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 sculps 

 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 



