HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



329 



je&s ; they had alfo characters not compofing words as 

 ours do, but fignificative of things like thofe of aftrono- 

 rners and algebraifts. Some paintings were folely in- 

 tended to exprefs ideas or conceptions, and, if we may 

 flay fo, to write ; but in thefe they paid no regard to 

 proportion or beauty, becaufe they were done in hade, 

 and for the purpofe of instructing the mind, not of pleaf- 

 ing the eye ; in thofe, however, where they ftrove to 

 imitate nature, and which they executed with that lei- 

 fure which works of fuch kind require, they ftrictly ob- 

 ferved the diftances, proportions, attitudes, and rules of 

 the art, though not with the perfection which we admire 

 in the good painters of Europe. In fliort, we wifh M. 

 de Paw would mew us fome rude or half-polifhed people 

 of the old continent which has exerted fo much induflry 

 and diligence as the Mexicans to perpetuate the memory 

 of events. 



Dr. Robertfon, where he treats of the culture of the 

 Mexicans in the feventh book of his Hiftory, explains 

 the progrefs which human induflry makes to arrive at 

 the invention of letters, by the combinations of which 

 are expreffed all the different founds of difcourfe. This 

 fucceffive progrefs, according to him:, proceeds from ac- 

 tual painting to fimple hieroglyphic, from it to allegori- 

 cal fymbols, from thence to arbitrary characters, and 

 laftly to the alphabet. If any perfon would wifh to 

 know from his hi (lory to what degree the Mexicans 

 were arrived, he certainly will not be able to find it ; 

 as that hiflorical reafoner fpeaks wich fo much ambigui- 

 ty, that fometimes it appears that he believes they were 

 hardly arrived at the fecond degree, that is fimple hie- 

 roglyphic ; and fometimes it feems that he judges them 

 arrived at the fourth degree or at arbitrary character. 



Vol. III. U u But a; , 



