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Show 188 ON THE SLAVERY AND COMMERCE true, and that " God, who hath made tho world, hath made of *one blood all the nations of men that dwell on all the face of the earth." But if this be the cafe, it will be faid that mankind were originally of one colour; and it will be alked at the fame time, what it is probable that the colour was, and how they came to aiTume fa various an appearance? To each of thefe we !hall make that reply, which we conceive to be the moil: rational. As mankind were originally of the fame fiock, fo it is evident that they were originally of the fame colour. But how !hall we attempt to afcertain it ? Shall we Englijhmen fay, that it was the fame as that which we now find to be peculiar to our-fhort as fome, which people in as rude a Jlate have been atlually known to pals. This affords o.n excellent caution againlt an ill. judged and hafiy ccnfure of the divine writings, becaufe every difficulty which may be llartcd, cannot be inJbnt .. ly cleared up. • The divine writings, which alre11t that all men were derived from the fame flock, fhew alfo, in the fame in!bnce of' Cujh, p. 1~0, that fome of them had ~ haQged their original complexion. [elves?- OF TilE fluMAN SPECIES. 189 [elves ?-No-This would be a vain and partial confidcration, and would betray Ol\r judgment to have arifen from that falfe fondnefs, which habituates us to fuppofe, that every thing belonging to ourfelves is the perfetteil: and the bell:. Add to this, that we {hould always be liable to a juil: reproof from every inhabitant of the globe, whofe colour was different from our own ; becaufe he would jufily fay, that he had as good a right to imagine that his own was the primitive colour, as that of any other people. How then !hall we attempt to afcertain it? Shall we look into the various climates of the earth, fee the colour that generally prevails in the inhabitants of each, and apply the rule? This will be certainly free from partiality, and will afford us a better profpetr of fuccefs: for as every particular difrritt has its particular colour, fo it is evident that the complexion of Noah and his fans, from whom the reil: of the world were defcended, was the fame as that, which is peculiar to t.he country, which was the feat |
