PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 479 



years of age, and are considered to have finished their edu- 

 cation at thirteen or fourteen. The next step in their life is 

 marriage. Of course there are exceptions ; some parents 

 wisely leave their children at school, or direct their in- 

 struction at home, till they are seventeen or eighteen years 

 of age, and others send their girls abroad. But usually, 

 with the exception of one or two accomplishments, such 

 as French or music, the education of women is neglected, 

 and this neglect affects the whole tone of society. It does 

 not change the general truth of this statement, that there 

 are Brazilian ladies who would be recognized in the best 

 society as women of the highest intelligence and culture. 

 But they are the exceptions, as they inevitably must be 

 under the present system of instruction, and they feel its 

 influence upon their social position only the more bitterly. 



Indeed, many of the women I have known most intimate- 

 ly here have spoken to me with deep regret of their limited, 

 imprisoned existence. There is not a Brazilian senhora, 

 who has ever thought about the subject at all, who is not 

 aware that her life is one of repression and constraint. She 

 cannot go out of her house, except under certain conditions, 

 without awakening scandal. Her education leaves her 

 wholly ignorant of the most common topics of a wider inter- 

 est, though perhaps with a tolerable knowledge of French 

 and music. The world of books is closed to her ; for there 

 is little Portuguese literature into which she is allowed to 

 look, and that of other languages is still less at her com 

 mand. She knows little of the history of her own country, 

 almost nothing of that of others, and she is hardly aware 

 that there is any religious faith except the uniform one 

 of Brazil ; she has probably never heard of the Reforma- 

 tion, nor does she dream that there is a sea of thought 



