]
It can hardly be denied that such a text opens out the _possibility_ of
an earlier race than that of Adam; in that case the creation of Adam
would be detailed as the creation of the direct progenitor of Noah,
whose three sons still give names (in ethnological language) to the main
great races of the earth, with whom exclusively the Bible history is
concerned, and especially as the direct progenitor of that race of whom
came the Israelites, and in due time the promised seed--the Messiah. I
do not say this _is_ so, nor even that I accept the view for my own
part; I only allude to the possibility, without ignoring any of the
difficulties--none of which, however, are insuperable--which gather
round it.
It is certainly a very remarkable fact that all about this region in
which the Semitic race originated, traditions of Creation somewhat
resembling the account in Genesis, the institution of a week of seven
days, and a Sabbath or day of rest from labour, existed from very early
times; and with these traditions, a belief in distinct races, one of
which owned a special connection with, or relation to, the Creator. Here
I may appeal to the work of Mr. George Smith and his discoveries of
tablets from the ancient libraries of Assyria. Originally, the country
to which I have alluded consisted of Assyria in the centre and Babylonia
to the south; while to the east of Assyria was a country partly plain
and partly hill, which formed the "plain of Shinar" and the hills beyond
occupied by Accadian tribes, from whose chief city, Ur, Abraham, the
forefather of the Jews, emigrated.
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