Justin E. H. Smith

A Note on Spinoza and Race

As I recall Spinoza is generally held to have a pretty good record when it comes to race. There is as far as I know only one passage of one letter, written to Pieter Balling in July, 1664, in which he seems to use the term 'black' in a negative way. I haven't seen the original Dutch (I've seen notes that suggest it may in fact have have been written in Spanish first, and then translated), which would be helpful, but I will cite Curley's English rendition here:

One morning, as the sky was already growing light, I woke from a very deep dream to find that the images which had come to me in my dream remained before my eyes as vividly as if the things had been true --especially the image of a certain black, scabby Brazilian whom I had never seen before. For the most part this image disappeared when, to divert myself with something else, I fixed my eyes on a book or some other object. But as soon as I turned my eyes back away from such an object without fixing my eyes attentively on anything, the same image of the same Black man appeared to me with the same vividness, alternately, until it gradually disappeared from my visual field (IV 76, 25-IV 77, 6).

Rather than handing out laurels to, or withholding them from, past thinkers on the basis of the connotations we assume must timelessly attach to words, it would be more useful to try to trace back the connotations that led the thinkers themselves to employ these words. And here there can be no doubt that Spinoza is using a stock example from the history of humoral medicine.

To be 'black' in this context is to have a surfeit of black bile or melancholy, and thus to be earthy, and thus to be associated with corpses and other supposedly dark things. In extreme cases, a melancholic person, in addition to being dark or 'muddy' him or herself, can also hallucinate corpses or, alternatively, 'black' men.

In The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton attributes to Jovianus Pontanus the view that those born under the influence of Saturn are "very austere, sullen, churlish black of colour" (Mem. I, subs. 3, 397). Hercules de Saxonia is cited as holding that "these that are naturally melancholy" are "of a leaden colour or black" (ibid., 399). Burton himself adds that a certain subspecies of melancholics "are fatter than others..., of a muddy complexion" (ibid, 400).

It is precisely such people, according to Guianerius, who "think themselves dead many times, or that they see, talk with black men, dead men, spirits and goblins frequently" (ibid., 400). Gordonius writes that extreme melancholics see and talk "with black men, and converse familiarly with devils" (ibid., 402). Gentilus Fulgosus is cited as relating the story of a melancholy friend, who "'had a black man in the likeness of a soldier' who followed him wherever he was" (ibid.). 

In a footnote to the citation from Guianerius, Burton distinguishes two different sorts of reactions to sudden, unexpected visions: there are those who blandiuntur, and those who territant, i.e., those who are 'terrified', which is to say, etymologically, those who are rendered earthy, of which a sign is the sudden darkening of the face. The extreme consequences of this, for people of a certain humoral disposition, is to come to believe that they themselves are corpses (a condition which has apparently been clinically confirmed in recent years).

I suspect that this particular sort of hallucination originally had no racial connotation whatever, but was thought to be the straightforward consequence of the excessive production of black bile. That blackness is associated with earth in humoral medicine (an association also widely attested in sub-Saharan ethnography too; see, e.g., Goody 1977) enables in turn the association of the melancholic condition with corpses, and the interchangeability of the figure of the black man with that of the corpse. 

It is likely that between the time of Burton's work and Spinoza's letter, there is a superimposition of a racial or quasi-racial connotation upon the figure of the black man, and that the term is gradually deprived of its original humoral significance. In Spinoza's case the figure is not only racialized, but is explicitly associated with a particular geographical region; and yet, at the same time he retains the scabrousness of the old visions of corpses that interested Burton.

In any case Spinoza's hallucinated Brazilian does not appear out of nowhere; if he in fact saw it as he reports, then this was under circumstances much like those that cause me to see images from old Looney Tunes cartoons when I shut my eyes to go to sleep: a historically conditioned phantasm. And when Spinoza relates it, in the context of a letter about the nature of misleading perceptions, he is probably drawing more on a (perhaps unconscious or largely forgotten) familiarity with medical literature than he is on any negative associations that he himself attaches to blackness.

