5 
ratives of the first travellers ; and it seemed 
to be the duty of a philosopher, to refuse 
assent to every observation made by the 
missionaries. 
Since the end of the last century, a happy 
revolution has taken place in the manner 
of examining the civilization of nations, 
and the causes which impede or favour its 
progress. We have become acquainted 
with countries, the customs, institutions, 
and arts of which differ almost as widely 
from those of the Greeks and Romans, as 
the primitive forms of extinct races of 
animals differ from those of the species, 
which are the objects of descriptive natural 
history. The society at Calcutta has thrown 
a luminous ray over the history of the 
people of Asia. The monuments of Egypt, 
which are at present delineated with sin- 
gular preeision, have been compared with 
the monuments of countries the most re- 
mote ; and my own recent investigations on 
the natives of America appear at an epocha, 
in which we no longer deem unworthy of 
