FROM THE TEMPLE OF PHILCE. 
CHAPTER III. 
OUR RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 
The why and the wherefore form one of the characteristic 
inquiries of the age we live in. Man is no longer satisfied 
to take the world as he finds it ; he must know how it 
became what it is — through what changes, alterations, con- 
vulsions, it has passed before it acquired its present state. So 
with organic matter. How did life first arise on the naked 
and barren surface of the globe ? — how did it increase, until 
the present varied orders of animal and vegetable existence 
clothed and beautified its surface. 
Recent as is the consideration of our own race and its origin, 
it has almost become the study of the day. It is indeed 
a subject of the deepest interest to us, and one which must 
continue to increase in the same degree that the human 
mind becomes enlarged. The chief sources of information 
which we have to draw upon in this enquiry are : — First, 
human speculations ; second, geological evidence ; third. 
Scripture records. In reference to the first, it is not 
necessary to refer to any of the traditions and heathen 
myths of old, nor yet to those of the present day. The 
