ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 105 



scribed with minute accuracy ; while the human subject has 

 been comparatively neglected. In a voluminous work now 

 publishing in this country, entitled General Zoology, or 

 Systematic Natural History, man is altogether omitted, 

 without notice or apology. Accurate, beautiful, and ex- 

 pensive engravings have been executed of most objects in 

 natural history, of insects, birds, plants ; splendid and 

 costly publications have been devoted to small and appa- 

 rently insignificant departments of this science ; yet the 

 different races of man have hardly in any instance been at- 

 tentively investigated, described, or compared together ; no 

 one has approximated and surveyed in conjunction their 

 structure and powers ; no attempt has been made to deli- 

 neate them— I will not say on a large and comprehensive, 

 but not even on a small and contracted scale : nobody has 

 ever thought it worth while to bestow on a faithful deli- 

 neation of the several varieties of man one tenth of the la- 

 bour and expense which have been lavished again and again 

 on birds-of-paradise, pigeons, parrots, humming-birds, 

 beetles, spiders, and many other such objects. Even intel- 

 ligent and scientific travellers have too often thrown away, 

 on dress, arms, ornaments, utensils, buildings, landscapes, 

 and obscure antiquities, the utmost luxury of engraving and 

 embellishment ; neglecting entirely the being, without re- 

 ference to whom, none of these objects possess either value 

 or interest. In many very expensive works, one is disap- 

 pointed at meeting, in long succession, with prints of cos- 

 tumes, summer dresses and winter dresses, court and com- 

 mon dresses ; the wearer in the mean time being entirely 

 lost sight of *. The immortal historian of Nature seems to 



* Among the few works in which we meet with characteristic delineations 

 of the human species deserving confidence, may be mentioned, Voyages dc C 

 Le Brun, par la Moscovie, en Perset et aux Indes Orientates, 2 t. fol. 



Cook's Voyages towards the South Pole, and round the World, 2 v. 4tO' 

 1777. 



Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean^ 3 v. 4to. 1785 ; with folio Atlas. 

 Both these contain numerous excellent representations of the human subject, 



PtRON Voyage aux Tcrrcs Austraks, torn. 1. has the best figures of human 



