and weaknesses together with the dangerous and repulsive qualities of the lowest grades of the population.
It is needless again to refer to the almost matchless variety and beauty of the scenery of Mexico, or the richness of its mineral and vegetable productions; inasmuch as some idea of these may have been gathered, it is hoped, from several of the preceding chapters.
As may be conjectured, literature, properly speaking, has scarcely an existence in this country. There are a few newspapers, but they are of a very inferior grade, and do but repeat the information received from one paper to another, in turn. Slender rows of Spanish books may occasionally be perceived on the shelves of the wealthy classes; but, to the vast proportion of the community, books are literally "sealed." A show of learning is kept up at the convents of the republic, and the holy fathers sometimes profess a fondness for books and authors; but their knowledge is almost universally shallow, and their attachment is generally assumed.
The language spoken in Mexico is the Spanish; it is for the most part uttered fluently and melodiously among the upper