'Curious kinks of the human mind': Cognition, Natural History, and the Concept of Race

This is a paper I am currently working on. It's something new for me, attempting to look at some salient moments in the history of so-called 'racial science', particularly the work of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in the late 18th century, through the lens of recent cognitive-science literature on racial categorization. It tries to do a lot in a short space, and I don't know whether it all fits together yet. Comments are very welcome.

Frankfurt Orientalist Hiob Ludolf (1624-1704) on Ethiopia

[from the Historia Aethiopica (Frankfurt, 1681). Latin transcription to follow.]

Chapter IX. Of the Abyssinians, of their Spirit, and of their Nature. Generally speaking, the Abyssinians have plenty of spirit, but they are ignorant of how to cultivate it, as they have almost entirely lost their knowledge, not only of the belles lettres and of the sciences, but also of the liberal arts. They have even been neglectful of those who are the most useful to human life, and who should most of all be supported, given the absolute necessity of their services, for example [those who practice] medicine, which almost no one knows...

Although the Abyssinians are as ignorant as I have just explained, they very much love able men; this is what brought it about that the Jesuits were so well received there at the end of the last century. A great mark of their spirit is that, with all the ignorance into which they have been sunk for many centuries, nonetheless they have always cultivated their poetry, not in fact the pagan and profane poetry that is reflected in an infinity of fictions and fables, but rather sacred poetry, for they are such good Christians that they have no interest in hearing of an adulterous Jupiter or a prostitute Venus, of the jealousies of Juno or the debauches of Bacchus, and of all those other fables to which the pagans are attracted only because they consecrate, so to speak, their most infamous crimes... 

Chapter X. Of the Manner in which the Abyssinians Live, of their Manner of Dress, and of Combat. The Abyssinians live very poorly, for as theymake no use of spoons, nor of knives, nor of forks, they are compelled to cut their bits of food and to bring them to their mouths with their fingers. Their taste is so particular that they often sprinkle with bile the flesh that they bring to the table only half-cooked, and this sauce does for them what the most exquisite mustard would do for our most refined eaters...

Chapter XI. In which is treated the Fecundity of Abyssinian Women, the Color of the Abyssinians, and their Cities. The essential reason for the multiplication fo the Abyssinians is the great fecundity of their women. The ease with which they give birth is no less great, for they do it, as happens everywhere in the warm countries, almost without pain. When they wish to bring their child into the world, they bring themselves to their knees, and they free themselves of it in this posture, ordinarily with no help from a midwife.

The children are born red, and not black, but they become black gradually, and this color pleases them much more than any other: thus one must not be surprised when it is said that they depict the Devil as being white, since he is unworthy of their own color.

As for other features, they do not have that defect of the Moors in the nose and in the lips. They are all generally well built, strong, robust, and capable of much work, at which they do not grow tired.

It is principally in the people of the kingdom of Enarea that we find all of these beautiful qualities, both of the spirit and of the body. Those of the Tygre are, by contrast, very unfaithful, deceitful, cruel, and vindicative in the extreme. One also finds among them men who are naturally white; but besides the fact that this sort of white men emit a very bad odor, this whiteness is not agreeable, since it is too close to paleness...

Chapter XII. Of the People Mixed in with the Abyssinians, and of the Languages Used in Abyssinia. ... One also often finds in the deserts those people whom the Portuguese call 'Caffres'. They live without Law, without God, and without a king, and without any habitation more certain than where the night obliges them to sleep. They cover themselves with no clothing; their usual nourishment is the flesh of serpents and of dragons. Their language is sooner a sort of whistling than the voice of man...

It is true that these sorts of whistlings are in common usage among all the Abyssinians; they also have particular characters for marking them in their writing. The Ethiopian language has seven of them that are entirely unknown to us. This is the language that was at first wrongly called 'Chaldaic' in Rome, when certain books in that language began to appear there for the first time...

