Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru

First published in 1884. The first lecture begins: "I am about to speak to you on a subject little known in general, though it has already been studied very closely by specialists of great merit--I mean the religions professed in Mexico and Peru when, in the sixteenth century, a handful of Spanish adventurers achieved that conquest, almost like a fairy tale, which still remains one of the most extraordinary chapters of history. But I shall perhaps do well at the outset briefly to explain the very special importance of these now vanished religions."