Society, are envy, discord, and inapplication. It is certain, and I have wept it even with tears of blood, that in my beloved Quito, the spirit of litigation has been very predominant: but henceforth, I doubt not that all my beloved Quitinians (Quitenos) will sedulously vie with each other, in crowning themselves with the laurel of peace, and the concord of souls, in such a way as that this illustrious Society of the Friends of the Country may be the bond of christian and political charity. With the concord of souls, the most lowly republics have been re-established and resuscitated; and without it, the greatest empires have been submerged. Let us all, then, with a patriotic emulation, proceed to obtain, that of the noble and learned Quitinians it may be said: justiciæ legem in concordia disposuerunt, as Solomon spake of the patriotism of the Hebrews.
“To you, gentlemen, it belongs to devise, discover, and make a trial of the most seasonable means for the resurrection of this our dying country. With the greatest joy of my heart I see in Quito (now that the royal university is re-integrated and revived by our illustrious president), that to ignorance succeed the sciences; to remissness, application; to indolence, industry; to incommodity, enjoyment; and to misery and wretchedness, opulence and riches: in a word, that the throne of public prosperity is erected on the infelicity and extreme poverty of this our beloved country. Omnia quippe docuit duris in rebus urgens egestas.
“All this I already consider as certain, and very certain. For what may not Quito promise itself from a Society animated, swayed, and protected, by a learned president, and by a governor and captain-general, in whom Mars and Minerva
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