2 
their monuments, which are interesting to 
the philosophical study of man, I have 
added a few of the most remarkable pictu- 
resque views of the new continent. The 
motives for this selection wijl be found in 
the general observations at the beginning of 
this Essay. 
The description of each plate, as far as 
the nature of the subject admits, forms a 
separate treatise. I have dwelt more at 
length on such as could throw light on the 
analogies existing between the inhabitants 
of the two hemispheres ; and we shall be 
surprised to find, towards the end of the 
fifteenth century, in a world which we call 
new, those ancient institutions, those reli- 
gious notions, and that style of building, 
which seem in Asia to indicate the very 
dawn of civilization. The characteristic 
features of nations, like the internal con- 
struction of plants, spread over the surface 
of the globe, were the impression of a pri- 
mitive type, notwithstanding the variety 
produced by the difference of climates, the 