The Pre-Adamite Controversy and the Problem of Racial Difference in 17th-Century Natural Philosophy

For a pdf version of the article, click here. Forthcoming in M. Dascal, V. Boantza, and A. Cattani (Eds.), Controversies in the Scientific Revolution. This version replaces the earlier draft, entitled "Autochthony and Traduction: The Unity and Diversity of the Human Species in Early Modern Philosophy," which I posted on 28 March.

 

Isaac La Peyrère, Relation from Iceland (1644)

[Please click 'continue reading' to see the original French text]

XXXII. I have told you that the Icelandic language is based on the ancient Runic language. Doctor Worm, who understands this Runic, and who has written a book on it, has assured me that Icelandic is the purest Runic that we have. As proof of this, the Icelandic characters of which Blefken gave an alphabet in his Relation, are Runic. And he also says that among these characters, there are some that are hieroglyphic, signifying entire words. The good man Angrimus dealt with this chapter in his Crimogée. And since this book is very rare in this country, as well, no doubt, as in the place where you are, you will be pleased that I should hold forth to you on the reading that I made of it, for in revealing to you the antiquity of the Icelandic language, it gives us a great knowledge of the antiquity of the North. 

XXIII. Angrimus says that the Annals of Iceland, which speak of the first inhabitants of the Arctic world, have them coming from an Asiatic prince, named Odin, whom others have called Ottin, who, pushed by the Roman armies that Pompeius commanded in Frigia Minor, took the northern route and ended up in these regisions with the Frigian troops following him. And good Angrimus affirms that the epoch of these Icelandic Annals does not go back any further than Odin. He assures nonetheless that many other peoples of the north have annals that are more ancient still, and that their Histories make mention of a prince called Norus, who gave the first laws to Norway, and built it into a kingdom. That Norus was a son of Thorré, king of Gotland and of Finland, the greatest, most virtuous, and most excellent prince of his era. That his peoples adord him like a God after his death. That Norway called the month of January Thorré, after his name. And that this name is still retained today in Iceland. That King Thorré had a daughter of great beauty, named Goa, who was kidnapped by a foreign prince. That his brother Norus pursued the kidnapper, and that the month following January was called Goa, which is the same name that the Icelanders continue to use today for the month of February. Angrimus next provides a genealogical map of the predecessors of Norus who were placed by the peoples of the North among the gods, one of the sea, one of the winds, one of the snow, one of the cold. And he speaks of one, among others, whom they worshipped as the god of fire, who was well endowed, and lame like the Vulcan of the Greeks, but the best built and most beautiful of all men. That in view of his great beauty they caled him Halogie, which is to say 'big and beautiful flame'. The genealogy goes down to a nephew of Norus, named Gilve, at which point, the Chronicle relates, the great Asiatic Odin arrived in the North.

XXXIV. This diversity of the [different] annals obliged Angrimus to go back even further than those first kings of Norway, and to relate the origin of the peoples of the North to the ancient Canaanite giants, whom Joshua chased from the promised land, and who came to inhabit this country; these were giants like the first inhabitants of the Arctic world, and from whom, it is believed, the first Goths descended, whose name signifies 'giants'. Now, Monsieur, it would not be out of line for me to say a few words at this point, both about this great Asiatic Odin, as well as about the received opinion in this country, that the first men of the North were Canaanites.

XXXV. The great Asiatic Odin was worshipped throughout all of the North, under the name of Mercury, in view of his excellent spirit. It is believed that he is the first author of poetry and magic in the North, which is so well-known and renowned everywhere. I have spoken to you of his poetry, and I would have much to say about his magic, but the subject would warrant its own treatment, which I will reserve for another time. I will content myself with telling you, for now, that I cannot be surprised enough at the negligence of so many men, who adhere to these inveterate errors with so little reflection, and who let themselves get carried away by them without resistance. In the same vein, [I am surprised that] the more these errors give a shock to good sense, and the less they have of plausibility, the more these men believe them, and the more they try to make others believe them. For, Monsieur, what is the hope of being able to accept all of the fables that they tell about this Asiatic Odin, and what connection could such weak fables have with the age of Pompeius, which is an age so well known, and so historical?

