cumstances the same. A woman of sixty has a better chance than a man of the same age to live till eighty. Upon the whole, we may infer, that such persons as have been slow in coming up to maturity, will also be slow in growing old; and this holds as well with regard to other animals as to man.

touch the body seems, as we advance in years, to | they are more long-lived than men, all other cirgrow softer, it is, in reality, increasing in hardness. It is the skin, and not the flesh, that we feel upon such occasions. The fat, and the flabbiness of that, seems to give an appearance of softness, which the flesh itself is very far from having. There are few can doubt this, after trying the difference between the flesh of young and old animals. The first is soft and tender, the last is hard and dry.

The skin is the only part of the body that age does not contribute to harden. That stretches to every degree of tension; and we have horrid instances of its pliancy, in many disorders incident to humanity. In youth, therefore, while the body is vigorous and increasing, it still gives way to its growth. But, although it thus adapts itself to our increase; in does not in the same manner conform to our decay. The skin, which, in youth, was filled and glossy, when the body begins to decline, has not elasticity enough to shrink entirely with its diminution. It hangs therefore in wrinkles, which no art can remove. The wrinkles of the body, in general, proceed from this cause. But those of the face seem to proceed from another; namely, from the many varieties of positions into which it is put by the speech, the food, or the passions. Every grimace, and every passion, wrinkles up the visage into different forms. These are visible enough in young persons; but what at first was accidental or transitory, becomes unalterably fixed in the visage as it grows older. "From hence we may conclude, that a freedom from passions not only adds to the happiness of the mind, but preserves the beauty of the face; and the person that has not felt their influence, is less strongly marked by the decays of nature."

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The whole duration of the life of either vegetables or animals, may be, in some measure, determined from their manner of coming to maturity. The tree or the animal, which takes but a short time to increase to its utmost pitch, perishes much sooner than such as are less premature. In both the increase upwards is first accomplished; and not till they have acquired their greatest degree of height do they begin to spread in bulk. Man grows in stature till about the age of seventeen; but his body is not completely developed till about thirty. Dogs, on the other hand, are at their utmost size in a year, and become as bulky as they usually are in another. However, man, who is so long in growing, continues to live fourscore or a hundred years; but the dogs seldom above twelve or thirteen. In general also it may be said, that large animals live longer than little ones, as they usually take a longer time to grow. But in all animals one thing is equally certain, that they carry the causes of their own decay about them; and that their deaths are necessary and inevitable. The prospects which some visionaries have formed of perpetuating life by remedies, have been often enough proved false by their own example. Such unaccountable schemes would, therefore, have died with them, had not the love of life always augmented our credulity.

When the body is naturally well formed, it is possible to lengthen out the period of life for Hence, therefore, as we advance in age, the some years by management. Temperance in diet bones, the cartilages, the membranes, the flesh, is often found conducive to this end. The famous the skin, and every fibre of the body, become Cornaro, who lived to above a hundred years, more solid, more brittle, and more dry. Every although his constitution was naturally feeble, is part shrinks, every motion becomes more slow; a strong instance of the benefit of an abstemious the circulation of the fluids is performed with life. Moderation in the passions also may conless freedom; perspiration diminishes; the secre- tribute to extend the term of our existence. tions alter; the digestion becomes slow and labo-"Fontenelle, the celebrated writer, was naturally rious; and the juices no longer serving to convey of a very weak and delicate habit of body. He their accustomed nourishment, those parts may be said to live no longer when the circulation | ceases. Thus the body dies by little and little; all its functions are diminished by degrees; life is driven from one part of the frame to another; universal rigidity prevails; and death at last seizes upon the little that is left.

As the bones, the cartilages, the muscles, and all other parts of the body, are softer in women than in men, these parts must, of consequence, require a longer time to come to that hardness which hastens death. Women, therefore, ought to be a longer time in growing old than men; and this is actually the case. If we consult the tables which have been drawn up respecting human life, we shall find that, after a certain age,

was affected by the smallest irregularities; and had frequently suffered severe fits of illness from the slightest causes. But the remarkable equality of his temper, and his seeming want of passion, lengthened out his life to above a hundred. It was remarkable of him, that nothing could vex or make him uneasy; every occurrence seemed equally pleasing; and no event, however unfortunate, seemed to come unexpected." However, the term of life can be prolonged but for a very little time by any art we can use. We are told of men who have lived beyond the ordinary duration of human existence: such as Parr, who lived to a hundred and forty-four; and Jenkins, to a hundred and sixty-five; yet these men used no peculiar arts to prolong life; on the contrary, it

grees; life is consuming day after day; and some one of our faculties, or vital principles, is every hour dying before the rest; so that death is only the last shade in the picture; and it is probable that man suffers a greater change in going from youth to age, than from age into the grave. When we first begin to live, our lives may scarcely be said to be our own; as the child grows, life increases in the same proportion; and is at its height in the prime of manhood. But as soon as the body begins to decrease, life decreases also; for as the human frame diminishes, and its juices circulate in smaller quantity, life diminishes and circulates with less vigour; so that as we begin to live by degrees, we begin to die in the same manner.

