INTRODUCTION. 19 



from the equatorial to the polar lands^ or pursues 

 its prey through the pathless air ! 



Man, in the early stages of his existence, is drawn 

 by an instinctive power to observe and admire na- 

 ture. The love of it, too, glows in the breast of 

 every child. We have never, indeed, witnessed 

 the actions of men in the infancy of society, and 

 therefore cannot estimate the influence exercised 

 upon them by external objects ; for the savages 

 whom the European, wandering over the globe in 

 quest of gold or knowledge, finds in the deserts or 

 in the remote isles of the ocean, are evidently de- 

 graded beings who have degenerated from a nobler 

 stock. But the history and traditions of most of 

 the tribes with which we are acquainted, and espe- 

 cially of those inhabiting the American continent, 

 show that at some remote period they must have 

 possessed more knowledge than they exhibited at our 

 first acquaintance with them. Revelation, too, as- 

 sures us that man was made perfect ; and philo- 

 sophy has not succeeded in forming a theory to ac- 

 count for the physical or moral diversities exhi- 

 bited by our race, approaching in consistency to 

 that which may be drawn from the pages of the Sa- 

 cred Writings. 



" Man," says Cuvier, '' who was cast feeble and 

 naked on the surface of the globe, seemed created 

 for inevitable destruction. Evils assailed him on 

 all sides; the remedies remained concealed from 

 him, but he had been endowed with genius for 

 discovering them. The first savages gathered in 

 the woods some nutritious fruits, some wholesome 

 roots, and thus satisfied their more urgent wants. 

 The first shepherds perceived that the stars follow 



