DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 87 



it be again, should another and perhaps last 

 cloud of error envelope the world with darkness, 1 

 which seems even now beginning to gather, and 

 may we not hope that it will be followed by that 

 happy time, foretold by the prophet, when the 

 knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the 

 icaters cover the sea ? The old curse on Ham's off- 

 spring shall then cease, he shall no longer be a 

 servant of servants to his brethren ; then shall the 

 curse also that has driven the children of Abra- 

 ham after the flesh into every region of the globe, 

 cease, and they shall look on him whom they 

 pierced, and be restored to the favour of their 

 God, and to their own land; 2 and next, in its 

 own day, the original curse, also pronounced upon 

 Adam and his posterity shall be obliterated and 

 done away for ever. 



Taking all the circumstances I have noticed 

 into consideration, I trust I have made it clear, 

 that the variations observable in the different 

 races of men are not of such a nature as to render 

 it impossible, or improbable, that they should all 

 have been derived from a common stock ; and that 

 the degradations observable in some of them, and 

 approximation to the highest of the brutes, was 

 caused not by the will and fiat of the Creator, 

 but by their own wilful departure from him, and 

 voluntary self-debasement. Because they did not 

 like to retain God in their knowledge, he gave 



1 See Appendix, note 17. * See Appendix, note 18. 



