Primary tabs
Transcription
And the Australian race in retiring from the abodes
of more energetic and intellectual nations, chose not
to retain the knowledge of God or the means of
human progress. Abandoning willingly the
privilege of fellowship with the Holy One who made
them, and the arts and labour by which they might
have improved the physical condition of themselves
and their children, they declined from generation
to generation, until even the use of houses and of
clothing was forgotten. Their present mental and
social condition may be regarded as "the [dentations?]
of many generations". And in some few instances
this desolation has been so effectually repaired, that
aboriginies of Australia have acquired a taste for
the enjoyments and pursuits of civilized life,
have adopted European clothing, built houses, learnt
to read and write, to speak English, Gaelic, and
Latin, and what is more important, though less
startling, to adhere to a course of steady industry.
The long process of depression, therefore, has not