Overioeening National Pride. 151 



United States have been vain enough in all conscience ; 

 but when we consider the wonderful advances made by that 

 active, energetic people, and contemplate their surpassing 

 qualities, such a national foible is readily overlooked. In 

 Brazil, on the contrary, the contempt affected for everything 

 foreign, the fretful impatience to become emancipated from 

 the smallest resemblance to European customs, is ex^ceedingly 

 childish and even ludicrous in a country which can hardly yet 

 be said to be able to stand alone, since the pressure of circum- 

 stances is daily making them more and more dependent on 

 other countries, and where it is necessary to import from 

 abroad not merely the evidences of high culture, but the very 

 first necessaries of life, even to obtaining supplies of foreign 

 labour. This overweening self-esteem has rather increased, 

 since it has become the fashion of young Brazilians, of the 

 better classes, to visit Europe for the completion of their 

 studies, as will, perhaps, be best illustrated by the follow- 

 ing laughable anecdote : — A young Brazilian, the son of a 

 German father and a native lady, who had but recently 

 returned from Europe, overheard one of his friends asking 

 another if he could tell of what country he thought the fresh 

 arrival to be, at the same time indicating the youth, who 

 just came from the academy of Freiberg. "There can 

 be no doubt on that point,'* was the reply; "the blue eyes, 

 light hair, and fair complexion, distinctly indicate that the 

 gentleman is a German." " God forbid !'* (JDeu rrCen guarda!) 

 exclaimed the young gentleman, who seemed as it were 



