178 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



How iruch remains still to be done, may be further instanced 

 in the mental faculties, which have been even more neglected; 

 neither Live they noticed religious and traditional opinions and 

 practices ; and the connection they have with the external 

 world assuredly demands rigorous and dispassionate inquiry. 

 In general, the leading cbaracti r, Bomewhat arbitrarily chosen, 

 i> held upas singly sufficient and uncombined with others, — 

 some of the most important points in the question remaining 

 unnoticed, — and sometimes the conclusions are drawn at vari- 

 ance with the systematic rules prescribed in zoology on all other 

 occasions. No common concert is the result of this variety of 

 systems; and a great number of arbitrary divisions and cause- 

 less names are introduced, — the proof how little zoologists are 

 agreed in their views, — while the main points are scarcely 

 influential ; and more than justifiable stress is laid on coin- 

 cidences of language, which, notwithstanding they have un- 

 questionable weight, are not as yet sufficiently discriminated 

 for the general acquiescence of linguists, and should, more- 

 over, be used with some regard to the occasional oblivion of a 

 parent tongue, by the encroachment of another, brought in 

 vogue by a conquering people.* 



All, however, appear to have taken but slight notice of 

 numerous races of the several forms of Man, which have been 

 entirely extinguished, and to have assumed, for incontroverti- 



position of the eyes, rather towards the sides of the head, and the widened 

 space between, represent the Mongolian form, which, in the Caucasian, 

 is not obliterated but by degrees, as the child advances to maturity. 



* We refer to such as the dialects of ancient Italy. Etruscan, &c, oblit- 

 erated by the Roman Latin ; the Celtiberian and Turdetan, by the Latin 

 and Spanish ; the Syriac by Arabic ; Celtic by the Latin and French ; the 

 Celtic of Britain by the Saxon and English ; the Pelhevi and Zend by 

 Perso-Arabic ; the Mauritaniau by the same ; and many more. Those 

 who wish to view the abstract forms of the classifications of Man, zoolog- 

 ically considered, will find an interesting article in the Edinburgh Jour- 

 nal of Ph' sical Sciences, by William Macgillivray, fol. vol. i. ; and in 

 the AniriH 1 Kingdom, commenced by Linnaeus Martin ; two works which, 

 it is to be regretted, were discontinued from want of public support. 



