magnificent scenery in the heavens above and the earth beneath, to view the bodies around him

because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me." (Solomon's Song i. 5, 6.) And the Ethiopian, while he remains an Ethiopian, cannot change his skin; though when he leaves that country, and marries with fair women, his descendants, in the course of a few succeeding generations, regain the original colour of their antediluvian ancestors, and the black-a-moor is washed white. It has been remarked, that there is also some little difference in the anatomy of a negro's head from that of other persons; and this little variation in the formation of their bones has been by anatomists very wisely and rationally accounted for; it having been, by experiment, very clearly proved that this effect has been produced in animals who were primarily tame and domestic ones, but who, on being turned out and becoming wild and savage, had a very material change effected in the formation of their bones. And nearly as wild and savage are the habits and pursuits of an untutored Indian, as are those of the brute creation in an untamed state-at least they widely differ from the habits and pursuits of civilized nations. These wretched people, there is every reason to believe, are the descendants of Ham; for the prophecies pronounced by the patriarch Noah, the great father of the new world, are so very remarkable and explicit, as to prevent the possibility of their being easily mistaken. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan, (the son of Ham,) a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. (And let us not forget that we are the brethren of Ham's accursed descendants, and all proceed from one and the same common stock-from one and the same universal and general ancestor.) And Noah said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, (his descendants were blessed above all other people, as from them proceeded the star that came out of Jacob,) and Canaan shall be his servant: God shall enlarge Japheth; (and in the ensuing chapter it is added, that there were born unto Japheth, Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and

moving in perfect order and harmony, and every creature performing the part allotted him in the universal drama; that seeing he might understand, and, understanding, adore its supreme author and director. Not that, even in the original and perfect state of his intellectual powers, he was left to demonstrate the being of God, either à priori, or à posteriori; his Creator, we find, immediately

Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations: (Gen. x. 1-5 :) a fact admitted and recorded by Camden in his "Britannia," and almost all other historians who treat on this subject.) God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. (Gen. ix. 24-27.) But, blessed be God, the servitude of Canaan is drawing to a close, his probationary sufferings are now fast mitigating. The benign Redeemer, who has redeemed us from the curse of the law, will ultimately redeem these unhappy negroes from the curse of slavery. He was sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, (both from the dominions of Satan, and his agents, hard-hearted men,) and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And when Jesus closed the book that had been delivered unto him by the Jewish minister, the book of the prophet Esaias, (in which is recorded the prophecy just stated,) gave it again to him, and sat down, the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him; (Luke iv. 17— 20;) and the time is swift approaching when the eyes of these wretched captives will all be fastened upon him. The efficacy of his blessed religion is gradually ameliorating and subduing the barbarity of man; and in proportion to the change effecting on their merciless proprietors, will be the diminution of the cruelties too often inflicted on these unhappy people; and through the agency of Christian missionaries, their minds are being fast enlightened with a knowledge of the truth.

manifested himself to him."* His instructor was Deity himself. "This appears evident from the circumstances related; for we find, the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening, in the cool of the day-a season peculiarly adapted for divine contemplation-excited no surprise; it was a voice to which he had been accustomed. Such, then, was Adam in the day when God crowned him king in Eden, and invested him with sovereignty over the works of his hands-giving him dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth."+ His felicity, however, was not as yet complete; it was immediately declared by his benignant Benefactor, not to be good for man to be alone: he was formed for social happiness -to impart and receive delight, by reciprocations of the tenderest affections. An help meet for him was therefore soon produced, Divinely brought," but linked by ties of close affinity— bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, daughter of God and man, and doubtless as perfect in her kind as he whose earthly bliss she was designed to form.

"Though both

Not equal, as their sex not equal seem'd :
For contemplation he, and valour formed,
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only-she for God in him.
Immortal Eve in perfect beauty form'd,

66

+ Milton.

Undeck'd, save with herself, no veil she needed;
Virtue proof, no thought infirm alter'd her cheek.
Led by her heav'nly Maker, on she came,
Adorn'd with what all earth or heaven could give
To make her amiable."

MILTON.

And the connubial benediction was pronounced by God himself, for He blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth with candidates for blissful immortality.

"So on they pass'd, nor shun'd the sight
Of God or angel, for they thought no ill :
So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair
That ever since in love's embraces met;
Adam, the goodliest man, of men since born,
His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve.
Blest couple, link'd in happy nuptial league."

MILTON.

Their joy, alas! was very transient: they had, ere placed in permanent felicity, some trials to endure, to prove to God and heaven their faith, their love, and their obedience. To effect this purpose, one small restraint was laid-one easy prohibition given; for the Lord God having planted a garden eastward in Eden, the primeval abode of our first parents, placed in the midst of it two sacramental trees, one yielding fruits of immortality, the other of destruction-warning the human pair, that on the day they should presume to eat the latter, they would surely die. "Not that the fruit of a material tree could, by virtue inherent in itself, cause that man should

any

live for ever, or convey the knowledge of good and evil; but on the participation of such fruit, it was ordained that certain invisible effects should follow."*

"Of this restraint

The subtle fiend did straight avail himself, and came
Forth on his quest, where likeliest he might find
The only two of mankind, but in them

The whole included race, his purpos'd prey.
In bow'r and field he sought where any tuft
Of grove or garden plot more pleasant lay,
Their tendance or plantation for delight;
By fountain, or by shady rivulet.

He sought them both, but wish'd his hap might find
Eve separate; he wish'd, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanc'd, when to his wish,
Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies,

Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood
Half spy'd, so thick the roses bushing round
About her glow'd, half stooping to support
Each flow'r of slender stalk, whose head, though gay
Carnation, purple, azure, or speck'd with gold,
Hung drooping unsustain'd; them she upstays
Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while.
Herself, though fairest unsupported flower,
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.
Nearer he drew, and many a walk travers'd
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm;
Then voluble and cold, now hid, now seen,
Among thick-woven arborets and flowers
Imborder'd on each bank, the hand of Eve.
Spot more delicious than those gardens feign'd,
Or of reviv'd Adonis, or renown'd

Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son;

Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king
Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
Much he the place admir'd, the person more.

* Horne.