The power of free agency - the inestimable and inborn right of
every human being - was annihilated in Peru.
The astonishing mechanism of the Peruvian polity could have
resulted only from the combined authority of opinion and positive
power in the ruler to an extent unprecedented in the history of
man. Yet that it should have so successfully gone into
operation, and so long endured, in opposition to the taste, the
prejudices, and the very principles of our nature, is a strong
proof of a generally wise and temperate administration of the
government.
The policy habitually pursued by the Incas for the prevention of
evils that might have disturbed the order of things is well
exemplified in their provisions against poverty and idleness. In
these they rightly discerned the two great causes of disaffection
in a populous community. The industry of the people was secured
not only by their compulsory occupations at home, but by their
employment on those great public works which covered every part
of the country, and which still bear testimony in their decay to
their primitive grandeur. Yet it may well astonish us to find,
that the natural difficulty of these undertakings, sufficiently
great in itself, considering the imperfection of their tools and
machinery, was inconceivably enhanced by the politic contrivance
of government. The royal edifices of Quito, we are assured by
the Spanish conquerors, were constructed of huge masses of stone,
many of which were carried all the way along the mountain roads
from Cuzco, a distance of several hundred leagues.
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