408 



to ourselves in this work, to dwell on theories 

 respecting the ancient civilization of the inha- 

 bitants of the north, and of the centre of Asia. 

 Thibet and Mexico offer analogies sufficiently 

 remarkable in their ecclesiastical hierarchy, in 

 the number of religious assemblies, in the severe 

 austerity of their penitentiary rites, and in the 

 order of their processions. It is impossible not 

 to be struck with this resemblance, in reading 

 with attention the recital, which Cortez made 

 the Emperor Charles V, of his solemn entrance 

 into Cholula, which he calls the holy city of the 

 Mexicans. 



A people who regulated its festivals accord- 

 ing to the motion of the stars, and who engraved 

 its fasti on a public monument, had no doubt 

 reached a degree of civilization superior to that 

 which has been allowed by Pauw, Raynal, and 

 even Robertson, the most judicious of the histo- 

 rians of America. These writers consider every 

 state of society as barbarous, that did not bear 

 the type of civilization, which they, according to 

 their systematic ideas, had formed. We cannot 

 admit these abrupt distinctions into barbarous 

 and civilized nations. After having examined 

 in this work with scrupulous impartiality what- 

 ever we ourselves have been able to discover 

 respecting the ancient state of the nations of the 

 New Continent, we have endeavoured to com- 

 bine tlie features by which they are immediately 



