cular lines of lozenges with the two walls, and with each other, stand on either side of the doorway of an architectural remnant; the rest of which lies as if shattered by an earthquake. The proportions were grand; but, even more interesting than this building, was a painting in bright colours, the red and green predominating, and the lines clear and distinct. It bears, to our eye, a strong, yet fantastic affinity to some Indian representations of Krishna dancing; but the woodcut is not so satisfactory as we could wish. A border of hieroglyphics surrounds this picture, which is 30 inches by 18, and red is the prevailing colour. The stone was removed from the wall with great difficulty, but Mr Stephens was unable to carry it away after all.

At some ruins in this neighbourhood was found once more the remains of an arch, plastered and covered with painted figures in profile, much mutilated; but in one place a row of legs seemed to have belonged to a procession, and at first glance recalled to Mr Stephens the funeral processions of the tombs at Thebes. In three compartments of the room were figures, some with plumes, some with steeple-caps, and others a sort of basket, on their heads. They were a foot high, painted red, spirited, and life-like; being well drawn, and the most interesting they had seen in the country. Two, like the figure at Zayi, were standing on their hands, with their feet in the air.*

The proximate identity of the Yucatese and Mexican calendars leads Mr Stephens to the conclusion, that both nations had a common origin. We do not doubt the fact, but the illustration; for adoption by the more ignorant race would suffice for this; and, whatever be the case with the Mayas, there is room to presume that the Azteks or Mexicans have, like the later Brahmins, Egyptians, and Greeks, to say nothing of modern Europe, misunderstood and perverted much of the traditions of their predecessors; as is proved by the different forms of the same tradition in other places, which preserve the languages that first enshrined them.

Xampon, Zekilna, and Chunhuhu generally, we pass over, to remark, at Schoolhoke, its pillared cornice, supported by grotesque and zebra striped Caryatides. These are mentioned by Norman as at Uxmal also. Next comes Bolonchen, with its nine

#Mr Catherwood being ill and absent, unfortunately no attempt was made to copy the procession, so as to compare it with its Egyptian parallel. It is truly mortifying, that in no one case of the resemblances to Egyptian antiquity, mentioned by Stephens, Norman, or Del Rio, are we furnished with means of determining the accuracy of their statements: those of Del Rio we entirely doubt, and have been unwilling, therefore, at all to refer to his book.

wells, whence its name; and it is singular that a similar appellation marks that spot near the Caspian-remarkable for countless mounds with ruined structures, an indefinite antiquity, and relics of things and words that bear some affinity to the Mexican. Bolonchen may boast its cavern of fearful descents, and scarcely less fearful ladder, of rough saplings lashed together by dry and cracking withes, mended but once a-year; when the whole village keeps festival at its foot, 70 feet below the surface of the earth. It is necessary to pass down six more before reaching the water, which, at 450 feet of perpendicular depth, supplies the vicinity when no other is attainable from the drought. The last long ladder broke in Mr Stephens' descent, and the party were hoisted up by ropes from above. Another bed of water, still lower, in the same cavern, is said to ebb and flow like the sea, during south and north-west winds.

Of the wonders of Chichen, which seems to have been an immense city, we can give but a few notices; for the details are very extensive in both Stephens' and Norman's volumes. The strong and melancholy impressions they produced upon the latter, he thus describes :

For five days did I wander up and down these crumbling monuments of a city, which, I hazard little in saying, must have been one of the largest the world has ever seen. I beheld before me, for a circuit of many miles in diameter, the walls of palaces, and temples, and pyramids, more or less dilapidated. The earth was strewed as far as the eye could distinguish, with columns, some broken and some nearly perfect, which seemed to have been planted there by that genius of desolation which presided over this awful solitude. Amid these solemn memorials of departed generations, who have died and left no marks but these, there were no indications of animated existence save the bats, the lizards, and the reptiles, which now and then emerged from the crevices and tottering walls and crumbling stones that were strewed upon the ground at their base. No marks of human footsteps, no signs of previous visitors, were discernible; nor is there good reason to believe that any person, whose testimony of the fact has been given to the world, had ever before broken the silence which reigns over these sacred tombs of a departed civilization. As I looked about me and indulged in these reflections, I felt awed into perfect silence. To speak then had been profane. A revelation from Heaven could not have impressed me more profoundly with the solemnity of its communication, than I was now impressed on finding myself the first, probably, of the present geneneration of civilized men, walking the streets of this once mighty city, and amid

"Temples, palaces, and piles stupendous,

Of which the very ruins are tremendous."

For a long time I was so distracted with the multitude of objects which crowded upon my mind, that I could take no note of them in detail.'(Norman, pp. 108-9.

Mr Stephens' plan of the city embraces only two miles in circumference, though ruined buildings appear beyond these limits; but we can little hesitate to assign the most ample sites to regions where decay and ruin mark their every aspect. A house, unlike all others, as constructed without an artificial foundation, though appearing elevated from the ground in front, having been excavated for some extent, faces the east, and measures 149 feet by 48; the exterior is rude and unornamented; its interior contains eighteen rooms, in double rows, with high angular ceilings, each lighted by a single doorway, of which the west front has seven: the largest of these rooms is 24 feet by 8. To the south, the inner doorways have each' an unusually large stone lintel, sculptured with the figure of a seated Indian, according to Mr Norman; but Mr Stephens speaks of but one such chamber, raised a foot higher than the ante-room. The figure is full dressed and seated, one leg doubled under it, the other towards the floor: a vase of flowers is placed before the figure, and he points to some hieroglyphics. Mr Stephens considers him engaged in incantation, or some idolatrous rite, and says the hieroglyphics are similar to those at Copan and Palenque: so, we think, is the attitude. But it is curious, that neither here, nor in any part of these volumes, do we meet with the carved monolithes seen in the former journey. A grand but ruined staircase, forty-five feet wide, rises from the centre of the exterior to the roof; a similar one is at the Casa de Monjas, leading to a superior structure, and one much of the same kind is found at Tulocm. We cannot but observe that this feature, with the two wings depressed, altogether strongly recalls the front of a mosque at Delhi.

