SECOND PROVINCE;

ETHNOLOGY.

In the province of Ethnology, we include the study of Nations, geographically and historically; having regard to their location and strength; their institutions and customs; their origin and history; their distinguished men; and their imaginative literature; these last topics being very closely connected with the preceding. The name is derived from the Greek, ovos, a nation; and 20yos, a discourse. In this province, we comprehend the departments of Geography, including Statistics, and Voyages and Travels; Chronography, or Civil History and Antiquities; Biography, relating to the lives of Eminent men and Callography, or the study of Poetry, Romance, and similar miscellaneous literature. The reasons for placing these departments in this order, and in this province, we have already briefly explained. [p. 34].

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V. DEPARTMENT:

GEOGRAPHY.

IN the department of Geography, we would comprise a general description of the earth; and especially of the nations by which it is inhabited; in reference to their position and extent; their productions and resources; their institutions and improvements; their manners and customs; and including the subjects of Statistics, and Voyages and Travels. The name is from the Greek, yn, the earth; and ypapw, I describe; or ypap, a description: and it is a term which admits of indefinite extension; since in describing a nation, allusion must be made to its language, laws, and religion, arts and literature; and in treating of the earth and its productions, we might include the whole range of the physical sciences. The propriety, however, of restricting the term to a single department of human knowledge, as above defined, instead of extending it to comprehend the whole, will, we think, be self-evident and for this department, we have adopted the present name, in compliance with popular usage, and to avoid the necessity of coining another; even though one more definite might be found.

Geography is properly subdivided into Mathematical, which describes the form, imaginary circles, and different modes of representing the earth; Physical, which relates to its structure, and elemental changes, and to its natural productions; Topographical, which relates to places, and their situation, as shown by maps and gazetteers; Statistical, which relates to the extent, strength, and resources of nations; Civil, which relates to nations, in regard to their manners and customs, forms of religion and government, and progress in improvements; and Historical, or Progressive Geography, which treats of discovery and colonization; and changes of names or of boundaries, of places and states. Strictly speaking, Mathematical, and Physical Geography, belong to the studies of Natural Philosophy, and Natural History; but as some knowledge of them is necessary for the understanding of the other divisions, we shall here treat briefly of them, as an Introduction to the main subject; presupposing the slight mathematical knowledge required for their comprehension.

The propriety of considering Statistics as subordinate to, and a part of, Geography, will, we think, be sufficiently evident; though some German writers have so enlarged its boundaries, as to leave little to Geography besides the name. Statistics first received its name and systematic form, from Prof. Achenwall, at Göttingen, in 1749; and the term has been but recently introduced into English works. It relates especially to the strength and resources of nations: and collects from Geography, all the data which bear upon this point. The classification of Voyages and Travels, as a part of Geography, and as the sources from which systematic works on this department,

have been chiefly compiled, we think all general scholars must approve. We might, in this course, treat separately, the subjects of Ancient Geography, Modern Geography, Statistics, and Voyages and Travels; but we prefer, for the sake of unity, the Ethnographical method, of comprehending every thing which relates to one country or division of the world, under one head.

The General History of Geography, is itself a subject of much interest. The earliest Geographical records which have been preserved, are the Pentateuch, and other Hebrew Scriptures. They contain much information concerning Judea, and the neighboring regions; and the division of Canaan among the tribes of Israel. Next to these, are the poems of Homer and Hesiod; and the historical books of Herodotus, compiled in part from his own travels. The world, as known in his time, 445 B. C., comprehended only the regions bordering on the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, and Red Seas; extending to Ethiopia in the south, and to India in the east. The Phoenicians, from Tyre and Sidon, had explored the whole Mediterranean, as early as 1000 B. C.; and we have still an account of the Periplus or voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian, as far south as Guinea, about 500 B. C.; and of that of Pytheas of Marseilles, who ventured by sea, 300 B. C., from the Mediterranean to Britain, and thence to Ultima Thule, which was probably the southern extremity of Norway.* More will be said of Voyages and Travels, in treating of the Grand Divisions of the earth.

