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August 27, 1853.] THE LEADER. 835
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-We should do our utmost to encourage th...
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U^SilSxxJ^a uf$o tffl'Qv'dJ if IB la S^&...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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A Batch Of Iiepuhllcations. In Our Anxie...
dis by Vincent-Leigh Hunt , whose early death was a loss to litera-+ as well as to his friend 3 . It is curious to trace the father in the son , as in this sonnet : — ai > AN ANGEL IN THE HOUSE . " How sweet it were , if without feeble fright , . . m ¦ ¦ " Or dying of the dreadful beauteou * sight , An angel camp to us , arid we could bear """ ; " To see him issue from the silent air At evening in our room , and bend on ours His divine eyes , and bring us from his bowers News of dear friends , and children who have never Been dead indeed , —as we ^ hall know for ever . Alas ! we think not what we daily see About our hearths , ' — -angels , that are to be , Or may be if they will , and we prepare Their souls and ours to meet in happy air , — - A child , a friend , a wife whose soft heart sings In unison with ours , breeding its future wings . " Leigh Hunt . the defokmed child . " An angel prisoned in an infant frame Of mortal sickness and deformity , Looks patiently from but that languid eye , " ^ ' Matured , and seeming large with pain . The name Of ' happy childhood ' mocks his movements tame , So propped with piteous crutch ; or forced to lie Rather than sit , in its frail chair , and try To taste the pleasure of the unshared game . He does ; and . faintly claps his withered hands To see how brother Willie caught the ball ; Kind brother Willie , strong yet gentle all : } T was he that placed him , where his chair now stands , In that warm corner ' gainst the sunny wall . ;—God , in that brother , gave him more than lands . " Vincent Leigh Hunt . - » .
August 27, 1853.] The Leader. 835
August 27 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 835
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-We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage Th...
-We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages ,- ¦ itself . —Goethe . «^
U^Silsxxj^A Uf$O Tffl'qv'dj If Ib La S^&...
U ^ SilSxxJ ^ a uf $ o tffl'Qv'dJ if IB la S ^& a 3 WM ? 3 a a 8 sa || = iia SJI'B aj ^ aa ^ o ^|^ S one special ly interested in American ethnology and archaeology , I | | | i | wish to make some remarks upon one of the most daring fabricaran ^ f e tions ever imposed upon public credulity , in the name of scienceg !^ 5 S a fabrication , too , which , I regret to see , has been received , if not with actual faith , at all events with the most courteous toleration , in the very highest social and scientific quarters . I had supposed it impossible that pretensions so extravagant , as those put forward in connexion with the so-called Aztec children , could have failed to meet with instant detection and exposure , in a great centre of learning like London , but , unfortunately , ethnology and archaeology are in so unformed and chaotic a condition , that nothing seems too absurd for credence , when brought forward under the sanction of their names . The following remarks were written , in substance , immediately after my first visit to these children , July 21 st ; circumstances having prevented their publication in the form originally intended , I have recast them , in the "ope that , though late in their appearance , and in some degree anticipated " y what has since been written by others , they may yet have some effect in convincin g the public of the true character of * the absurd legend offered to « s notice , under the seeming sanction of some of the highest names in science . Ihe entire story of Iximaya , as now presented to the British public , in ough the means of placards , advertisements , and a shilling pamphlet , entitled , The History of the Aztec Lilliputians , is stated to be derived from a S paniard , of tho name of Pedro Velasquez , of San Salvador , in Central J inerica , and compiled from bis original manuscript in the Spanish lan-K »» gc . It therefore rests exclusively on the word , or , rather , on what is l ( 'P » ted to \) ti the word , of a single individual , of whom the public knows nothing , except by vague report . It brings with it no collateral evidence its ' UtCV ( * ' ^ ' frnmccl as to affor 'l tlu ! fewest possible ! means of testing ^ accuracy ; it specially contradicts some of the most notorious facts of n : rica " nrelueology , while it requires us to believe things not only at variance with the observed course of human affairs , but even with the ^ i miamental laws of human action and feeling . Though prolix enough ,.. | " ! : tors of > no importance , it is wonderfully concise in all those ^¦ * s m which information is most require d , and respecting which an -. ¦ mil obser ver would be the most apt to speak . With the exception of « w was necessary for the obvious aim of the story , we arc furnished with 11 ( l 1 ) im > nil »™ relative to the most interesting and critical part of the jourtlii . ' 7 ~ from thc village of Aguatnasintu to Iximaya , though , by hypo-^ -sis , this was a virgin region , and every step of it of intense interest , « , even the case of Iximaya itself , all is vague and general , with very stor C (?> t'Ons ; lfc wonl < 1 Imvc bec « better for the credibility of the of t ) T i r ° hWn " ° * 5 Xce P tions- Iu f »<*» we look in vain for any marks eV ( . t 1 IMhv"lwftlity and vraisemblance , which must necessarily distinguish -y true account , however rude , of a new and interesting region . i can only signalize one among the many archaeological absurdities with <
