216 



TJie First Men. 



were developed therefrom. The oldest civilizations were the Egyptian, 

 Akkadian and Chinese. The Egyptian came from the northeast, and the 

 Ciiinese from the west, while the Akkadian seems to be nearly indige- 

 nons. The Akkadians, as their name indicates, were the sons of Ad, and 

 we cannot be mistaken in identifying them with Ha- Adam, or the Adam 

 of Genesis. "When Ha- Adam was driven from the Garden to till the 

 ground from whence he was taken, he found his way to Akkad. Indi- 

 cations are found throughout the entire region, and in Egypt, that 

 the oldest peoples living there of which trace can be found had only 

 paleolithic instruments, or were in the paleolithic stage of civilization. 

 Here civilization began, and from thence it extended to other climes 

 and j)eoples. 



The conclusion to which science seems to be tending is, that the first 

 men were a brown race which spread from the valleys of the Tigris 

 and Euphrates east along the Indian ocean and west across Africa to 

 America, developing ancient civilizations in Akkad, Egypt, Mexico 

 and Peru, which have curious and striking resemblances. The origin 

 of this civilization and of the earliest race divisions we believe to be 

 recorded in the antediluvian chapters of Genesis ; but the true mean- 

 ing of this archaic record is destroyed by interpretations not less 

 absurd than the old version of creation, which insisted that it was all 

 accomplished in six days of twenty-four solar hours each. 



This examination shows that the first men were Adamites and 

 that there were no pre-Adamites, and also that there is nothing 

 in Genesis in opposition to the conclusions of science with regard to 

 the primeval races. The entire field is open to the broadest and most 

 thorough scientific inquiry, and there is nothing in the revealed Word 

 which anthropologists must accept as authoritatively negativing their 

 conclusions, as there is and can be nothing in science antagonistic to 

 revealed religion.* 



