40 
AN AZTECK IDOL 
OF 
BASALTIC PORPHYUy, 
FOUND UNDER THE PAVEMENT OF THE 
GREAT SQUARE AT MEXICO. 
PLATE XXIX. 
The whole of the remains of the Mexican sculp- 
ture and paintings 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 
1 
