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connect objects, the relation of which to each 
other has not escaped the sagacity of those, who 
apply themselves to the philosophical study of the 
human mind. Although the manners of a peo- 
ple, the display of their intellectual faculties, 
the peculiar character stamped on their works, 
depend on a great number of causes which are 
not merely local, it is nevertheless true, that the 
climate, the nature of the soil, the physiognomy 
of the plants, the view of beautiful or of savage 
nature, have great influence on the progress of 
the arts, and on the style which distinguishes 
their productions. This influence becomes the 
more perceptible, the farther man is removed 
from civilization. What a contrast between the 
architecture of a tribe that has dwelt in vast and 
gloomy caverns, and that of hordes whose bold 
monuments recall in the shafts of their columns 
the towering trunks of the palm trees of the 
desert! An accurate knowledge of the origin 
of the arts can be acquired only from studying 
the nature of the site where they arose. The 
only American tribes, among whom we find re- 
markable monuments, are the inhabitants of 
mountains. Insulated in the region of the clouds, 
on the most elevated plains of the Globe, sur- 
rounded by volcanoes, the craters of which are 
encircled by eternal snows, they appear to have 
