This mental travelling, this review of the minds and manners, is highly ufeful. It divefts us of that unfocial pride, which raifes our own imaginary rank; for virtues and vices are nearly the fame in all countries; benevolence is always amiable, and a narrow felfishness defpicable, from the hovels of the Hottentot to the caverns of Lapland. It expands the mind, fince it fhows that happiness and mifery are more equally diffused than we fhould fufpect, from a first and tranfient view; and it teaches us to refpect the errors of others, when they are found not to be more grofs and numerous than our

own.

The first question, which neceffarily occurs to the mental traveller, is the origin of the different nations, and the varieties of the human race. These questions are involved with each other; for, if the whole world did not proceed from one pair, no origin is neceffary, or at leall none can be determined. This is a fubject which has not yet been decided, and the road to investigation is fhut up, till fome liberal theologian fhall clearly fhow, that the Mofaic account of the creation is not to be understood in a literal or an univerfal fenfe. The firft men for piety and learning, whom we have conversed with, have agreed that it is not fo; and indeed, the account of the early ages feems to have been chiefly defigned to preferve the Jewish genealogies. It is difficult to find one precept, either of morality or religion, except the punishment inflicted on the murderer, neceffary to the conduct of our lives, not to add, that the whole is related in the uncertain mode of tradition. We chiefly mean to refer to the ages before the flood; and should not have hazarded this opinion, if we had not known that it was fupported by the best authorities. Our author dwells chiefly on the different races of men, and on thofe tribes, in appearance, moft remote from them, viz. the white men on the ifthmus of Darien, and the Albinoes of Africa. But, in fact, there are no two fpecies of the fame genus, in the whole range of animated nature, more diftin&t than the wooly-headed African, and the copper-coloured American. To talk of the effects of climate is abfurd: it may influence the height, the ftrength, and from thence the manners; but it would never enlarge the lip, flatten the nose, or bend the knees. Befides, we know of no effect of climate beyond what may be produced by the degree and duration of heat and cold, by the effects of moisture more or lefs combined with them. Yet in America there are parts as fwampy as the banks of the Gambia, and deferts as dry and torrid as thofe of Ethiopia. Akbur does not decide; but he acts a little unfairly;

fairly; he leads his reader to determine, without feeming to biafs him.

Those who have examined the different races of mankind, the great families which have contributed to people the earth, muft have been ftruck with the extenfive fettlements of the Tartars. Perhaps they are the most numerous family that we are yet acquainted with; for it is not easy to limit their appearance. They are faid to be the defcendents of Japhet; but that is little to the prefent purpose. Akbur, with juftice, examines them at the beginning of his travels, and fets out from the North. He is foon attracted by the Grand Lama, and the Dâla Lama, and gives an entertaining account of that religion; but this was in general well known. The vast hordes with which Scythia has peopled Europe and Afia excites the following juft and natural reflections.

*,

From the prodigious number of people which the regions of Scythia have fent forth, one would imagine that polygamy was beneficial to a community; and that no connection of the fexes could be more favourable to population. The fact, however, has been doubted, and apparently with good reafon; for although a plurality of wives has been much more univerfally allowed than the fimple ftate of monogamy, as will more fully appear hereafter, there yet feem to be natural as well as politi cal confiderations which speak forcibly against it. An equal proportion of the fexes is generally allowed to be the confequence of a man's being confined to a fingle wife; whereas, a great majority on the female fide is obfervable in thofe countries where his appetites are unreftrained. Of this, both India and China, together with the nations of which we are now treating, afford fufficient proof. Among thefe people, the women far outnumber the men; nor is the reafon affigned, a bad one. It is obferved by naturalifts, that the offspring of every animal partakes in general of the fex of that parent which has the trongest and moft vigorous conftitution; and that the women in India and China have lefs exhausted conftitutions than the men, must readily be admitted. A variety of attraction must enervate even the most robuft man. The feraglio, therefore, cannot but be hurtful to the male propagation. In fupport of this opinion, we find, that in Europe, where polygamy is exploded, the proportion of males and females is nearly equal. I do not exactly recollect the calculation; but I believe it is as 106 to 108. Europe, then, can boast of being in the truest and moft eligible ftate of nature; for woman being formed for man, and nature not allowing of those adventitious claims of riches and diftinction which first introduced a plurality of wives, the divifion, by her rules, fhould be as equal as poffible; each fhould poffefs his mate, the poor as well as the wealthy. Moreover the monopoly of beauty is a monopoly of the most injuri

Ba

This mental travelling, this review of the minds and manners, is highly ufeful. It divefts us of that unfocial pride, which raises our own imaginary rank; for virtues and vices are nearly the fame in all countries; benevolence is always amiable, and a narrow felfishness despicable, from the hovels of the Hottentot to the caverns of Lapland. It expands the mind, fince it fhows that happiness and mifery are more equally diffused than we should suspect, from a first and tranfient view; and it teaches us to refpect the errors of others, when they are found not to be more grofs and numerous than our

own.

