Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/17

Rh by many important discoveries made in South America; one of which, that of the bombyx papyrifex, or paper-making silk-worm, is highly curious. Belonging to this department of science, and to divers others, the reader will derive much valuable information, from a perusal of what is given in the part of topography, and in the Appendix, containing, with other details of great interest, those of the travels of the missionaries in the heretofore unexplored territories of Peru. In his researches into the literature of that country, he will find quotations from authors prohibited in Spain. "El Eusebio," a work in the Spanish language, on the same plan as the Emile of Rousseau, was, he will perceive, boldly cited by the learned and patriotic Bishop of Quito, in the eloquent discourse he pronounced, at the first meeting of the Economical Society established in that city. An Index of the modern authors quoted in the Peruvian Mercury, is subjoined, to furnish some idea of the extent of the literary attainments made in that remote quarter of the globe. These attainments will constantly be proportioned to the industry employed in the acquisition of the means. Where books are sought after with so much avidity, and at so great a risk, the beams of mental illumination cannot fail to expand their celestial light, and to dispel the thick gloom of ignorance. JOSEPH SKINNER. .