22 2 VESTIGES OF THE 



them all off except a small party, whom their enemies 

 rushed in upon and destroyed to a man. What is this 

 but a repetition on a small scale of phenomena with which 

 ancient history familiarises iis — a nation rising in arts 

 and elegances amidst barbarous neighbours, but at length 

 overpowered by the rude majority, leaving only a Tadmor 

 or a Luxor as a monument of itself to beautify the 

 waste? AVhat can we suppose the nation which built 

 Palenque and Copan to have been but only a kind of 

 Mandan tribe, which chanced to have made its way 

 farther along the path of civilisation and the arts, before 

 the barbarians broke in upon it ? The flame essayed to 

 rise in many parts of the earth ; but there were con- 

 siderable agencies working against it, and down it accord- 

 ingly w^ent, times without number ; yet there was always 

 a vitality in it, nevertheless, and a tendency to progress, 

 and at length it seems to have attained a strength against 

 which the powers of barbarism can never more prevail. 

 The state of our knowledge of uncivilised nations is very 

 apt to make us fall into error on this subject. They aie 

 generally supposed to be all at one point in barbarism, 

 which is far from being the case, for in the midst of 

 evei-y great region of uncivilised men, such as ISTorth 

 America, there are nations partially refined. The Jolofs, 

 Mandingoes, and Kafirs, are African examples, where a 

 natural and independent origin for the improvement 

 which exists is as unavoidably to be presumed as in the 

 case of the Mandans. 



The most conclusive argument aoainst the oriirinal 

 civilisation of mankind is to be found in the fact that 

 we do not now see civilisation existing anywhere except 

 in certain conditions altogether diffei-ent from any we 

 can suppose to have existed at the commencement of our 

 race. To have civilisation, it is necessary that a people 



