HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



109 



happens with the ignorant of all nations of the world ; 

 but their pronenefs to idolatry is nothing more than a 

 chimera formed in the abfurd imaginations of mifmform- 

 ed perfons. The inftances of a few mountaineers are 

 not fufEcient to juftify a general afperlion upon the 

 whole people (u). 



To conclude, the character of the Mexicans, like that 

 of every other nation, is a mixture of good and bad ; 

 but the bad is eafy to be corrected by a proper educa- 

 tion, as has been frequently demonflrated by experience 

 {x). It would be difficult to find, any where, a youth 

 more docile than the prefent, or a body of people more 

 ready than their anceflors were to receive the lights of 

 religion. 



I muft add, that the modern Mexicans are not in all 

 refpe61:s fimilar to the ancient ; as the Greeks of thefe 

 days have little refemblance of thofe who lived in the 

 times of Plato and of Pericles. The ancient Mexicans 

 fliewed more fire, and were morefenfible to the impref- 

 fions of honour. They were more intrepid, more nim- 

 ble, more active, more induftrious ; but they were, at 

 the fame time, more fuperftitious and cruel. 



BOOK 



(m) The few examples that are to be found of idolatry are not altogether in- 

 cxcufable, when we confider how naturally rude and unenlightened men may 

 confound the idolatrous worftiip of fome unihapely figure of ftone or wood, 

 with that which is due to the facred images alone. And our own prejudices 

 againft them have often been the caufe of our treating as idols what were really 

 the images, though rude ones, of the faints. In the year 1754, I faw fome lit- 

 tle images which had been found in a cave in a mountain, and were confidered 

 as idols, but which I had no doubt were a(SI:ually images reprefenting the myf- 

 tery of the facred nativity. 



{x) To be fenfible of the influence of education upon the Mexicans, we need 

 only to be made acquainted with the wonderful life led by the Mexican women 

 of the Royal College of Guadaloupe in Mexico, and thofe of the monafteries of 

 Capuchins in the fame capital, and Valladolid in Michuacan. 



