The Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3,
March, 1852, by Various

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Title: The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852

Author: Various

Release Date: February 3, 2010 [EBook #31162]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE

Of Literature, Art, and Science.

Vol. V.--NEW-YORK, MARCH 1, 1852--No. III.

[Illustration]

THE AZTECS AT THE SOCIETY LIBRARY.

For several weeks the attention of the curious has been more and more
attracted to a remarkable ethnological exhibition at the Society
Library. Two persons, scarcely larger than the fabled gentlemen of
Lilliput, (though one is twelve or thirteen and the other eighteen years
of age), of just and even elegant proportions, and physiognomies
striking and peculiar, but not deficient in intellect or refinement,
have been visited by throngs of idlers in quest of amusement,
wonder-seekers, and the profoundest inquirers into human history. Until
very recently, Mexico was properly described as _Terra Incognita_. The
remains of nations are there shrouded in oblivion, and cities, in their
time surpassing Tadmor and Thebes, untrodden except by the jaguar and
the ocelot. A few persons, indeed, attracted by uncertain rumors of
ancient grandeur in Palenque, have visited her temples and tombs--

There to track
Fallen states and empires o'er a land
Which was the mightiest in her high command,
And is the loveliest--

but no one has been found to read the hieroglyphics of Tolteca, to
disclose the history of the dwellers in Anahuac, to make known the
annals of the rise and fall of Tlascala, Otumba, Copan, or Papantla. In
the great work of Lord Kingsborough are collected many important remains
of Mexican and Aztec art and learning; Mr. Prescott has combined with a
masterly hand the tr