14 



of the Cordilleras of the Andes, we fix our 

 attention particularly on those, who, having 

 long held the sway over their neighbours, have 

 acted a more important part on the stage of the 

 world. It is the object of the historian, to 

 group facts, to distinguish masses, to ascend to 

 the common sources of so many migrations and 

 popular movements. Great empires, the regu- 

 lar organization of a sacerdotal hierarchy, and 

 the culture which this organization favors in the 

 first age of society, are found only on the high 

 mountains of the west. At Mexico we see a 

 vast monarchy enclosing small republics; at 

 Cundinamarca and Peru, real theocracies. For- 

 tified towns, highways and large edifices of 

 stone, an extraordinary developement of the 

 feudal system, the separation of casts, convents 

 of men and women, religious congregations fol- 

 lowing a discipline more or less severe, very 

 complicated divisions of time connected with 

 the calendars*, zodiacs, and astrology of the 

 enlightened nations of Asia, are phenomena, 

 that in America belong to one region only, the 

 long and narrow Alpine band, which extends 

 from thirty degrees of north latitude to twen- 

 ty-five degrees south. The flux of nations in 

 the ancient world was from east to west ; the 

 Basques or Iberians, the Celts, the Germans, 



* See the note A at the end of the ninth book. 



