GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 495 
CHAPTER XVI. 
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 
RELIGION AND CLERGY. EDUCATION. LAW, MEDICAL, AND SCIENTIFIC 
SCHOOLS. HIGH AND COMMON SCHOOLS. PUBLIC LIBRARY AND MUSEUM 
IN Rio DE JANEIRO. HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE. SOCIAL 
AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. PUBLIC FUNCTIONARIES. AGRICULTURE. 
ZONES OF VEGETATION. COFFEE. COTTON. TIMBER AND OTHER PRODUCTS 
OF THE AMAZONS. CATTLE. TERRITORIAL SUBDIVISION OF THE GREAT 
VALLEY. EMIGRATION. FOREIGNERS. PARAGUAYAN WAR. 
I CANNOT close this book, written for the most part by 
another hand, without a few words as to my general impres- 
sions of Brazil. No one will expect from me an essay on 
the social and political aspects of the whole country, even 
had I remained there long enough to acquire the right 
of judgment on these matters. I am so unaccustomed to 
dealing with them that my opinions would be entitled to 
little weight. There is, however, another point of view, 
more general, but perhaps more comprehensive also, from 
which every intelligent man may form an estimate of the 
character of a people which, if sincere, will be in the main 
sound and just, without including an intimate knowledge 
of their institutions, or the practical working of their laws. 
My scientific life has brought me into relations with a world 
wholly unknown to me before ; under conditions more favor- 
able than were possible for my predecessors in the same 
region, I have studied this tropical nature, so rich, so 
grandiose, so instructive ; I have seen a great Empire 
founded in the midst of unlimited material resources, and 
advancing to higher civilization under the inspiration of a 
