From representations found upon Egyptian granite made more than three
thousand years ago, we know that the negro was as black, his lips as
full, and his hair as closely curled then as now. If we know anything,
we know that there was at that time substantially the same difference
between the Egyptian and the Negro as now. If we know anything, we know
that magnificent statues were made in Egypt four thousand years before
our era--that is to say, about six thousand years ago. There was at
the World's Exposition, in the Egyptian department, a statue of king
Cephren, known to have been chiseled more than six thousand years ago.
In other words, if the Mosaic account must be believed, this statue was
made before the world. We also know, if we know anything, that men lived
in Europe with the hairy mammoth, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and
the hyena. Among the bones of these animals have been found the stone
hatchets and flint arrows of our ancestors. In the caves where they
lived have been discovered the remains of these animals that had been
conquered, killed and devoured as food, hundreds of thousands of years
ago.
If these facts are true, Moses was mistaken. For my part, I have
infinitely more confidence in the discoveries of to-day, than in the
records of a barbarous people. It will not now do to say that man has
existed upon this earth for only about six thousand years. One can
hardly compute in his imagination the time necessary for man to emerge
from the barbarous state, naked and helpless, surrounded by animals far
more powerful than he, to progress and finally create the civilizations
of India, Egypt and Athens. The distance from savagery to Shakespeare
must be measured not by hundreds, but by millions of years.
XIV. SUNDAY
"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had
rested from all his work which God created and made."
The great work had been accomplished, the world, the sun, and moon, and
all the hosts of heaven were finished; the earth was clothed in
green, the seas were filled with life, the cattle wandered by the
brooks--insects with painted wings were in the happy air, Adam and Eve
were making each other's acquaintance, and God was resting from his
work. He was contemplating the accomplishments of a week.
Because he rested on that day he sanctified it, and for that reason and
for that alone, it was by the Jews considered a holy day. If he only
rested on that day, there ought to be some account of what he did the
following Monday. Did he rest on that day? What did he do after he
got rested? Has he done anything in the way of creation since Saturday
evening of the first week?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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