tribes of people spread through the great continent
of the Old World. To this I must add the fact, that
no former writer hag surveyed the same ground# or
any great part7of it, from a similar point of view. If
we except the learned and ingenious treatise of Dr.
Ed wards ^df Versailles^ them- work r,extant in
which an attempt has been made to investigate,
with accurate historical ^research, the physical and
moral characters of nations in connection with the
races from which they, are descended,-and the
nature of the countries which they inhabitj and
Dr. Edwards has professedly restricted his inquiries
to some particular European stems# though hY rhtis
incidentally thrown rays of light upon more remote
points. The lucubrations of Herder and otherdife
fuse writers of the same description, whiles sume .©f
them possess a merit of their own, are not conceived
in the same design or directed towards the* sanne
seope. Their object is to pourtray national character
as resulting from combined influences, physical, in oral,
and political. They abound in generalisations, often in
the speculative flights of a discursive fancy, and afford
little^ or no aid for the close induction from facts,
whichiisjthe aim of the present-work. Nor have these
inquiries often come within the view of writers on
geography, though the history of the globe-is very
PR E FA C E . V
incomplete withou#Hb|t of its human inhabitants.
Even Malte-Brun > has mCagre notices on the history
of? human- tribes. No deficiency, however, in this or
in any other department can be laid to the charge of
Professor Ritter, whose admirable “ Erdkunde” combines
an amazing mass of information on every topic
connected with his»-vast undertaking. His work is
yet* incomplete,, bafct the parts already published are in-
valuab'tefrom.the- great-extent #f the resources which
the author- had everywhere at his command, and the
stfeti&ssltiil manner-in which he has availed -himself of
them. Hp wil be seen that I have detived no small
advantage from th&SS? E r d k u nd e-v©fi Asien 7 ’-pspecia 1 ly
in referenee'4o?the physical geography of that region.
It mayfebSh,th otigh t by some of my readers that I
have devoted too: great a portion of my work ito inquiries
- refative to the ancient history and 'antiquities
and languages of particular nations, and especially to
theirrieairlyfliterature and mythologyi These subjects
may «be * d eemed too remote from then researches into
physical history which arc my professed object. It
musft.be remembered that similar investigations afford
in many instances the only mdSns-of establishing on
tolerably^secure gpouiids inferences as to the mutual
relationship of particular tribes. By these inquiries
we sometimes discover proofs of ancient affinity be