86 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



fruit of ten years toil. This he means fhould recommend 

 him with many readers of this philofophic age, who 

 efteem nothing but philofophy, and think thofe men phi- 

 lofophers only who fatirize religion and talk in the lan- 

 guage of impiety. 



The attempt made by M. de P. is to perfuade the 

 world, that in the vaft region of America all nature has 

 degenerated \ in the plants, in the animals, and in the 

 inhabitants. The earth, incumbered with lofty moun- 

 tains and rocks, and in the plains deluged with ftagnant 

 and corrupted waters, or covered with woods fo vaft 

 and fo thick, that the fun's rays never penetrate them, 

 is, he fays, generally barren, and more abounding in poi- 

 fonous plants than all the reft of the world : the air un- 

 wholefome, and more cold than that of the other conti- 

 nent : the climate unfavourable to the propagation of 

 animals : all the animals native to thefe countries were 

 fmaller, more deformed, feeble, cowardly, and ftupid, 

 than thofe of the ancient world ; and thofe which were 

 tranfported there foon degenerated, as well as all the 

 plants tranfplanted there from Europe : the men hardly 

 differed from the beafts, except in figure ; but even in 

 this, many marks of degeneration appear ; their colour 

 olive, their heads extremely hard and armed with coarfe 

 thick locks, and the whole of the reft of their bodies to- 

 tally deftitute of hair : they are brutal and weakly, and 

 fubject to many violent diforders, occafioned by the in- 

 falubrity of their climate ; but however their bodies may 

 be formed, their minds are ftill more imperfect; they 

 are fo irretentive in memory, that they forget to-day 

 what they did yefterday ; they can neither reflect nor 

 order their ideas, nor are capable of improving them, 

 nor of thinking, becaufe their brains circulate only grofs 



vifcous 



