o the pre-Aztec culture. The most notable general feature of that
civilization is its singular contradictions. We find a race, gentle,
intelligent, refined in some respects beyond European standards of their
day--and yet cannibals, at least under certain conditions! We find these
people moral, with high ideals of religion in theory--and in practice
holding human sacrifices as an essential part of their cult! We find
them warlike and yet mild, the conquerors of the neighboring races, and
yet ruling these more by force of intellect than of arms. Most wonderful
of all, we find a true and high civilization, isolated from all
companionship and existing by its own inherent merits, and not, as has
been the case with almost all others, by contact and rivalry with others
of almost equal powers.

The Aztecs were versed in the arts of agriculture, mechanics,
architecture, pottery, and, generally, in the domestic arts. They built
beautiful cities, containing noble edifices, both private and public.
Their dress was artistic and graceful, and their tastes were worthy of
the highest civilization then known. They delighted in flowers, in
beautiful gardens, in all manner of natural graces. They lived under the
rule of an emperor, and there were many great nobles, of a distinct
class and holding large estates.

There was a regular law of descent for these estates, and the principles
of entail and of reversion to the crown were understood and practised.
There seems to have been a species of feudality as the foundation of the
social order, but our knowledge in this respect is too vague to justify
us in reasoning from it to any great length. There were courts of
justice, with jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases, and there was
the legal machinery of higher and lower courts, with the privilege of
appeal. The rights of property and persons were fully, if not acutely,
recognized. There was a regularly established priesthood, of which the
emperor was the official head. There were admirably organized and
conducted schools, where morality as well as education was inculcated.
In short, there were all the requisites, though not always in modern
form, that we are accustomed to consider as the rightful and unique
portion of the highest Caucasian culture.

And yet, this cultured and refined people practised cannibalism! Not
only did they eat the bodies of captives taken in war and immolated upon
their altars in the execution of their religious r