appears that these, as well as others, remarkable | this awful period by slow and imperceptible defor their longevity, were peasants accustomed to the greatest fatigues, who had no settled rules of diet, but who often indulged in accidental excesses. Indeed, if we consider that the European, the Negro, the Chinese, and the American, the civilized man and the savage, the rich and the poor, the inhabitant of the city and of the country, though all so different in other respects, are yet entirely similar in the period allotted them for living; if we consider that neither the difference of race, of climate, of nourishment, of convenience, or of soil, makes any difference in the term of life; if we consider that those men who live upon raw flesh or dried fishes, upon sago or rice, upon cassava or upon roots, nevertheless live as long as those who are fed upon bread and meat; we shall readily be brought to acknowledge, that the duration of life depends neither upon habit, customs, nor the quantity of food; we shall confess, that nothing can change the laws of that mechanism which regulates the number of our years, and which can chiefly be affected only by long fasting, or great excess.

If there be any difference in the different periods of man's existence, it ought principally to be ascribed to the quality of the air. It has been observed, that in elevated situations there have been found more old people than in those that were low. The mountains of Scotland, Wales, Auvergne, and Switzerland, have furnished more instances of extreme old age, than the plains of Holland, Flanders, Germany, or Poland. But, in general, the duration of life is nearly the same in most countries. Man, if not cut off by accidental diseases, is often found to live to ninety or a hundred years. Our ancestors did not live beyond that date: and, since the times of David, this term has undergone little alteration.

If we be asked, how in the beginning men lived so much longer than at present, and by what means their lives were extended to nine hundred and thirty, or even nine hundred and sixty years; it may be answered, that the productions of the earth, upon which they fed, might be of a different nature at that time from what they are at present. "It may be answered, that the term was abridged by Divine command, in order to keep the earth from being overstocked with human inhabitants; since, if every person were now to live and generate for nine hundred years, mankind would be increased to such a degree, that there would be no room for subsistence so that the plan of providence would be altered: which is seen not to produce life without providing a proper supply."

Why then should we fear death, if our lives have been such as not to make eternity dreadful? Why should we fear that moment, which is prepared by a thousand other moments of the same kind? the first pangs of sickness being probably greater than the last struggles of departure. Death, in most persons, is as calmly endured as the disorder that brings it on. If we inquire from those whose business it is to attend the sick and the dying, we shall find that, except in a very few acute cases, where the patient dies in agonies, the greatest number die quietly, and seemingly without pain: and even the agonies of the former rather terrify the spectators than torment the patient; for how many have we not seen who have been accidentally relieved from this extremity, and yet had no memory of what they then endured? In fact, they had ceased to live during that time when they ceased to have sensation; and their pains were only those of which they had an idea.

The greatest number of mankind die, therefore, without sensation; and of those few that still preserve their faculties entire to the last moment, there is scarcely one of them that does not also preserve the hopes of still outliving his disorder. Nature, for the happiness of man, has rendered this sentiment stronger than his reason. A person dying of an incurable disorder, which he must know to be so, by frequent examples of his case; which he perceives to be so, by the inquietude of all around him, by the tears of his friends, and the departure of the face of the physician, is, nevertheless, still in hopes of getting over it. His interest is so great, that he only attends to his own representations; the judg ment of others is considered as a hasty conclusion; and while death every moment makes new inroads upon his constitution, and destroys life in some part, hope still seems to escape the universal ruin, and is the last that submits to the blow.