¦ which this narrative abounds . It describes Iximaya as having lofty parapeted walls , " inclined inwards , in the Egyptian style , its interior domes and turrets having an emphatically Oriental aspect . " This application to Iximaya of a style of architecture , of which not a trace has anywhere been detected on the continent of America , has been excused ,, on the ground of -... optical illusion , the statement having been . made on the occasion of the first view of the city , from the top of the Cordillera ; but the travellers were afterwards in the city itself ; and , besides , people who had such good eyes and telescopes , as to detect , at the distance of twenty leagues , the Egyptian character , and the slight inward inclination of walls forty feet high , were in no danger of mistaking American truncated pyramids , for Oriental looking , not to say even Christian looking , domes and turrets . The fact is , it is vulgarly believed that the antiquities of America have an especially Oriental character : hence this absurd allusion to domes , and turrets , and Egyptian walls .. To account for the ease with which 35 or 38 men , all but three of them Indians , entered as conquerors into a vast city under Imperial government , seemingly full of inhabitants , and defended with massive granite walls 40 feet high , and some 12 or 14 miles in circuit , the writer has been compelled to have recourse to contrivances which necessarily involve endless contradictions . Thus we learn that the Iximayans , though maintaining three centuries of independence , where almost all besides were slaves , and overawing their neighbours into unexampled silence and discretion for the same long period , are nevertheless a timid and quiet people , whose whole military force consists of a rural police of 200 men . Thus , too , they were wholly unacquainted with the use of fire-arms , the weapons that had conquered all the states around them , and filled with terror and amazement every civilized or partially civilized spot on the entire continent of America , the things of all others most likely to interest anew people , and which even among Savages pass , by barter , from tribe to tribe , to vast distances . Yet Iximaya was within 20 or 30 leagues of Spanish settlements in various directions . The maps present a network of rivers and streams , some of which must have approached within a few miles of it , let it be placed where it may : it was surrounded with tribes speaking its own tongue , a widely spread language in Yucatan : it traded with a tribe of its own race , at some distance—distance and directionjof course , not specified ^ while many other things much less likely to penetrate there than a knowledge of fire-arms had yet found their way . They had herds of deer and cattle ; -horses and bloodhounds of the purest Spanish breed ; they cultivated oats , wheat , flax , and hemp ; they had vineyards and fruit orchards , and understood , it seems , the manufacture of iron , for we hear incidentally of rusty spears in the hands of some of the peasant women . Most of these things , however , were required for the story—thc horses and bloodhounds to enable 200 men to scour a range of country some 200 miles in circuit ; the advanced state of agriculture to maintain a large population within a very limited space ; and so on . The thing has been ingeniously got up in many respects , but every fallacy must carry with it its own refutation , as soon as it speaks in detail . I must pass without comment a variety of parallel inconsistencies , such as the totally unfortified condition in which a people so timid , and so skilful in building , had left the pass by which the travellers entered the amphitheatre of hills enclosing the plain of Iximaya ; the readiness with which they were admitted into the city itself ; the absurd facility with which they , in their turn , laid aside their arms and became virtual captives at the very moment in which they were actual masters , and so on . In fact , the whole account , viewed as a history , whatever may be said of it in other respects , is a mere tissue of inconsistencies from iirst to last . But independently of all this , irrespective of the narrative of Velasquez altogether , a moment ' s reflection must make it evident that the secret isolation of a great populous and civilized , or semi-civilized city , is a physical impossibility , under all circumstances . Such a city implies a large surrounding agricultural district to feed it , and the less advanced the agriculture , the greater the space required ; it implies wealth , and wealth commerce , and commerce travelling ; it implies knowledge , and knowledge curiosity , and this again restlessness and travelling ; it implies a great diversity of occupations , conditions , and dispositions ; conflicts of interests and passions , acts of oppression and resistance , revenge , defection , & c , & e . Add to all this , Iximaya in the centre , the Spaniards around within tlO or . 'JO leagues , the Maya language between the two , and three centuries of coexistence , and the true character of the entire story will be at once » i > - pareut . That there exists an Indian tradition relative to some such city as Iximaya is evident from the accounts of Stephens ami others , but such a tradition may easily have been suggested by solrie » iow forgotten fragment of American mythology . All mythologies have their Klysiun fields , Islands of the Blessed , or Paradisaical , or other fabulous cities which are occasionally visited , by mortals , or beheld from a distance . Tims //// lirasail , the Paradise of the Pagan Irish , which lies out in the Atlantic ocean , is still occasionally seen , in fine weather , from the western shores of Arran More , as Iximaya is from the top of the Cordillera . —( Vam-ancv , Collectanea de rebus TXibernicis , vol . iii ., p . 2 H 2 . ) I have now to speak of the two children . said to have been brought from that fabulous city . These children are two little doll-like creatures , extremely diminutive , and very interesting as anatomical ami physiological curiosities ; but tho pretension of their representing a distinct race of men ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 27, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27081853/page/19/
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