10 



America, I have attempted to keep an 

 equal tenor between the two methods fol- 

 lowed by those learned men, who have 

 investigated the monuments, the languages, 

 and the traditions of nations. Some, 

 allured by splendid hypotheses, built on 

 very unstable foundations, have drawn ge- 

 neral consequences from a small number of 

 solitary facts : they have discovered Chinese 

 and Egyptian colonies in America ; recog- 

 nized Celtic dialects and the Phenician 

 alphabet ; and, while we are ignorant whe- 

 ther the Osci, the Goths, or the Celts, are 

 nations emigrated from Asia, have given a 

 decisive opinion on the origin of all the 

 hordes of the New Continent. Others 

 have accumulated materials without gene- 

 ralizing any idea ; which is a method, as 

 sterile in tracing the history of a nation, as 

 in delineating the different branches of 

 natural philosophy. May I have been 

 happy enough to avoid the errors, which I 

 have now pointed out ! A small number 

 of nations, far distant from each other > the 



