444 CHARACTER OF THESE OPINIONS. 



Adam are, in Scripture, opposed or contrasted with each 

 other. As in the one all died, so in the other all are 

 made alive. If there were many Adams and many 

 Eves, the terms of Scripture must be rejected, or must 

 be understood in a new sense. 



In New England, and especially in Massachusetts, 

 and the neighbourhood of Boston, the feeling in favour 

 of Unitarian doctrine removes from the minds of many 

 this objection to the reception of the views of Agassiz. 

 Where the doctrines of the Fall and the Atonement are 

 regarded only as Christian myths, they cannot influence 

 the mind against any philosophical view which implies 

 that these doctrines are void of the element of truth. 



Then, in the slave-holding states, and generally among 

 the negro-despising part of the population of North 

 America, there is a predisposition to adopt a professedly 

 philosophical deduction, to hail it with delight, indeed, 

 when announced by an eminent authority to the effect 

 that races of men are primitive and persistent that the 

 negro was a separate creation from the white man, that 

 he was always inferior as he is now, and that he is des 

 tined so to remain through all time. 



Not only, therefore, have the views of Agassiz, so far 

 as he has ventured to expound them, received many 

 supporters as well as opponents, but they have in cer 

 tain parts of the Union added greatly to his individual 

 popularity. 



Now, in considering questions so important and pro 

 found as these, so apparently subversive of the plain 

 sense of Scripture, there cannot be a doubt that Agassiz 

 has been led away, by his well-known enthusiastic tem 

 perament, to a too hasty promulgation of views which 

 are very far from being substantiated. He believes the 

 evidence sufficiently strong to prove that varieties in the 

 human and other species are primitive, and he contends 

 that his extensive knowledge of natural history makes 



