320 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



not deny that the architecture of this region shows a very differ- 

 ent condition of life from that presented elsewhere. The soil and 

 climate may have been favorable, and the increase of wealth and 

 ease may have resulted in just such magnificence without any 

 borrowed skill. But certainly there is a great contrast between 

 these works of the'civilized races, and the rude wigwams of the 

 savages. All these different styles and grades of architecture 

 may have had a common origin. Possibly the growth may be 

 traced from the one to the other, but we can no more compare the 

 Montezuma of Mexico to the Hiawatha of the Iroquois, than we 

 can the Julius Ciesar of Eome to the Ariovistus of the Germans. 

 It is very fashionable to follow an idea, and to imagine that one 

 system will explain them all; but the plain facts disprove all 

 theories. Indian or not, modern or not, the works of Mexico and 

 Central America show that the races there certainly reached a 

 very different state of development from what prevailed north of 

 this region. There is no wonderful mystery about it, and nothing 

 improbable. The Seven Cities of Cibola, situated as they were 

 in the deep inierior of this continent, struck the Spaniards with 

 as much surprise as did the palaces of Mexico. The strange 

 works of the Mound Builders have not yet ceased to excite our 

 wonder and baffle our investigations. Only the familiar and rude 

 ways and works of the Indians excite our contempt. But all of 

 them are important, as showing what different states of society 

 have existed on this continent, and how one dark-skinned, copper- 

 oolored race have developed into "so many different stages of cul- 

 tus. We take the four or five classes of architectural works and 

 trace in them four or five different modes of life and social con- 

 ditions, and so have a picture of the pre-historic ages'on this con- 

 tinent which cannot be excelled. The study of primitive archi- 

 tecture is really the main source of information in reference to 

 this age. 



