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243 
M 
Wlmt poor man would not carry a great burthen of gold 
to be made a man for ever? Tillotfon .—When a perfon is 
not in his fenfes, we fay, he is not his own man. Ainjwortk. 
_A. moveable piece at chefs or draughts. 
Of all the objects which the univerfe prefents to our 
obfervalion, there is none that fo powerfully calls for 
our attention, there is none with which it fo much con¬ 
cerns us to be intimately acquainted, as .the human fpe- 
cies. If we admit, what mankind, in that pride of heart, 
which is fo natural to thofe who Style themfelves the lords 
of iht creation, have afiumed, that man is the only being 
poff'elTed of reafon ; there is no created thing that can in 
the lead Stand in competition with him. But, without 
examining into the validity of this exclufive claim, with¬ 
out inquiring whether feme of our inferior fellow mortals 
may not be admitted to fome final 1 Share of this faculty ; 
it mud be allowed that, whether we consider him as a So¬ 
litary being, pofTeffed of beauty and intelligence fuperior 
to the other claSTes of animated nature, or in the more 
•amiable character of a foetal being, capable of the fenti- 
ments of affeftion, friendfliip, gratitdde, and benevo¬ 
lence, man is a mod didinguifhed perfonage ; and, to his 
fellow men, certainly the molMnterefting objedt to which 
they can direft their attention; that, in Short, "The pro¬ 
per dudy of mankind is man.” 
A. full examination of every thing relating to the hu¬ 
man fpecies would include almoft all that is intereding, 
ufeful, or curious, in nature. Indeed, this whole work is 
little more than a collection of fafts and reafonings, that 
either mediately or immediately relate to Man. It may 
not be improper here to refer to a few of the principal ar¬ 
ticles alluded to, before we enter on the proper bufsnefs of 
this article, which is to date a few general circumdances 
relating td the natural history of man, considering him as 
the firjl animal in the creation. 
Firit, Man may be considered generically j as conftitut- 
ing a tribe of animals differing from all others, in his 
itruflure, funftions, difeafes, and ip pofleffing the faculty 
of reafon. The firuElure of man has been detailed under 
Anatomy; his funElions will be treated of under Physio¬ 
logy ; the difeafes and accidents to which he is expoled, 
with their treatment and remedies, will form the fubjedts 
of Parturition, Pathology, and Surgery; and the 
nature and exercife of his reafoning powers are difeufled un¬ 
der Logic, Metaphysics, Language, Geometry, See. 
Secondly, Man may be confidered Jpecif tally, as differ¬ 
ing from others of the fame tribe in height, features, co¬ 
lour, difpolition, and manners; refilling from climate 
and other local circumdances. In a general point of 
view, the varieties of the human fpecies fall to be no¬ 
ticed here ; but, fora particular account of the inhabi¬ 
tants of different regions of the globe, we refer the 
reader to the leading geographical articles. 
Thirdly, Man may be considered as a dependent and an 
accountable being, in relation to his Creator, his neigh¬ 
bour, or himfelf. The religious and moral duties of man are 
explained under Theology, Christianity, and Law; 
and to thefe may be added, as connedted with man in this 
third view, Architecture, Chemistry, Husbandry, 
Mechanics, and a number of other branches of fcience, 
that teach man how to employ to the belt advantage thofe 
powers and faculties with which Heaven has endowed 
him, for his individual and common benefit. 
Laffly, we may confider man with refpedt to-the rela¬ 
tions that fubfift between him and the inferior dalles of 
the creation, as they miniffer to Iris neceffities, fupply his 
wants, abridge his comforts, oroppofe his prog refs. This 
confideration naturally leads us to the article Natural 
History, and its fubdiviiions Mammalia, Entomo¬ 
logy, Ornithology, Ichthyology, Helmintholo¬ 
gy, CONCHOLOGY, BOTANY, MINERALOGY, &C. 
The natural hiltory of man is yet in its infancy ; info- 
much, that we cannot pretend to give any thing like a 
complete view of the fubjedt. The defeription and ar¬ 
rangement of the various productions of the globe have 
occupied numerous observers in all ages of the world. 
