the most undeniable evidence[076], that
those of the wretched Africans, who are singled out as inheriting the
curse, are the descendants of Cush or Phut; and that we should shew
farther, that but a single remnant of Canaan, which was afterwards
ruined, was ever in Africa at all.--Here all is consternation.--

But unfortunately again for the argument, though wonderfully for the
confirmation that the scriptures are of divine original, the whole
prophecy has been completed. A part of the descendants of Canaan were
hewers of wood and drawers of water, and became tributary and subject to
the Israelites, or the descendants of Shem. The Greeks afterwards, as
well as the Romans, who were both the descendants of Japhet, not only
subdued those who were settled in Syria and Palestine, but pursued and
conquered all such as were then remaining. These were the Tyrians and
Carthaginians: the former of whom were ruined by Alexander and the
Greeks, the latter by Scipio and the Romans.

It appears then that the second argument is wholly inapplicable and
false: that it is false in its _application_, because those, who
were the objects of the curse, were a totally distinct people: that it
is false in its _proof_, because no such distinguishing marks, as
have been specified, are to be found in the divine writings: and that,
if the proof could be made out, it would be now _inapplicable_, as
the curse has been long completed.

With respect to the third argument, we must now suppose that the
scriptures are false; that mankind did not all spring from the same
original; that there are different species of men. Now what must we
justly conclude from such a supposition? Must we conclude that one
species is inferiour to another, and that the inferiority depends upon
their _colour_, or their _features_, or their _form_?--No--We
must now consult the analogy of nature, and the conclusion will be this:
"that as she tempered the bodies of the different species of men in a
different degree, to enable them to endure the respective climates of
their habitation, so she gave them a variety of colour and appearance
with a like benevolent design."

To sum up the whole. If the scriptures are true, it is evident that the
posterity of _Cain_ are no more; that the curse of _Ham_ has
been accomplished; and that, as all men were derived from the same
stock, so this variety of appearance in men must either have proceeded
from some interposition of the Deity; or f