OUR RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 
79 
towards the niggers and blackamoors. And even the 
Maori does not conceal his contempt for the papatea wai 
tai ” — the untattooed colorless-faced sons of the ocean. 
Nothing is more repulsive to the feelings of the white than 
the naked figure of his own race. He turns from it with 
disgust ; and yet the most delicate and refined do not expe- 
rience similar feelings in viewing the naked forms of the 
brown ; the color of the skin being more subdued and less 
striking to the eye, seems natural. The shark often allows 
the black and brown swimmer to escape, but darts at once 
upon the white. 
Have we any proof of man being originally that low and 
degraded being which the progressionists would make him ? 
He early proved that he possessed the power of invention, 
and even manifested a taste for the fine arts ; his life was not 
consumed merely in procuring food for his daily sustenance, 
even in that early period of his existence the harp and 
the organ solaced his spare hours, the exercise of the highest 
powers of the soul even then was seen when men assembled 
together for Divine worship. 
W e have in the Mosaic history of the patriarchs an ac- 
count of the early progress of the arts. Cain built a city, 
and named it Enoch after his son ; Jabal was the father of 
those who dwelt in tents ; Jubal, his brother, was the father 
of all such as handle the harp and organ ; Tubal Cain was 
the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron ; and, in 
Seth's time, the public worship of God was established. It 
is therefore evident, that even from the commencement, he 
was capable of using the distinguishing gift of reason which 
was bestowed upon him, and of applying it to the same uses 
which he does now. It is true that he is a progressive 
being, capable of the highest state of advancement ; that he 
has always held the highest position, and was never in his 
commencement the savage possessing only the' stone celt and 
arrow-head to gain him a scanty subsistence. Still it is also 
true that he is liable to retrograde. He did so when he first 
fell ; he has done so since in numberless instances. 
The Maori is an example ; he has retrograded : every step 
