88 
OUR RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 
still remain. Radiating from Babel, Egypt on the one side 
and Canaan on the other were occupied. 
The early state of civilization in Canaan is seen from the 
references made to it in the Bible. Its colonies carried its 
arts and sciences thence to Carthage. From Ham, there- 
fore, may Africa and a large portion of Asia have become 
enlightened ; idolatry, too, may have originated with his 
descendants, and the early abandonment of the worship of 
the true God. Hence, though its first rise was rapid, yet, 
having attained the summit of human knowledge, without 
possessing the ability of extending it to spiritual things, its 
fall became inevitable. 
There is a certain bound which human wisdom unaided 
from above cannot pass ; it has been the case with Indian 
civilization, it was so with that of the race of Ham ; pro- 
fessing themselves wise, they became fools, and thus 
gradually sank. It erected its noblest temple, reared its 
loftiest obelisk, raised its highest pyramid ; and, unable 
to do more, gradually subsided until it could build nothing 
beyond the clay hovels which now form the only shelter of 
Ham's degenerate descendants ; and wherever they are 
found, there the curse of Noah seems to have followed them. 
The sons of Shem and Japhet have alike conspired to place 
the brand of slavery upon the children of Ham, and even 
the brown race of New Zealand has done the same with its 
first sable colonists. Shem early steps into his brother's 
inheritance, tramples upon him in Asia, confines him to 
Africa, and even there robs him of his chief abodes, leaving 
him to wander over the desolate portions of his ancient 
patrimony. 
The children of Shem were more warlike, but it is ques- 
tionable whether they have ever been more civilized. Their 
empires were larger, but, with one exception, their intel- 
lectual powers were not more developed, and that exception 
was Israel. Enlightened with a knowledge of the true God, 
His will, and the way of life eternal, they early became a 
light shining in surrounding darkness. Long inferior to 
the children of Ham in the arts of civilized life, they were 
