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by Barbara a. Simon (Author)
***Originally published in 1836*** To "THE ANTIQUITIES OF MEXICO," the following pages are indebted for the most valuable portion of the testimony by which they are enriched. This rare and costly compilation, which was a few years ago published by the Right Honorable Lord Viscount Kingsborough, has hitherto been little known beyond the libraries of Universities, and those of a few Noblemen. "THE ANTIQUITIES OF MEXICO" at the present time consist of seven folio volumes, which, with the exception of the sixth, contain fac-similes and drawings from such historical remains, as had escaped the destruction to which all the primitive records and other memorials of the tribes of the New Continent had been condemned by the policy of their invaders in the fifteenth century. Literary and antiquarian travellers having from time to time transmitted these precious relics to their respective governments, they have been preserved in the Royal Libraries of Paris, Berlin, Dresden -- the Imperial Library of Vienna -- the Vatican Library, in the Museum at Rome, in the Library of the Institute of Bologna, and in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. As a specimen of the genius of a primitive race, over whose origin has long brooded a mysterious obscurity; and as a successful attainment in antiquarian research, the publication of Viscount Kingsborough is highly interesting and curious: but rising as it does to the sublime character of an illustration and confirmation of Scripture testimony, disclosing the Hebrew origin, history, experience, and genius of that grand division of the Hebrew nation, which although cut off for a series of ages from their own, and the nations of the earth, have nevertheless occupied a prominent place in the prophetic pages; the importance of such a testimony (at such an ominous crisis in the history of Christendom, ) -- so miraculously preserved, -- so long withheld, -- so unexpectedly reclaimed; -- (whether in its internal or relative character) like the Bow of peace and promise, speaks of a PLACE and state of REST beyond the impending cloud of retributive storm.
