the purpose of escaping the difficulties supposed to arise from the inconsistency of certain facts revealed by modern science with the ordinary view of the chronology and unity of the race. It is not pretended that any clear traces can be discerned along the track of man's history of a plural origin of the race. There is certainly, as we go back in time, a convergence of lineage, of language, and of tradition toward one parental center; there is not toward any other. The streams of migration during the ages have apparently come from one common fountain in Central Asia; there is no other such fountain from which they came. If there are or have been any nations whose origin can not be traced to Adam or Noah, it is sufficient to say that neither can they be traced to any other source. All positive evidence that there was more than one parental stock, from whom the various races and families have descended, is absolutely wanting.

II. The alleged inconsistency of any known facts of science with the Scripture doctrine, to obviate which resort is had to the theory of plurality, has never yet been demonstrated.

Take, first, the case of Cain. It is said that he was afraid that somebody would slay him for his crime of murdering Abel; and as there were then but three living persons of the family of Adam, he

must have referred to people of another race. But how is it ascertained that there were then but three persons living? Who knows how many children may have been born to our first parents between these two brothers, or how many after the birth of Abel? Who can tell what the age of either of the brothers was at the time of the homicide? Certainly," even Abel had grown to something like man's estate, and Cain was older than he. Besides, why limit the murderer's fears to persons then living? There were generations to come, among whom he knew that the story would be told; and he might well apprehend that some avenger of blood would arise long years after that, to redress the wrong done to his kinsman, and inflict justice upon his slayer.

In the matter of Cain's wife, also, the difficulty is greatly exaggerated. It is conceded that the first marriage among Adam's descendants must have been between a brother and sister. But it by no means follows that such a marriage, in those circumstances, was incestuous, in the later signification of that term. He who appointed marriage for the welfare of the race could have sanctioned it, in this necessary instance, as readily as he forbade the repetition of it afterward. Besides, the difficulty is not obviated by the supposition of another race, among whom Cain, may have found a wife. For

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have been of too long

seig de cssen with the idea of a common descent, especiLy win the circumscribed period between the AL Cence and the time of Noah. In the proof and Dustration of these diversities, great research and jearning have been exhibited, and many able works have been written. To treat this topic according to its importance will require a somewhat lengthened consideration.

The subject really involves two questions: first, Can the known diversities existing in the various

branches of the human race have come, in the way of gradual variation, from one original type? and second, If intrinsically possible, can it have been done within the limited space of time which, with the most pliant Scripture chronology, we are able to allow for it? These questions, however, though properly separate, so run into each other, that it will be more easy to consider them together.

The affirmative of both of them is argued, 1. From the superficial character of these diversities; 2. The actual changes which have been observed as taking place in particular circumstances of the race; 3.* From the analogy of similar changes which have occurred in other animals, particularly in those most nearly associated with man, and subject to the same general influences that have operated on him.

1. Naturalists are not agreed as to the number of sub-races into which the human family should be divided. Some make two only, the white and the black. Morton reckons twenty-two, and Burke sixty-three. Agassiz makes eight principal centers of creation, which he calls "zoological provinces," viz., the Arctic, the Mongolian, the European, the American, the Negro, the Hottentot, the Malay, and the Australian. But whatever be the number, it is now regarded as settled that the differences between them are not specific - that the entire genus homo consists of but a single species.