...

Monsieur,

Your very humble and very obedient servant, La Peyrère

First written in Copenhagen, 18 December, 1644

Leibniz on the History of Nations and the Theodicy of Cultural Difference

[Abstract submitted for the Theodicy anniversary conference at Notre Dame, Fall, 2010]

Leibniz composed the Theodicy at the very peak of his activity as a historian. Contrary to widespread belief that he undertook this activity only grudgingly, in fact he pursued his historical research with great interest (even if he did it more slowly than his employer would have liked), and even saw it as inseparable from his broader intellectual project-- his philosophy, if you will. Thus he complains to Nicolaes Witsen in a letter of 1698 that "people criticize me when I attempt to take leave of the study of mathematics, and they tell me that I am wrong to abandon solid and eternal truths in order to study the changing and perishable things that are found in history and its laws" (Ger'e 1873, No. 36). And in a 1708 draft of a proposal to Peter the Great for the classificatory system to be used in the eventual library of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Leibniz identifies history, alongside mathematics and physics, as one of the three ‘Realien’ or distinct domains of science, namely, the one that "involves the explanation of times and places, and thus of singular things" including "the descriptions and attainments of kingdoms, states, and peoples" (Ger’e 1873, No. 73).

But what are the laws of the study of res singulares? And do these laws cover all human affairs, or only a certain subset of them? There is a commonplace of later German philosophy of history, extending at least from Kant to Marx, according to which history just is European history, since only Europe had succeeded in initiating the process of global change that alone makes human life more than static, and thus, by implication, more than animal. Thus Kant thought that the inhabitants of undiscovered South Sea islands are no more the subjects of history than are sheep, while Marx maintained that the British imposition of industrial weaving equipment in Bengal had been a blessing to those upon whom it was imposed, since it is only through technological change that cultural change can happen, and history just is cultural change. The distinction that Marx would later make in terms of technology was made by Leibniz, mutatis mutandis, in terms of religion: only those who have been absorbed into the "true doctrine of the unity of God and the immortality of souls" (Theodicy, Preface) may be considered as having lived, as Kant would later put it, a life worth living, and it's only a life worth living that is a life worth writing down, which is to say a historical life.

For at least the early Leibniz, there is no hierarchy of races (pace Fenves 2005), but only a basic distinction between barbarians on the one hand and children of God on the other. This dichotomy comes out very vividly in, for example, an early text such as the Method for Insituting a New, Invincible Militia of 1671, in which he proposes that "slaves captured from all over the barbarian world will be brought [to an island such as Madagascar], and from all of the wild coastal regions of Africa, Arabia, New Guinea, etc. To this end Ethiopians, Nigritians, Angolans, Caribbeans, Canadians, and Hurons fit the bill, without discrimination. What a lovely bunch of semi-beasts!" (A IV i, 408-10). In an important sense, it is true that what Leibniz is proposing is 'without discrimination': the people he proposes to treat in this horrific way are suitable subjects of such treatment because they lack knowledge of what Leibniz would call in the Theodicy the 'true doctrine'; if they had this knowledge, their Ethiopian or Canadian origins would immediately become irrelevant to their moral status. Leibniz's conception of how one might come to hold this true doctrine, moreover, changes dramatically over the course of his career. In 1671, he probably held that baptism alone could suffice; by the time of the Theodicy, in contrast, the paths to the true doctrine are many. One such path is Islam: Mohammed, he writes, "showed no divergence from the great dogmas of natural theology: his followers spread them abroad even among the most remote races of Asia and of Africa, whither Christianity had not been carried; and they abolished in many countries heathen superstitions which were contrary to the true doctrine of the unity of God and the immortality of souls" [Theodicy, Preface, 51]. By the time of the Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese, composed in 1715-16, Leibniz no longer requires even a genealogical connection to the Abrahamic tradition and its revelations in order for a people, such as the Chinese, to come to knowledge of the true doctrine of God. Thus the clear distinction of the 1671 New Method between us and them begins to collapse, as the possibility opens up that the semi-beasts might simply happen upon knowledge of the true doctrine by means of an innate, or natural, theology.

