f its execution, and the manner in which it has been introduced
to the world. As it is avowedly an attempt to refute the positions taken
up by Mr. Prescott in his "History of the Conquest of Mexico," and to
destroy the established reputation of that work, we are naturally led
into a comparison between the two writers, that extends beyond the
theories and ideas which they have respectively adopted and maintained.
We cannot but remember, (and such remembrances awaken now other feelings
besides mere respect and admiration,) that, when Prescott was entering
upon his literary career, he labored in silence and retirement; that,
in the prosecution of his researches, in the gradual formation of his
views, and in the preparation of his work, he spared no labor and made
no account of time; that, devoting himself to his chosen pursuit with
the ardor of a scholar and a searcher after truth, he felt a modest
self-reliance, and a just confidence in the utility of his labors,
without anticipating the reward of a wide-spread fame; that he was
prompt to acknowledge every service, or offer of service, which had been
made to him, and communicated to the public not only his information,
but the sources from which it had been derived; that, where he rejected
the conclusions of other writers, he treated those from whom he differed
with the utmost courtesy and candor; and that, when his task was
completed, he left it to the free judgment of the world, without
soliciting approbation or courting any man's applause.

This is not the course which Mr. Robert Anderson Wilson has thought fit
to take. An accidental visit to Mexico, for which he appears to
consider himself entitled to no slight commendation, led him into some
speculations on the origin and civilization of the Aztec race. Without
waiting to inform himself of the ideas entertained on these subjects
by other men, he hastened to put forth his own crude notions in a
work entitled "Mexico and its Religion," and twice reprinted by its
enterprising publishers, with titles varied to suit what was supposed to
be the popular taste. Still entertaining an aversion to laborious study,
(for which, indeed, his previous education, as well as precarious
health, appears to have disqualified him,) he announced his purpose
to write a History of the Conquest of Mexico "from the American
stand-point," and issued what he himself called "a clap-trap
advertisement," for the purpose of enlisting the sympathies o