Note 221 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Prescott remarks, that the progress made by the Mexicans in astronomy, and especially the fact of their having a general board for education and the fine arts, proves more in favor of their advancement than the noble architectural monuments which they and their kindred tribes erected. "Architecture," he observes, "is a sensual gratification, and addresses itself to the eye; it is the form in which the resources of a semi-civilized people are most likely to be lavished."—Conquest of Mexico, vol. i., p. 155; Lyell's America, vol. i., p. 115.