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Show Ii. IS T O· R y · 0 F M' E X. I C 0 •. ' l'HSSERT. of fcorpions, of ants, of frogs, of fcolopendi"as, of beetles, .of bugs: v. and lice; of quadrupeds, irregular, fmall, without tails, imperfect and. \ ..... ' pufillanimous; of people, degenerated, ill--coloured, irregular in fta-ture, deformed in lhape, of bad conftitutions, dafl:ardly minds, , dull genius, and cruel difpofi'tions. When he came to the article of vices1 • what abundance of materials would be ready for his w9rk! What examples of bafenefs, perfidy, cruelty, fuperfl:ition, and debauchery; what exceffes in every kind of vice. The hiftory of the Romans. alone, the moft celebrated nation of the ancient world, would furniih him with an incredible quantity of the moil: horrid depravities. He would be fenfible, that fuch defeCts and vices were not c.ommon to all. - the countries,. nor all the inhabitants of the ancient continent; . but that would not fignify, as he muft follow his model in .M. de Paw,, and make application of his logic. This work would, unquell:ionably, be more valuable, and more worthy of·faith than that of M. de Paw; for as this philofopher does not cite againft America and tho Americans any but. European authors, that Ame~ican writer, on the contrary, would, in his curious work, refer to, and quote only: the· authors of the fame continent againft which h~ wrote •.. I j 1 ' ' .. 'J I I J, l DISSERTATION VI. Of the Culture qj the Mexicans. • MR. do ~ Paw, perpetually incenfed againfi: the new world, terms all the Amer,i(;lln,s barbarians ~nd favages, and efteems them inferior in intluftry andt[agacity to the coa~fefl: and rudefi nations •of the old conti11ent. If h~ 1had. confined himfe~f; to fay, that th~ .American nations were in great part uncultivated, barbarous, and J>eaftly in their c.u!l:oms, as many of the moft cultivated nations of Europe were formerly, and as f¢veral people of Afia, Africa, and even Earope ·ar.e at prefent.; that the UtOft civilized nations of America were greatly lefs polifued than the gre:;tter part of the ELJropean nations; that their arts were not nearly perfeCl:ed, nor their laws (fo good, or fo well framed ; and that their facrifices were inhuman, and fome of their cufioms extravagant, we would not have reafon to contradict him. But not to difiinguiili between the Mexicans and Peruvians, and the Caribs and Iroquefe, to allo~. them no merit or virtues, to undervalue their arts, and to depreciate their laws, and place thofe indull:rious nations belqV'{ ~:te cp'!'trfcft nati~ns of the old continent, is obll:inate perfiftence in ~m endeavour to· ~evile the new world and its inhabitahts, t; i I 1 • inftead of purfuing~ according to the title of his book, the invefiiga ... tion of truth. · · t· • We cal~ thofe men barbarous and favage, who, led more: by c.aprice and 'natural will than guided by reafon, neither live in fociety, n~r have law,s for their government, judges to determine their differences, · fuperior~ }Q watch ov~r their conduct, nor exercife the arts which arc nc;cdf,ary to fupply the wants, and remed.>:'. the miterie~t o~ life; thofe,· in !hort, who h(\vc no idea Qf the Oivinity, or, at lea~, h~ye npt cftablifi1ed any wor01ip by which they acknowledge him. The Mexicans, and all the other nations of Anahuac, as well as the Pcruvi;lns, confeffed .a fupren1e .omn_ipotent Being, ~I though their belief J.· • A a a 2 was DISSER 'f.. VI. ~ |