11 



Etruscans, the Egyptians, the people of 

 Thibet, and the Aztecks, exhibit striking 

 analogies in their buildings, their religious 

 institutions, their division of time, their 

 cycles of regeneration, and their mystic 

 notions. It is the duty of the historian to 

 point out these analogies, which are as diffi- 

 cult to explain as the relations that exist 

 between the Sanscrit, the Persian, the 

 G reek, and the languages of German origin ; 

 but in attempting to generalize ideas, we 

 should learn to stop at the point where 

 precise data are wanting. In conformity 

 to these principles, I shall mention the 

 consequences to which the opinions I have 

 adopted seem to lead respecting the natives 

 of the New World. 



Neither an attentive examination of the 

 geological constitution of America, nor re- 

 flections on the equilibrium of the fluids, that 

 are diffused over the surface of the Globe, 

 lead us to admit, that the New Continent 

 emerged from the waters at a later period 

 than the Old : we discern in the former the 

 same succession of stony strata, that we find 



