GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF MAN. 15 
2. That these regions are the true zoological divi- 
sions of the earth. 
3. That this progression of animal forms is in unison 
with the first great law of natural arrangement, viz. the 
gradual amalgamation of the parts, and the circularity | 
of the whole. 
(20.) Whether we view the varieties of the human 
species, with M. Cuvier, as first resolvable into three, 
of which the Ethiopian is to comprehend the Malay 
and the American ; or whether, following Blumenbach, 
we consider the number to be five, thus raising the two 
latter to the rank of primary divisions, is of no con. 
sequence to our present enquiry. It is enough that 
all physiologists agree in these distinctions; and the 
precise countries inhabited by the typical races of each. 
These territories are not only indicated by the pecu- 
liarities of their inhabitants, but are so strongly 
marked by the hand of nature, in their configuration, 
that geographers, looking merely to their natural po- 
sition and boundaries, have long recognised them by 
well-known names. Assisted, therefore, by these im- 
portant indications, let us respectively contemplate the 
animal kingdom as it appears in the following divi« 
sions of the earth ; considered, by all physiologists, as 
*the chief seats of the five leading races of mankind. 
1. The European or Caucasian ; 2. the Asiatic or Mon- 
golian; 38. the American; 4. the Ethiopian or 
African; and, 5. the Australian or Malay. The 
precise limits of the five zoological provinces here 
assumed, will not admit of accurate definition. The 
first great law of nature is harmonious combination. 
Whether in the moral or the physical world, the ma- 
terial or the immaterial, all her operations and all 
her changes are gradually progressive. The past, 
the present, and the future, are continuous. Changes, 
between forms and states the most opposite, are 
effected by transitions so gradual as often to elude 
definition. No axiom is more important, for the na- 
