jacent Archipelago, but in all the wide regions from the island of Madagascar to the Friendly Isles. As the national characteristics of the American race constitute them the intermediate variety between the Caucasians and the Mongolians, so the Malay forms the middle link between the Caucasian and the Ethiopian. In viewing these divisions, therefore, as they stand connected with each other, the Caucasian must be considered as the centre, the Mongolian and the Ethiopian as the two extremes, while the American and the Malay constitute the middle terms. This diversity in the appearance of the human race has caused some writers to adopt the unscriptural idea that mankind have sprung from different sources; but when it is considered that they exist under such an immense variety of circumstances, physical, moral, and political, there cannot be any necessity for resorting to such à conclusion to account for the facts which every where present themselves. Man has not only greater versatility of mind than the lower species of animals, but he is also endowed with a greater pliancy of body; by which he is enabled to claim the whole earth for a habitation, and the sea for a possession. It is by this property of his constitution that he can exist with comparative ease in all countries; which manifests the goodness of the Creator in forming the whole world for his abode. As our knowledge of the globe has increased, the idea of Horace, which is expressed in the following words, has been completely exploded: Pone me sub curru nimium propinqui Man is therefore found in all climates, from the snow-built huts and frozen caves of the north, to the parched and scorching plains of the African deserts. In the one case he lives and follows his occupations where not only the vegetable tribes are almost extinct, but where the polar fox and the bear, half-frozen and perishing with hunger, hide themselves in the holes of the ground. In the other, he sustains a temperature that nearly causes spirits of wine to boil. The late expeditions to the arctic regions have afforded abundant proof of the amazing pliability of the human constitution in sustaining great and sudden changes of temperature. When Captain Parry and his brave companions wintered at Melville Island, in the early part of 1820, the thermometer sunk to 55° below zero, or 87° below the freezing point: yet even this intensity was not attended by any serious consequences, and exercise was taken in the open air whenever the wind and snow permitted; though, in passing from the cabin to this, the men often experienced a change of temperature of 100 or 120 degrees. Notwithstanding their being thus exposed for months, not an inflammatory disease, beyond a common cold, occurred. Striking and permanent as the dissimilitude undoubtedly is, between the Negro on the coast of Guinea, the New Hollander, the Caucasian, the native of Britain, the Esquimaux, and the Patagonian, it may be sufficiently accounted for by the long continued operation of physical, political, and moral causes: an investigation of their influence on the appearance and characteristic qualities of the human species, however, would be inconsistent with the necessary brevity of the present Essay. Much information may be obtained on this subject from the Introduction to Myers's large work on Modern Geography. To this slight sketch of the human frame, and the diversity to which it is subject in different regions, it may be proper to subjoin a brief view of the Senses, which are the inlets to all our knowledge, and the links that connect the whole external creation with our intellectual existence. All the emotions that constitute the rationality and felicity of human beings originate in impressions made upon these organs: it is, in fact, the combination and comparison of the ideas derived from these impressions, that form the basis of all our acquisitions-administer to all the pleasures and pains of life-and excite every faculty of the mind, and every power of the soul. The number of our senses is five, constituting as many distinct avenues through which the mind receives its various sensations: these are the touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. The sense of feeling is either general, as diffused over the whole body, or it may be considered as that peculiar and exquisite degree of it which exists at the extremities of the fingers, and informs the mind of the various qualities of tangible bodies. It is by this sense that we become acquainted with the magnitude, figure, roughness, smoothness, heat, cold, &c. of such bodies as are subject to the touch. The possession of feeling is so universal, that it is not, perhaps, altogether denied to any individual in existence; nor can we conceive a total deprivation of it, except with life itself. The senses of taste and smell are nearly allied to each other; the difference being only, that in the former the substance tasted must be brought into actual contact with the nerves of the tongue and the palate, while in the latter it is only necessary that the effluvia from the substance should touch the olfactory nerves, and the sensation is produced irrespective of the substance. These, as well as the sense of feeling, are under the influence of association, and minister greatly both to our pleasures and pains; in the one case acting as a stimulus to the attainment of what is desirable; in the other, as a warning against what is unpleasant or injurious. The sense of vision is the most noble of all our sen sitive powers, as it neither requires us to be in actual contact with the body, as the touch and taste, nor within the influence of its effluvia, as the smell, but extends to a vast distance, and takes in a multiplicity of objects at once: but while the other senses come into immediate operation, as soon as we receive our natural existence, the sight acquires all its perfection from experience and habit: it conveys to the mind ideas of the figure, magnitude, distance, position, and motion of bodies; but it is obvious that it is experience alone that can afford us correct views on these subjects. The works of creation, the beauties of nature, and the elegancies of art, are all subjects of this noble sense; and when associated with our intellectual feelings, they enter deeply into all the mental operations of our rational existence. Of all the senses, however, which contribute to the developement of the mental faculties, cherish the understanding, and inform the judgment, that of hearing is the most extensive and important: without this, man is, in a great measure, deprived of the blessings of reason, and loses one of the great characteristics of his nature, the power of the human voice-he is dumb, because he is deaf. Ideas are annexed to sounds, and therefore, by the power of association, the moment the one strikes the ear, the others are renewed in the mind. Sound also becomes associated with many of the visible appearances and tangible qualities of surrounding nature; and hence, man is emphatically the pupil of this sense. Destitute of it, not only the multifarious sounds of nature, and the charms of music, but the sighs of sympathy, the accents of condolence, the whispers of love, and the ten thousand modifications of the human voice, fall upon the ear as upon a marble statue-their associated endearments reach not the soul. Man is peculiarly distinguished from the inferior parts of creation by the power of speech, by which he clothes his feelings in the accents of language, and conveys them to others. This raises him, beyond conception, in the scale of being-places him on the throne of this lower creation-and gives him domi nion over all the sublunary works of his Maker's hand. Without this power, the finest thoughts and tenderest feelings of the mind would be lost to society-the results of reason would be restricted—the flights of genius retarded-the influence of sympathy diminished-and all the operations of the intellect impeded. With it, our thoughts are carried beyond ourselves, and mingled with those of others in social intercourse. From it, the brightest eye receives additional lustre- the sweetest countenance acquires fresh beauty-and society is re-animated till a feast of reason and a flow of soul' becomes the concomitant of cultivated intellect. It is from the energies of speech, too, that the fascinating powers of eloquence, and the irresistible charms of melody, are acquired, which so often transfix the thoughts, soothe the affections, and inspire the bosom with sacred delight. Such is a brief outline of the wonderful organization of MAN. In this sketch we have purposely avoided all detail, as inconsistent with the nature of this Essay. Enough, however, has been said to excite our admiration, though not to gratify our curiosity. Here we find nearly two hundred and fifty different bones, all peculiarly adapted to each other, and so united as to give strength and stability to the framehundreds of muscles and tendons securing its motion, and fitting it for action-nerves diffused in every direction for the purpose of carrying on sensationarteries spreading from the heart to carry out the blood, and veins, from the very extremities, verging from all directions to the heart, providing for its return-with glands for all the secretions, and tubes for conveying nourishment to the blood. It cannot appear less than wonderful to the reflecting mind, that so many substances as enter into the composition of the human body should be secreted from the same blood; nor is it less surprising that the blood itself may, in every instance, be traced to the grass of the field as its origin. With an organization so compli |