40 



AN AZTECK IDOL 



OF 



BASALTIC PORPHYRY, 

 FOUND UNDER THE PAVEMENT OF THE 



GREAT SQUARE AT MEXICO. 



PLATE XXIX. 



The whole of the remains of the Mexican sculp- 

 ture and painting, which we have hitherto ex- 

 amined, prove, excepting- a single group of fi- 

 gures represented on the eleventh plate, a total 

 ignorance of the proportions of the human body, 

 a great rudeness and incorrectness in the draw- 

 ing, but a very minute research into the truth of 

 the detail. We may be surprised at finding the 

 imitative arts in this state of barbarism among 

 a people, whose political existence had displayed 

 for ages a certain degree of civilization ; and 

 among whom idolatry, astrological superstitions, 

 and the desire of keeping up the remembrance 



