39 
progress from their native barbarism. The east 
of Asia, the west and the north of Europe, pre- 
sent the same phenomena. In pointing them 
out, I shall not pretend to investigate from what 
hidden causes the germe of the fine arts grew 
and spread only over a very small part of the 
Globe. How many nations of the ancient 
world lived in a climate equal with that of 
Greece, and surrounded with every object that 
elevates the imagination, without awakening to 
that sensibility of the perfection of forms, the 
peculiar privilege of the Greeks, to whose crea- 
tive genius belong all that the arts possess of 
beautiful and sublime ! 
These considerations are sufficient to explain 
my intentions in the publication of these frag- 
ments of American monuments. Their study 
may become useful, like that of the most imper- 
fect languages ; which are interesting, not only 
by their analogy with those that are known, but 
still more by the strict connection, which exists 
between their structure and the degree of intelli- 
gence in man, when more or less remote from 
civilization. 
Presenting in the same work the rude monu- 
ments of the indigenous tribes of America, and 
the picturesque views of the mountainous coun- 
tries which they inhabited, my intention is to 
