continent, and in the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with large features, strong hair, broad nostrils, and great mouths.

54. But all men are the offspring of one common parent; and, among these varieties, the swarthy negro and the delicate European are brethren, descended from the same ancestor.

Obs. The shrivelled and degenerate inhabitants of the northern regions, though reckoned by some a sixth variety, seem more properly to belong to the first and second.

55. The principal, though not the sole, cause of the different complexion and external form of the human race, is the climate, or the temperature of the air, which, when extremely hot or cold, produces, in process of time, a dark, and, when temperate, a fair complexion.

56. Difference of education, food, clothing, modes of life, and particular customs, may be assigned as other and proximate causes.

Obs. Some philosophers have considered the several varieties as so many different species of the genus man; but, taking the Holy Scriptures for our guide, we are bound to believe that the whole human race are descended from one pair, and that the varieties are accidental.

X. DIFFERENCE OF LANGUAGE AND NATION.

57. Mankind differ also in languages, religion, civilisation, and form of government.

58. There are at least eighty originally different languages in the world; besides numerous dialects that are still multiplying.

59. There are about fifteen different barbarous languages of Africa; and about thirty in all America, though some have numbered eighty-three, not one of which has any similarity to the existing languages of Europe or Asia. In Australia, besides dialects, two principal languages have been discovered.

60. A likeness or difference of language implies an identity or difference of people or nation.

Illus. 1. People who speak the same language, or a dialect of the same language, belong to the same nation; where there is no resemblance of language, they are different nations, though living under the same government.

2. Thus the Germans, Dutch, Danes, and Swedes, are one nation, speaking all dialects of the same language, though citizens of different states widely distant. But the English, the Welsh, and the Highlanders of Scotland, are distinct nations, though belonging to the same state.

61. The French, Italian, English, and German, are the most polite and cultivated languages of Europe; and, in Asia, the Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit.

62. The most widely diffused languages in the world, are, 1. The German or Teutonic, with its dialects, of which the English is one; 2. The Slavonic, of which the Russian is a dialect; 3. The Arabic, which is also the religious language of all Mahomedan countries; and, 4. The Chinese, which perhaps is the most extensive of any.

XI. DIFFERENCE OF RELIGION.

63. As all savage nations practise some religious superstitious ceremonies, it would appear that there is no people entirely destitute of the knowledge of a Supreme Being, though with some rude tribes this knowledge is very imperfect.

64. The difference of religion divides mankind into classes: 1. Those who worship one God, and have sacred writings containing His will for the regulation of their lives; 2. Those who, instead of Him, or besides Him, worship supposed deities of different kinds.

65. The first include the Jews, Christians, and Mahomedans; the second are called Heathen or Pagans.

66. Christians are divided into, 1. The Catholics; 2. The Protestants; and, 3. The Greek church. But each is subdivided into numerous sects or parties.

67. The Mahomedans are divided into, 1. The sect of Omar, to which belong the Turks and Arabians; 2. The sect of Ali, who are the Mahomedans of Persia.

68. The Hindoos and Chinese, with other nations, acknowlege ONE God; but worship, beside him, images of various kinds.

69. The Pagans seem also to acknowledge a Supreme Being; but they likewise worship natural objects, as the sun, fire, rivers, plants, beasts, insects, serpents, &c.

70. The Jews are scattered over Europe and Asia; their religion is therefore professed in all those countries in which they live.

71. The Christian religion is established in almost all Europe, and in some parts of Asia and Africa; in America, and in all the European colonies, it is widely diffused.

Obs. There is no endowed religion in the United States, consequently no hierarchy nor tithes; but all religions enjoy the same liberal toleration.

! 72. The Mahomedan religion has its chief seat in Asia, especially in Arabia, Turkey, Persia, and Tartary; but it is also established in Northern and a great part of Central Africa, and in European Turkey.

73. The nations of the interior of Africa, the savage tribes of America, the more gentle islanders of the Pacific and Indian oceans, the rude tribes of the north of Asia, are Heathen, imposed on by their priests and sorcerers, called Fetishers, Angekoks, Shamans, &c.

74. The population of the whole earth, according to the summaries already given, amounts to about 732,000,000; viz. 413,000,000 in Asia, 203,000,000

in Europe, 80,000,000 in Africa, and 36,000,000 in America; but these can only be considered as approaching to the truth, except for Europe and America with respect to the proportion of persons pro. fessing the several religions, it is still more difficult to determine.

XII. CIVILISATION IN ITS DIFFERENT DEGREES.

75. Mankind may all be divided into three classes, with regard to their modes of life, according to the nature and climate of the country which they inhabit. 1. Roving tribes and fishers; 2. Wandering pastoral tribes; or, 3. Fixed nations.

76. The first class embraces all those tribes and small nations who subsist by hunting and fishing, but rove about without any fixed habitation.

77. Under the second class are included those nations or tribes who have no settled residence, but live in movable tents, and, with their flocks and herds, wander from place to place, in the extensive plains which are common to Asia and some parts of Africa.

Illus. Such are the Laplanders in Europe; the Arabs, the Calmucks, the Monguls, and the Tartar tribes of Asia, whose food consists of the flesh and milk of tame animals, as of camels, horses, horned cattle, sheep, and reindeer.

78. The third class comprehends all those nations that have permanent habitations, and dwell in cities, towns, and villages.

Illus. Such are the nations of Europe; the Persians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Hindoos in Asia; all European colonies; the European settlers in Mexico, Peru, Chili, Brazil, the United States of America, &c., whose land is divided among different owners, and rendered productive by agriculture.

79. Their ideas of property further distinguish these three grand classes of mankind.

Illus. The property of the first consists entirely in their

utensils and weapons, and the food they have just acquired. Herds and tents constitute the property of the second class; for the right of pasturage is common to all. The third alone have property in land.

80. Modes of life furnish another important distinction.

Illus. People who live only by hunting and fishing are igno rant, unsociable, and mostly cruel; the pastoral tribes are not savages, or barbarians, though they have little civilisation: and nations engaged in agriculture and commerce are always enlightened and civilised.

81. Education and learning, or the knowledge of the arts and sciences, essentially contribute towards civilisation.

Obs. To promote it, various institutions are established among fixed nations; as schools for youth, universities, or colleges, and academies of arts and sciences.

82. In an university the whole extent of human learning is usually taught; but most generally philosophy, divinity, physic, law, and the learned languages.

Obs. Such are the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; those of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. Andrew's, and Dublin, in the British Empire; Upsal, in Sweden; Gottingen, in Germany; Leyden, in Holland; the universities of Pennsylvania, in America; Benares, in Hindostan; and several others in Europe, Asia, and America.

83. Academies, or societies, of learned men, are incorporated with or without the patronage of the state for the purpose of promoting the arts and sciences.

Obs. Such are the Royal Society in London; the Institute of France; the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin; the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Fine Arts at Petersburg; the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts in London; the Royal Society of Edinburgh, &c.

XIII. SOCIETY AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT.

84. Savage tribes, having little connection among