* "Let us view man when within the shell, and when out of
it; let us take a microscope and examine the youngest
embryos, those of the growth of four, six, eight, or fifteen
days; after this age we may discover them with our naked
eyes. Then we can perceive the head only, a round egg with
two blackish specks, which represent the eyes. Before this
time, all being unformed, we can see nothing but a pulp of
marrow, which is the brain, where the original of the nerves
is first formed, where the principle of feeling is first
seated, and the heart, which begins already to beat in this
soft pulp; this is the punctum saliens of Malpighi, part of
the liveliness of which does, perhaps, already proceed from
the influence of the nerves. Then we see the head by degree
stretch for the neck, which being widened, first forms the
thorax, where the heart immediately descends, and takes up
its situation. The belly is framed next, which is divided
into two parts by a partition, called by anatomists the
diaphragm. These parts being expanded, furnish the arms, the
hands, the fingers, the nails, and the hair; the other gives
the thighs, the legs, the feet, etc., which form the support
and balance of the body. All this is surprising, but not
more so in man than in any other animal, or even in
vegetation; the same luxury of Nature shines throughout."
MOD.—Divines have long settled the question against you, that there is no specific difference in the human race, though they allow a great many accidental varieties; but they declare upon Bible authority, that all these varieties sprung from a single pair—one original stock of mankind.
LUCIAN.—The absurd side of a question is the indisputable right of theology.* Wilful blindness or ignorant prejudice alone can raise a doubt, that the Whites, the Negroes, the Albinos, the Hottentots, the Chinese, and the native Americans, are altogether different species, under the genus homo. The white-skinned, bearded native of Northern Asia, could no more beget the copper-colored, beardless native of America, than a bull-dog could beget a f ox; the Negro of Africa, the Laplander; the leopard, the lion; the European, the Ethiopian; the ass, the horse; or an Esquimaux, & Hottentot. Therefore, when theology asserts that America must have been peopled from Asia, it is quite consistent with itself, that is, a tissue of glaring contradictions. When divines can show us how the oak and the ash got to America, and who carried over the dogs, cats, and hogs, the difficulty as to how man got there will be easily solved. Nature did there, as she has done everywhere else, in producing that species of the genus that is proper for the climate. But theology, in its disinterested cares for man, whose folly supports it, shows no kind regard about the migration of other animals, but is, on the contrary, their most deadly enemy; inasmuch as the abominable doctrine that all of them were created solely for his use, has authorised those atrocious cruelties which we daily see exercised upon them.
* The only proper definition of this word is—the science of
priest-craft.
MOD.—Your argument is, that in America, as everywhere else, Nature always produced the animals and plants that were proper for the climate and soil; but according to your theory the surface of this globe is everlastingly undergoing changes, from the motion of the sea and other elements, which unceasing action is alternately making and reducing land; so that the sea becomes the true creator or parent of the land. Now, if this be the case, the best criterion of the age of the child will be its height above the parent; consequently, as Asia has higher land than America, it must be older in its formation by the sea, and might, therefore, furnish the more recent continent with man and other animals.
LUCIAN.—That the sea, by its restless, mighty, and irresistible workings and creations, is the parent of all land, is a fact so demonstrable, from the proofs it has everywhere left behind it, that it is undisputed except by theology; and though it may require many millions of years completely to alternate the surface of our globe, or to make those portions of it sea, which had been land, and vice versa; yet that process and routine, though almost inconceivably slow, is nevertheless sure in endless succession. Man has no doubt migrated from land to land in the way you state; but this would not affect the natural distinction of species, which, however much they may be crossed and mixed for a time, will assert and recur to their primitive distinction ultimately; for Nature positively refuses to perpetuate, within themselves, any of the varieties. This is conclusive proof of the specific difference under the genus homo. Allowing that the height of land is the best criterion of its antiquity, America may by this rule dispute the palm with Asia, as the mountains of the former are nearly as high as those of the latter; and, therefore, the theologian's assertion that the western hemisphere was peopled from Asia, may, with as much truth, be reversed. Whatever may be the respective age of these continents, it seems highly probable, if not certain, that the Andes of South America will be reduced to the fluid state, by the action of the sea and other elements, many hundred thousands of years before the Himmalaya mountains of Asia are levelled by these unsleeping powers; for the former have now the great Pacific Ocean undermining their very foundations, whereas, the latter are still two thousand miles from the sea.
MOD.—The time required to bring about these and other changes which have relation to the celestial globes is so prodigious, that in giving it admittance we virtually set at nought not only all scripture authority, but turn the extent of human chronology into something inconceivably less than a moment sand-glass. Yet it is quite agreeable to the opinion of a great authority among the ancients;—Ocellus Lucanus says:
The universe admitteth neither creation nor annihilation, for it ever was, and ever shall be; if any man should conceive it to have been made, he would not be able to know from what material it was made. Now, I call universal matter by the name of universe, which appellation it obtaineth in that it comprehendeth all things, being an absolute and perfect collection of all natures; and besides the universe there is nothing. Wherefore, there can be nothing without, or external to that which comprehends all things. After men and other animals finish the progress of their nature, and have passed their several ages, they die, and are dissolved, becoming in the same state they were; quo non nati jacent. There is no such thing as quies in natura, all things being in a perpetual circular motion. Nor hath man any original production from the earth, or elsewhere, as some have believed; but hath always been, as he now is, co-existent with the world, whereof he is a part. "Nature and generation govern all things."
LUCIAN.—Such were the opinions of nearly all the wise men of antiquity. Theology, in its ridiculous pretensions to knowledge about the origin of time, has utterly infatuated the minds of its dupes, by instilling false notions concerning it; and limiting, comparatively within the duration of a moment, the existence of the material universe! All discoveries in theology—every appearance in Nature, unite in exposing the absurdity of what is called the Mosaic account of time and creation. So exceeding slow is the resistless innovating progress of the sea, in changing the face of the globe, that millions of years must elapse before a total alternation of land and water takes place on its surface; but as the quantity of water can never immerse the whole, a certain portion of the surface must ever be land, in succession.* This alternate succession of land and water is sure as fate, though imperceptible in the ephemeral life of man.
* Succession no more implies a beginning, than it predicates
an end.