ABSTRACT
A nation which had made such progress in agriculture might be reasonably expected to have made also some proficiency in the mechanical arts—especially when, as in the case of the Peruvians, their agricultural economy demanded in itself no inconsiderable degree of mechanical skill. The employment of domestic animals distinguished the Peruvians from the other races of the New World. This economy of human labour by the substitution of the brute is an important element of civilization, inferior only to what is gained by the substitution of machinery for both. The Peruvian architecture, bearing also the general characteristics of an imperfect state of refinement, had still its peculiar character; and so uniform was that character that the edifices throughout the country seem to have been all cast in the same mould. The testimony of the Spanish conquerors is not uniform in respect to the favourable influence exerted by the Peruvian institutions on the character of the people.
