"Can such varieties," enquires the Duke, "have descended from a single stock?" And why not? His Grace has truly said in another place quoted: "It is not in itself inconsistent with the Theistic argument, or with belief in the ultimate agency and directing power of a Creative mind. This is clear, since we never think of any difficulty in reconciling that belief with our knowledge of the ordinary laws of animal and vegetable reproduction."
Is it reasonable to suppose that there were necessarily original parents for all the varieties in every species of animals and vegetables? Must there have necessarily been a black and white cock, and a black and white hen of all the varieties of fowls of every species? A black and white male and a black and white female of all the cattle stock of every variety of the same species? A black and white male and a black and white female, of all animals canine and feline, of each variety of the same species? Were there necessarily separate creations for each of the same species of different colors among all these animals, beasts and fowls? Certainly not; and no hypothesis can make it affirmatively tenable. And just here whence comes a black lamb, born of a white stock, a circumstance happening every year on almost every sheep farm where every ram is white, and not the possibility of a black ram communicating with them?
This certainly is a theme worthy of the attention of the leading minds in social science.
One remarkable fact of a law in procreation which seems inexplicable is the sexes always differ in color; the male invariably, with occasional exceptions, being white, and the female, dark or gray. We refer to the goose and gander. Why this should be so we know as little, and probably less than we do as to why why there should be races of man, differing in complexion, all from the same parent stock.
The Duke has wisely said, "Creation has had a method!" and again: "The same language might be applied without the alteration of a word, to origin of species, if it were indeed, true, that new kinds, as well as new individuals, were created by being born."
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, we believe to have been and history so records them, as yellow, black and white, that persons of three distinct complexions, could possibly be born of the same father and mother of one race and color. And that which seems to be enveloped in explicable concealment is indeed to our mind, a comprehensible law of God's all wise providence.
Let us take a peep into the laws of nature, and for a little, follow them as our guide. Our present familiarity with the spectroscope gives us a knowledge of the properties of the sun, as transmitted through the rays, reflecting all the colors of the prisim or rainbow. Solid matter of mineral substances, we know to be among these properties.
Whatever has color then, whether animal, vegetable or mineral, receives these colors directly from the sun; that is, the essential properties that form or compose them. This is by a physiological process called elaboration and selection, whether in animal, vegetable or mineral chemistry, or the natural functions of these systems, unaided by art. Of all the systems, general and particular, the human presents the most beautiful and comprehensive illustration of God's wonderful providence in the works of creation. But says his Grace of Argyll: "What of that vast continent of Africa? When and How did that negro race begin which is both one of the most anicient and one of the most strongly marked among the varieties of man?" This is the cloud we design to dispel, and reveal the hidden secrets of a thousand ages.
The human body is covered by a structure composed of three distinct parts; the cuticle of external surface; the rete mucosum middle or intermediate structure; and the cutis vera or true skin, underlying the other two, covering the whole surface of the fleshy parts or muscular system, called the hide in slaughtered animals.
The rete muscosum is a colorless jelly like substance, composed of infinitesimal cells like a sponge or honeycomb. The cuticle of external surface is an extremely thin structure, colorless, and as perfectly clear and transparent as crystal glass. The upper surface of the cutis vera or true skin (that part in contact with the rete mucosum) is perfectly white. White is simply negative having no color at all.
It will be at once observed that the cuticle or external surface being transparent, the rete mucosum next below it being also colorless, and the surface of the cutis vera, underlying all being white; that all human beings by nature are first white, at some period of existence, whether born white or not.
The cells of the rete mucosm are filled with limpid fluid, and whatever the complexion of an individual or race, the coloring matter is deposited in the cells of the rete mucosum, mixed with the limpid fluid. This is deposited there by the process of elaboration and selection in animal chemistry, a function simply of physiology.
This coloring matter in the Caucasian or white race is rouge as we shall term it, the essential properties which give redness to the rose. When a white person blushes, red matter rushes into the cells of the rete mucosum, then recedes, leaving them as before, colorless, and the complexion white. When a white person has rosy cheeks, or "ruby lips," there is a fixed deposit of rouge in those parts; but where they are pale and "colorless," there is an absence of rouge or coloring matter in the rete mucosum. In the Mongolian or yellow race of Asia, the coloring matter is the same (rouge) modified by peculiar elaboration, and uniformly infused into the rete mucosum, giving the yellow tinge, one of the known properties of the sun's rays, to the complexion.
And in the African or black race of Africa, the coloring matter is the same as that in the other two races being rouge concentrated, which makes a pigment, the pigmentum nigrum of physiology, or a black matter. Thus the color of the blackest African is produced by identically the same essential coloring matter that gives the "rosy cheeks and ruby lips" to the fairest and most delicately beautiful white lady.
For illustration, to prove that concentrated rouge or concrete redness is black, take blood caught in a vessel, let it cool and dry up by evaporation of the liquid part; when condensed in a solid mass, it becomes perfectly black, more so than the blackest human being ever seen . Look again at the fruits: black berries, black cherries, poke berries and the like. From greeness, discoloration goes on till approaching a whiteness, when a faint redness ensues, gradually increasing to a deep red, which merges into blackness, the intense color of red.
