that revelation, and which are universally assented to by the religious world. A revelation is necessarily supernatural—that is, in direct contradiction to the normal order; but it may be said that the Creator is not the slave of His own laws, and in His immaculate wisdom and boundless power might see fit to change the order of the human creation; and certainly the same Almighty power which took the Hebrews over the Red Sea on dry land, that saved a pair of all living things in the ark of Noah, or dispersed the builders of Babel, could, with equal ease, reform, or re-create human life, and in future ordain that instead of one there should be several species of men. This is a matter, however, 55in regard to which the author does not assume to decide, to question, to venture an opinion, or even to hazard a conjecture. It is clearly and absolutely beyond the reach of human intelligence, and therefore not within the province of legitimate enquiry. The Almighty has, in His infinite wisdom and boundless beneficence, hidden from us many things, a knowledge of which would doubtless injure us, and the origin of the human races belongs to this catalogue. Men may labor to investigate it, to tear aside the veil the Creator has drawn about it, to unlock the mystery in which He has shrouded it, and after millions of years thus appropriated, come back to the starting-point, the simple, palpable, unavoidable truth. They exist, but why or wherefore, whither they came or whence they go, is beyond the range of human intelligence. We only know, and are only permitted to know, that the several species now known to exist have been exactly as at present in their physical natures and intellectual capacities, through all human experience and without a supernatural interposition or re-creation, must continue thus through countless ages, and as long as the existing order of creation itself continues. This we know beyond doubt or possible mistake, while, whether it was thus at the beginning, or changed by a supernatural interposition at some subsequent period, is now, and always must be, left to conjecture. Those who interpret the Book of Genesis, or who believe that the Book of Genesis teaches the origin of the human family from a single pair, will, of course believe that the Creator subsequently changed them into their present form, while those who do not thus interpret the Bible will believe, with equal confidence perhaps, that they were created thus at the beginning. It is not, nor could it be of the slightest benefit to us to really and truly know the truth of this matter. All that is essential to our welfare we already know, or may know, if we properly apply the faculties with which the Creator 56has so beneficently endowed us. We only need to apply these 

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