We have shown the "method" of the Creator, in effecting his design for man to "scatter abroad upon the face of the whole earth;" to "multiply and replenish it." But we have not yet seen, how the division was brought about by the confusion of tongues, so as to settle and harmonize the people, instead of distracting and discouraging them. What marks of distinction could there have been given to the multitudes of this "one people" previous to separation, to enable them to recognize any individual of a separate division, without speaking? It must be seen that such an act of All wise interposition was essential, to enable each individual of any of the now three grand divisions of the new tongues, when seen to identify the other without speaking; otherwise, there would have been produced a "confusion worse confounded."
"And one of the questions on which testimony bears, is a question of paramount importance in determining the antiquity of the Human Family," says the Duke of Argyll. "That question is not the rise of kingdoms, but the origin of races. The varieties of man are a great mystery. The physical differences which these varieties involve may be indeed, and often are, much exaggerated. Yet these differences are distinct, and we are naturally impelled to ask When and How did they begin? The question to be solved is this: can such a variety have descended from a single stock? And if they can, then must not a vast indefinite lapse of time have been occupied in the gradual development of divergent types?" This "mystery" we shall hope to solve by the aid of the light of sciences, and assistance of Divine authority, enabling us to discover the secrets of the laws of nature.
"And the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language, let us go down and there confound their language." Behold the people are one; that is they are all of one stock, descended from the same parentage, all still living, consequently they consider themselves all one family. To separate this family, was the paramount object, and to sever their interests in each other, was necessary to this separation.
The sons of Noah were three in number: Shem, Ham and Japheth. That these three sons were the active heads of the people as directors and patriarchal leaders, there is no doubt.
There is to us another fact of as little doubt: that is, that these three sons of Noah all differed in complexion, and proportionate numbers of the people, their dependents in and about the city and around the Tower, also differed as did the three sons in complexion. And these different complexions in the people at that early period, when races were unknown, would have no more been noticed as a mark of distinction, than the variation in the color of the hair of those that are white, mark them among themselves as distinct peoples.
That Shem was of the same complexion as Noah his father, and mother, the Adamic complexion, there is no doubt in our mind. And that Ham the second son was swarthy in complexion, we have as little doubt. Indeed, we believe it is generally conceded by scholars, though disputed by some, that the word Ham means "dark," swarthy," "sable." And it has always been conceded, and never as we know of seriously disputed, that Japheth was white.
Of one thing we are morally certain, that after the confusion of tongues, each one of these three sons of Noah, turned and went in different directions with their followers. These followers were just so many and no more, than those who spoke one and the same language. And there can be no reasonable doubt in our mind, that these people all were of the same complexion with each of the sons of Noah whom they followed. On leaving the Ark, they were one family, relatives, continuing together as "one people," all morally and socially blind and ignorant of any difference of characteristics personal, or interests general, as much so as a family of children with themselves toward the family, till years of maturity bring about a change. Hence, when the confusion took place, their eyes became open to their difference in complexion with each other as a division, preferring those of their kind with whom they went, thus permanently uniting their destiny.
Shem settled in Asia, peopling the country around and about the centre from where they scattered. Ham went to the southwest, and Japheth to the northwest. And it will not be disputed, that from then to the present day, the people in those regions where those three sons are said to have located, the three grand divisions of the Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Africa and Europe, are, with the exceptions to be hereafter accounted for, of the distinct complexions of those attributed to Shem, Ham and Japheth; Yellow (called 'brown' in South Carolina and the West Indies), Black and White. And this confusion of tongues, and scattering abroad in the earth were the beginning and origin of races.
"But the great question," says the Duke of Argyll, "is not the rise of kingdoms, but the origin of races. When and How did they begin?" This we propose to show, in the next chapter, by an indisputable explanation of the origin of color by transmission of the parents.
