Researches, concerning the institutions & monuments of the ancient inhabitants of America : with descriptions and views of some of the most striking scenes in the Cordilleras! . hat a people, that hadmade so little progress in civilization, has re-corded in these books. Notwithstanding therespect we owe the Egyptians, who have had sopowerful an influence on the advancement ofknowledge, we have little reason to presume,that the numerous inscriptions, traced on theirobelisks, and the cornices, of their temples, con-tain truths of much importance. These conside-rations however, though just, ought
Researches, concerning the institutions & monuments of the ancient inhabitants of America : with descriptions and views of some of the most striking scenes in the Cordilleras! . hat a people, that hadmade so little progress in civilization, has re-corded in these books. Notwithstanding therespect we owe the Egyptians, who have had sopowerful an influence on the advancement ofknowledge, we have little reason to presume,that the numerous inscriptions, traced on theirobelisks, and the cornices, of their temples, con-tain truths of much importance. These conside-rations however, though just, ought not, in my * See vol. xiii, page 225, and Plate lo, No. 8. 152 opinion, to lead us to neglect the study of thesymbolic and sacred characters. The know-ledge of these characters is intimately connectedwith the mythology, the manners, and the indi-vidual genius of nations ; it throws light on thehistory of the ancient migrations of our species;and is highly interesting to the philosopher, pre-senting him, in the uniform progress of the lan^guage of signs in parts of the Earth the mostremote from each other, an image of the first un-folding of the faculties of man.
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