AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 369 



In every zone the configuration of the ground, the phy» 

 siognomy of the plants, and the aspect of lovely or wild 

 scenery, have great influence on the progress of the arts, 

 and on the style which distinguishes their productions. 

 This influence is so much the more perceptible in pro- 

 portion as man is farther removed from civilization. 



" I could have added to this work researches on the 

 character of languages, which are the most durable 

 monuments of nations. I have collected a number of 

 materials on the languages of America, of which MM. 

 Frederic Schegel and Vater have made use ; the former 

 in his Considerations on the Hindoos, the latter in his 

 Continuation of the Mithridates of Adelung, in the 

 Ethnographical Magazine, and in his Inquiries into the 

 Population of the New Continent. These materials are 

 now in the hands of my brother, William Von Hum- 

 boldt, who, during his travels in Spain, and a long abode 

 at Rome, formed the richest collection of American vo- 

 cabularies in existence. His extensive knowledge of the 

 ancient and modern languages has enabled him to trace 

 some curious analogies in relation to this subject, so im- 

 portant to the philosophical study of the history of man. 

 A part of his labours will find a place in this narrative. 



" Of the different works which I have here enumerated, 

 the second and third were composed by M. Bonpland, 

 from the observations which he made in a botanical jour- 

 nal. This journal contains more than four thousand 

 methodical descriptions of equinoctial plants, a ninth 

 part only of which have been made by me. They ap- 

 pear in a separate publication, under the title of Nova 

 Qenera et Species Plantarum. In this work will be found, 

 not only the new species we collected, which, after a 



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