2 



their monuments, which are interesting to 

 the philosophical study of man, I have 

 added a few of the most remarkable pictu- 

 resque views of the new continent. The 

 motives for this selection will be found in 

 the general observations at the beginning of 

 this Essay. 



The description of each plate, as far as 

 the nature of the subject admits, forms a 

 separate treatise. I have dwelt more at 

 length on such as could throw light on the 

 analogies existing between the inhabitants 

 of the two hemispheres ; and we shall be 

 surprised to find, towards the end of the 

 fifteenth century, in a world which we call 

 new, those ancient institutions, those reli- 

 gious notions, and that style of building, 

 which seem in Asia to indicate the very 

 dawn of civilization. The characteristic 

 features of nations, like the internal con- 

 struction of plants, spread over the surface 

 of the globe, were the impression of a pri- 

 mitive type, notwithstanding the variety 

 produced by the difference of climates, the 



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