The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-01-06
FOR IN. rx.a,iner.
For the fNsnhnef.
ma neIp aiion No. nv.--Ethnoiesy, or shs
Science Of Races.


The author of these articles does not pretend
TO anything like thorough acquaintance with
the science, for il has now become q science, OF
the Races of the human family. He has had no
means tc inform himself upon this subject, but
such as are common to all. Nor would II indeed
be expedient, In discussion Of this kind, and
where the readers are of all classes, TO enter in
to ANYTHING like learned examination Of the
merits Of the question. What shall say, then,
while il is intended altogether for the general
reader, will be found TO be only SO far scientific
as not to vary from, or be contradictory to, the
most thorough and learned conclusions hitherto
arrived at by those distinguished scholars, who
have made the subject one Of special study and
research.
With those who deny that the Bible is the
The philanthropists, take it for granted, are
all Of that opinion theoretically, and so shall
consider them; though my honest opinion Is
tina, they are. many Of them, inhdels. The
starting point in this discussion Is this; How
long has man existed upon this earthi Bibli-
thousand years since the creation of Adam
and Eve. They do not 20 beyond that
Culver, the distinguished naturalist, who by
his laborious researches in the A nimal Kingdom,
has achieved for himself an immortality Of
fame. gives II as his opinion, that man was
among the most recent OF living beings put
upon the Earth. The fact that there
fossil human remains, is a conclusive proof Of
his assertion. Cuyier, then, did not find the
facts Of Natural History TO raise doubt or a
difficulty In opposition TO the Mosaic account
Mr.. Lyell, the celebrated infidel Geoiogist, who
seems to have found more pleasure in attempt
ing TO prove the Bible to be false, than In the
discovery Of hidden scientific truth, agrees with
Culver, (it would be very bold for any man to
place himself in opposition to Cuyier) so far as
this, that, geologcally speaking, man is among
the most recent Of the animal creation. We
would place him certainly among the pleOcine
formation of the tertiary series, not prior to
this. And Mr.. Lyell has the honesty to 90 one
step farther; and by very mastery argument.
reduces to an absurdity the theory Of Lamark
that man is but an improved monkey. The
fact, then, which Revelation teaches, and which
scientific discovery is forced to establish, that
man has not inhabited the Earth over some sir
or seven thousand years, is, as / conceive, by
far the most important fact in all that concerns
the history Of the races of mankind.
The thing to be proved is this--that all the
diGsrsnee bet,ossR the rOhits man aud the negro
can be traced TO the influence of climate and hab
its. This is what deny, and exactly what the
abolitionists affirm. II we believe the Bible,
there need be no controversy TO how long a
time It has been since the creation Of Adam
and Evei for believing il, We start from Noah.
The general deluge was A. NJ. 1856; b. C. about
234s. We ale all the children, then, Of Shem,
Ham, and Japhet; and as the three grand d.
visions Of the human family are white, black
and copper-colored; Christians are generally
agreed that the differences between them is a
thing Of divine ordination; that the same G cd
who caused confusion of languages at the
tower Of Babel, made one race to differ from
another. as We now them. That the races
do differ physically and mentally in many i'm
how far they differ. and in what they differ,
shall attempt 10 show at another time.
IL God made them to diffsr, there is an end
Of the matter; aad they will therefore certainly
continue TO differ TO the end Of time, or till He
ordains otherwise, let man attempt what he may.
But shall not thus beg the question. but en-.
deavor to show that since the Deluge there has
not bean time snaugh for tho differences which
mark the races TO have been effected by climate
and habits.
| DIR. Prichard has no doubt proven, il il were
necessary for a Christian man to attempt to
prove what God declares. that there is COM
mon origin to the human family The difficult
ties in the way of proving this great fact by
anything which man can discover, consist in
the great number of languages spoken by the
inhabitants of different parts Of the Earth, and
the distinctive differences which so strongly
mark the different races
Seeing no rational way to explain the thing,
otherwise, Christians, as before remarked have
almost universally cut the matter short, by say.
ing that God did it,; and that he made one man
taneOusly as he caused them TO speak. the one
Hebrew, another Greek, another Chinese, and
so on. and so on.
Now, these two great instantaneous events,
affecting so tremendously the fortunes and the
destiny Of the being whom the Almighty ersa
ted in his own image, and made but little lower
than the angels, is, maintain, in perfect analo-
gy with what we are in the habit Of calling the
works of nature. Many histories of human
events and of terrestrial things have been writ
ten; but yet, within the present century, il has
become favorite expression among the learned
to say that the history OF the world has yet to
be written. The discoveries in Geology. the
ability to read the Egyptian HierogIyphics, the
exhuming Of long buried cities, have brought
to light facts which are entirely free from those
circumstances which throw so much doubt up-
on historical testimony.
Prejudice and passion, ignorance and forget
fulness, have no place in fossil organic, or arti
fetal remains. The most positive of all the
new sciences of antiquities, If I may use such
an expression, is Geology, and the most obvious
and striking Of all geological facts or phenom-
ena, is this remarkable one, the instanianeors.
ness Of the changes in organic remsins, of which
the proofs are so abundant.
When we examine. for instance. in our lime
stone rock, a fossil fish, and find there not only
a perfect outline Of the body or form Of the ami
NAL, but his eye. that delicate and perishable or.