While we maintain the unity of the humanspecies, we at the same time repel the depress-ing assumption of superior and inferior races ofmen. There are nations more susceptible ofcultivation, more highly civilized, more enno-bled by mental cultivation, than others; butnone in themselves nobler than others. Allare, in like degree, designed for freedom—a free-dom which, in the ruder conditions of society,belongs only to the individual; but which, insocial states, enjoying political institutions, ap-pertains as a right to the whole body of thecommunity. If we would indicate an idea which,throughout the whole course of history, has evermore and more widely extended its empire; orwhich, more than any other, testifies to themuch contested and more misunderstood per-fectibility of the whole human race; it is thatof establishing our common humanity—of striv-ing to remove the barriers which prejudice andlimited views of every kind have erected amongmen; and to treat all mankind, without refe-rence to religion, nation, or colour, as one fra-ternity, one great communion, fitted for theattainment of one object—the unrestrained de-velopment of the physical powers. This is theultimate and highest aim of society, identicalwith the direction implanted by nature in themind of man towards the indefinite extension ofhis existence. He regards the earth in all itslimits, and the heavens, as far as his eye canscan their bright and starry depths, as inwardlyhis own; given to him as objects for contempla-tion, and as a field for the development of hisenergies. Even the child longs to pass the hillsor the seas which enclose his narrow home; yetwhen his eager steps have borne him beyondthose limits, he pines, like the plant, for his na-tive soil; and it is by this touching and beau-tiful attribute of man,—this longing for thatwhich is unknown, and this fond remembranceof that which is lost—that he is spared from anexclusive attachment to the present. Thusdeeply rooted in the innermost nature of man,and even enjoined upon him by his highest ten-dencies, the recognition of the bond of humanitybecomes one of the noblest leading principles inthe history of mankind. — Humboldt’s Cosmos.