Of the Casa de Monjas, or House of Ruins, the façade at one end is of singular beauty, and is more exquisitely given by Stephens than by Norman. No description will do it justice, and we must pass the doomed building, resembling one at Mayapan, it seems, and with a caracol or winding staircase; the balustrade formed of two gigantic serpents entwined, like the caduceus of Mercury, and the tradition of Tiresias. A sort of tenniscourt, as described by Herrera at Mexico, contains amongst its ornaments a procession of tigers and lynxes; also a series of figures, splendidly dressed and armed, evidently two parties, or probably nations, judging from the display. A different set of figures seem to us grotesque, and remind us generally of those in Brand's popular antiquities; and here red, yellow, and blue colours prevail, but the flesh is brown.

Kantunile, near the coast, exhibits several mounds, one of which had been opened; and three skeletons, two terra-cotta vases and covers, ornaments, various beads, stones, and two carved shells,

had rewarded the toil. The carving is of the same type as the Ticul vase, and the sculptured wall at Chichen. Obsidian arrowheads in abundance, prove intercourse with Mexican volcanic regions; and a penknife with a horn handle, marks these relics as subsequent to the conquest.

We have not room for any notice of Peten Lake, or the island of Cozumel, from which some idols, recently imported to England, have been pronounced as resembling the Egyptian; and must refer the reader to the work for a description of Tuloom, which is of the less consequence to extract as the Daguerreotype was broken. But we shall add one other short extract; as expressive of Mr Stephens' firm belief of the existence of remains in other regions which he had no opportunity of exploring.

The whole triangular region from Valladolid to the Bay of Ascension on one side, and the port of Yalahoa on the other, is not traversed by a single road; and the rancho of Molas is the only settlement along the coast. It is a region entirely unknown; no white man ever enters it. Ruined cities no doubt exist, and young Molas told us of a large building, many leagues in the interior, known to an old Indian, covered with paintings in bright and vivid colours, and the subjects of which were still perfect. With difficulty we contrived to see the Indian, but he was extremely uncommunicative; said it was many years since he saw the building; that he had come upon it in the dry season while hunting, and should not be able to find it again. It is my belief that within this region cities, like those we have seen in ruins, were kept up and occupied for a long time, perhaps one or two centuries after the conquest, and down to a comparatively late period Indians were living in them, the same as before the discovery of America. In fact, I conceive it to be not impossible, that within this secluded region may exist at this day, unknown to white men, a living aboriginal city occupied by relics of the ancient race, and who still worship in the temples of their fathers.'-(Vol. ii. p. 408.)

We here close our account of the latest works on the subject of the central American cities, a subject which-whether viewed simply as a matter of curiosity, or as the source of enquiries concerning the existence of a hitherto unknown race of mankind; or better still, as furnishing bases that have long been wanting to complete the structure of a general history of our species-must be acknowledged to rank among the most important of its kind ever brought before the learned world. We shall hereafter, perhaps, resume this subject, with the view to an attempt to trace the origin of these remarkable cities and structures, and the history of the mysterious people whose early civilization they so singularly attest.

ART. VIII.-Memoirs of Jeremy Bentham. Including Autobiographical Conversations and Correspondence. By JOHN BowRING. (Forming Parts 19, 20, and 21 of his edition of Bentham's Works.) 8vo. Edinburgh: 1842-3.

WE E noticed the most considerable of Bentham's writings as they appeared; so that now there is little left for us to do with this ponderous collection, except to sum up upon its general merits. But for this we are not yet prepared: and, from the aspect of the banquet, we rather think that our readers will neither sit down without us, nor lose a great deal by the delay. But the Life of Bentham, which is annexed to the collection, is a pleasant novelty. Those who have cared about his writings, will be interested in the intellectual history of their philosopher; while those who know him only by name, may nevertheless be amused by a character which Ben Jonson might have studied as a 'humour,' and perhaps immortalized in a play.

All biography which has a touch of nature in it must be popular. In our ignorance of most of what is passing in each other's minds, we press forward, full of sympathy and curiosity, wherever an opening is made at which we can look in. To create this attraction, it is not necessary that the persons should be important, or the events dramatic. Our interest, however, naturally grows with the consequence or notoriety of the parties. We like to see the great player off the stage, in his plain clothes. We follow the public man into private life, in the hope that we shall understand him better, and perhaps find in him something of a higher nature. These causes combine with others, to make it a frequent subject of regret that little or nothing of the lives and characters of the most eminent men has been preserved to us. Bentham, we are happy to say, has taken care that, in his case, no regret of this kind should exist. The principal materials for his biography are supplied by himself. He, moreover, charged his estate with the expense of publication; and appointed Dr Bowring his biographer. Dr Bowring was made literary executor with the fullest powers. What he opened, was to be open: what he shut, was to be shut. It is a distinction to be proud of. The party which gloried in the name of Bentham, contained within its following many men of greater political and literary celebrity. Dr Bowring was, nevertheless, selected from among them by their common master, as the person on whose judgment and attainments, character and affection, he had most reliance. Bentham certainly did not undervalue the importance of the