Take now this clot of dried blood, and these fruits, macerate them in water and you have not a black, but assuredly a red solution. Compare these deep red fruits called black with the color of the blackest person in complexion, and there will be the most remarkable contrast between the fruit and the skin.
May it not by this be seen, in the language of the Duke, that "new kinds as well as new individuals can be born?" Cannot God's wonderful and inscrutable providence be seen in this simple but comprehensibly beautiful law of procreation? It certainly can.
Here we see that the first son of Noah, Shem, was born with a high degree of a certain complexion or color; the second making a different complexion; and the third son, Japheth, with the least of the same color, which gives an entirely different complexion to either. The three brothers were all of the same color: rouge which, being possessed in different degrees simply, gave them different complexions.
Was there any miracle in this; any departure from the regular order of the laws of nature, necessary to the production of these three sons of a different complexion by the same mother and father of one complexion? Certainly not; as it is common to see parents of one complexion, and hair and eyes of one color, produce children with hair and eyes of various colors. Then the same laws in physiology, which produced the former of these variations, also produced the other, but for His allwise purposes, doubtless the production of fixed races of man, the effect was placed upon the skin instead of the eyes and hair.
For the convenience of classification, these complexions may be termed positive, medium, and negative. Ham was positive, Shem medium, and Japheth negative. And here it may be remarked as a curious fact, that in the order of these degrees of complexion which indicated the ardor and temperment of races they represented, so was the progress of civilization propagated and carried forward by them. But is it still in doubt that the color of the African is homogeneous with that of the Mongolian and Caucasian Races, or that either is identified with that of the other? In this, too, we summon the incontestable laws of nature. In this we have reference simply to the three original races: Mongolian, African and Caucasian, or Yellow, Black, and White.
Physiology classifies the admixture of the races by a cross between the White and Black as a Mulatto; between the Mulatto and White, a Quadroon; between the Quadroon and White, A Quintroon; between the Quintroon and White, a Sextaroon; betwen the Sextaroon and White, a Septaroon; between the Septaroon and White, an Octoroon. The same numerical classifications are given a like number of crosses between the offspring of the Black and Mulatto, with a prefix of the adjective black; as a Black Quadroon, and so on to Octoroon. A cross between the American Indian and a White, is called Mustee or Mustezo; and the complexioned distinction is precisely the same, either white or black, as that of the offspring between the Mulatto and a White or Black. Here the beauty and wisdom of that Divine law, creating man with a medium complexion, from whence all others originated, is apparent, the Indian being of the Adamic or original complexion.
Now, what is here to be observed as an exact and, with little variation, almost never failing result, in this law of procreation between the African and Caucasian or White and Black races is, that these crosses go on with a nicety of reducing and blending the complexion, till it attains its original standard to either pure white or pure black on the side by which the cross is continued from the first. By this it is seen that each race is equally reproducing, absorbing,andenduring, neither of which can be extinguished or destroyed, all admixtures running out into either of the original races, upon the side which preponderates.
This is an important truth, worthy of the attention and serious consideration of the social scientist, philosopher, and statesman. That two races as distinct as the Black and White, may dwell together in their purity is marvellously true, because whatever of crosses may take place, they will run out into purity on one side or the other, by intermarriage on either side continued.
NOTE: Hon. Henry Clay, the great statesman, years ago when the humanitarian discussions concerning the two races in America were attracting public attention, in an able letter, suggested a prohibition to the importation of the black race, and a continual cross, when they would become extinct. This distinguished statesman had by observation, evidently become acquainted with the fact that the black race could be absorbed by the white, without probably understanding at all that this was a mutual and unalterable law of procreation between the two races, applying equally to both white and black. END NOTE.
And how wonderfully typical of the first or original man, is this crossing of the races; the offspring of the white and black being yellow, precisely the complexion of Adam, the First Man!
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah and wife, who were Adamites and of one complexion, were themselves of three different complexions, as a means in the providence of God's economy, to the accomplishment of his ends in the progress of civilization.
"And the Lord said, Behold the people is one." They were one in descent, one in family, one in interest, one in design, and one in purpose; having one language, they had no other thought than remaining together. And so doubtless would have continued as one had not some sufficient cause transpired to completely break up their interests, and compel them to a forced separation. "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth;" and this separation of these three brothers was the Origin of Races. Each of these brothers headed and led his people with a language, and in all reasonable probability a complexion similar to his own, each settling the then known three parts of the earth: Asia, Africa and Europe.
And God's design in the creation of the races was accomplished, because it fixed in the people a desire to be separated by reason of race affinity. To "replenish and multiply," or the peopling of the earth, was a principal command by God, given to man; and by this was carried out one of the intentions of the Divine will in creation.
Can his Grace, the Duke of Argyll, now see "when and how did that negro begin"?