Already, we have ample material to ask a number of Theodicy-inspired questions about Leibniz's conception of the histories of nations, and his conception of the nature of human cultural difference. Does Leibniz have any sort of account of the conditions under which a community, such as the Chinese, might arrive unaided at the sort of natural theological knowledge that moves one out of the barbarian's world? Is there moreover any deep reason, motivated by Leibniz's abiding commitment to the harmony of the world order, and the explanation of degrees of perfection in terms of God's choice of the best --because most plenitudinous-- order, why there should be barbarians at all? That is, can we ask in the conceptual terms provided for us in the Theodicy, why there are barbarians in the same way that we are already familiar with asking, and with answering by means of tools the Theodicy gives us, the question as to why there are mosquitoes or earthquakes?

I will argue that we in fact can approach the question of cultural difference in terms of the basic argument of the Theodicy, and indeed that Leibniz believes, notwithstanding his explicit disdain for barbarianism, that cultural diversity is good when considered in a holistic way. Evidence that this is in fact what he thinks can be discerned, I will argue, in much of his work, contemporary to the Theodicy, on the ancient history of preliterate Eurasian peoples such as the Scythians and the Huns, and on their languages as the sources of modern living languages. In this respect, Leibniz's mature conception of history is much more capacious than that of Kant or Marx: it includes everyone, and it includes the entire span of human existence, even what would later come to be called 'prehistory'. 

Finally, I will argue that, for the reasons already spelled out, Leibniz's philosophy of culture and of cultural difference places him in a lineage that will later include not Kant and Marx, but rather the communitarian thinker Johann Gottfried Herder: Leibniz and Herder both believe that cultural distinctness is rooted in linguistic community, that the cultural identity preserved by language is one that is more deeply rooted than the written records of history conceived as the sequence of recorded events, and that, ultimately, distinct cultures cannot be measured against one another, but rather each has its place in the whole order of human culture, and each is in the end, in spite of the superficial uniqueness of its cultural forms, an expression of the same underlying human reality.

*
Select Bibliography

Peter Fenves, “Imagining an Inundation of Australians; or, Leibniz on the Principles of Grace and Race.” In Race and Racism in Modern Philosophy, edited by Andrew Valls, pp. 73-89. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.

Stefano Gensini, Leibniz: L'armonia delle lingue. Bari: Biblioteca Universale Laterza, 1995.

V. I. Ger’e (Ed.), Sbornik pisem i memorialov Leïbnitsa otnosiashchikhsia k Rossii i Petru Velikomu. Saint Petersburg, 1873.

Schulenburg, Sigrid von der, Leibniz als Sprachforscher. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1973.  

Doç. Dr. Justin E. H. Smith: İnsanlık tek bir tür; farklılıklar yüzeysel

[From Cumhuriyet. For the English version, go here. If you would like to learn to read the Turkish, the best manual of Turkish grammar I know is Geoffrey Lewis, Turkish Grammar (Oxford, 2001), ideally supplemented by the classic Elementary Turkish of Lewis V. Thomas and Norman Itzkowitz.]

Concordia Üniversitesi’nden Doç. Dr. Justin E. H. Smith, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi’nde “Irk ve Doğal Türlerin Tarihsel Hayatı” konulu bir konuşma yaptı. Leibniz’in hayatı ve eserleri konusunda uzmanlaşan Smith’in, Leibniz’in biyoloji felsefesiyle ilgili son kitabı Divine Machines, yakında Princeton Üniversitesi Yayınları’ndan çıkıyor.

Bilim felsefesindeki güncel en önemli tartışma nedir?