Every plant and every infect has had its hiftorian, and has 
been deferibed with minute accuracy, while the human 
fubjedt has been comparatively neglected. In a very vo¬ 
luminous work on the hiftory of the animal kingdom, 
now publifhing or juft completed in this country, “ Ge¬ 
neral Zoology, or Syftematic Natural Hiftory,” man is en¬ 
tirely omitted. Does the learned author deem him more 
or lefs than an animal ? Whether we inveftigate the phy- 
fical or the moral nature of man, we recognife, at every 
ftep, the limited extent of our knowledge, and are obliged 
to confefs that ignorance, which a Rouii'eau and a Buffon 
have not been afhamed to avow. "The mo ft ufeful and 
the lea ft fuccefsfully cultivated of all human knowledge, 
is that of man ; and the inscription on the temple of Del¬ 
phi contained a more important and difficult precept 
(Know thyfelf) than all the books of the moralifts.” (Dif- 
cours fur l’lnegalite; preface.) The immortal hiftorian 
of nature gives his teftimony to the fame eftedt: “ Not- 
vvithftanding the urgent neceffity for knowing ourfelves, 
I believe we know every thing elfe better.” (De la Na¬ 
ture de 1 ’Homme.) It is only of late, and principally 
through the excellent writings of Blumenbach and Cu¬ 
vier, that the natural hiftory of man lias begun to receive 
its due Ihare of attention; and we fhali venture to afl’ert, 
that, whether we regard the intrinfic importance of the 
queftions that arife, and their relation to the affinities, 
migrations, and hiftory, of nations, or advert merely to 
the pleafure of the refearch, no fubjedt will be found more 
worthy of minute inveftigation. 
Of thofe writers who diredtly treat of man, the pailofo- 
pher and the moralijl confider him in the ab It raft; the geo¬ 
grapher deferibes him as he exifts in communities; the 
hiforian traces the origin of fociety, the progrefs of man 
in arts, civilization, and refinement, and the changes that 
have taken place among the human fpecies, from the na¬ 
tural operation of phyiical caufes, or from the folly, vil¬ 
lainy, and ambition, of princes and heroes; the biographer 
treats of man as an individual, and fiiows the effects of ex¬ 
alted virtue, eminent abilities, or ftriking vices, both on 
their pofleflbr and on the community at large. It is the 
bufinefs of the naturalijl to delcribe the external form of 
man, as it differs from that of other animals; to confider 
the ufual varieties of it in different nations, and the more 
ftriking peculiarities that are occafionally found in indi¬ 
viduals; to deferibe the habits and manners of the human 
fpecies ; the progrefs of life from infancy to death; the 
duration of life and its caufes; and the effedts produced 
on the body by death. 
Of the writers who have (created on fome part of the na¬ 
tural hiftory of man, we might give a molt copious lilt, 
even without including the almolt innumerable catalogue 
of medical works. For the generality of readers, it may 
be fufficient to refer to Buffbn’s Natural Hiftory, or the 
Abridgment of it by Goldfmith ; to Virey’s Hiftoire Na- 
turelie du Genre Humain; Cuvier’s Tableau Eleinentaire 
de l’Hiftoire Naturelle des Animaux ; Herder’s Outlines 
of the Philofophy of the Hiftory of the Man ; and the 
works of Daubenton, Vicq d’Azyr, Camper, Blumen¬ 
bach, Sec. Sec. 
It is of more confequence to our prefent purpofe to 
mention the particular circumftances that diltinguilh 
man from thofe animals to which he feems neareft allied. 
Thefe diltindtive marks are well deferibed by Blumen¬ 
bach, in his work Generis Humani Varietate Nativa, and 
by M. Daubenton, in his introduction to the Dictionary 
of Natural Hiftory in the Encyclopedic Methodique; with 
the latter we fhali prefent our readers. 
The only animals that bear any ftriking refemblance to 
man, in point of ftrudture, are the apes, efpecially the ou- 
rang-outang and the gibbon; but, according to M. Dau¬ 
benton, there are two principal circumftances that parti¬ 
cularly diltinguilh man from thefe animals; the firit is the 
Ttrength 
