should _exemplify human depravity, his curse and his overruling blessing_.

The rule and the subordination which is essential to the existence of the
family, God made commensurate with mankind; for _mankind is only the
congeries of families_. When Ham, in his antediluvian recklessness,
laughed at his father, God took occasion to give to the world the rule of
the superior over the inferior. _He cursed him. He cursed him because he
left him unblessed_. The withholding of the father's blessing, in the
Bible, was curse. Hence Abraham prayed God, when Isaac was blessed, that
Ishmael might not be passed by. Hence Esau prayed his father, when Jacob
was blessed, that he might not be left untouched by his holy hands. Ham
was cursed to render service, forever, to Shem and Japheth. The _special_
curse on Canaan made the general curse on Ham conspicuous, historic, and
explanatory, simply because his descendants were to be brought under the
control of God's peculiar people. Shem was blessed to rule over Ham.
Japheth was blessed to rule over both. God sent Ham to Africa, Shem to
Asia, Japheth to Europe. Mr. Moderator, you have read Guyot's "_Earth and
Man_." That admirable book is a commentary upon this part of Genesis. It
is the philosophy of geography. And it is the philosophy of the rule of
the higher races over the inferior, written on the very face of the earth.
He tells you why the continents are shaped as they are shaped; why the
mountains stand where they stand; why the rivers run where they run; why
the currents of the sea and the air flow as they flow. And he tells you
that the earth south of the Equator makes the inferior man. That the
oceanic climate makes the inferior man in the Pacific Islands. That South
America makes the inferior man. That the solid, unindented Southern Africa
makes the inferior man. That the huge, heavy, massive, magnificent Asia
makes the huge, heavy, massive, magnificent man. That Europe, indented by
the sea on every side, with its varied scenery, and climate, and Northern
influences, makes the varied intellect, the versatile power and life and