HISTORY OF VERMONT. 249 



and usefulness of the Inca, the people believed 

 they saw the children of the sun : And in the 

 affections and opinions of the people, the Inca 

 found an absolute and unlimited power. But 

 if his conduct had plainly discovered that instead 

 of being the child of the sun, he was the child 

 of folly, of vice, and abominable iniquity, his 

 divinity, his power, and his empire would have 

 ceased with the public opinion. 



Instead then of being founded in a con- 

 tempt of the people like the empire of Mexico, 

 the monarchy of Peru had the singular good 

 fortune of being founded in the public senti- 

 ment. This rendered the Inca accountable to 

 the people for every part of his conduct : And 

 this sense of accountability would keep a con- 

 stant sense of duty and character upon his mind. 

 Thus under the form of absolute hereditary- 

 monarchy, the government of Peru had the un- 

 common advantage of excluding nobility with 

 all its odious distinctions and claims ; and of 

 embracing the best and purest principles, upon 

 which civil government can ever be founded. 

 The Indians seem to have been the only peo- 

 ple, among whom, a regard to the public senti- 

 ment and benefit, did in fact constitute the 

 spirit and principle of hereditary and absolute 

 monarchy. 



Tendency to Dissolution. However 

 beautiful and promising the progress of society 

 once was among the Indians of America, it is 

 now every where tending to decay and dissolu- 

 tion ; and this has been its tendency, ever since 

 the first arrival of the Europeans. In the de- 

 fitruction of tlie empires of ^lexico, and Peru, 