But to whatever extent life may be prolonged, or however some may have delayed the effects of age, death is the certain goal to which all are Cast your eyes upon a sick man, who has a hastening. All the causes of decay which have hundred times told you that he felt himself dybeen mentioned contribute to bring on this dread-ing, that he was convinced he could not recover, ed dissolution. However, nature approaches to and that he was ready to expire; examine what

there are countries inhabited. One polished na- | brown, in some places inclining to actual blacktion does not differ more from another, than the ness. These, therefore, in general, are found to merest savages do from those savages that lie be a race of short stature and odd shape, with even contiguous to them; and it frequently hap- countenances as savage as their manners are barpens that a river or a mountain, divides two bar- barous. The visage in these countries is large and barous tribes that are unlike each other in man-broad, the nose flat and short, the eyes of a yelners, customs, features, and complexion. But these lowish brown, inclining to blackness, the eyelids differences, however perceivable, do not form such drawn towards the temples, the cheek-bones exdistinctions as come within a general picture of tremely high, the mouth very large, the lips thick the varieties of mankind. Custom, accident, or and turned outwards, the voice thin and squeakfashion, may produce considerable alterations in ing, the head large, the hair black and straight, neighbouring nations; their being derived from the colour of the skin of a dark grayish.2 They ancestors of a different climate, or complexion, are short in stature, the generality not being may contribute to make accidental distinctions, above four feet high, and the tallest not above which every day grow less; and it may be said, five. Among all these nations the women are as that two neighbouring nations, how unlike soever deformed as the men, and resemble them so nearat first, will assimilate by degrees; and by longly, that one cannot at first distinguish the sexes continuance, the difference between them will from them. at last become almost imperceptible. It is not, therefore, between contiguous nations we are to look for any strong marked varieties in the human species; it is by comparing the inhabitants of opposite climates and distant countries; those who live within the polar circles, with those beneath the equator; those that live on one side of the globe, with those that occupy the other.

Of all animals, the differences between mankind are the smallest. Of the lower races of creatures, the changes are so great as often entirely to disguise the natural animal, and to distort, or to disfigure, its shape. But the chief differences in man are rather taken from the tincture of his skin than the variety of his figure: and in all climates he preserves his erect deportment, and the marked superiority of his form. If we look round the world, there seem to be not above six1 distinct varieties in the human species, each of which is strongly marked, and speaks the kind seldom to have mixed with any other. But there is nothing in the shape, nothing in the faculties, that shows their coming from different originals; and the varieties of climate, of nourishment, and custom, are sufficient to produce every change.

These nations not only resemble each other in their deformity, their dwarfishness, the colour of their hair and eyes, but they have, in a great measure, the same inclinations, and the same manners, being all equally rude, superstitious, and stupid. The Danish Laplanders have a large black cat, to which they communicate their secrets, and consult in all their affairs. Among the Swedish Laplanders there is in every family a drum for consulting the devil; and although these nations are robust and nimble, yet they are so cowardly that they never can be brought into the field. Gustavus Adolphus attempted to form a regiment of Laplanders, but he found it impossible to accomplish his design; for it should seem that they can live only in their own country, and in their own manner. They make use of skates, which are made of fir, of near three feet long, and half-a-foot broad; these are pointed, and raised before, and tied to the foot by straps of leather. With these they skate on the icy snow, and with such velocity, that they very easily overtake the swiftest animals. They make use also of a pole, pointed with iron at one end, and rounded at the other. This pole serves to push them along, to direct their course, to support them from falling, to stop the impetuosity of their motion, and to kill that game which they have overtaken. Upon these skates they descend the steepest mountains, and scale the most crag

The first distinct race of men is found round the polar regions. The Laplanders, the Esquimaux Indians, the Samoid Tartars, the inhabitants of Nova Zembla, the Borandians, the Green-gy precipices; and in these exercises the women landers, and the natives of Kamtschatka, may be considered as one peculiar race of people, all greatly resembling each other in their stature, their complexion, their customs, and their ignoThese nations being under a rigorous climate, where the productions of nature are but few, and the provisions coarse and unwholesome, their bodies have shrunk to the nature of their food; and their complexions have suffered, from cold, almost a similar change to what heat is known to produce; their colour being a deep

rance.

1 I have taken four of these varieties from Linhæus; those of the Laplanders and Tartars from Mr. Buffon.

are not less skilful than the men. They have all the use of the bow and arrow, which seems to be a contrivance common to all barbarous nations; and which, however, at first, required no small skill to invent. They launch a javelin, also, with great force, and some say, that they can hit a mark no larger than a crown, at thirty yards' distance, and with such force as would pierce a man through. They are all hunters; and particularly pursue the ermine, the fox, the ounce, and the martin, for the sake of their skins. These they barter with their southern neigh

2 Crantz.

degrees, till, in a succession of generations, they become almost black. As the countries in which these reside are the most barren, so the natives seem the most barbarous of any part of the earth. Their more southern neighbours of America treat them with the same scorn that a polished nation would treat a savage one; and we may readily

even a native of Canada can think more barbarous than his own.