The first question, which neceffarily occurs to the mental traveller, is the origin of the different nations, and the varieties of the human race. These questions are involved with each other; for, if the whole world did not proceed from one pair, no origin is neceffary, or at leall none can be determined. This is a fubject which has not yet been decided, and the road to investigation is fhut up, till fome liberal theologian fhall clearly fhow, that the Mofaic account of the creation is not to be understood in a literal or an univerfal fenfe. The firft men for piety and learning, whom we have converfed with, have agreed that it is not fo; and indeed, the account of the early ages feems to have been chiefly defigned to preferve the Jewish genealogies. It is difficult to find one precept, either of morality or religion, except the punishment inflicted on the murderer, neceffary to the conduct of our lives, not to add, that the whole is related in the uncertain mode of tradition. We chiefly mean to refer to the ages before the flood; and should not have hazarded this opinion, if we had not known that it was fupported by the beft authorities. Our author dwells chiefly on the different races of men, and on thofe tribes, in appearance, most remote from them, viz. the white men on the ifthmus of Darien, and the Albinoes of Africa. But, in fact, there are no two fpecies of the fame genus, in the whole range of animated nature, more diftinct than the wooly-headed African, and the copper-coloured American. To talk of the effects of climate is abfurd: it may influence the height, the ftrength, and from thence the manners; but it would never enlarge the lip, flatten the nose, or bend the knees. Befides, we know of no effect of climate beyond what may be produced by the degree and duration of heat and cold, by the effects of moisture more or lefs combined with them. Yet in America there are parts as fwampy as the banks of the Gambia, and deferts as dry and torrid as thofe of Ethiopia. Akbur does not decide; but he acts a little un-1 fairly;

fairly; he leads his reader to determine, without feeming to bials him.

Those who have examined the different races of mankind,. the great families which have contributed to people the earth, must have been ftruck with the extenfive fettlements of the Tartars. Perhaps they are the most numerous family that we are yet acquainted with; for it is not eafy to limit their appearance. They are faid to be the defcendents of Japhet; but that is little to the prefent purpose. Akbur, with juftice, examines them at the beginning of his travels, and fets out from the North. He is foon attracted by the Grand Lama, and the Dâla Lama, and gives an entertaining account of that religion; but this was in general well known. The vast hordes with which Scythia has peopled Europe and Afia excites the following juft and natural reflections.

From the prodigious number of people which the regions of Scythia have fent forth, one would imagine that polygamy was beneficial to a community; and that no connection of the fexes could be more favourable to population. The fact, however, has been doubted, and apparently with good reafon; for although a plurality of wives has been much more universally allowed than the fimple state of monogamy, as will more fully appear hereafter, there yet feem to be natural as well as political confiderations which fpeak forcibly against it. An equal proportion of the fexes is generally allowed to be the confequence of a man's being confined to a fingle wife; whereas, a great majority on the female fide is obfervable in thofe countries where his appetites are unreftrained." Of this, both India and China, together with the nations of which we are now treating, afford fufficient proof. Among thefe people, the women far outnumber the men; nor is the reafon affigned, a bad one. It is obferved by naturalifts, that the offspring of every animal partakes in general of the fex of that parent which has the trongest and moft vigorous conftitution; and that the women in India and China have lefs exhaufted constitutions than the men, must readily be admitted. A variety of attraction muft enervate even the most robuft man. The feraglio, therefore, cannot but be hurtful to the male propagation. In fupport of this opinion, we find, that in Europe, where polygamy is exploded, the proportion of males and females is nearly equal. I do not exactly recollect the calculation; but I believe it is as 106 to 108. Europe, then, can boaft of being in the trueft and most eligible flate of nature; for woman being formed for man, and nature not allowing of those adventitious claims of riches and diftinction which first introduced a plurality of wives, the divifion, by her rules, fhould be as equal as poffible; each fhould poffefs his mate, the poor as well as the wealthy. Moreover the monopoly of beauty is a monopoly of the most injuri

ous kind; it is a robbery; it is a fraudulent felection of the loveliest and most valuable treasure that is given to man. Peace, happiness, and population, can only go hand in hand, while freedom reigns, and while there is a natural commixture of the fexes.

Polygamy, however, unfair and illiberal as it may be called, has yet the advantage, in every refpect, of polyandry, or a, plurality of husbands; that is affuredly, not only a most unnatural, but a most abominable cuftom. Something may be faid for a variety of wives, but that one woman should cohabit with a variety of men, is too grofs to be dwelt upon. Happily for the prefervation of our fpecies, this cuftom at prefent is feldom found to prevail. Thibet, and the mountains of Affghanistan, are the only places that I know of where it continues to exift; formerly, indeed, it was common. Media was fo celebrated for it, that a woman was looked upon with contempt. who had fewer husbands than five. Even Britain, the honeft foil of Britain, fome hundred years ago, produced females who would, without a blush, betroth their faith to a dozen boistrous fellows at a time.'

Akbur then paffes to China, and gives a favourable account of this peculiar people; an account the more valuable, as he frequently mentions what he has himself feen. But there 'is alfo other evidence.

The miffionaries, who from their knowledge in fcience, and their holy calling, and the minifters of foreign courts with their fuites, who have been admitted freely into China, have reprefented the Chinese in exactly the fame light in which they have appeared to me; but that which moft firmly riveted me in the opinion, was the account which I received from a ra tive of Cafhimere, who, in the garb and ftyle of an itinerant merchant of China, had, for ten years, uninterruptedly, been travelling from one extremity of the empire to the other. His voice was loud in their praife: he had never been defrauded, he faid, of the moft inconfiderable fum. As to oppreffion, he had been a ftranger to it; wherever his fancy led him he went; thieves and affaffins never infefted his way; his road he had always found a road of safety; and the people, good humoured and obliging on every occafion, had given him caufe to be thankful, that he had found a refidence among them. The Chinefe have unquestionably been mifrepresented; at the fame time, that they have poffibly been too glaringly extolled: their true character may lie between the two extremes.'

The ftriking feature in the manners of the Chinese, not generally known, is the little reverence paid to the clergy. The Tartars, in this country, have laid afide the veneration for the Lama; and, perhaps, influenced by the customs of the aborigines, if there were ever any other inhabitants, per