( ii 



Dr. 



John 



*' 



hom 



Hunter (the author ''[of a DiiTertation, de 

 tatibus ) have furniflied me with fome anatomical 



fadls. 



Befides thefe works I have confulted many others 



and 



transferred into thefe obfervations feveral ideas which though ana- 

 logons to mine, were however new to me, and fome of my own I 



> 



was much pleafed to find had been already adopted by the moil 



1, 



ingenious men of the age. My obje<fl: was nature in its greatefl 

 extent ; the Earth, the Sea, the Air, the Organic and Animated 



J' 



Creation, and more particularly that clafs of Beings to which we 



ourfelves belong 



The Hiftory of Mankind has often been at- 

 tempted -, many writers have defcribed the manners and characters 

 of individuals, but few have traced the hiftory of men in general. 



fidered 



large body. What 



that head 



the 



r 



French and Englifh languages, contains either flight fketches 

 and fragments, or fyftems formed in the clofet or at leafl in the 

 bofom of a nation highly civilized, and therefore in many refpecfls 

 degenerated from its original fnnplicity. None of thefe authors 

 ever had the opportunity of contemplating mankind in this ftate. 



/ 



and its various flages from that of the mofi: wretched favages, re- 

 moved but in the firft degree from abfolute animality, to the more 

 polifhed and civilized inhabitants of the Friendly and Society Ifles. 

 Fads are the bafis of the whole ftrudure \ a few fair inferences 



- 



enabled me to finifh the whole. My aim has been inflrudion, 



and 



/ 



^ 



■ 



'^ 



,:'■ •- 



