been able to arrangethese phenomena according to partiallyknown laws: but other laws, of a moremysterious nature, rule the higherspheres of the organic world, in whichis comprised the human species in allits varied conformation, its creativeintellectual power, and the languagesto which it has given existence. Aphysical delineation of nature termi-nates at the point where the sphere ofintellect begins, and a new world ofmind is opened to our view. It marksthe limit, but does not pass it. — Hum-boldt.

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