from a survey of the organized world, and the distribution of species over the globe.[1]
I have been induced by this consideration to examine the data from which the conclusion before mentioned has been obtained; and the results of this inquiry, together with the grounds on which it has proceeded, are laid before my readers in the following pages.
In the composition of this work, and particularly in the first Book, my labour has been greatly facilitated by the ample collection of passages from the ancient writers referring to Egypt, which is comprised in the pages of Jablonski. NO man can be more willing than myself to admit the high merits of this author, whose acuteness and ingenuity were equal to his profound learning; but it appears to me that he has been led into some errors, the result of his fondness for refined and erudite explanations, and for elicing from
- ↑ I have elsewhere endeavoured to prove that the various branches of mankind form but one species, and that the Law or Method of Nature, in replenishing the earth with locomotive beings, has been the original production of one stock, or family in each species, and the subsequent dispersion of it over the globe. Researches into the Physical History of Man. London, 1813.
In the late work of Mr. Lawrence, entitled "Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, and the Natural History of Man," the unity of species in mankind has been demonstrated with great ability, and by a more comprehensive survey of facts than any former writer has attempted.
