The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-04 00:00:00

The real cause of the failure of so many new enterprises
is, after all, quite simple. Those who originate them mis-
take their true point of departure. They forget that it is

They heed not

ndispensable to begin at the beginning.
he wisdom of the old couplet—
Great oaks from little acorns grow ;
Large streams from little fountains flow.

Finding always people with more money than brains
ready to invest their surplus capital in some new scheme
suggested by the success of similar schemes, they ig-
nore the fact that the latter have reached their actual
prosperity only by the slow but sure processes of
growth, and they deem it sufficient to dazzle out-
siders by merely emulating the external show of those
well-established rivals with whom they are ambitious
to compete. With marble fronts and glittering signs, and
With desks and safes and counting room, and all the ap-
proved paraphernalia of business, they try to start at a
point which their prototypes have reached only after pass-
ing through a long and difficult ordeal of experiments.
Now, the credulous public may be temporarily dazzled by
such illusory appearances ; but the reality too often, and
usually too soon, is found by the unhappy stockholders in
such enterprises to be naught but failure ; and the public
quickly learns the result. Such is the case with those
splendid failures which have been directly occasioned
by the success of the older well-established express
companies. The most ingenious combinations, with
the military fame of General Joe Johnston and an
army of ex-officers to boot, could not prevent failure
in one conspicuous instance; and in no other in-
stance can success be predicated in violation of the rule
which we have indicated. Such is also the case with
numerous unsuccessful newspaper enterprises on this and
on the other side of the Atlantic. Enough capital is
secured to issue a few numbers of a journal which confi-
dently announces its intentions to vie with—nay, to sur-

pass—the old favourites of the pubic that have won the die-
tinction only after long years of persevering efforts to
satisfy the increasing demands of our progressive age.
The new claimants for public favour drag on a weary and
precarious existence for a few brief months, and finally
sink beneath accumulated difficulties. The spell of what
they fondly deemed their " open sesame" is broken,
and the doors to success remain closed and her-
metically sealed. - They learn, that magic is im-
potent, and that they must succumb to the painful
pressure of facts. In London, for instance, the Daily News
began with a capital of two hundred thousand pounds
sterling, and with the prestige of genius as well as talent
in its favour; but, neglecting from the outset the simple but
• essential prerequisites of success,-it has gradually dwindled
to its present insignifiance, which is all the more striking
by way of contrast to its- "great: expectations" in com-
mencing its career. Nor can we safely predict any better
fate to the journal which, we hate been privately in-
formed, is to be Started as a rival to the London Times.
We have not yet been made acquainted with all the
details of this new enterprise, but we have heard enough
of its extravagant anticipations of surpassing the' Times as
an organ of news and public opinion on both sides of the
Atlantic to inspire us with distrust of its splendid pro-
COmpetition, however, is the life of trade, and
hethgt: the riO*-jailial;flitif dies will dCpend upon
its.toiSserting the simple Vtit:inveriabln law which we hatii'
laid-down. In'Prance-,-the..guCcess ,Petit jinbro.ak
Which was, fonnded7"-netbirig tf,&*,and- which' still holds its
- bibs-jag' a .*(4l4* Wailitloihrpughout the
,e,mpire, is altogether turn it litts had
torapetitors whoSe'ltittibi Is legion but Wry forisurviN'e
to illustrate, -like it, 'the ~pritikipre 'Under Consideration
And in New York several nondescript evening journals
have recently been started, which, we fear, will only swell
the number of exceptions that prove our rule.—Neto York
Herald.

OLD AMERICA.*

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

It is not surprising that various theories should
he started on the origin of these nations who have
passed into oblivion, leaving no written account

either in parchment or in stone. There can be no
question that their history reaches back to the
remotest period, and it is probable that one phase of
civilisation followed on another. There are per-
sons who suppose that in different parts of the
world different nations have developed, at the
same time, identical tendencies in organisation,
art, and theology, though wholly unconnected
with each other. But those who have studied
these antiquities are unanimous in ascribing them
to an Asiatic source. The Edinburgh Reviewer
is clearly of opinion that the people who inhabited
America before the discovery were descended from
Asiatics who crossed from. Behring's Straits, or by
the Aleutian Islands, or, what he considers more
probable, from the Bactrian Heights or Hindostan
by the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and that their
religion came from Java. He believes that
Buddhism was established in America closely
about the same time as in Java, and he maintains that
it is shown that a connection exsited in olden
times between Japan and Central America, as
shown by Japanese records and maps. That
a large trade was carried along the coast of Asia,
extending from Japan to Hindostan in periods of
remote antiquity, can be readily believed. Nor
would there be any, difficulty in extending that
trade by the Aleutian Islands to the Western shores
of America.

