ZEAL FOR EDUCATION. 265 



enjoyed the hospitality of the governor, and once more 

 found myself in the agreeable society of Signor Vin- 

 ciguerra. One of the many laudable characteristics 

 of Chilian society, in striking contrast with their kins- 

 men in Spain, is the genuine anxiety commonly 

 shown for the education of the rising generation. It is, 

 indeed, rather amusing to note the tone of contempt- 

 uous pity with which the Chilians of pure Spanish 

 descent speak of their European cousins, who are 

 usually denominated " los Gotos." The governor's 

 eldest son had been sent to Germany to pursue his 

 studies, and the services of a young German, who 

 apparently had got into some scrape connected with 

 politics in his own country, had been secured to con- 

 duct the education of the younger children. Before 

 dinner the preceptor was engaged in guiding the 

 fingers of one child upon an old pianoforte, and 

 immediately after dinner lessons were resumed with 

 the other children. 



In the course of the evening we had a curious 

 illustration of the difficulty of speaking correctly two 

 closely allied dialects. Conversing in Italian with 

 Signor Vinciguerra, a laugh was raised against me 

 for introducing a Spanish word into a sentence ; but 

 this was redoubled when, a few minutes later, my 

 Italian friend did exactly the same thing. 



Thought is inextricably linked with the impressions 

 derived from the senses, which, excepting with the 

 deaf and dumb, are ordinarily based upon language ; 

 and whenever a man speaks with even moderate 

 fluency the fact implies that he thinks in that 

 language. The effort of changing from one language 



