productions of the country, the description of new species of
animals and plants, or the detail of astronomical observations. Had
I adopted a mode of composition which would have included in one
and the same chapter all that has been observed on one particular
point of the globe, I should have prepared a work of cumbrous
length, and devoid of that clearness which arises in a great
measure from the methodical distribution of matter. Notwithstanding
the efforts I have made to avoid, in this narrative, the errors I
had to dread, I feel conscious that I have not always succeeded in
separating the observations of detail from those general results
which interest every enlightened mind. These results comprise in
one view the climate and its influence on organized beings, the
aspect of the country, varied according to the nature of the soil
and its vegetable covering, the direction of the mountains and
rivers which separate races of men as well as tribes of plants; and
finally, the modifications observable in the condition of people
living in different latitudes, and in circumstances more or less
favourable to the development of their faculties. I do not fear
having too much enlarged on objects so worthy of attention: one of
the noblest characteristics which distinguish modern civilization
from that of remoter times is, that it has enlarged the mass of our
conceptions, rendered us more capable of perceiving the connection
between the physical and intellectual world, and thrown a more
general interest over objects which heretofore occupied only a few
scientific men, because those objects were contemplated separately,
and from a narrower point of view.

As it is probable that these volumes will obtain the attention of a
greater number of readers than the detail of my observations merely
scientific, or my researches on the population, the commerce, and