VARIETIES Ot TUB HUMAN SI'KCIES. 213 



our view over tlie animal kingdom at large, and to compare 

 with man the various living beings wliich more nearly re- 

 semble him. The whole proceeding must be governed by 

 the principles of general physiology. 



This disquisition will perhaps be deemed superfluous by 

 those who regard the Hebrew Scriptures as writings com- 

 posed with the assistance of divine inspiration, and there- 

 fore commanding our implicit assent ; who receive, as a 

 narrative of actual events, authenticated by the highest 

 ScUiction, the account contained in Genesis of the formation 

 of the world, the creation of man and animals, and their 

 dispersion over the face of the globe. 



The Mosaic account does not however make it quite clear 

 that the inhabitants of all the world descended from Adam 

 and Eve *, Moreover, the entire or even partial inspira- 

 tion of the various writings comprehended in the Old Tes- 

 tament has been and is doubted by many persons, including 

 learned divines, and distinguished oriental and biblical scho- 

 lars. The account of the creation, and subsequent events, 

 has the allegorical figurative character common to eastern 

 compositions; and it is distinguished among the cosmogo- 

 nies by a simple grandeur and natural sublimity, as the rest 



* We are told, indeed, that " Adam called his wife's name Eve, because 

 she was the mother of all living." But in the first chapter of Genesis, we 

 learn that God created man male and female ; and this seems to have been 

 previously to the formation of Eve, which did not take place until after the 

 garden of Eden had been prepared. Again, we learn in the fifth chapter of 

 Genesis, that " in the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made 

 he him; male and female created he them ; and blessed them, and called their 

 name Ada-w, in the day when they were created. We find also that 

 Cain, after slaying his brother, was married, although no daughters of Eve 

 are mentioned before this time. " Cain went out from the presence of the 

 Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain 

 knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch." Indeed it is said (ch. 5. 

 V. 4), that " the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hun- 

 dred years, and he beget sons and daughters." This, it should seem, took 

 place after the birth of SETH,and consequently long after Cain had his wife; 

 for Seth was not born till after the death of Abel. If Cain had sisters prior 

 to that period, from amongst whom he might have taken a wife, Moses has not 

 noticed them. 



