]
No man could be rich, no man could be poor, in Peru; but all
might enjoy, and did enjoy, a competence. Ambition, avarice, the
love of change, the morbid spirit of discontent, those passions
which most agitate the minds of men, found no place in the bosom
of the Peruvian. The very condition of his being seemed to be at
war with change. He moved on in the same unbroken circle in
which his fathers had moved before him, and in which his children
were to follow. It was the object of the Incas to infuse into
their subjects a spirit of passive obedience and tranquillity, -
a perfect acquiescence in the established order of things. In
this they fully succeeded. The Spaniards who first visited the
country are emphatic in their testimony, that no government could
have been better suited to the genius of the people; and no
people could have appeared more contented with their lot, or more
devoted to their government. *40
[Footnote 40: Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 12, 15. - Sarmiento, Relacion,
Ms., cap. 10]
Those who may distrust the accounts of Peruvian industry will
find their doubts removed on a visit to the country. The
traveller still meets, especially in the central regions of the
table-land, with memorials of the past, remains of temples,
palaces, fortresses, terraced mountains, great military roads,
aqueducts, and other public works, which, whatever degree of
science they may display in their execution, astonish him by
their number, the massive character of the materials, and the
grandeur of the design.
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