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to the exercise of the intellectual faculties ; in 

 declaring that all nations of men that dwell on 

 the face of the Earth are made of one blood, 

 and members of the same family; has weaken- 

 ed every exclusive sentiment, and has spread 

 through both Worlds the ancient traditions of 

 the East with those that are peculiarly it's own. 

 Nations of different origin, and discordant idi- 

 oms, have received from this common institution 

 common remembrances ; and the establishment 

 of the missions, after having laid the founda- 

 tions of civilization in a great part of the New 

 Continent, has given to cosmogonic and religious 

 ideas a marked preeminence over remembrances 

 that were merely national. 



But this is not all ; the American colonies are 

 almost all founded in countries, where the gene- 

 rations that are extinct have left scarcely any 

 trace of their existence. At the mouth of the 

 Rio Gila, on the banks of the Missouri, in the 

 plains that extend to the east of the Andes, tra- 

 ditions date no farther back than a century. At 

 Peru, Guatimala, and Mexico, ruins of edifices, 

 historical paintings, and monuments of sculp- 

 ture, attest, it is true, the ancient civilization of 

 the natives ; but in a whole province we find 

 very few families, who have just ideas relative 

 to the history of the Incas, and of the Mexican 

 princes. The native has preserved his language* 

 his dress, and his national character ; but the 