Bilimsel akıl yürütmenin yapısıyla, ideoloji, mitoloji, ahlak ve sağduyu gibi diğer insan düşünme formları arasındaki benzerlikler ve farklar, akademik felsefe açısından olmasa da önemli bir tartışma. Uzun zaman boyunca, bilimin ne olduğuyla ilgili hâkim fikir, bilimsel akıl yürütmenin diğer düşünme biçimlerinden radikal şekilde ayrılarak bize tarafsız bir dünya görüşü sunduğu şeklindeydi. Bu bir noktaya kadar doğru olsa da, daha derin düşünüldüğünde, bilimin kültüre bağlı olduğu, sadece verilerin yorumlanmasında kültürel değerlerin rol oynaması değil, ayrıca araştırma programlarının seçiminde de etkisi olduğu ortaya çıkıyor.

Uzak ve deneysel olarak tekrar edilemeyecek geçmiş ile ilgilenen bilimler (paleontoloji ve kozmoloji) özellikle bilim öncesi düşünme biçimlerinin unsurlarından etkilenmeye açık. Büyük patlama kozmolojisiyle yaradılış mitlerinin karşılaştırılmalı incelenmesinden çok şey öğrenilebilinir.

Leibniz’in biyoloji felsefesinin özelliği nedir?

Leibniz’in sonsuz küçükler hesabının bulunmasına katkısı var, fakat oraya Newton’un mu, yoksa Leibniz’in mi önce vardığı kesin olarak bilinmiyor. Ayrıca, fosilleri doğru tanımlayıp hayvan taklidi değil, hayvan kalıntısı olduğunu ilk iddia edenlerden biri. Newton’un fiziksel nesnelerin içinde bulunduğu mutlak bir kap olarak kabul ettiği zaman ve uzayla ilgili Leibniz’in göreceliliğe dayalı görüşlerinin 20. yüzyıl fiziğine büyük katkısı olduğu da düşünülüyor. Leibniz’in yaşadığı dönemde kavramsal problemlere bulduğu çözümler onun dehasını ortaya koyuyor.

Geogony, Generation and History from the Consilium Aegyptiacum to the Protogaea

Justin E. H. Smith

[Presented at the Fondacion Orotava, Tenerife, Canary Islands, 14 February, 2009]

In an audacious text of 1671, entitled “A Method for Instituting a New, Invincible Militia that can Subjugate the Entire Earth, Easily Seize Control over Egypt, or Establish American Colonies,” written as an addendum to his better known Consilium Aegyptiacum, Leibniz sketches out a plan for training a new army of warrior slaves:

A certain island of Africa, such as Madagascar, shall be selected, and all the inhabitants shall be ordered to leave. Visitors from elsewhere shall be turned away, or in any event it will be decreed that they only be permitted to stay in the harbor for the purpose of obtaining water.  To this island slaves captured from all over the barbarian world will be brought, and from all of the wild coastal regions of Africa, Arabia, New Guinea, etc. To this end Ethiopians, Nigritians, Angolans, Caribbeans, Canadians, and Hurons fit the bill, without discrimination.  What a lovely bunch of semi-beasts!  But so that this mass of men may be shaped in any way desired, it is useful only to take boys up to around the age of twelve.

Leibniz proposes to segregate these prisoners according to language, which for him is the same as segregation by race or genus.  In this way, unable to communicate with any warriors beyond their own small squadron, the warriors will be unable to plan an insurrection.  In every race [genere], Leibniz writes,

whoever is most trained in his squadron, which is to say among those who speak his language, shall challenge those who are the best trained in the other squadrons.  The people [gens] that wins that year shall be the leaders.  They will be able to strike terrible blows with their very powerful curved swords, to hit targets with their slings, and to rip things apart with their lances.  They are to be trained to run races at such a speed as will be equal to that of horses. Which will come about first by pursuing them until they are able to touch the mane or the tail, and then freely [i.e., without horses].  They shall learn to swim first with the help of an outer shell or bladder, and thereafter without any covering; they will descend under the water after the example of diving bells [this probably an example inspired by Cornelis Drebbel], and they will learn the method of ascending and descending as they please. They shall learn to jump after the manner of the Tenerifeans, first jumping with the help of a lance... as far as human strength is able to reach, and afterwards without these. 

