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Mexican manuscrips preserved at Veletri, at 

 Rome, at Bologna, at Vienna, and at Mexico ; 

 they seem at first sight to be copies of each 

 other ; they are all extremely incorrect in the 

 outlines, but we find a scrupulous attention to 

 the details, and great strength in the colouring, 

 which is placed so as to produce the most strik- 

 ing contrasts. The figures are in general 

 dwarfish with respect to the body, like those of 

 the Etruscan reliefs : but in correctness of draw- 

 ing they are far beneath the most imperfect 

 paintings of the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Ja- 

 panese, or the people of Thibet. We see in 

 the Mexican paintings heads of an enormous 

 size, a body extremely short, and feet which, 

 from the length of the toes, look like the claws 

 of a bird. The heads are always drawn in pro- 

 file, though the eye is placed as if the figure pre- 

 sented a full view. All this denotes the infancy 

 of the art ; but we must not forget, that people 

 who express their ideas by paintings, and who 

 are compelled by their state of society to make 

 frequent use of mixed hieroglyphical writing, 

 attach as little importance to correct painting, 

 as the literati of Europe to a fine hand-writing 

 in their manuscripts. 



It cannot be denied, that the Mexican people 

 belong to a race of men, who, like several 

 Tartar and Mongul hordes, are extremely fond of 

 imitating the form of objects. Every where in 



