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Show 192 ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCll It has been thought, that both national fiaturu and colour might probably have been given them at this time, becaufe thefe would have affiil:ed the confufion of language, by caufing them to difperfe into tribes, and would have united more firmly the individuals of each, after the difperfion had taken place. But this is improbable: firil:, becaufe there is great reafon to prefume that Mofes, who has mentioned the confufion of language, would have mentioned thefe circumftances alfo, if they had aCtually contributed to bring about fo fin gular an event: fecondly, becaufe the confufion of language was fufficient of itfelf to have accomplilhed this; and we cannot fuppofe that the Deity could have done any thing in vain : and thirdly, becaufe, if mankind had been difperfed, each tribe in its peculiar hue, it is impoflible to conceive, that they could have wandered and fettled in fuch a manner, ·as to exhibit that regular gradation of colour from the equator to the poles, fo confpicuous at the prefent day. Thefe are the only periods, which there has been even the lhadow of a probability for OF THE HuMAN SPECIES. for alligning; and we may therefore conclude that the preceding obfervations, together with fuch circumftances as will appear in the pre(ent chapter, will amount to a dempnilration, that the diftcrence of colour was never caufed by any interpofition of the Deity, and that it muft have proceeded therefore from that incidmtal co-operation of cau:ftJ, which has been before related. \,Yhat thefe caufes are, it is out of the power of human wifdom pofitively to affert: there arc faCt s, however, which, if properly weighed and put together, will throw confiderablc light upon the fubjeCt. Thefe we lhall fubmit to the pcrufal of the reader, and !hall deduce from them fuch inferences only, as almoft every perfon muft make in his own mind, on their recital. The firil point, that occurs to be afcertained, is, " What part of the !kin is the feat " of colour ?"' The old anatomiils ufually divided the !kin into two parts, or lamina; the extcriour and thinneil, called by the Greeks Epidermis, by the Romans Cuticula, and hence by us Cuticle; and the interiour, called by the former Derma, and by the N latter |