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CHAP. IV. 



Political Establishments, Government^ and Art^ 



Agriculture is the vital principle of society 

 and of the arts. Scarcely does a wandering fa- 

 mily, either from inclination or necessity, begin 

 to cultivate a piece of ground, when it establishes 

 itself upon it from a natural attachment, and, no 

 longer relishing a wandering and solitary life, 

 seeks the society of its fellows, whose succours 

 it then begins to find necessary for its welfare. 

 The Chilians, having adopted that settled mode 

 of life indispensable to an agricultural people, 

 collected themselves into families, more or less 

 numerous, in those districts that were best suited 

 to their occupation, where they established them- 

 selves hi large villages, called cara, a name 

 which they at present give to the Spanish cities, 

 or in small ones, which they denominated lov. 

 But these accidental collections had not the 

 form of the present European settlements ; they 

 consisted only of a number of huts, irregularly 

 dispersed m ithin sight of each other, precisely in 



