compelled a race, which had by any circumstance been led to
immierate thither, to embrace a nomadic life, even if it had
formerly been given to agriculture. Districts like those at
Astaboras in Ethiopia make agriculture and cattle-rearing so
impracticable, that for thousands of years their inhabitants
have remained hunters, without having made the least step
towards a higher civilisation, although surrounded by cultivated
nations. And just as the mode of hfe adopted by races and
peoples was dependent on the character of the soil and the
climate ; so these, in conjunction with the manner of life and
ethical development, gave rise to great diversities among the
nations of the earth, so great that many have been led by
observation, in contradiction to the Old and New Testament
Scriptures, to deny the descent from one human pair, and to
maintain an essential difference of races. This hypothesis
is contradicted by the fact, not to mention other reasons, that
among those nations whose descent from one and the same
stock cannot be denied, there are almost as great differences
as among those to which different stems have been assigned.
