346 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1847, 



mention that he opposes Lyell and others who main- 

 tain that very many of the Tertiary species are the 

 same as those now existing. He believes there is not 

 one such, but that there was an entirely new creation 

 at the commencement of the historic era, which is all 

 we want to harmonize geology with Genesis. Now, 

 as to man he maintains distinctly that they are all one 

 species. But he does not believe that the Negro and 

 Malay races descended from the sons of Noah, but 

 had a distinct origin. This, you will see, is merely an 

 extension of his general view. We should not re- 

 ceive it, rejecting it on other than scientific grounds, 

 of which he does not feel the force as we do. 



But so far from bringing this against the Bible, he 

 brings the Bible to sustain his views, thus appealing 

 to its authority instead of endeavoring to overthrow it. 

 He shows from it (conclusively) that all the sons of 

 Noah (Ham with the rest) were the fathers of the ex- 

 tant Caucasian races, races which have remained 

 nearly unaltered from the first, and that if any negroes 

 proceeded from Ham's descendants, it must have been 

 by a miracle. That is the upshot of the matter. We 

 may reject his conclusions, but we cannot find fault 

 with his spirit, and I shall be glad to know that Dr. I. 

 A. Smith, in the whole course of his public teaching, 

 has displayed a reverence for the Bible equal to that 

 of Agassiz. I have been on the most intimate terms 

 with him : I never heard him express an opinion or a 

 word adverse to the claims of revealed religion. His 

 admirable lectures on embryology contain the most 

 original and fundamental confutation of materialism I 

 ever heard. 



I make the " Manual " keep clear of slavery, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania (if little Delaware manumits 



