374 



His immeasurable glory. The subject is worthy of a better fate 

 than it has met with at my hands. But by way of excuse I 

 may say in the words of Lord Bacon, These things have I 

 in all sincerity and simplicity set down * * * * and that without 

 any art and insinuation * * Notwithstanding I trust that what 

 hath been said shall find a correspondence in their minds 

 which are not embarked in partialit}^ and which love the 

 whole better than a part ; wherefore I am not out of hope 

 that it may do good ; at the least I shall not repent myself 

 of the meditation.""^ • 



The Chairman. —I am sure all will join with me in returning sincere 

 thanks to Mr. Weldon for his very excellent paper. (Cheers.) It is now 

 open for any present to offer remarks thereon. 



Rev. G. CuRREY, D.D. — I am quite sure that no one can have heard 

 Mr. Weldon's paper without being struck with the great force and beauty 

 of its language, and the manner in which it has commended its argu- 

 ments by the skilfulness with which they have been put. (Hear, hear.) 

 I am certain it must have given all present as much pleasure to listen 

 to it as it has afforded me, and I beg to express my sincere thanks to 

 the author for having set forth the truths he has put before us, in so very 

 able and attractive a form. In offering a few remarks upon the paper, 

 I desire, however, rather to draw attention to those points on which I 

 think something might be supplied, than to continue to commend what is 

 so well worthy of our commendation. In the general argument employed by 

 the writer of the paper I, for my part, thoroughly concur. There was one 

 point to which I would draw attention in the portion of the paper that 

 deals with the principal varieties of mankind. It seemed to me that there 

 was some difficulty with regard to the statement, that the objection to the 

 notion of the present varieties of man being traceable to one pair, is 

 answered by a method of degeneration which accounts for the alterations 

 that have taken place as compared with the original type. The point which 

 requires the greatest amount of attention and care in prosecuting an investi- 

 gation with respect to the varieties of mankind, is, not so much the question 

 of degeneration, as the marked and distinctive character of each variety. It 

 is not simply that we find there are men who have fallen into a state into 

 which we may suppose their savage or peculiar mode of life has brought 

 them, so that they are now very far removed from the highest type seen in 

 other places, as it is, that we are brought into contact with distinct varieties, 

 each of them capable either of development to a higher state, or of a corre- 

 sponding degradation to a lower state. It will be enough to refer to the 

 three great distinctive varieties, as Cuvier defined them — the Caucasian, the 

 Mongolian, and the Ethiopian or Negro. There are, as is well known, in- 



* Bacon. 



