45,000,000 And to a fifth division of the world, which he calls Oceanica, embracing the Islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 20,000,000 Making an aggregate of 645,000,000 This may be considered a low estimate. Seven hundred millions is a mean calculation. The natural limit of human life in healthy positions, where the constitution is good, and not broken down by disease, is from seventy to ninety years, being the period at which the system wears out by natural decay. Instances of much greater longevity are not unfrequent. The oldest family of which there is an authentic account in modern times, is that of John Rovin, of Hungary, who, at the age of 172, had a wife of 164, and a younger child of 117. Of all new-born infants, one out of four dies the first year; two fifths only reach their sixth year, and before the twenty-second, one half of the generation is consigned to the grave. At this period the constitution becomes matured into manhood, and deaths are more unfrequent. The mean duration of human life is thirty years. In Europe and the United States, the average number of deaths annually, is one in forty. In Great Britain one in fifty-five. In Spain, Italy and Greece, one in thirty. In the tropical regions, one in twenty; making a general average throughout the world, of one in thirty. According to Doctor Price, an accurate English observer, the mortality in the large towns in that nation, is one in twenty annually; and in the country, one in forty. In a mountainous country in Norway, for ten successive years, one in seventy-four only died annually. The inhabitants of the country enjoy several advantages over those of cities conducive to longevity; the principal of which are purer air, more exercise, and a more sober and regular mode of living. The equality of numbers of the different sexes in all nations, clearly indicates a marriage connexion of one male with one female, as most conducive to the happiness, the good morals, and the population of any country; yet in nearly all nations except those under the influence of Christianity, polygamy, or the connexion of one man with a plurality of women, is allowed. The possessors of wealth and power, appropriate to themselves the greater number of females; the poor consequently have none. Chastity is not protected by any moral principle, but by the walls of the harem, and the guardianship of eunuchs. On the estimate of 700,000,000, as the whole number of the human race, and that the amount of one generation passes away in thirty years, sixty-four thousand persons die every day, and twenty-three millions annually. COLOR AND FEATURE. COLOR AND FEATURE. Of this population there is every grade of color, from the fairest European white, to the African jet black. This gradation is imperceptible, and any classification which can be made, so intermixes with the next above and below, as to be incapable of de nition. The form and features are as various as the color. Although the difference between the fair European white man and the African negro is so obvious, yet in tracing this difference through its various stages, there is no point of division. Modern geographers, however, with a desire to classify every thing, have given five varieties of the human species, as to color and features: 1. The European white, embracing, besides the inhabitants of Europe, those of western Asia and northern Africa; 2. The eastern variety of Asia, comprising the Tartar, Chinese, Mongul and Hindostan races; the characteristics of which are a yellow color, black and straight hair, head almost quadrangular, face large and depressed, nose flat and small, and the chin pointed; 3. The American Indian, of a dark red, or copper color, with black and straight hair, short forehead, prominent cheek bones, and a tall and straight figure; 4. The Malay race inhabiting northern Oceanica, and a portion of eastern Asia. Their characteristics are a tawney color, head slightly sunk in, forehead bilging out, nose thick, wide and flat, the mouth large, and the upper jaw projecting. 5. The African negro, more distinctly marked than either of the others. These general classes admit of numerous subdivisions. This difference in the color and features of the human species presents two interesting questions. Are they all of one family? and to what causes is this diversity to be ascribed? The Mosaic account of the creation being admitted, it settles the first question in the affirmative. The fact, also, that the union of the sexes between the most dissimilar races, produces an offspring capable of propagation, tends to the same result. Two general causes are assigned for the difference in color, to wit, climate and manner of life. The negro exposed with little shelter to the scorching influence of the sun in the torrid zone, from one generation to another, becomes black; when removed to a more northern climate, and being more sheltered, the race in the course of time loses something of its dark shades; and on the other hand, the race of European whites residing in the torrid zone, gradually darkens. In respect to features, a third cause may be added, to wit, the different modes of treating infants and young children among different nations. The human form is capable of much alteration by different modes of treatment in infancy, and parents will endeavor to form their children upon what is considered in their own nation as the most perfect model of beauty. The Chinese, conceiving that female beauty consists in the smallness of the foot, compress that limb in their female children to such a degree, as almost to disqualify it for its proper use. In the negro race, LANGUAGE. flat heads and noses are marks of beauty; these are therefore compressed in infancy. Among the Indians of America, tall and straight forms are considered beautiful; their children are therefore sometimes laced on boards to produce that effect. LANGUAGE. Another great variety in the human family respects language. Endowed with the same organization, and having the same general objects about which language is conversant, mankind have more than fifty varieties of speech, and these again admit of numerous subdivisions. It has been attempted to derive all languages from a few which are termed original, and to ascertain the common origin of nations by the similarity of their language. Admitting the human race to be of one family, all languages must be derived from one stock; and it is impossible now to ascertain which of the various modern tongues most resembles the original. Something may be known regarding the common origin of nations from similarity of language. Individuals of the same nation separating from each other, and forming distinct communities, will for a long time retain in substance the same language, while new objects and new ideas give birth to new terms, and in time, to a new language, bearing more or less resemblance to its original. The variety and perfection to which language is carried, is a sure indication of the state of civilization, and of the intelligence of