PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 481 
advantages of education, there is something in their home- 
life so restricted, so shut out from natural contact with ex- 
ternal influences, that this in itself tends to cripple their 
development. Their amusements are as meagre and scanty 
as their means of instruction. 
In writing these things I but echo the thought of many 
intelligent Brazilians, who lament a social evil which they 
do not well know how to reform. If among our Brazilian 
friends there are some who, familiar with the more pro- 
gressive aspect of life in Rio de Janeiro, question the 
accuracy of my statements, I can only say that they do 
not know the condition of society in the northern cities 
and provinces. Among my own sex, I have never seen 
such sad lives as became known to me there, lives de- 
prived of healthy, invigorating happiness, and intolerably 
monotonous, a negative suffering, having its source, it is 
true, in the absence of enjoyment rather than in the pres- 
ence of positive evils, but all the more to be deplored be- 
cause so stagnant and inactive. 
Behind all defects in methods of instruction, there lies a 
fault of domestic education, to be lamented throughout 
Brazil. This is the constant association with black ser- 
vants, and, worse still, with negro children, of whom there 
are usually a number in every house. Whether the low 
and vicious habits of the negroes are the result of slavery 
or not, they cannot be denied ; and it is singular to see 
persons, otherwise careful and conscientious about their 
children, allowing them to live in the constant companion- 
ship of their blacks, waited upon by the older ones, play- 
ing all day with the younger ones. It shows how blind we 
may become, by custom, to the most palpable dangers. A 
stranger observes at once the evil results of this contact 
21 EE 
