MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 
31 
otlier origin than the first man who was created. I 
have resolved, then, to discuss this interesting sub- 
ject, and, if I can, to throw liglit upon the truth, 
that, at the beginning of the world, God created 
only one man, who was Adam, to whom all man- 
hind owe their origin, whatever may he the traits of 
their countenance, or the colour of their skin. Some, 
indeed, who will believe nothing but what has been 
actually demonstrated, make objections to this view; 
hut these objections will, I trust, vanish, after the 
exposition which I purpose to make.” He mentions 
that the illustrious Mekel, one of the most distin- 
guished pupils of Haller, wrote from Berlin in 1757, 
that the Negroes appear to be of a totally different 
I'ace of men, because their brain and their blood are 
hlack, and hence arises, according to him, the colour 
nf their skin. Others, again, at this time, proceeded 
®''Pn farther, denying that they were entitled to be 
classed in the human family at all, and maintaining 
that they formed a link between man and those ge- 
nera of animals which were most nearly allied to him. 
The lecturer repelled these insinuations, and opposed 
nil such opinions with a warm and just indignation. 
As We shall presently find, he had paid an extraor- 
dinary degree of attention to the genera of animals 
above referred to, and he declares, in explicit terms, 
that there were no more points of resemblance be- 
tween them and the Negro, than there were between 
them and men with a different coloured skin. 
He then examines into the cause of the diversity 
