Page:The negro's origin.djvu/29

Rh tice demands all his seed to take a share; and not the youngest and weakest bear the whole burden. (b.) The Scriptures say again, "And Noah knew what his younger son had done unto him." That younger כֵּן was Canaan, and not Ham, as we hope to be able to prove. Ham was not his younger son, as Scripture plainly informs us, in Gen. vi. 32; v 10; x. 1; and 1 Chron. i. 4. A fundamental rule of Scripture is to name children in the order of their birth. It would be useless to multiply instances. Nor is this rule ever departed from without an apparent reason. The sons of Noah are enumerated in the parts of Scripture just designated, and in each the well-known rule is observed, the familiar Shem, Ham and Japheth, is read.

Strong indeed must be the proof that demands us to break such conclusive testimony In regard to Ham there is not the least testimony offered, save that founded on the assumption that he is the party cursed; an argument a posteriori of the most shiftless kind. In regard to Shem and to Japheth, doubts may arise from the fact, that in the genealogical table of Noah's descendants recorded in 1 Chron. i. the children of Japheth are