41 
of events, multiplied the number of idols, as 
well as that of sculptured stones and historical 
paintings. We must not however forget, that 
several nations, which have acted a part on the 
stage of the world, particularly the people of 
central and eastern Asia, with whom the inha- 
bitants of Mexico appear to be connected by 
very near ties, exhibit this same contrast of so- 
cial perfection and of infancy in the arts. We 
might be tempted to apply to the inhabitants of 
Tartary, and those of the mountains of Mexico, 
what a great historian of antiquity* said of the 
Arcadians : The cold and gloomy climate of 
Arcadia gives the inhabitants a harsh and aus- 
tere aspect ; for it is natural that men, in their 
manners, figure, complexion, and institutions, 
should resemble their climate.” But in propor- 
tion as we examine the state of our species in 
different regions, and accustom ourselves to com- 
pare the physiognomy of countries with that of 
the nations inhabiting them, we mistrust that 
specious theory, which refers to the climate 
alone what is owing to the concurrence of a 
great number of moral and physical circum- 
stances. 
Among the Mexicans, the ferocity of manners 
sanctioned by a sanguinary worship, the tyranny 
I 
exercised by the princes and the priests, the chi- 
♦ Polyb.j Hist. lib. IV. § 80 {cd. Casaub. 1609, p. 290, D), 
