Part I.] ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION.

377

of deep interest to every curious and intelligent ob-server of his species. And it has accordingly oc-cupied the thoughts of men, from the fust discoveryof the country to the present time; when the ex-traordinary monuments brought to light in Central America have given a new impulse to inquiry, bysuggesting the probability, — the possibility, rather,— that surer evidences than any hitherto knownmight be afforded for establishing the fact of a posi-tive communication with the other hemisphere.

It is not my intention to add many pages to thevolumes already written on this inexhaustible topic.The subject — as remarked by a writer, of a philo-sophical mind himself, and who has done more than* any other for the solution of the mystery — is of too

speculative a nature for history, almost for philoso-phy . 11 But this work would be incomplete, withoutaffording the reader the means of judging for himselfas to the true sources of the peculiar civilizationalready described, by exhibiting to him the allegedpoints of resemblance with the ancient continent.In doing this, I shall confine myself to my propersubject, the Mexicans, or to what, in some way orother, may have a bearing on this subject; proposingto state only real points of resemblance, as they aresupported by evidence, and stripped, as far as possi-ble, of the illusions with which they have been in-

11 “La question générale de étre mémen’est elle pas une ques-ts premiére origine des habitaos tion philosophique.” Humboldt ,d’un continent est au-delá des li- Essai Politique, tom I. p. 349.mites presentes á l’histoire; peut-

VOL. III. 48