202 Distinctive Characteristics of the 



to inquire ; but to them, and to them alone, we trace the 

 monohthic gateways of Peru, the sculptures of Bogota, the 

 ruined temples and pyramids of Mexico and the mounds and 

 fortifications of the valley of the Mississippi. 



Such was the Toltecan Family ; and it will now be in- 

 quired how it happens that so great a disparity should have 

 existed in the intellectual character of the American nations^ 

 if they are all derived from a common stock, or in other 

 words belong to the same race ? How are we to reconcile 

 the civilization of the one with the barbarism of the other ? 

 It is this question which has so much puzzled the philosophers 

 of the past three centuries, and led them, in the face of facts, 

 to insist on a plurality of races. We grant the seeming 

 anomaly ; but however much it is opposed to general rule, it 

 is not without ample analogies among the people of the old 

 world. No stronger example need be adduced than that 

 which presents itself in the great Arabian family ; for the 

 Saracens who established their kingdom in Spain, whose his- 

 tory is replete with romance and refinement, whose colleges 

 were the centres of genius and learning for several centuries, 

 and whose arts and sciences have been blended with those of 

 every subsequent age ; — these very Saracens belong not only 

 to the same race but to the same family with the Bedouins of 

 the desert ; those intractable barbarians who scorn all re- 

 straints which are not imposed by their own chief, and whose 

 immemorial laws forbid them to sow corn, to plant fruit trees 

 or to build houses, in order tliat nothing may conflict with 

 those roving and predatory habits which have continued unal- 

 tered through a period of three thousand years. 



Other examples perhaps not less forcible, might be adduced 

 in the families of the Mongolian race ; but without extending 

 the comparison, or attempting to investigate this singular in- 

 tellectual disparity, we shall, for the present, at least, content 

 ourselves with the facts as we find them. It is important, 

 however, to remark, that these civilized states do not stand 

 isolated from their barbarous neighbors ; on the contrary 

 they merge gradually into each other, so that some nations 

 are with difficulty classed with either division, and rather 



