SECTION VI.

GEOGRAPHY OF MANKIND.

97. Varieties of the Human Race.-Man appears to be the only creature that is naturally capable of inhabiting all possible varieties of situation and climate on the earth's surface. These, however, react upon him, and produce corresponding varieties in his physical constitution. How different a being is the Esquimaux, who, in his burrow amid northern ices, gorges himself with the blubber of whales, from the spare Numidian, who pursues the lion under a vertical sun! And how different from these the skinclad fisherman of the icebergs, and the naked hunter of the Sahara-are, on the one hand, the pampered inmates of Eastern harems; on the other, the energetic and intellectual inhabitants of the cities of Europe! Moral influences concur to widen these differences. "Let us imagine for a moment," says Dr. Pritchard, "a stranger from another planet to visit our globe, and to contemplate and compare the manners of its inhabitants; and let him first witness some brilliant spectacle in one of the highly-civilized countries of Europe-the coronation of a monarchthe installation of a St. Louis on the throne of his ancestors, surrounded by an august assembly of peers, and barons, and mitred abbots, anointed from the cruise of sacred oil brought by an angel to ratify the Divine prerogative of kings. Let the same person be carried into a hamlet in Negroland, at the hour when the sable race recreate themselves with dancing

and barbarous music:-let him then be transported to the saline plains over which bald and tawny Mongoles roam, differing but little in hue from the yellow soil of their steppes, brightened by the saffron flowers of the iris and tulip:-let him be placed near the solitary den of the Bushman, where the lean and hungry savage crouches in silence, like a beast of prey, watching with fixed eyes the birds which enter his pitfall, or the insects and reptiles which chance brings within his grasp :-let our planetary traveller be carried into the midst of an Australian forest, where the squalid companions of kangaroos may be seen crawling in procession, in imitation of quadrupeds :-and can it be supposed that such a person would conclude the various groups of beings whom he had surveyed to be the offspring of the same original stock?"

98. The varieties, it must be confessed, are immense. Yet they admit, in the first place, of resolution into classes. Anatomists have endeavoured to divide mankind into groups, by taking the shape of the skull as the chief ground of distinction. Hence the lateral view of the skull taken by Camper, the vertical view of Blumenbach, and the view of the basis of the skull (the lower jaw being removed,) taken by Professor Owen. To obtain a complete view of the character of the head, for the purpose of comparing human varieties, we must have recourse to all of these three views. But the configuration of the skull is only one ground of distinction. The colour of the

skin, the quality of the hair, the profile of the face, the varieties and analogies of language, must also be taken into account. Combining all these, we are led

to adopt, upon the whole, the classification propounded by Blumenbach, and to distribute the one universal family into five great varieties; namely, the Caucasian or rather the European, the Mongolian or Asiatic, the Ethiopic or African, the Malayan or Oceanic, and the Transatlantic or American. As regards the colour of the skin, these varieties are, generally speaking, white, yellow, black, brown, and red men.

99. The Caucasian variety includes the whole European family, (except the Laplanders and Finns,) with their descendants in America, &c.; also the nations of Western Asia, as far as the river Oby, the Belur Tag and Himaleh Mountains, and the Ganges; and the people of Northern Africa, Egypt, and Abyssinia. Among this variety, generally speaking, the head is round; the forehead expanded; the face oval; the nose thin, straight, or slightly aquiline; the mouth small; and the chin full and rounded. The hair varies in colour from fair to black, and is generally soft, flowing, or slightly curled; while the colour of the eye ranges from blue to dark brown.

100. The Mongolian variety includes the natives of Asia, beyond the Oby, the Belur Tag and Himaleh Mountains, and the Ganges (except the inhabitants of Malacca); the Kalmucks and Kalkas, whose ancestors spread devastation over a large portion of the earth, under their leaders Attilla, Zenghiz Khan, and Timur; and the Manchoos, the conquerors of China. To these must be added the ancient Chinese, the Japanese, the Coreans, and the people of Thibet: together with the inhabitants of the Arctic regions; as the Samoieds, Kamschatdales, Finns, Laplanders,

and Esquimaux. The chief characteristics of this variety are a yellow or olive complexion, a square head, a low and narrow forehead, a broad and flattened face, flat nose, high cheek-bones, wide mouth, thick lips, and pointed chin; while the hair is black, coarse, lank, and thin; and the eyes rise obliquely from the nose to the temple.

101. The Ethiopic variety comprises all the natives of Africa to the south of the Sahara and Abyssinia; also the natives of New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, Papua or New Guinea, New Britain, Solomon's Isles, New Georgia, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Feejee Islands, and several tribes in the Indian Archipelago. The chief characteristics of this variety are a black skin; a narrow head, compressed at the sides; a low and retreating forehead; prominent cheek-bones; a large and monkeylike nose; thick lips, especially the upper one; a small chin; black eyes; long arms; bowed legs; and hair black, coarse, frizzled, and (apparently) woolly.

102. The Malayan variety includes the natives of Malaya, Ceylon, the Asiatic Islands, New Zealand, and Polynesia. In this variety the skin is brown or tawny; the form of the head intermediate, between that of the European and Ethiopic varieties; the forehead rather narrow, but high; the nose of that form which is called bottle-nosed; the hair black, thick, and generally slightly curled.

103. The Transatlantic variety comprises all the native American tribes, except the Esquimaux. As the Malayan variety approximates to the Ethiopic, so does the Transatlantic to the Mongolian. The

beard is scanty; the skin reddish, of a cinnamon hue; the general features Mongolian, but less strongly marked; the hair black, lank, long, and coarse. There are strong resemblances between the aborigines of America and of Eastern Asia, which go far towards elucidating the problem of the peopling of the former country.

104. Unity of the Human Race.-"God that made the world and all things therein. . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." Of late years a new science has sprung up, which proposes to investigate the questions involved in the origin and distribution of man. All its investigations have hitherto rendered tribute, and, so long as they are rightly prosecuted, will continue to render tribute to the authoritative declarations of Holy Scripture. They concur in asserting and establishing the great truth that all the varieties of the human race constitute but one family.

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105. No human truth is of greater religious interest than this. In the prophetic mirror of the Apocalypse, the Church, one and catholic, beholds the redeemed brought near to God, out of "every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." She surveys a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," standing "before the throne and before the Lamb." She sees an "angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." She is as