able remains of the monarch, and to the fact that he was his descendant, doubtless, is due the favorable picture that is drawn of this king.
We are told that Nezahualcoyotl delighted in the study of nature, and became a fair astronomer by studying the heavens. Such plants and animals as he could not keep alive at his court he caused paintings to be made of, by skilled native artists. These were seen by a learned Spanish naturalist, after the Conquest, who declared they were true to the life.
Mention has been made of the palaces and temples this king erected, one of the former being large enough to contain several thousand people, as we shall see when we come to speak of the Conquest. That temple which he built in honor of the unknown God, was a high tower, consisting of nine stories, the last one dark and with vaulted roof, painted blue within, and with cornices of gold. Plates of fine metal were hung here, which it was the duty of watchmen to strike at intervals, when the king would fall on his knees in prayer.
"The elevated genius of this king," says the historian[1], whose account we have been mainly following, "actuated by the great love he had to his people, produced so enlightened a capital that in future times it was considered as the nursery of the arts and the centre of cultivation. Tezcoco was the city where the Mexican language was spoken in the greatest purity and perfection, where the best artists were found, and where poets, orators, and historians abounded. The Mexicans and many others adopted their laws; and, if we may be allowed the application, Tezcoco was the Athens and Nezahualcoyotl the Solon of Anahuac."
