273 



They are generally possessed of good talents, and 

 succeed in any of the arts to which they apply them^ 

 selves. They would make as great progress in the 

 useful sciences as they have done in metaphysics, if 

 they had the same motives to stimulate them as are 

 found in Europe. They do not readily imbibe pre- 

 judices, and are not tenacious in retaining them. As 

 scientific books and instruments, however, are very 

 scarce, or sold at an exorbitant price, their talents 

 are either never developed, or are wdiolly employed 

 upon trifles. The expenses of printing are also so 

 great, as to discourage literarv exertion, so that few 

 aspire to the reputation of authors. The knowledge 

 of the civil and canonical laws is held in Ec^eat esteem 

 by them, so that many of the Chilian youth, after 

 having completed their course of academical educa- 

 tion in Chili, proceed to Lima, which is highly cele- 

 brated for its schools of law, in order to be instruct- 

 ed in that science. 



The fine arts are in a very low state in Chili, and 

 even the mechanical are as yet very far from perfec- 

 tion. We may except, however, those of carpentry, 

 and the working of iron and the precious metals, 

 which have made considerable progress, in conse- 

 quence of the information obtained from some Ger- 

 man artists, who were introduced into the country 

 by that worthy ecclesiastic, Father Carlos, of Hain- 

 hausen in Bavaria. 



The important change which the exertions of the 

 present monarch have so materially contributed to 

 produce throughout his dominions, in directing the 



Vol. II. M m 



