They furnish an
interesting example of the opposite directions which the human
mind may take in its struggle to emerge from darkness into the
light of civilization.
A closer resemblance - as I have more than once taken occasion to
notice - may be found between the Peruvian institutions and some
of the despotic governments of Eastern Asia; those governments
where despotism appears in its more mitigated form, and the whole
people, under the patriarchal sway of its sovereign, seem to be
gathered together like the members of one vast family. Such were
the Chinese, for example, whom the Peruvians resembled in their
implicit obedience to authority, their mild yet somewhat stubborn
temper, their solicitude for forms, their reverence for ancient
usage, their skill in the minuter manufactures, their imitative
rather than inventive cast of mind, and their invincible
patience, which serves instead of a more adventurous spirit for
the execution of difficult undertakings. *34
[Footnote 34: Count Carli has amused himself with tracing out the
different points of resemblance between the Chinese and the
Peruvians. The emperor of China was styled the son of Heaven or
of the Sun. He also held a plough once a year in presence of his
people, to show his respect for agriculture. And the solstices
and equinoxes were noted, to determine the periods of their
religious festivals. The coincidences are curious. Lettres
Americaines, tom. II. pp. 7, 8.]
A still closer analogy may be found with the natives of Hindostan
in their division into castes, their worship of the heavenly
bodies and the elements of nature, and their acquaintance with
the scientific principles of husbandry.
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