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 complexion of Noah and his sons, from whom the rest of the world were descended, was the same as that, which is peculiar to the country, which was the seat of their habitation.  This, by such a mode of decision, will be found a dark olive; a beautiful colour, and a just medium between white and black.  That this was the primitive colour, is highly probable from the observations that have been made; and, if admitted, will afford a valuable lesson to the Europeans, to be cautious how they deride those of the opposite complexion, as there is great reason to presume, that the purest white[079] is as far removed from the primitive colour as the deepest black.

We come now to the grand question, which is, that if mankind were originally of this or any other colour, how came it to pass, that they should wear so various an appearance?  We reply, as we have had occasion to say before, either by the interposition of the Deity; or by a co-operation of certain causes, which have an effect upon the human frame, and have the power of changing it more or less from its primitive appearance, as they are more or less numerous or powerful than those, which acted upon the frame of man in the first seat of his habitation.

With respect to the Divine interposition, two epochs have been assigned, when this difference of colour has been imagined to have been so produced.  The first is that, which has been related, when the curse was pronounced on a branch of the posterity of Ham.  But this argument has been already refuted; for if the particular colour alluded to were assigned at this period, it was assigned to the descendants of Canaan, to distinguish them from those of his other brothers, and was therefore limited to the former.  But the descendants of Cush[080], as we have shewn before, partook of the same colour; a clear proof, that it was neither assigned to them on this occasion, nor at this period.