THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 209 



The ignorance displayed by Professor 

 Lesley whenever there is any allusion to 

 the sacred writings of the Jews, is such as 

 to deprive his testimony of all value 

 whatever on the subject of Marts 

 Origin Sketched from the Platform of the 

 Sciences; as you will judge from the 

 following specimen of his hermeneutical 

 powers. On the subject of Unity of Race, 

 this Yankee professor declares that " there 

 is absolutely no reason for supposing the 

 white and black and red races to be of 

 one species, except an absurd legend ascribed 

 to an ancient Semitic lawgiver (Moses). 

 The legend of Adam and Eve makes all 

 mankind descend from Cain first, and 

 Seth afterwards ; and that after the ante- 

 diluvians were all destroyed, Noah and his 

 family become in their turn the sole 

 progenitors of all our present races. This 

 hotch-potch of old Hebrew legends this tissue 

 of absurdity called the Biblical history of the 

 origin of mankind, is absolutely the sole 

 and entire argument for not considering 

 the human race as much distinct in kind 



