and that burned with fire; nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest." Heb. xii. 18.

"Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." Jude 13.

"For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." Jer. ii. 22.

"The show of their countenance doth witness against them." Isa. iii. 9.

!

LESSON IV.

BUT experience proved that even this second degree of slavery was not a sufficient preventive of sin to preserve man upon the earth. "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.” Gen. vi. 2, 3. The word translated "fair," and applied to the daughters of men, is to voth; it is in the feminine plural, and comes from tav, and cognate with the Syriac word á tov or tob; it merely means good, excellent, as the quality may exist in the mind of the person taking cognisance.

It implies no quality of virtue or complexion, but in its use is reflective back to the nominative. It is one of those words which we find in all languages, of which rather a loose use is made. We find it in Dan. ii. 32, (the 31st of the English text,) “excellent ;” also Ezra v. 17, "good." When it is said of Sarah, in Gen. xii. 11, that she was "fair," meaning that she was of a light complexion, the word♫ yephath is used, and is the same with our Japheth, the son of Noah, and comes from y yapha, and means to shine, to give light, and, as an adjective, well means lightness of complexion, fairness, and brilliancy of beauty. So in Esth. ii. 7, “and the maid was fair and beautiful," ♫ yephath. 1 Sam. xvi. 12, "Now he was ruddy and of a fair countenance," П yepha. 1 Kings i. 4, "and the damsel was fair," yaphah.

NT T

It is true that in Solomon's Song, i. 16, " Behold, thou art fair,

my beloved,❞—ii. 10, "My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away,”—iv. 1, "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes,' iv. 7, "Thou art fair, my love; there is no spot in thee," and also v. 9, "O thou fairest among women," the word y yapha, in grammatical form, is used in the original, and that the term is applied to a black woman. But this whole song is written in hyperbole. In the description of Solomon's person, it says, v. 11, "His head is as the most fine gold;" in the original, "His head is the most fine gold." 14: "His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. 15: His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.'

Asiatic poetry always abounded in hyperbole. Thus an Arabian poet, speaking of his mistress, says—

"I behold in thine eyes, angels looking at me.

Deformity in another, in thee is excellent beauty;

The garments of the shepherd, upon thee, are the finest tissue,
And brass ornaments become fine gold.

Thy excellence, so great among men, the god beholds,
And is astonished at thy beauty.”

It is not from such productions that we are to look for the simple, original, and radical meaning of terms; and probably even in the case of Canticles, the word y' yapha would not have been allowed by the rules of composition, had it not been first announced in a calm, initiatory manner, that she was a black woman, in order that no misconception might arise from such hyperbole.

Let us suppose ourselves in Arabia, and some poet announces that, for our evening entertainment and diversion, he will deliver a panegyric upon some black woman, and, among other things,

says

Thy neck is as a tower of ivory.

Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep.
Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet.

Thy nose like the tower of Lebanon,

That looketh towards Damascus ;

And the smell of thy nose like apples;

And the smell of the roof of thy mouth like the best wine

Thy stature is like the palm-tree.

Thy skin is fairer than snow,

And thy breasts like two clusters of grapes.

Thy head is as Mount Carmel,

And the hair of thy head like purple,

And the curls of thy hair like a flock of goats.

Behold, thou art fair, my love; thou hast doves' eyes.

True, amid such hyperbole, we might have mistaken her colour, if he had not previously informed us on that subject. But, as it stands, there is no falsehood asserted; there is no liability to mistake. The poet merely means that, at least in his conception, she is as lovely, beautiful, and desirable as all those hyperboles would make her. And we think we have reason to contend, that the hyperbolic use of the word y yapha, in Canticles, does not alter in any sense its real meaning, or, in any ordinary use of language, make it a term applicable to people of colour, or in any sense whatever a synonyme of the tav, or no to voth, as used in Genesis. This explanation is thought necessary, since it is seen that we shall hereafter contend that the descendants of Cain were black.

LESSON V.

IF we take the passage, Gen. vi. 2, 3, as it stands in connection, it seems to us an obvious deduction that the commingling of the races of Seth and Cain was obnoxious to the Lord.

