500 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
practical illustration and experiment; its professors do not 
yet seein to understand that it is impossible to teach any 
of the physical sciences wholly or mainly from text-books. 
The facilities granted to pupils in this school, and perhaps 
still more in the military school, are very great. The in- 
struction is entirely gratuitous, and in the military school 
the students are not only fed and clothed, etc. ; they are 
even paid for their attendance, being considered as belong- 
ing to the army from the time they enter the school. 
The Dom Pedro Segundo College is the best school of 
that class I have seen in Brazil. It may be compared to 
our New England high schools, and fully deserves the 
reputation it enjoys. 
Of the common schools I saw little. Of course, in a 
country where the population is sparsely scattered over 
very extensive districts, it must be difficult to gather the 
children in schools, outside of the large cities. Where such 
schools have been organized the instruction is gratuitous ; 
but competent teachers are few, the education very lim- 
ited, and the means of instruction scanty. Reading, writ- 
ing, and ciphering, with the least possible smattering of 
geography, form the groundwork of all these schools. The 
teachers labor under great difficulties, because they have 
not the strong support of the community. There is little 
general appreciation of the importance of education as the 
basis without which all higher civilization is impossible. 
I have, however, noticed throughout Brazil a disposition to 
give a practical education, a training in some trade, to the 
poor children. Establishments of this kind exist in almost 
all the larger cities. This is a good sign ; it shows that 
they attach a proper value to labor, at least for the lower 
classes, and aim at raising a working population. In these 
