DISPLACEMENT AND EXTINCTION OE EACES. 5 



divided into two separate and perfectly distinct histories : the first, 

 an account of the Creation, and the general history of mankind till 

 the dispersion : the Genesis properly so called, extending over a 

 period of considerably more than two thousand years, and contained 

 in the ten first chapters, and nine Terses of the eleventh ; while the 

 remaining chapters, and indeed nearly the whole of the historical 

 Books of the Old Testament, are exclusively devoted to the one 

 selected race, that of Abraham and his descendants. 



Looking then to the first of these, and to its narrative in relation 

 to the immediate descendants of Noah, the recognised protoplasts of 

 the primary subdivisions of the human family, we perceive that 

 certain very marked and permanent differences are assigned to each. 

 Ham, the father of Canaan, by negation, is left without a blessing, 

 while Canaan is marked as the progenitor of a race destined to degra- 

 dation as the servant of servants. The blessing of Shem is peculiar, 

 as if it were designed chiefly to refer to the one branch of his 

 descendants, "to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and 

 the Covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God;" 

 but to his various descendants a special rank is assigned in the world's 

 future ; special, predominant in relation to some branches of the 

 human family ; but yet inferior and of temporary duration when 

 compai*ed with the destinies of the Japhetic races, who, enlarging 

 their bounds, and encroaching on the birth-right of the elder nations, 

 are destined to " dwell in the tents of Shem," and Canaan shall serve 

 them. 



Thus from the very first we perceive that one important sub- 

 division of the human family is stamped, ah initio, with the marks of 

 degradation ; while another, the Semitic, though privileged to be the 

 first partaker of the blessing, to be the originator of the world's 

 civilization, and to furnish the chosen custodiers of its most valued 

 inheritance, through the centuries which anticipated the fulness of 

 time : yet the nations of this stock are destined to displacement, for 

 " Japhet shall be enlarged, and shall dwell in the tents of Shem." 



Thus, also, from the very first we perceive the origination of a 

 strongly marked, and clearly defined distinction between diverse 

 branches of the human family ; and this, coupled with the apportion- 

 .t of the several regions of the earth to the distinct types of man, 

 distinguished from each other not less clearly than are the varied 

 faunas of these regions, seem to leave no room for doubt that the 

 Genus Homo was as clearly sub-divided into diverse varieties, if not 

 into distinct species, as any other of the great mammalian types of 

 species ranged over the earth's surface according to a recognised law 