But the gradations of nature are imperceptible; and, while the north is peopled with such miserable inhabitants, there are here and there to be found, upon the edges of these regions, peo

bours for brandy and tobacco; both which they | ing heats in summer, shade their complexions by are fond of to excess. Their food is principally dried fish, the flesh of rein-deer and bears. Their bread is composed of the bones of fishes, pounded and mixed with the inside tender bark of the pine-tree. Their drink is train-oil or brandy; and when deprived of these, water, in which juniper berries have been infused. With regard to their morals, they have all the virtues of simpli-judge of the rudeness of those manners, which city, and all the vices of ignorance. They offer their wives and daughters to strangers, and seem to think it a particular honour if their offer be accepted. They have no idea of religion, or a Supreme Being; the greatest number of them are idolaters; and their superstition is as profound as their worship is contemptible. Wretch-ple of a larger stature, and completer figure. A ed and ignorant as they are, yet they do not want pride; they set themselves far above the rest of mankind; and Crantz assures us, that when the Greenlanders are got together, nothing is so customary among them as to turn the Europeans into ridicule. They are obliged, indeed, to yield them the pre-eminence in understanding and mechanic arts; but they do not know how to set any value upon these. They therefore count themselves the only civilized and wellbred people in the world; and it is common with them, when they see a quiet or a modest stranger, to say that he is almost as wellbred as a Greenlander.

whole race of the dwarfish breed is often found to come down from the north, and settle more to the southward; and, on the contrary, it sometimes happens that southern nations are seen higher up, in the midst of these diminutive tribes, where they have continued for time immemorial. Thus the Ostiac Tartars seem to be a race that have travelled down from the north, and to be originally sprung from the minute savages we have been describing. There are also Norwegians and Finlanders, of proper stature, who are seen to inhabit in latitudes higher even than Lapland. These, however, are but accidental migrations, and serve as shades to unite the distinct varieties of mankind.

The second great variety in the human species seems to be that of the Tartar race; from whence

From this description, therefore, this whole race of people may be considered as distinct from [any other. Their long continuance in a climate the most inhospitable, their being obliged to sub-probably the little men we have been describing sist on food the most coarse and ill-prepared, the savageness of their manners, and their laborious lives, all have contributed to shorten their stature, and to deform their bodies. In proportion as we approach towards the north pole, the size of the natives appears to diminish, growing less and less as we advance higher, till we come to those latitudes that are destitute of all inhabitants whatsoever.

originally proceeded. The Tartar country, taken in general, comprehends the greatest part of Asia; and is, consequently, a general name given to a number of nations, of various forms and complexions. But, however they seem to differ from each other, they all agree in being very unlike the people of any other country. All these nations have the upper part of the visage very broad, and wrinkled even while yet in their youth. Their noses are short and flat, their eyes little, and sunk in their heads; and, in some of them, they are seen five or six inches asunder. Their cheek-bones are high, the lower part of their visage narrow, the chin long and advanced forward, their teeth of an enormous size, and growing separate from each other; their eyebrows thick, large, and covering their eyes; their eyelids thick, the face broad and flat, the complexion olive-coloured, and the hair black. They are of a middle size, extremely strong, and very robust. They have but little beard, which grows stragglingly on the chin. They have large thighs, and short legs. The ugliest of all are the Calmucks, in whose appearance there seems to be something frightful. They all lead an erratic life, remaining under tents of hair or skins. They live upon horse-flesh and that of camels, either raw or a little sodden between the horse and the 3 Ellis's Voyage, p. 256. 4 Crantz, p. 134, vol. i. saddle. They eat also fish dried in the sun

The wretched natives of these climates seem fitted by nature to endure the rigours of their situation. As their food is but scanty and precarious, their patience in hunger is amazing. A man who has eaten nothing for four days can manage his little canoe in the most furious waves, and calmly subsist in the midst of a tempest that would quickly dash an European boat to pieces. Their strength is not less amazing than their patience a woman among them will carry a piece of timber or a stone, near double the weight of what an European can lift. Their bodies are of a dark gray all over; and their faces brown or olive. The tincture of their skins partly seems to arise from their dirty manner of living, being generally daubed with train-oil; and partly from the rigours of the climate, as the sudden alterations of cold and raw air in winter, and of burn