The Infidel; or, the Fall of Mexico. Vol. II.Bird, Robert Montgomery
History
The Infidel; or, the Fall of Mexico. Vol. II.
Bird, Robert Montgomery
Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540 -- Fiction
Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levarit
Vina fugit.
_Metam. Lib._ XV.]
Can we think that among the worshippers of the ferocious Mexitli, and
the fierce invaders of his people, there were none with natures worthy
of a better belief, and a nobler cause? Destiny had thrown together two,
at least, whose spirits were but little tainted with the evil of their
place and their day,--in whom, perhaps, feeling rather than reason, had
set a talisman that left them incorruptible. A good heart is to man what
the galvanic bar of the philosopher was to the ship's copper-sheathing.
It gives this protection, at least, that, through the whole voyage of
life, it preserves the integrity of the vessel. The barnacle and the
remora will indeed deaden its course, but the metal remains clean and
bright: the billows of the world waste their corrosive powers only on
the protector. Morality itself is two-fold; it is of the head, and of
the heart. The first belongs to the philosopher, the second to the poet.
The one is an abstraction of reason; the other an exhortation of
passion. The morality of the head is the only one that is just; but it
is loveliest and best when the heart enforces its precepts. With good
hearts, Juan Lerma and the princess of Mexico, moved among the
corruptions of superstition, uncorrupted; and preserved to themselves,
unabated and unsullied, the pure and gentle feelings, which nature had
showered upon them at their birth.
The moon, falling aslant upon the garden, lighted the countenances of
the young Spanish exile and the orphan child of Montezuma, as they
rested upon the summit of a little artificial mound, ornamented with
carved stone seats and rude statuary, constructed for the purpose of
overlooking the walls. The visage of the Christian was illumined by
pensive smiles, and his lips breathed gently and fervently the accents
that were sweetest to the ears of the Indian maiden. But did he
discourse of worldly affection and passion to one so ignorant and
artless? A nobler spirit animated the youth. He spoke of the faith of
Christians, and laboured with more than the zeal, though not perhaps
with the wisdom of the missionary, to impress its divine truths upon the
mind of his hearer. If his arguments were somewhat less cogent and
logical than might have been spoken, it must be remembered that his
religion was like that which will perhaps belong to the majority of
Christians to the end of the world,--a faith of the heart, which the
head has not been accustomed to canvass.
He directed her eyes to the moon, to the evening star, and to those
other celestial wanderers, by which the heart of man was 'secretly
enticed,' even before the days of the perfect man of Uz.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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