state of the arts at the time of the conquest, and prove how far the customs, and progress in civilization of the natives of Guatimala, and those of Mexico, were or were not analagous.
Interesting however as are these researches, a question far more important presents itself in the inquiry, what means are best calculated to raise the natives from their present depressed state, to that rank in society which they ought in justice to enjoy?—The present generation both by their degraded habits and utter ignorance, seem irremediably shut out from any considerable advancement;—but no such obstacle need impede the moral and intellectual progress of their successors. The universal diffusion of such a system of education amongst them, as should insure in their earliest years, the instilment of good moral principles; and the immediate removal of the numerous temptations to which they are exposed, by the multiplicity of spirit shops, are means simple and practicable, and in their etfects would prove powerful and effectual. Habit, which with regard to man, has been forcibly and correctly termed “the skin of the Ethiopian, the spot of the leopard, the despot of the soul,” becomes fixed and permanent, before his joints are knit, or his bones fashioned. It is necessary therefore, to secure its formation at the very earliest period; and then the very same process, which has hitherto tended