any people.. The negro of Central Africa, the Hottentot, and the New Hollander have nothing in the shape of a written language by which an idea can be preserved, or be communicated to one who is absent. Their utmost attainment in this respect consists only in making some rude marks in the sand resembling the sensible object which they would describe. Their speech is confined to a few sounds expressive of the things around them, or of the passions by which they are moved. The next grade is the ancient hieroglyphic, or Egyptian picture writing. A third is the monosyllabic writing of the Chinese, and some other nations of Eastern Asia, by which a character to be expressed by a single inflection of the voice represents an object, or an operation of the mind. The highest in degree are the alphabetical written languages of the civilized world, in which arbitrary characters, under the name of letters, are arranged into words and sentences, by which any object and any operation of the mind may be expressed, and knowledge communicated to distant persons, and preserved for future generations. The selanguages are more or less perfect and copious, according as the intelligence of the several nations using them, have more or less ideas to be expressed. They are constantly improving as knowledge extends itself and new objects occur. RELIGION. RELIGION. In surveying the present condition of the world, one of the most interesting subjects of inquiry is its various systems of religion. All nations, whatever may be their grade of intelligence, have some notions respecting invisible beings superior in power to man, and influencing his affairs; and also of an existence beyond the present life. This may be said to be universal; if there be any atheists, they are too few to be noticed, or scarcely to form an exception to the general principle. The various modes in which nations express this belief, form so many different religions, and their acts in consequence of their faith, constitute their worship. All attempts to produce an uniformity in either, have been as fruitless as would be an attempt to produce a uniformity in color or feature. Persecution in the various forms in which it has appeared, has produced hypocrites, but never made a proselyte. While the universality of the belief proves the existence of the principle, the great variety of forms in which it appears, should lead to the exercise of an extensive charity. The peculiarities of the different systems will be noticed under the heads of the different nations embracing them. The term Polytheism is given to every system of religion which admits the existence of several gods, whatever may be the nature or dignity assigned to each. In this extensive sense, it embraces all the ancient religions except the Jewish, and all the modern, except the Jewish and the Christian. The lowest grade, and one of the most extensive divisions of Polytheism, is Fetichism, or the worship of Fetiche, embracing all sorts of animate or inanimate beings, which the priests of this religion hold out to their followers, as possessed of some magical or supernatural power. Sabeism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies, either separately or altogether, holds a more elevated rank-is spread over considerable portions of the earth, and is blended with most other superstitions. Pantheism supposes that every thing which exists is penetrated with the divine Spirit, and is the object of worship, so that no one, be his particular god what it may, can be mistaken, or worship that which is not God. Dualism supposes the existence of two gods, one the author of all good, and the other of all evil, and both the objects of worship, one to obtain favor, and the other to avert evil. In nearly all religions is to be found a principle of fear, or apprehension, that a person's future condition will be rendered unhappy in consequence of bad actions in the body; and of hope, or expectation that it will be bettered by good deeds. The nature and quality of the actions supposed to be good, vary according to the views of different nations. Some suppose that to slay an enemy and devour his flesh, is a highly meritorious act; others that a pilgrimage to some sacred place, or to the temple of some divinity, propitiates the divine favor. The belief is nearly universal, in all, except protestant Christian countries, that penance, bodily pain, or suffering voluntarily inflicted in 3* GOVERNMENT. this life, atones for transgressions here, and is a powerful means of securing future happiness. Amid all the ingenious errors, or fanciful and absurd dreams of ancient superstitions, truth was silently disclosing the right way. The Jews acknowledged the absolute unity and perfections of God; and Christianity, for the introduction of which the Jewish scriptures prepared the way, sprang up and gradually shed its benign and liberal influence over the most civilized countries, and in all quarters of the world. Its principal divisions are the Roman church, denominated Catholic, because it is supposed by its own adherents, to comprehend all true Christians. The Greek church, (extending over Russia and Greece, and embracing the Christians tolerated in the Ottoman empire,) differing principally from the Roman, in not admitting the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. The Protestant church, comprehending a considerable portion of Western Europe, and the United States. These general divisions embrace a great variety of subordinate ones. After Christianity had been established about six hundred years, Mahometanism, a confused mixture of Judaism, Christianity and Paganism, sprang up. It was propagated by the sword, and now extensively prevails in the eastern continent, but has never reached the western. It is impossible to speak with precision as to the numbers belonging to each religion. The following is given as nearly approaching the truth, with the remark, that the numbers embrace the whole population of the country where the religion prevails, or where it is the religion of the State. Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, 116,000,000 70,000,000 42,000,000 5,000,000 110,000,000 357,000,000 Mahometans, Paganism in its various forms, 700,000,000 GOVERNMENT. The world is not more diversified in its original elements, or in the feature, color, language or religions of its inhabitants, than in its civil policy, or various modes in which men are restrained in their actions, one towards another. The ties which unite husband and wife, and parent and child, form the family or domestic society, and originally constituted an independent patriarchal government. The relation of master and servant commenced in this state. The weak not being able to assert their rights or procure subsistence, naturally sought the protection of the strong, and in return yielded their obedience or service. This is the earliest stage of society of which there is any account, and constituted the civil policy of the ancestors of the Jews previous to Moses. Families after quarrelling |