comparison of the celestial kingdoms of
Peru and Mexico is the perception that, in the former, as in Egypt, a
hereditary sovereignty was exercised by male and female sacerdotal rulers
of a "divine line of descent." On the other hand we find, in Mexico, a
state of affairs in exact accordance with Montezuma's account of the
behavior of his predecessors towards the lord who had led them and
presided over the foundation of the Mexican empire. During his absence
they, his vassals, established democratical principles and when he
returned, having intermarried with women of the country and founded new
cities, they refused to recognize his authority and let him depart. From
Montezuma himself we learn that, although they thus emancipated themselves
from their former lord, they continued to regard themselves as dependent
and owing allegiance to the mother-city whence they had come. Until the
time of the Conquest, however, they were governed by rulers whom they
elected, and who had risen in rank merely by virtue of their moral and
intellectual distinction.

It is indeed deeply suggestive and impressive to realize that, in
antiquity as in modern times, the American Continent seems to have been
sought, as a place of refuge, by men whose ideals have been state
institutions founded on democratic principles. The ancient polities of
Mexico and Peru and, what is more, the archaic Pueblos of to-day, alike
furnish examples of conditions, such as undoubtedly existed in
Mediterranean countries in ancient times and inspired Greek statesmen and
philosophers to plan ideal polities, and must have preceded the creation
of the Jewish and early Christian spiritualized ideal of a New Jerusalem,
pervaded throughout by the Divine Spirit. In conclusion, there are a few
points which I recommend to the consideration of students. Different
writers have, as Prescott summarizes, with certainty discerned in the
highest American civilizations, a Semitic or an Egyptian or an Asiatic
origin.

This remarkable combination of features, distinctively characteristic of
the said civilizations, actually existed amongst the Phoenicians who, as
Professor Sayce relates, were allied to the Semitic race, were affected by
contact with their cousins the Arameans or Syrians, penetrated to the
coast of India, derived their art from Babylonia, Egypt, and later from
Assyria, and "knew how to combine together the elements it had received
and to return them, modified and improved,