2«"i S. VI. 14G., Oct. 16. '58.i NOTES AND QUERIES. 



305 



defied foreign contact foi- more than 3000 years, 

 in the midst of trials and oppression which would 

 have been more than sufficient to merge anything 

 human out of sight — had that been possible in 

 the matter of " Race" when all the conditions 

 required for its persistence exist ? In every re- 

 gion of the globe the Jew stands prominently 

 forth proudly persistent in the lineaments, man- 

 ners, and customs — and even the language of 

 his race — in spite of its modern form rendered 

 necessary by contact with the nations — the 

 " Gentiles " — who, in their endless mixture and 

 hybridity, are but as infants of a day in pedigree, 

 when compared with the sons of Abraham in the 

 mythic ages of earth. Indeed two very deter- 

 mined American writers on Ethnology in general 

 and the persistence of " races " in particular, do 

 not hesitate to say that " the Jews are living 

 testimonies that their type has survived every 

 vicissitude ; and that it has come down, century 

 by century, from Mesopotamia to Mobile, for at 

 least 5500 years, unaltered, and save through 

 blood-alliance with Gentiles, unalterable." * 



It is very significant of the interest that the 

 mind takes in such ethnological facts, when we 

 find such instances as above given, respecting the 

 Sette Communi, quoted as " wonders," or, at least, 

 as " things not generally known," and note- 

 worthy : but Ethnology points deliberately to 

 many facts of the kind — seeming to point to a 

 law of Nature, by which, if she permits the union 

 of the distinct though proximate human " varie- 

 ties," " races," or " species " (as some will have 

 it), she does so on certain stringent conditions, 

 both as to the persistence of one of the uniting 

 human equivalents, and as to the physical, intel- 

 lectual, and moral characteristics of the resulting 

 hybrid. This extremely interesting question is 

 very old; it has lately given rise to much con- 

 troversy ; and will probably not be decided before 

 the next two thousand years — since the " facts," 

 even if clear as noonday, will always be open to 

 question, because the deductions drawn from 

 them are pronounced to be at variance with es- 

 tablished religious opinions or matters of faith. 

 (See, amongst other works. Types of Mankind, 

 and Indigenous Races of the Earth, by Nott and 

 Gliddon.) 



At some future period — such as I have indi- 

 cated — these teachings of Ethnology may pro- 

 bably be found to be not contrary to the tenets 

 of Religion, but equally available as arguments in 

 " Natural Theology," as those supplied by As- 

 tronomy and Geology (both formerly denounced) 

 to our orthodox Bridgewater Treatises. It must 

 be admitted, however, that tiie " polygenist " 

 advocates are rather intemperate in expounding 

 their views — though not without provocation. 



♦ Types of Manliintl, by J. C. Molt, M.L)., and G. K. 

 Gliddon, p. 141., ed. 1857. 



Perhaps a little philosophical caution and mo- 

 desty would better serve their arguments, and 

 procure a rational examination of their facts. 

 Violence damages even the cause of Truth. On 

 the other hand, we must remember that all is 

 progress in the study of God's works throughout 

 Creation. Man may cooperate, — ^but his resistance 

 will not avail him. Truth lives for ever by its 

 own vitality. Meanwhile, it is not difficult to 

 show that the doctrine of a " polygenesis," or 

 plurality of " species " in the human population 

 of the globe, is not at variance with the teach- 

 ings of Religion on that vital point which, — it has 

 been assumed, — necessitates the " monogenesis " 

 or unity of the human species — I mean the Atone- 

 ment. Indeed, this objection was met and ably 

 answered two hundred years ago by Isaac Peyrere, 

 a learned Protestant divine in his elaborate Pre- 

 AdamitfE, or Men before Adam, lib. v. c. ix. — 

 printed, in Latin, in 1635, and translated into 

 English in*16o6. After elaborating his subject 

 to the utmost ; after advancing proofs of all kinds 

 to uphold his belief, Peyrere comes to the point 

 in question, and shows " how the imputation of 

 the sin of Adam was imputed backward, and 

 upon the predecessors of Adam — by a mystery 

 provided for. their salvation, — how the prede- 

 cessors of Adam could be saved;" — and, conse- 

 quently, how the descendants of such other races 

 must be included in Adam's guilt and its atone- 

 ment. He says : — 



" But how could the sin of Adam be imputed backward 

 [z. e. to other races] ? And how could death«reign back 

 upon those that were already dead? It ought not to 

 seem a wonder to any that the sin of Adam was imputed 

 backward, considering what I have often inculcated, that 

 the /a if /i of Abraham — according to the consent of all 

 divines — was imputed to the predecessors of Abraham, 

 though dead ; — aud that Christ was imputed to all, both 

 before himself and Abraham, though dead and buried." 



Peyrere has a great deal more to say on the 

 subject : but this argument alone seems fully to 

 rebut that objection against the admission of a 

 polygenesis of mankind.* 



* Isaac de la Pej'rere was a native of Bourdeaux. His 

 book was condemned and refuted. It contains much that 

 is interesting and worthy of attentive perasal — as tlie 

 first systematic attempt to deduce the polygenesis-hypo- 

 thesisfrom the Bible itself. He was imprisoned by the 

 Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands, — appealed and 

 went to Rome, — became a Catholic or at all events " con- 

 formed," — but continued secretly to write and speak about 

 his Pre-Adamites to the day of his death. (Bayle, Uict. 

 " Peyrere.") Gliddon, in his tremendous treatise entitled 

 " The Monogenists and Polygenists " {Indigenous Races 

 of the Earth), refers to Peyrtire's book amongst the other 

 nunsberless references which oppress his argument; but 

 had he read the book ? If so, it seems strange that he 

 did not quote more than one passage which no modem 

 "polvgenist" can surpass in logical pertinence, as an 

 appeal to common sense in support of bis views. Pej'rfere, 

 like some few others, " was born before his time." The 

 title of Ills book points to the theological range of his me- 

 ditations : — " Men before Adam, or, A Discourse upon the 



