Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-07-26

continental line which stretched from
Madagascar TO the East Indies. From
thence they spread over Australia,
Borneo, the lesser islands of the sea,
and a considerable portion of Asia.
After the lapse of thousands of years
the Adamic race appeared in Central
Asia, and peopled from thence both
India and Europe with Aryans, Draw
dians and Mongols. Being partially
DESTROYED by "a flood, remnant, under
the name of Noah, gave rise to the
Semitic. Hamitic and Japhetic races,
MS related in historical records. As
these multiplied and emigrated they
came into collision with their Adamic
brethren of an early epoch, and either
drove them out or mingled with them
afresh.
The principal reason assigned by DR..
Winchell for believing that the negro
is not descended from Adam is that the
word Adam, signifying "red' or
"ruddy," cannot have been intended
to describe q negro, and it is impossi-
bic that the red Adam could have given
rise, by any process of modification, to
the negro. He refers to the monuments
of Egypt and Assyria, in which the ne
gro is depicted with the same peculiari-
ties which he possesses at this day, and
hence he argues that if the 1000 years
since those Monuments were sculptured
have produced no alteration of the ne
GRO type, it will not do to assume that
the 1000 years previous could have de-
veloped it from the white man. More
al. tH.n Nr,t l,a
negro is degradation, not an improve
ment, and this is contrary to the usual
course of development of the human
race, which is forward and not back
ward.
1t is not to be denied that some things
mentioned in Genesis afford grounds
for imagining the existence of other
men than Adam and his descendants.
Cain feared that his life might be taken,
evidently, by people not of his blood,
and he married wife, also who was
presumably not of kin to him. DIR.
Winchell hints further that by the
" daughters of men'' whom the sons
of Cod that is, the Adamites, mar
ried, are meant the women of the pre-
Adamite or negro race. That the ne
GRO is not descended from Ham seems
pretty clear, Notwithstanding the count
less sermons that have been preached
iustifying negro slavery by reason of
Noah's curse of his son and the pre-
sumed inheritance of that curse by
the black race. Hams offspring,
it is now settled by the testimony
of both profane and sacred his
! tory, were not negroes, but Egypt
ians, Assyrians, Philistines, and other
highly intellectual nations. But
whether, after all, DR.. Winchell is jus.
titled in concluding that because Adam
found on earth men of a previous crea-
ton, those men were negroes, is an
open question. He himself admits
that corroborative evidence is lacking,
and anticipates that it will yet be
found somewhere in the caverns of
! Abyssinia, or South Africa, or Aus
tralia. Besides, although the 1000
years commonly assumed as .he period
from Adam to the Assynian and Egypt
ian monuments may not be enough to
permit the descent of the negro from
Adam. DIR. Winchelrs corrected chron-
ology extends this period to over r.
600 years, which might be sufficient
for the purpose. The impartial reader
will therefore suspend his decision,
and, while duly appreciating DR.. Win
chell's learning and ingenuity, will
hardly adopt his conclusions as entirely
demonstrated.
What DR.. Winchell says of the COM
parative nearness to our day of the
stone and lake-dwelling ages is less
novel, but still interesting. 1t may be
that, as he says, the glacial epoch of
Europe and America terminated only
a few thousand years ago, that the men
of the stone age existed as late as the
time of Homer, and that the lake.
dwellers were contemporary with the
Romans. These are points still under
dispute, and the public must await
their settlement by experts in the mat
ter.
The tone in which DR.. Winchell
speaks of those theologians who would
set up their peculiar Interpretation OF
the Bible against scientific truth, is
ANYTHING but respectful, and partially
, accounts for the loss of his professor
shin at Vanderbilt University. He
classes them with men who also hold
the opinion that witches ride broom
sticks through the air, and that the
/ stars were created two days before
! Adam, though some of them are so dis
! tant that their light has been hun
: dred thousand years in reaching us. >
He says, again "A faith that hai
had to surrender the geocentric theory
q and the denial of antipodes, and of thu
= high geological antiquity of the world
I, should have learned to discriminate be
: tween religious faiths and scientific
/ opinions" With his conclusion none
+ however, can find fault Ever.
theory must be subjected to appropri
- ate tests. If it stands, it becomes
new revelation of Gods mind; if
falls, our trepidation over the suppose'
= consequences becomes ridiculous.