They were overawed by fortresses and
armed garrisons, and were made to feel every hour that they were
not part and parcel of the nation, but held only in subjugation
as a conquered people. The Incas, on the other hand, admitted
their new subjects at once to all the rights enjoyed by the rest
of the community; and, though they made them conform to the
established laws and usages of the empire, they watched over
their personal security and comfort with a sort of parental
solicitude. The motley population, thus bound together by common
interest, was animated by a common feeling of loyalty, which gave
greater strength and stability to the empire, as it became more
and more widely extended; while the various tribes who
successively came under the Mexican sceptre, being held together
only by the pressure of external force, were ready to fall
asunder the moment that that force was withdrawn. The policy of
the two nations displayed the principle of fear as contrasted
with the principle of love.
The characteristic features of their religious systems had as
little resemblance to each other. The whole Aztec pantheon
partook more or less of the sanguinary spirit of the terrible
war-god who presided over it, and their frivolous ceremonial
almost always terminated with human sacrifice and cannibal
orgies. But the rites of the Peruvians were of a more innocent
cast, as they tended to a more spiritual worship. For the
worship of the Creator is most nearly approached by that of the
heavenly bodies, which, as they revolve in their bright orbits,
seem to be the most glorious symbols of his beneficence and
power.
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