This fact is ascertained by the discovery
of silver balances, adjusted with perfect accuracy, in some of
the tombs of the Incas. *24
[Footnote 22: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 8, cap. 25.]
[Footnote 23: Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 7; lib. 6, cap. 8. -
Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.
This, which Bonaparte thought so incredible of the little island
of Loo Choo, was still more extraordinary in a great and
flourishing empire like Peru; - the country, too, which contained
within its bowels the treasures that were one day to furnish
Europe with the basis of its vast metallic currency.]
[Footnote 24: Ulloa, Not. Amer., ent. 21.]
But the surest test of the civilization of a people - at least,
as sure as any - afforded by mechanical art is to be found in
their architecture, which presents so noble a field for the
display of the grand and the beautiful, and which, at the same
time, is so intimately connected with the essential comforts of
life. There is no object on which the resources of the wealthy
are more freely lavished, or which calls out more effectually the
inventive talent of the artist. The painter and the sculptor may
display their individual genius in creations of surpassing
excellence, but it is the great monuments of architectural taste
and magnificence that are stamped in a peculiar manner by the
genius of the nation. The Greek, the Egyptian, the Saracen, the
Gothic, - what a key do their respective styles afford to the
character and condition of the people! The monuments of China,
of Hindostan, and of Central America are all indicative of an
immature period, in which the imagination has not been
disciplined by study, and which, therefore, in its best results,
betrays only the ill-regulated aspirations after the beautiful,
that belong to a semi-civilized people.
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