AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 153 



idea of the emotional sacrifices which the philosopher makes in order 

 to preserve his intellectual integrity, and to keep inviolate for others 

 truths which he believes they will one day, to their great advan- 

 tage, recognize. Were he alone concerned, he might in most cases 

 probably would yield to the force of surrounding opinion and social 

 practice ; but a secret instinct tells him that he is the conservator of 

 that which he has no right to sacrifice, or even to compromise, in the 

 interest of his personal convenience or comfort. Such a man may, as 

 I conceive, worship the Unknown God with as true a devotion as has 

 ever been shown at the shrine of any of the named divinities of the 

 human race. He may lack a liturgy and articles of belief ; but he 

 does not mourn the absence of these, finding his mind all the freer to 

 turn its gaze ever to the pole-star of truth, and his heart the more 

 open to every good impulse and to all the best teachings of the great 

 world-drama that enacts itself before his eyes. Such a man can afford 

 to be misunderstood, not so much because of his confident appeal to 

 the future, as because of the present sustaining power of a loyal sub- 

 mission to the truth. When theologians, even such amiable ones as 

 Dr. Lyman Abbott, undertake to tell him what he must incorporate 

 into his system of thought, or what venerable doctrines he must bow to 

 in passing, he says to himself, in the language of Socrates, " Whither 

 the sea-breeze of reason carries us, thither must our course be bent." 

 And so, in spite of all pulpit denunciation, and in spite of all the plead- 

 ing, special and general, of those who would keep humanity fettered 

 to the doctrines of the past, modern thought keeps on its way, seeing, 

 believing, harmonizing, hoping, and looking to be justified some day 

 of its children. 







AJST ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 



By Hon. DAVID A. WELLS. 

 HI. 



Occupations of the People of Mexico. Agriculture. Although 

 the main business of the country is agriculture, this branch of 

 industry is carried on under exceptionally disadvantageous circum- 

 stances. One of its greatest drawbacks is, that the whole country is 

 divided up into immense haciendas, or landed estates ; small farms be- 

 ing rarely known ; and out of a population of ten million or more, the 

 title to the soil is said to vest in not more than six thousand persons. 

 Some of these estates comprise square leagues instead of square acres 

 in extent, and are said to have irrigating ditches from forty to fifty 

 miles in length. Most of the land of such estates is uncultivated, and 

 the water is wasted upon the remainder in the most reckless manner. 

 The titles by which such properties are held are exceedingly varied, 



