MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 3S. 



other origin than the first man who was created, 

 have resolved, then, to discuss this interesting su<* 

 ject, and, if I can, to throw light upon the trutn, 

 that, at the beginning of the world, God created 

 only one man, who was Adam, to whom all man- 

 kind owe their origin, whatever may be the traits o 

 their countenance, or the colour of their skin. Some, 

 indeed, who will believe nothing but what has been 

 actually demonstrated, make objections to this view; 

 but these objections will, I trust, vanish, after the 

 exposition which I purpose to make." He mentions 

 that the illustrious Mekel, one of the most distin- 

 guished pupils of Haller, wrote from Berlin in 1757, 

 that the Negroes appear to be of a totally different 

 race of men, because their brain and their blood are 

 black, and hence arises, according to him, the colour 

 of their skin. Others, again, at this time, proceeded 

 even farther, denying that they were entitled to be 

 classed in the human family at all, and maintaining 

 that they formed a link between man and those ge- 

 nera of animals which were most nearly allied to him. 

 The lecturer repelled these insinuations, and opposed 

 all such opinions with a warm and just indignation. 

 As we shall presently find, he had paid an extraor- 

 dinary degree of attention to the genera of animals 

 above referred to, and he declares, in explicit terms, 

 that there were no more points of resemblance be- 

 tween them and the Negro, than there were between 

 ..em and men with a different coloured skin. 



He then examines into the cause of the diversity 