Leibniz goes on to describe the tremendous feats these warriors will perform with their lances: 

In the beginning they will alight from a higher place by the means of their lance touching the ground below; then they will leap horizontally on a level plane, and finally from below they will leap to the top. The will learn how to climb up smooth surfaces [per lubrica klettern]....  They shall become used to climbing however high their lance may be just by means of fixing their lances beneath them.  They will learn moreover to carry the greatest and strongest lances, like Achilles, and like other ancients.  Indeed, they shall learn to project them with great impetus towards a designated target, as well as of bringing one lance together with another if the one does not suffice for climbing.  By means of this art they will easily conquer the mightiest European fortifications.  They will be able to walk on their lances, as on stilts [wie auff stelzen]. 

A Method for Instituting a New, Invincible Militia

That Can Subjugate the Entire Earth, Easily Seize Control over Egypt, or Establish American Colonies

(1671, A IV i, 408-10. Translated here only in part. To see the corresponding Latin text, please click 'continue reading').

A certain island of Africa, such as Madagascar, shall be selected, and all the inhabitants shall be ordered to leave. Visitors from elsewhere shall be turned away, or in any event it will be decreed that they only be permitted to stay in the harbor for the purpose of obtaining water.  To this island slaves captured from all over the barbarian world will be brought, and from all of the wild coastal regions of Africa, Arabia, New Guinea, etc. To this end Ethiopians, Nigritians, Angolans, Caribbeans, Canadians, and Hurons fit the bill, without discrimination. What a lovely bunch of semi-beasts! But so that this mass of men may be shaped in any way desired, it is useful only to take boys up to around the age of twelve, as this is better than [attempting to] transform girls and adults.

In every race [genere], whoever is most trained in his squadron, which is to say among those who speak his language, shall challenge those who are the best trained in the other squadrons.  The people [gens] that wins that year shall be the leaders.  Thus they will be able to strike terrible blows with their very powerful curved swords, to hit targets with their slings, and to rip things apart with their lances.  They are to be trained to run races at such a speed as will be equal to that of horses. Which will come about first by pursuing them until they are able to touch the mane or the tail, and then freely [i.e., without horses].  They shall learn to swim first with the help of an outer shell or bladder, and thereafter without any covering; they will descend under the water after the example of diving bells, and they will learn the method of ascending and descending as they please. They shall learn to jump after the manner of the Tenerifeans, first jumping with the help of a lance, of the Springstecken, as far as human strength is able to reach, and afterwards without these. 

In the beginning they will alight from a higher place by the means of their lance touching the ground below; then they will leap horizontally on a level plane, and finally from below they will leap to the top. The will learn how to climb up smooth surfaces [per lubrica klettern], as the Japanese do on their cliffs, and as the gatherers of palm fronds among the Indians.  They shall become used to climbing however high their lance may be just by means of fixing their lances beneath them.  They will learn moreover to carry the greatest and strongest lances, like Achilles, and like other ancients.  Indeed, they shall learn to project them with great impetus towards a designated target, as well as of bringing one lance together with another if the one does not suffice for climing.  By means of this art they will easily conquer the mightiest European fortifications.  They will be able to walk on their lances, as on stilts [wie auff stelzen]. 

Pre-Adamism, Missionary Universalism, and the Invention of Race

We tend to imagine that our racial classifications map onto natural kinds in the world, that in carving humanity up into 'Caucasoid', 'Negroid', etc., we are, so to speak, carving nature at its joints. In fact, these categories are recent inventions.

In an important sense it is the 17th-century French writer François Bernier who may be considered the founder of the modern science of race.  He is the first to use the term ‘race’ to designate different groups of humans with shared, distinguishing traits.  He describes his innovation in the Journal des Sçavans of 1684 as follows: “So far, Geographers did not use any other criterion when mapping out the earth but that of the different countries or regions to be found on it.  What I noticed in men in the course of my long and frequent travels gave me the idea to divide the Earth otherwise.”