rth-side they are
but Tawny, on the other side they are Black.
[10] Olearius Voyage de Mosco. et de Perse _liv_. 3.
There is another Opinion concerning the Complexion of _Negroes_, that is
not only embrac'd by many of the more Vulgar Writers, but likewise by that
ingenious Traveller Mr. _Sandys_, and by a late most learned Critick,
besides other men of Note, and these would have the Blackness of _Negroes_
an effect of _Noah's_ Curse ratify'd by God's, upon _Cham_; But though I
think that even a Naturalist may without disparagement believe all the
Miracles attested by the Holy Scriptures, yet in this case to flye to a
Supernatural Cause, will, I fear, look like Shifting off the Difficulty,
instead of Resolving it; for we enquire not the First and Universal, but
the Proper, Immediate, and Physical Cause of the Jetty Colour of _Negroes_;
And not only we do not find expressed in the Scripture, that the Curse
meant by _Noah_ to _Cham_, was the Blackness of his Posterity, but we do
find plainly enough there that the Curse was quite another thing, namely
that he should be a Servant of Servants, that is by an Ebraism, a very
Abject Servant to his Brethren, which accordingly did in part come to pass,
when the _Israelites_ of the posterity of _Sem_, subdued the _Canaanites_,
that descended from _Cham_, and kept them in great Subjection. Nor is it
evident that Blackness is a Curse, for Navigators tell us of Black Nations,
who think so much otherwise of their own condition, that they paint the
Devil White. Nor is Blackness inconsistent with Beauty, which even to our
European Eyes consists not so much in Colour, as an Advantageous Stature, a
Comely Symmetry of the parts of the Body, and Good Features in the Face. So
that I see not why Blackness should be thought such a Curse to the
_Negroes_, unless perhaps it be, that being wont to go Naked in those Hot
Climates, the Colour of their Skin does probably, according to the Doctrine
above deliver'd, make the Sun-beams more Scorching to them, than they would
prove to a people of a White Complexion.
Greater probability there is, That the Principal Cause (for I would not
exclude all concurrent ones) of the Blackness of _Negroes_ is some Peculiar
and Seminal Impression, for not onely we see that _Blackmore_ boyes brought
over into these Colder Climates lose not their Colour; But good Authors
inform us, That the Off-spring of _Negroes_ Transplanted out of _Africa_,
above a hundred year
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