Note XII-82 — Chapter XII · FUTURE STATE.

'Padecen por los pecados de sus padres.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 36. Their prayers and penances, says Acosta, were merely on account of corporal inflictions, for they certainly feared no punishment in the world to come, but expected that all would rest there. Hist. de las Ynd., p. 383. 'In the destiny they assigned to the wicked, we discern similar traces of refinement; since the absence of all physical torture forms a striking contrast to the schemes of suffering so ingeniously devised by the fancies of the most enlightened nations. In all this, so contrary to the natural suggestions of the ferocious Aztec, we see the evidences of a higher civilization, inherited from their predecessors in the land.' Prescott's Mex., vol. i., pp. 62-3.