198 HISTjORY OF MEXICO. 



i 



tin, and even to the Greek (V) ; but although we know 

 the particular excellencies of the Mexican language, we 

 can never dare to compare it with the laft. 



Of the copioufnefs of this language we have an exceed- 

 ing good demonftration in the Natural Hiftory of Her- 

 nandez ; for in defcribing twelve hundred plants of the 

 country of Anahuac, two hundred and more fpecies of 

 birds, and a large number of quadrupeds, reptiles, in- 

 fects, and minerals, he hardly found a fmgle animal, 

 herb, or fubftance, without its diflincl: and proper ap- 

 pellation. But it is not the leafl furprifing, that it 

 abounds in words which fignify material objects, when 

 there are hardly any wanting of thofe which are necef- 

 fary to exprefs fpiritual ideas. The highefl myfleries of 

 our religion can be well expreffed in Mexican, without 

 any neceffity of introducing foreign terms. Acofta won- 

 ders, that the Mexicans who had an idea of a fupreme 

 Being, creator of heaven and earth, had not alfo in their 

 language a word to exprefs it equivalent to Dios of the 

 Spaniards, Deus of the Romans, Theos of the Grecians, 

 El of the Hebrews, and Ala of the Arabs : on which 

 account their preachers were obliged to make ufe of the 

 Spanifh term Dios. But if this author had had any 

 knowledge of the Mexican language, he would have 

 known that the Tmtl of the Mexicans fignifies the fame 

 thing as the Theos of the Greeks, and that there was no 

 other reafon for introducing the Spanifh word Dios, but 

 the exceffive fcruples of the firrr. miffionaries, who, as 

 they burned the hiftorical paintings of the Mexicans, be- 

 caufe they fufpe&ed them to be full of fuperftitious mean- 

 ings (of which alfo Acofta himfelf juftly complains), like- 

 wife 



( c ) Among the admirers of the Mexican language there have been fome 

 Frenchmen and Flemings, and many Germans, Italians, and Spaniards. 



