28 On the Unity of the Human Species. 



Such is the solution science gives of this interesting ques- 

 tion of the primitive unity of man ; such is that which has 

 been given in a book v\^ritten upwards of 3500 years ago. 

 Let us bow, therefore, before the Sacred Writings, in which 

 such important knowledge is embodied ; and let us not forget 

 that, while they contain all the moral truths essential to our 

 happiness and future destiny, they likewise present to us the 

 greater number of the important physical facts, of which we 

 formed no idea till after long- continued and toilsome labours. 



If these researches interest our readers, we shall return 

 to this question ; and we shall make them more particularly 

 acquainted with the works of M. Flourens on the study of the 

 skeleton and the cranium of man. These investigations will 

 be found to confirm a conclusion which was propounded by 

 Moses, and, in modern times, has been adopted by the ma- 

 jority of physiologists, at the head of whom stand Blumen- 

 bach, Camper, and Cuvier. 



We shall likewise enumerate, in detail, the researches re- 

 cently undertaken with the view of resolving the doubts of 

 natural philosophers, respecting the truth of one or the 

 other hypothesis proposed to explain the phenomena of light. 

 We may state beforehand, that, as the facts related by the 

 Hebrew legislator seem more favourable to the theory of 

 undulations than to that of emission, we doubt not that the 

 experiments by which the means of deciding between these 

 two opposite theories are sought for, will confirm what this 

 extraordinary man had already announced upwards of thirty- 

 five centuries ago. 



We thus see this admirable Book acquiring greater impor- 

 tance from age to age, at the same time that the sciences 

 are making new conquests. The Bible, a rich and inexhaus- 

 tible mine, will send forth into tlie world, treasures always 

 becoming more valuable, in proportion as the progress of 

 our knowledge shall furnish us with more perfect instru- 

 ments for drawing from its bosom the truths which the 

 Supreme Intelligtnce has deposited there from the earliest 

 period.* 



* From the Bibliotlicquc UniversfUe de Genive, No. 107, 1845. 



