INTRODUCTION. 59 



Mr. Van Amringe,* while he admits that all the human family 

 sprang from Adam ; that the whole race, except Noah and his 

 family, was destroyed by the deluge ; and that since then the whole 

 human family have sprung from three men, — believes, and forcibly 

 argues, that there are no less than/owr different species of mankind. 

 These arguments will be introduced when treating of the diversity 

 of the races. 



His species are, 1. The Shemitic species, including the Caucasian 

 nations generally ; of strenuous temperament. 2. The Japhetic 

 species, including the Mongolian races, Esquimaux. Aztecs and Pe- 

 ruvians ; of passive temperament. 3. The Ishmaelitic species, includ- 

 ing must of the Tartar and Arabian tribes, and the American nations , 

 of callous temperament. 4. The Canaanitic species, including Ne- 

 groes and Australians ; of sluggish temperament. 5. The Esauitic 

 species (?), including Malays and Negroes with long hair. 



Dr. S.MYTiif divides the subject into the question of origin, and 

 the question of specific unity of man ; the former he determines 

 chiefly by the evidence of Scripture ; the latter, only, he makes a 

 question for scientific observation. He has given a great number of 

 texts to show that the Divine Writings unequivocally teach the ori- 

 gin of the human race from a single pair, Adam and Eve ; and he 

 goes so far as to say, u that the gospel must stand or fall with the 

 doctrine of the unity of the human races." 



He then undertakes to prove that black races of men have ex- 

 isted in ancient times in a high state of civilization ; and, assuming 

 that a black race is a Negro race, he contends, contrary to the opin- 

 ion of the most learned ethnologists, tint the Egyptians and Mero- 

 ites were nearly akin to, if not absolute Negroes. 



Remarking that " it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," and 

 admitting with Leibnitz that " the utmost that can be fairly asked in 

 reference to any affirmed truths of Scripture is, to prove that they 

 do not involve any necessary contradiction," he thinks that the fact 

 of great existing varieties offers no objection to the revelation of 

 Scripture, that all the present races are the descendants of a single 

 pair. He, therefore, adopts the usual theory that the existing vari- 



* Outline of a new Natural History of Man, founded upon Human Anal- 

 ogies : by W. F. Van Amringe. New York, 1348. 



t The Unity of the Human Races : by Thomas Smyth, D. D. New 

 York, 1850. 



