15 The precious commodities of America are numberless. If the Europeans had traded there for them, as they now do in China, Persia, Arabia and Africa, how different would have been the fate of America? Iron would have purchased gold and pearls, with every thing else: there was no need to use the steel swords, nor thundering guns. Coffee and rice are not American productions, but lately introduced from Arabia and India. The origin of the sugar cane is also oriental; but it was found wild in South America, as orange trees were in Florida. 16 The physical changes undergone in America within late historical recollections are very numerous, and ought to be collected into one connected body by historians or geologists. 17 These two figures of speech, _Personification_ and _Animalization_, are two of the keys of ancient history. By the first is not meant alone the personification of the passions or divine attributes; but likewise the individuality of men, tribes and nations pervading primitive history, by the frequent substitution of the singular for the plural, as was done by the Asiatics, the Greeks, and the Americans. It is thus that the ancient patriarchs, Hercules, Heros, Gods &c. are often meant for their followers; the head for the whole set or social body. This practice has survived to our days, and we mean all the English when we speak of _John Bull_, the Russians by the _Northern Bear_ (a kind of animalization), all the Turks by _the Grand Turk_ &c. The reverse mode of speech or the employment of the plural for the singular, is less frequent: but used when we substitute in our modern languages, _We_ and _You_ instead of I or Thee. It was less common anciently, yet it appears Moses employed it when he called God, ALEIM our _Elohim_ or _the Angels_, and polytheism was the consequence of similar mistakes or substitutions; but in his account of the patriarchs, he has used the individuality of tribes.