Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/26

 advance made in the various branches of Anthropological science during the last eighty years has wrought a profound difference, not only in the point of view from which primitive communities are regarded, but also in the methods of approaching the problems which they present. Furthermore, the discoveries made since Prescott's day in Southern Mexico and Central America have entirely revolutionised the current opinions regarding Mexican culture. But, before proceeding to a short critical examination of Prescott's archæological conclusions, it is only just to summarise briefly the condition of Anthropological (in the widest sense) knowledge in the year 1843, which saw the publication of the Conquest of Mexico. It will be seen then that his fine imagination, combined with a singular sense of proportion, carried him far nearer the truth than might legitimately be expected in the case of one equipped only with the meagre critical apparatus of the period. In his attempt to illustrate and elucidate the various features of Mexican culture, he cast his net very wide. He draws parallels from Ethnology, Classical Archæology, Egyptology, and Oriental Studies all more or less still in embryo; and, like any other author who employs the comparative method, is to a great degree at the mercy of his material. The result shows a singular clarity of vision and critical balance.

In 1843 Anthropology was not yet a science. It is true that the Societé ethnologique de Paris was formed in 1839, but it was not a success. The Ethnological Society of London (of which the Royal Anthropological Institute is the direct successor in unbroken line) was founded in the same year in which Prescott published the Conquest of Mexico. In 1859, sixteen years later, was established the Societé d'anthropologie de Paris, and it is a significant commentary upon the trend of thought of the period, when religion and science were still at loggerheads, that Broca, the founder, "was bound over to keep the discussions within legitimate and orthodox limits, and a police agent attended its sittings for two years to enforce the stipulation." It is true, nevertheless, that the first foundations of modern Anthropology had been laid. The pioneers of biological classification, Linnaeus, Buffon, Blumenbach, had already given to the world works of enormous importance; but de Quatrefages, Virchow, and Broca were yet to come. The principles of evolution had been foreshadowed in the writings of Lamarck, Cuvier, and Saint Hilaire; but the great scientific epoch, marked by the works of Darwin, Herbert