s or colors of men likewise distinct there, we might suppose
there could have been several species and cradles of men: but it is not
so, features and languages are so variable and mingling in our own
times, and so diversified every where, as to baffle and preclude
complete insulation. Monuments are also after all so much alike in many
remote parts, that although divisible into styles of various ages and
stages of improvement, they do evince a great similarity in coeval ages
or stages of civilization.

To prove this great fact and the important results, might be the subject
of a large work, and we have heard that Mr. Warden has been engaged in
Paris in something of this kind. His work has not yet reached us; but
whenever it will be completed, it shall be only one step towards the
elucidation of this deep theme. Many facts are yearly evolved in
America, new researches undertaken and discoveries made: while in
Africa, Lybia, Arabia, Persia, India and even the Oceanic world of
Australia and Polynesia, similar discoveries are progressing and new
facts made known, that will unfold many new and unexpected analogies
with American inquiries. Of the early Monuments of China, Tartary and
Thibet, we know little or nothing, and in the very heart of Asia, the
real Cradle of Arts and Sciences, if not mankind itself, our learned
travellers have not yet penetrated, and the most interesting region of
the globe is thus almost unknown to us. This subject is therefore in a
progressive state of inquiries, and future ages will yet add thereto:
although a number of Ruins and Monuments crumble or disappear under the
plough or the leveling energy of men, little respecting these structures
of antiquity, enough of unexplored sites will be discovered and
surveyed: some of our rudest monuments appear indestructible, the lofty
mounds of earth have withstood like the heavy pyramids of Egypt, the
lapse of countless ages, some even appear now covered with a dress of
new soil, or even diluvial coat, as if they were antediluvian!

Meantime we may endeavor to collect and compare the facts already known,
and deduce therefrom some useful instruction to satisfy curiosity or
gratify the greedy wish to ascend to the origin of every thing, and of
mankind above all. The most proper and obvious way to elucidate American
Antiquities and Monuments, would be by classifying them, which has
however never been attempted, having always been noticed or elucidated
loosely