out means of preserving the remembrance of 
facts^ the knowledge of their history is confined 
to a very short period. There is a point of their 
existence^ beyond which they no longer measure 
the interval of events. In time, as well as space, 
distant objects approach each other, and are con- 
founded together ; and the same cataclysm, 
which the Hindoos, the Chinese, and all the na- 
tions of the Semitic race place thousands of years 
before the improvement of their social state, the 
Americans, a people perhaps not less ancient, but 
whose awakening has been of a later date, sup- 
posed to be only two cycles before their emigra- 
tion from Aztlan. 
