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1

ORIGIN

OF THE

HUMAN RACE.

SECTION I.

1. Of the first man.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the sun, moon and stars. He created also grass, and other plants; and various animals for the use of man. And last of all

he created the first man, called Adum, endowed him with rational faculties, and gave him dominion over the earth, and over the beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea and fowls of the air.

2. Of the first woman. The first woman, called Eve, was made by God as a helper to Adam. Being taken from Adam's body, she was presented to him, and received as his intimate companion, to share with him the toils, and the felicities of life. These were the progenitors of all the human race.

3. First employment of man. After Adam was created, God planted the garden of Eden, in which he placed the man to dress it and to keep it. Hence the cultivation of the earth was the first employment of man; as it is yet the principal, the most important and one of the most honorable of all occupations. 4. Longevity of man. In the first ages of the world, men lived to a great age. Most of the early patriarchs lived to the age of nine hundred years or

more, and Methuselah, the oldest of them, lived to the age of nine hundred and sixty nine years.

5. Of the flood. Soon after men had multiplied upon the earth, they became extremely wicked, and so provoked their maker that he determined to destroy most of the race. For this purpose, he brought a flood upon the earth, which destroyed the whole race, except one family. This was the family of Noah, who was a righteous man, and who, by God's direction, constructed an ark, in which he and his wife, and his three sons and their wives, were preserved.

6. Family of Noah. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The latter was the eldest son; and by the descendants of these three sons, the earth was re-peopled, after the flood. And to give assurance to Noah and his posterity that the earth should not be again overwhelmed with a deluge, God set the rainbow in the clouds, as a token of his covenant that he would not again destroy the human family.

7. Dispersion of men. In the first age of the world, the descendants of Noah constituted one family, and had the same language. But migrating from the east, they settled in the plain of Shinar; and there undertook to build a city and a tower that might reach to heaven, and thus exalt their renown and prevent their dispersion. This displeased God, and he confounded, their language, so that they were compelled to abandon their project. This was the cause of their dispersion. The city which they attempted to bild was called Babel, that is, confusion.

8. Division of the earth. The three sons of Noah were the heads of three great families. The family of Shem settled on the great plains of Syria and Arabia. Of this family are the Chaldeans, Syrians and Arabians; and among these was Abraham, the father of the Hebrews or Israelites. The posterity of Ham peopled Egypt and other parts of Africa. From Japheth descended the inhabitants of the northern parts of Asia, and all the nations of Europe.

9. Descendants of Japheth. The scripture informns us that Japheth had seven sons; Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Mesheck, and Tiras. Of these, Tiras is supposed to have settled Thrace, now a part of Turkey in Europe. Javan's descendants settled in Greece. The descendants of the other sons peopled some part of Persia, Asia Minor, and the countries about the Euxine and Caspian seas.

10. Descendants of Javan. Elisha, one of Javan's sons, is supposed to be Hellas in Greece; Spain is supposed, with good reason, to be intended by Tarshish; and the Rhodanim were undoubtedly the inhabitants of France on the Rhone; this name being contracted from Rhodan. The northern nations of Europe, called Teutons and Goths, who were ancestors of the Germans and Saxons, were the descendants of Gomer and his son Ashkenaz, and of Tiras. These descendants of Japheth's sons last named, migrated from the east very early, and from them descended the English, and their posterity in the United States.

11. Primitive inhabitants of Britain. The first inhabitants of Britain were of the race of Celts, who settled in Italy and Gaul, now France, and in Spain. These appear to have been the first inhabitants of the south of Europe. The Celts, or aboriginals of Britain, were conquered or supplanted by the Cymry or Cimbri, from Denmark and Holland, the ancestors of the Welsh; but their descendants or people of the same race remained in the north and west of Ireland, and in the Highlands of Scotland. Before the Christian era, the south part of Britain was possessed by tribes from Belgium, or the low countries on the continent.

12. Varieties of the human race. Although mankind are all descendants of one pair, Adam and Eve, yet great diversities now exist in the color, form and features of different nations. In classing the varieties of men, writers on natural history are not agreed.

But the following division into six classes or varieties, may be sufficient to present a tolerably correct view of the diversities of men, viz. the Lapland race, the Tartars, Hindoos, Negroes, Europeans and native Indians or aboriginals of America.

13. Lapland race. The extreme northern parts of Asia, Europe and America, ale inhabited by the Samoids, Lapps, Greenlanders, Esquimaux, and other tribes of men quite different from the rest of the human race. They have small bodies, many of them four feet high or little more, a broad visage, a short, flat nose, eyes of a yellowish brown or dark color, the eye lids drawn towards the temples, the cheek bones high, the mouth very large, with thick lips, the head large, the hair black and straight, the skin of a dark grayish color, the voice thin and squeaking.

[graphic]

LAPLANDER TRAVELING IN A SLED.

14. Tartars. The Tartars inhabit the northern and central parts of Asia. They are of a middle size, strong and robust. The upper part of the face is broad, and wrinkled, even in youth; the nose is short

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