394 Atlas Ethnogmphique du Globe. 



features of History and Geography ; and the genealogical 

 roll of the human race, from the earliest times to the present 

 day, is unfolded, with equal conciseness and sagacity. 



The work of M. Balbi upon languages may be compared 

 to those of Linneus and Jussieu upon plants, of Cuvier upon 

 animals, and of Brogniart upon mineral substances. To a 

 general classification, it adds a specific description of each 

 language, conceived in few words, but comprehending every 

 point important in discrimination, or interesting in respect 

 to general knowledge. 



M. Balbi has rendered a great service to men of letters 

 and to the world in general, in thus collecting and methodi- 

 cally arranging, in a single work, a vast variety of facts, 

 previously scattered in numberless publications and in dif- 

 ferent languages ; many of the publications from whence 

 they are drawn being also rare, and others of great cost. 

 Guided by the advice, and aided by the zealous co-operation 

 of several of the most distinguished authors of France, and 

 of the continents of Europe and America, the subjects on 

 which he treats have frequently the additional value of the 

 sanction of the names of the highest authority in each. We 

 proceed to lay before our readers an outline of the work itself, 

 conceiving that, by such means, we shall best enable them 

 to form their own estimate of its utility and importance. 



The Atlas Ethnographique du Globe consists of three dis- 

 tinct parts : — 1st, The Introduction, being one volume in 

 octavo; 2nd, the Atlas, one volume in folio ; and, Srd, the 

 Tableau physique, moral, et politique des cinq parties du 

 monde : — the third part is still in the press, but is announced 

 for publication in September, and will form a second octavo 

 volume. The first and second parts are alone the subject of 

 the present notice. 



The introduction contains, first, a preliminary discourse ; 

 and, second, a treatise in accompaniment and reference to 

 the Atlas. The preliminary discourse commences with a 

 review of the brilliant results derived in our own aera from 

 the study now so extensively cultivated of the oriental lan- 

 guages, — enumerates the principal living philologists, — and 

 points out the important services, which the societies esta- 

 blished in the presidencies of British India have already ren- 

 dered in Ethnography, History, and Geography ; and the 

 still more important services, which, in conjunction with the 

 Asiatic Societies of Paris and London, they may be expected 

 to render. It then enters on an examination of the peculiar 

 province, and of the advantages to be derived, from " Lq, 



