. Pottery and porcelain, from early times down to the Philadelphia exhibition of 1876 . KiG. 17.—Roman ViiHe. worshiped most. These potteries are of unglazed clay, as are all those we are now treatmg. The civilizations which organized themselves in Mc.\ic(» have alwaysbeen an interesting and curious study. AVhcn Cortez and his conquering. AZTEC POTTERY. 21 gold-seeking M-hite men reached the high lands of the beautiful interior(1517), they found the splendid city of Mexico, built over and alongthe shores of the inland lake, and stretching toward the foot-hills whichprotect it from unfriendly w
. Pottery and porcelain, from early times down to the Philadelphia exhibition of 1876 . KiG. 17.—Roman ViiHe. worshiped most. These potteries are of unglazed clay, as are all those we are now treatmg. The civilizations which organized themselves in Mc.\ic(» have alwaysbeen an interesting and curious study. AVhcn Cortez and his conquering. AZTEC POTTERY. 21 gold-seeking M-hite men reached the high lands of the beautiful interior(1517), they found the splendid city of Mexico, built over and alongthe shores of the inland lake, and stretching toward the foot-hills whichprotect it from unfriendly winds. Here the Aztecs had organized soci-ety. They had succeeded to the Toltecs, a prosperous, industrious, andprobably a peaceful people—a people coming from the wanner South,and unable to cope with the more hardy Aztecs, who came down fromthe Xorth. These Aztecs had not only developed the arts of architecture andpainting, as well as most of the mechanic arts; they had also reachedto a literature, to laws, to a religion most elaborate and splendid; and. Fig. 18.—Roman Vase found at London. they had not neglected to conquer and tax surrounding tribes, and makethem pay tribute, as all the great white nations of the world havedone. But all their civilizations, laws, religions, arts, were swept intoiniin by the conquering hand of Cortez and his successors. And what have we now in Mexico ? AVhat has come of the destruc-tion of the great Indian races there ? What but greed, anarchy, cruelty,ruin? It would be a curious speculation now to picture what that coun-trv—the most beautiful and most bountiful—mifjlit now be in the lumdsof its own people, and witli a government which couM ]>rotect life andmake labor safe. As it is, its life and its art give us nothing to lookat or to enjoy. 22 POTTERY AND PORCELAIN. Must man always destroy first in order that he may build np, andthen be himself destroyed? No remains have come to us of glazedpottery belonging to these times; and
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