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connect objects, the relation of which to each 

 other has not escaped the sagacity of those, who 

 apply themselves to the philosophical study of the 

 human mind. Although the manners of a peo- 

 ple, the display of their intellectual faculties, 

 the peculiar character stamped on their works, 

 depend on a great number of causes which are 

 not merely local, it is nevertheless true, that the 

 climate, the nature of the soil, the physiognomy 

 of the plants, the view of beautiful or of savage 

 nature, have great influence on the progress of 

 the arts, and on the style which distinguishes 

 their productions. This influence becomes the 

 more perceptible, the farther man is removed 

 from civilization. What a contrast between the 

 architecture of a tribe that has dwelt in vast and 

 gloomy caverns, and that of hordes whose bold 

 monuments recall in the shafts of their columns 

 the towering trunks of the palm trees of the 

 desert ! An accurate knowledge of the origin 

 of the arts c^an be acquired only from studying 

 the nature of the site where they arose. The 

 only American tribes, among whom we find re- 

 markable monuments, are the inhabitants of 

 mountains. Insolated in the region of the clouds, 

 on the most elevated plains of the Globe, sur- 

 rounded by volcanoes, the craters of which are 

 encircled by eternal snows, they appear to have 



