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Show 190 ON THE SLAVERY ANI) CoMMERCE feat of their habitation. This, by fuch a mode of decilion, will be found a dark olive; a beautiful colour, and a ju!l: medium between white and black. That this was the primitive colour, is highly probable from the obfervations that have been made; and, if admitted, will afford a valuable leffon to the Europeans, to be cautious how they deride thofe of the oppofite complexion, as there is great reafon to prefume, that the pur'!fl * white is as far removed from the primitive colour as the deepdJ black. We come now to the grand que!l:ion, wl1ic~ is, that if mankind were originally of thts or any other colour, how came it to pafs, that they fhould wear fo various an appearance ? We reply, as we have had occalion to fay before, either by the interpojition of the Deity; or by a co-operation qfcertain catifes, which have an dfe8 upon the hu- • The following are the grand colours difcernible in man .. kind., between which there are many fh~des ; White l . I Copper -Olive- Brown Black man OF THE HuMAN SI'Ec!ES. man frame, and have the power of changing it more or left from its primitive aj,pearanu, as they are more or left numerous or powerful than thoft, which aBed upon the frame of man in the.firjlflat of his habitation. . With refpeCt to the Divine interpolit10n, two epochs have been alligned, when this difference of colour has been imagined to have been fo produced. The firft is that, which has been related, when the curfe was pronounced on a branch of the po!l:erity of Ham. But this argument has been already refuted; for if the particular colour alluded to were alligned at this period, it was alligned to the defcendants of Canaan, to diftinguifh them from thofe of his other brothers, and was therefore limited to the former. But the defcendants of * Cufh, as we have fhcwn before, partook of the L1me colour; a clear proof, that it was neither alligned to them on this occalion, nor at this period. The fecond epoch is that, when mankind were difperfed on the building of Babel. • See note. p. tSo. To this we may add, that the reft of the defcendanu of Ham, as far as they can be traced, are now alfo blaclc, as well as many of the defcendanu of S!Jtnr, It |