XXV. EARLY AMERICANS 



Considering the vast age of the earth, the limited in- 

 formation regarding man is remarkable, yet there is every 

 reason to believe that he was highly civilized in various 

 parts of the world many thousand years ago ; that civiliza- 

 tion waned, and rose again like the tides of the sea, and 

 that our culture of to-day, which is some steps in advance, 

 is but the most recent crest of this wave of inteUigence 

 which is sweeping on and making the history of man. 



This is well shown in the wonderful ruins of the old 

 cities of Yucatan and Mexico, which in many instances 

 represent the remains of a splendid art, if architecture 

 stands for anything; yet the palaces, castles, and pyramids 

 are overgrown with dense forests or buried in the ground ; 

 but very little if anything is known of them, or of the peo- 

 ple who built them. 



Nearly every country, even Africa, has ruins and an- 

 tiquities which tell of a former civilization, and the splendid 

 buildings in Italy, in Greece, and on the desert near Cairo, 

 and all along the Nile, show that so far as arts are con- 

 cerned the people of these lands are in their decadence 

 to-day. In America there are no ruins suggesting a civili- 

 zation corresponding to that of Europe or Africa, but all 

 over the country evidences of a remote existence are found 

 in mounds, camp sites, and ruins of various kinds. Among 

 the most interesting are the Cliff Dwellers in the south- 



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