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“ Oar species had its origin not in one, but in several or in 
many creations ; and these, diverging from their primitive 
centres, met and amalgamated in the progress of time, and 
have thus given rise to those intermediate links of organisa- 
tion which now connect the extremes together." “ Here/' he 
says, “is the truth divested of mystery — a system that ex- 
plains the otherwise unintelligible phenomena so remarkably 
stamped on the races of men." It is this view, that there 
was no common central origin for men, but an indefinite 
number of separate creations from which the races of men 
have sprung, to which Agassiz gave the sanction of his name, 
subsequently seeking to prove that there are eight regions of 
the earth, each containing its own fauna and its own peculiar 
type of man, and that what are called human races, down to 
their specialisation as nations, are distinct primordial forms 
of the type of man. 
In whatever terms those replies are couched, they contain 
statements which cannot in my judgment be reconciled with 
the statements of Scripture. “ The unity of mankind," says 
the Duke of Argyll, “ is too deeply interwoven with the funda- 
mental doctrines of Christianity, and is not easily separated 
from principles which are of high value in our understanding 
both of moral duty and of religious truth." Amid this con- 
flict of response there are certain facts which will occur to 
most of us in confirmation of the Scripture reply, affirming the 
common origin and unity of the species of man. 
(a) Let me name the law of hybrids. It is a general 
principle that beings of distinct species, or descendants from 
stocks originally different, cannot produce a mixed race 
which shall have the power of continuing itself. Mules, 
for example, cannot continue the mongrel race. Were species 
capable of blending with one another indefinitely, they 
would be no longer recognised. The system of life would 
become an unintelligible chaos ; the temple of nature would 
be fused over its whole surface and throughout its entire 
structure. It is, however, an admitted fact, that from the 
amalgamation of races most diverse, be they Caucasian, Mon- 
golian, or African, offspring may arise and races be indefinitely 
prolonged; and from this fact of a common nature we are en- 
titled to draw a proof that God has made of one blood all 
nations to dwell in all the face of the earth. 
(b) And, further, we cannot but remember that, be the 
varieties between the different races of men as marked as they 
may, they are only external, and such as affect the hair, the 
skin, the skull. The colour of the skin is of all organisms the 
most liable to change; and, as regards the skull, greater 
