e, and that all mankind, however various their
appearances are derived from the same stock.

To prove this, we shall not produce those innumerable arguments, by
which the scriptures have stood the test of ages, but advert to a single
fact. It is an universal law, observable throughout the whole creation,
_that if two animals of a different species propagate, their offspring
is unable to continue its own species_. By this admirable law, the
different species are preserved distinct; every possibility of confusion
is prevented, and the world is forbidden to be over-run by a race of
monsters. Now, if we apply this law to those of the human kind, who are
said to be of a distinct species from each other, it immediately fails.
The _mulattoe_ is as capable of continuing his own species as his
father; a clear and irrefragable proof, that the scripture[077] account
of the creation is true, and that "God, who hath made the world, hath
made of one blood[078] all the nations of men that dwell on all the face
of the earth."

But if this be the case, it will be said that mankind were originally of
one colour; and it will be asked at the same time, what it is probable
that the colour was, and how they came to assume so various an
appearance? To, each of these we shall make that reply, which we
conceive to be the most rational.

As mankind were originally of the same stock, so it is evident that they
were originally of the same colour. But how shall we attempt to
ascertain it? Shall we _Englishmen_ say, that it was the same as
that which we now find to be peculiar to ourselves?--No--This would be
a vain and partial consideration, and would betray our judgment to have
arisen from that false fondness, which habituates us to suppose, that
every thing belonging to ourselves is the perfectest and the best. Add
to this, that we should always be liable to a just reproof from every
inhabitant of the globe, whose colour was different from our own;
because he would justly say, that he had as good a right to imagine that
his own was the primitive colour, as that of any other people.

How then shall we attempt to ascertain it? Shall we look into the
various climates of the earth, see the colour that generally prevails in
the inhabitants of each, and apply the rule? This will be certainly free
from partiality, and will afford us a better prospect of success: for as
every particular district has its particular colour, so it is evident
that the co