The earliest regular Geographies, now extant, are those of Strabo, who wrote in Greek, and died A. D. 25; and of Pomponius Mela, who wrote in Latin, about A. D. 50. They both describe the world as then known, including Britain, and Germany. Much Geographical information is also found in the writings of Aristotle, and in the Natural History of the elder Pliny; but the best-ancient Geography was that of Ptolemy, (Ptolemæus), who died A. D. 150. It is in eight books, forming part of his Great System, (Meyahn Evvražis), called by the Arabians, the Almagest; and it is the first work in which places were defined by their latitude and longitude, as proposed by Hipparchus, who died 125 B. C. The best Arabian Geographies are those of Edrisi, and Abulfeda; and the first modern European geographer, was Guido of Ravenna, who flourished about A. D. 1500. The first General Map, which we can mention, was that of Eratosthenes, 270 B. C.; and the best ancient Atlas, was that of Agathodamon, prepared for the great work of Ptoleiny. The famous Peutinger Table, was a map of the military roads of the Visigoths, compiled as early as A. D. 1190. The invention of the Terrestrial Globe, is attributed to Anaximander, about 580 B. C.; and the first modern one is said to have been constructed by Martin Behaim, (Behem, Behin, or Boehme), of Nuremberg, as early as 1492.

A few words on Mathematical Geography, are all which we have room here to offer. The earth is a large globe, or rather an oblate spheroid; revolving on an imaginary axis, which passes through its centre, and terminates at the north and south poles. That great circle on the earth's surface, which runs east and west, at an equal • The Thule of Agricola, was one of the Shetland Islands.

distance from both the poles, is called the equator. The earth's polar diameter is 7899 miles; its equatorial diameter 7925 miles; and its mean circumference 24,856 miles. Its mean distance from the sun is about 95,000,000 miles; and it revolves around the sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds; that is, from the vernal equinox to this same point again. The tropics, are two small circles, each 23° 28′ from the equator; that of Cancer being on the north, and that of Capricorn on the south. The polar circles, are two other imaginary circles, at the same distance, or 23° 28' from the poles; the Arctic lying around the north, and the Antarctic around the south pole. The distance of these circles from the poles, and from the equator; is determined by the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit, that is, the path which it describes annually around the sun.

These and other small circles, running due east and west, each one of them being every where equidistant from the equator, are called parallels of latitude; while great circles passing through the poles, and crossing the equator at right angles, are called meridians. Latitude, is distance measured north or south from the equator; and longitude, is distance east or west, from some selected first meridian ; both being measured in degrees and minutes. The ancients supposed the earth to have a greater extent eastward and westward, than to the north and south. Hence, distance eastward or westward, they called longitude, or length; while distance towards the north or south, they termed latitude or breadth.* The ecliptic, is a great circle, fixed in the heavens, but movable on the earth's surface; and always crossing the equator at an angle of 23° 28'; it being the intersection of the plane of the earth's orbit with the earth's surface; or with the celestial sphere, supposed to be at an infinite distance from the earth, on every side. A map, is a representation of either the whole, or a part, of the earth's surface on a plane; and a chart, is either a nautical map, or a map on a cylindrical projection, which represents the meridians as parallel straight lines, and thus magnifies the parts towards the poles. The data for maps are obtained from Surveying and Practical Astronomy; but the principles of their construction, belong to Descriptive Geometry.

On Physical Geography, we must here be extremely brief; but more will be said on this subject, in the province of Physiconomy. The earth rotates, or turns on its axis, once in 24 hours; thereby causing the alternation of day and night: and it revolves around the sun once in a year, which period of time it measures by this motion. Its annual path or orbit, is a plane curve, nearly circular, but slightly elliptical; and its axis is oblique to its orbit, but continues nearly parallel to itself; always pointing towards the north star in the heavens, and thus causing the obliquity of the equator to the ecliptic. Hence, in our summer, the north pole inclines towards the sun, causing long and warm days; although the earth is then farthest from the sun; but in our winter the case is the reverse. Thus, the

* This idea is illustrated by Ptolemy's Map of the World, (Plate V.), the copy of which here inserted is taken from the one in Cernoti's translation of Ptolemy's Geography, published at Venice, in 1598.