PEOPLING OF AMERICA. 255 
race is concerned ?" Is it daring to question this ? How small is the 
geographical space covered by the history of the Old Testament ! It is 
an established fact, that the whole of the animal races are not common to 
both Continents. A great variety of quadrupeds have been found in 
America that were unknown in Europe, and the same is true in regard 
to birds and fish. 
It is difficult to touch this question, without interfering with the authority 
of the Pentateuch ; but if we were at liberty to discuss such matters, there 
are few who would not hold the doctrine, that it is perfectly reconcilable 
with rational science to believe, that the two Continents existed contempo- 
raneously from the oldest periods, filled with distinct races, of separate 
customs, manners, habits and languages ', who, by the simple and natural 
impulses of humanity arrived at similar results, in religion, science, archi- 
tecture and government. Animals found in both hemispheres arrive at 
the same results — why may not man ? It is replied, that they are guided 
alone hj instincts? Is it not by his zras^'ncis, improved by his reason, 
that man, too, is led to every operation of his varied life ? By the ruins 
which are left, of what those instincts and reason once produced on this 
Continent, we are alone enabled to judge of our ancestors. Defence — pro- 
tection from the weather — religion — the calculation of time — the necessity 
of food ; — these are the chief instinctive wants and promptings of man's 
natui'e. Men suffer from the seasons, from sun and shower, — hence dwel- 
lings. Men have a natural feeling of adoration, gratitude, dependence, — 
hence religion, groves, altars, mounds, and even pyramids, as they advance 
in civilization. Men behold the natural changes of day and night ; the 
motion of the sun, moon and stars ; they note that there is an equality 
of time and season, and that these are comparatively of longer or shorter 
duration at different periods of the year, — and hence a calendar. Men 
are social, and congregate into societies, and in the process of time their 
natural passions beget discontent and wars, — hence fortifications and 
weapons of defence. Men hunger, — and hence the invention of instruments 
by which they succeed in the sports of the field, or control the chase. 
And, at length, with all the elements of civilized society around them, in 
shrines, bulwarks, domestic retreats, arsenals, social love, and national 
glory — they come to have a history ; and, with the laudable desire of per- 
petuating the memory of themselves and of their epoch, you find at Pa- 
lenque, as well as in Egypt and on the Ganges, those figured monuments 
which tell the tale of the departed great, by symbols, letters, paintino-s or 
hieroglyphics. 
Now, separated by thousands of leagues of sea from the Eastern hem- 
isphere, and with men who had no means, but the frail canoe, of transport- 
ing themselves over it, you suddenly alight on these shores, in the midst 
of the sixteenth century ; — and find temples, idols, the remains of dwellings, 
fortifications, weapons of defence and chase, astronomical calendars, and 
people, worshipping, living and governing in the midst of every external 
evidence of ancient civilization. The whole of North America, we have 