4, Associated with Sabin -worship in former
times wits that of the lingham or phallus. This
well attested fact leaves little room for doubting
that the aboriginal Americans derived their religious
system in part from the East. The worship of the
lingham was flourishing in the cities of Pomeco and
Thtscalla, in Mexico, at the period of the conquest;
and Mr. Stephens observed at Uxmal, in Yucatan,
certain ornaments upon the external cornice of
several large buildings, the meaning of which was
too plainly sculptured to he tnisunderstood(7ravels,
vol. i., p. 181). Nor was tlis revolting worship re-
strictedto the territories just indicated ; it appears
to have been equally prevalent in the Gulf States,
and as far north as Tennessee, where innumerabl
characteristic images have been ploughed up ; sonic
formed of clay, and others carved out of a kind of
am thibolic rock, the toughest of all stony sub-
stances."

Remarking on this passage the Spectator says,
"All that is very unsatisfactory. Supposing the
natives, autochthones, which we by no means assert,
it would be as natural for them to conceive produc-
tion the highest work, and therefore to wor-
ship the Sun and. the Liugham as the first em-
blems of productive force, as for the Hindoos to do
so. A similarity of that kind proves nothing except
the identity of the human intellect everywhere, but
.a similarity of buildings proves a great deal, and
opens up a rare field for archaeological or ethnologi-
cal exploration. The reviewer hints at a theory
that an Asiatic tribe driven out from the islands
about 450 8.C., or driven back from the islands,
crossed the Pacific, reached Central America, and
gradually diffused their creed and their civilisation.
But he obscures this theory by observations upon a
still previous civilisation, which he believes, or seems
to believe, identical with that of Egypt :
the great pyramid on the plateau of Caerna-
vac.t, and known as Xochicalco, the house of
flowers,' is reported to be scarcely distinguishable
from the ordinary type of those in Lower Egypt.
Its position and configuration show it to be one of
the group of adjacent hills. It b truncated and
divided into four terraces. . • . Want of space
precludes our pursuing these architectural analogies
any farther; suffice it to say, therefore, that the
distinction between the earlier and later pyramidal
temples of the New World is quite as remarkable
as that between the ancient Egyptian structure and
those erected by the Greek colonists under the
Ptolemies. No doubt very many of the earliest
piles have been modified in subsequent ages, to suit
the particular necessities or tastes of the people ;
yet, in every such instance, the archaic type has
been- but slightly departed from, whilst the primi-
tive example in the decorations without, always
emblematical of the worship conducted within, has
been scrupulously followed to the last. This is very
apparent in the magnificent ruins of Yucatan, where,
according to the unanimous reports of Mr. Stephens
and later travellers in that wonderful country, the
serpent entwined about the stem of the lotus is
frequently repeated on the friezes of the temples;
and at Palenque, also, ' a rectangular square is
surrounded by cloisters . . . and lighted by
windows bearing the exact form of the Egyptian
face.' "

* American Archaeology, Edinburgla Review, April 1
1867. Lops:taus, London.

The facts connected with the monuments of the
Mississippi Valley attest the remote antiquity of the
remains there found. Ages upon ages must have
passed, and the river sunk much lower in its bed
sineo these mounds were erected. Many show that
they were once acted on by the floods, though
now they are far removed beyond the reach of the
highest. Au additional river bank had been con-
structed long after they were formed. These
mounds assume the most curious shapes. Some are
in the regular outline of octagons, circles, and other
geometrical figures ; but they occasionally take
another form. For instance, there is one in Adam's
County, Ohio, of the form of a serpent a thou sand
feet long, extending in graceful curves, and termi-
nating in a triple coil at the tail. The mouth is
open, and apparently in the act of swallowing an
oval figure, which rests partly within the jaws.
Dense as must at one time have been the popula-
tion which reared these monuments—long before the