It is placed in position as the cause why his Spirit should not always strive. He saw that such amalgamation would, did deteriorate and destroy the more holy race of Seth; and therefore determined, with grief in his heart, to destroy man from the earth. All were swept away, except Noah, his three sons, and their four wives. Yet sin found a residence among the sons of Noah, and Canaan was doomed to perpetual bondage, as it now exists upon the earth. "And he said, Cursed be Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." Gen. ix. 25–27.

The expression "servant of servants" is translated from the words ' ebed abadim, slave of slaves. The expression is idiomatic, and means the most abject slave.

In the passage quoted, the word servant, in all cases, is trans

lated from ebed, and means slave. There was no master placed over Adam,—it is not certain there was over Cain,-but here the master is named and blessed; and the slave is named, and his slavery pronounced to be of the most abject kind. If we mistake not, it is an article of the Christian creed of most churches, that Adam was the federal head and representative of his race; that the covenant was made, not only with Adam, but also with his posterity; that the guilt of his sin was imputed to them; that each and every one of his posterity are depraved through his sin; that this, their original sin, is properly sin, and deserves God's wrath and curse. If so, can we say less in the case of Cain? or that a new relation did intervene in the case of Ham?

LESSON VI.

HAVING traced the institution of slavery down to its third and final degree, and finding it firmly lodged in the family of Ham, let us now inquire what proof there may be that his descendants are also the descendants and race of Cain. This evidence is to be found in the fact, 1st. That the descendants of Ham were black, inheriting the mark of Cain. 2d. That the traditions and memorials of the family of Ham are also traditions and memorials of the family of Cain. 3d. That Naamah, of the family of Cain, is found to be kept in memory by the earlier descendants of Ham. 4th. That the characteristics of these families are the same, and that no facts are found to exist discordant to the proposition of their being one and the same race; but on the contrary, every vestige of them is in unison with such proposition.

In presenting the evidence touching the several facts of the inquiry, we cannot claim the most lucid or logical arrangement, nor that our remarks will be classed in the best methodical order for the subjects of consideration. But we present the proposition that aboriginal names are always significant terms: thus, Abram, the high father; Abraham, the father of a multitude; Jacob, holding by the heel, supplanting; Israel, one who wrestles with God; and Cain, one that has been purchased or bought: "And she bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord." Gen. iv. 1. The word Cain is from a Cana, and means to buy, to purchase,

and, as a noun, a thing bought; and the word "gotten," ''R canithi, terminating with its verbal formation, means, I have bought or purchased—his name signified one purchased.

There is an allusion to Cain in the Koran; and, although we do not present it as or for authority, yet it may not be out of place to notice what the ancient Arabians have said on the subject: "Verily, I (the prophet) am no other than a denouncer of threats, and a messenger of good tidings unto the people who believed. It is he who hath created you from one person and out of him produced his wife, that he might dwell with her; and when he had known her, she carried a light burden for a time, wherefore she walked easily therewith: but when it became more heavy, they called upon God their Lord, saying, If thou give us a child rightly shaped, we will surely be thankful. Yet when he had given them a child rightly shaped, they attributed companions unto him, for that which he had given them. But far be that from God, which they associated with him! Will they associate with him false gods, which create nothing, but are themselves created, and can neither give them assistance nor help themselves?" Koran, chap. vii.

The Arabian commentators, in explanation of this passage, relate a tradition among them. They say, when Eve was big with her first child, the devil came to frighten and fill her mind with apprehension. But he pretended to her that by his prayers to God he could persuade him to cause her to have a well-shaped child, a son, the likeness of Adam, and that she should be safely delivered of it, upon the condition that she should dedicate or name the child abed al hareth, the slave of the devil, instead of the name that Adam would give it, abed Allah, the slave of God; that Eve accepted the terms, and the child was born, &c. The legend is varied by the commentators, some saying the child died as soon as born, or that the devil applied to Adam instead of Eve, &c.; but they all agree that al hareth was the name the devil went by among the angels.

It is a little remarkable that the passage in Gen. iv. 2, "But Cain was a tiller of the ground," Heb. obed adamah, the slave of the ground, would be, in Arabic, this phrase, abed al hareth, the cognate of the Hebrew word "erets, the earth. And therefore the Arabic, abed al hareth, will be a translation of the Hebrew in Genesis. This legend will be found in Al Beidawi, Jallado' ddin, Zamakhshari, et al. See Sale's Koran, vol. i. p. 360.