465 





NATURAL HISTOEY OF MAN.* 



[QUARTERLY KEVIEW, No. 171.] 



THE subject before us can never be out of season or date 

 as long as Man has his place on the earth. For what 

 enquiry of higher import than that which regards the phy- 

 sical condition of the human species, as first created and 

 appearing on the surface of the globe ? What investigation 

 in natural science of deeper interest than that which, from 

 study of the numerous races and physical varieties of Man, 

 and of the equally numerous diversities of human language, 

 draws conclusions as to the sources whence these wonderful 

 results have been derived, and as to the manner and course of 

 their developement ? Questions like these, even if already 

 settled to our reason, would yet have a constant hold on the 

 minds of all thinking men, in their simple relation to that 

 greatest of all phenomena the existence of human life upon 

 the earth. But, in truth, they are far from being thus 

 settled. A spacious field is open to research, in which cer- 

 tain paths are laid down, and certain landmarks fixed in 



* 1. Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. By James C. Prichard, 

 M.D., F.E.S., Corresponding Member of the National Institute of France. 

 Third Edition. 5 vols. 8vo. 1836 1847. 



2. The Natural History of Man ; comprising Inquiries into the Modifying 

 Influences of Physical and Moral Agencies in different Tribes of the Human 

 Family. By the same. 1843. 



This article has been much abridged, and the philological part of the argu- 

 ment wholly omitted, except in the denotation of its importance to any com- 

 plete work on the subject. 



H H 



