SOCIETY. 151 



but have you ever witnessed the least evidence of affection between them?" I wan obliged to 

 ai knowledge that no such feeling had ever been betrayed before me. I s&y obliged; for the 

 individuals were among the friends most regarded, and it was a painful truth to acknowledge. 

 Arrived at maturity, the young lady enters society, usually sprightly, intelligent, and well 

 < '{united ; yet thru- has been no opportunity to try her powers, and constant surveillance has at 

 last deprived her of the confidence in herself essential to graceful address, if it has not rendered 

 ho unpleasantly silent and retiring. If one of the opposite sex approach, he rarely says more 

 tliau "How pretty you are this evening !" " How very elegant is your dress!" with one or two 

 other equally sapient remarks ; and having made an engagement for a dance, should that 

 amusement be going on, he moves off to talk with his more affable and agreeable compan- 

 ions, twist his moustache, and smoke another cigarito. 



Let us look at the characteristics of the latter sex for a moment, for they require no very 

 prolonged examination. Originally the basis of education imparted is good ; unfortunately, it 

 is almost wholly theoretical. The means of communicating experimental knowledge, so neces- 

 sary to enlist the mind in its subsequent prosecution, have not hitherto existed to any considera- 

 ble extent ; and it is only very recently that there have been men in Chile competent to teach 

 the elementary branches of physical science. Even yet much is wanting to place the schools 

 on a level with those of Europe or North America ; and thus, for want of proper apparatus and 

 tutors, a young man takes his leave of school just when he has received an amount of informa- 

 tion which would elsewhere make him feel the necessity of study. There are neither engineers, 

 chemists, machinists, nor architects by profession. Neither is there any pursuit a young man 

 can follow which renders further application to books necessary, except in preparation for the 

 practice of law or medicine ; and when it is stated that the whole number of licentiates for 

 both these professions from 1843 to 1849 was only 143, an estimate may be formed of the 

 demand for mental application. Therefore, with the college they also take leave of books, 

 become clerks in the houses of merchants or retailers, and the knowledge which was at first but 

 superficial is soon forgotten. Others enter the convents, adding to the drones of the popula- 

 tion ; a small number obtain places under government, and a few embark in mining, though not, 

 as do the Californians, with their own hands, for personal labor is considered degrading. Want 

 of occupation, encouraged by the climate, soon confirms a habit of indolence where there is no 

 mental energy to shake it off ; and in a brief while the youth who might have become a man of 

 ability and enterprise falls irreclaimably into idleness and listlessness. Societies for the pro- 

 motion of science, literature, the professions or arts, so beneficial in the dissemination of 

 knowledge, and so productive of laudable emulation in the world of letters, have no existence 

 here ; and the rendezvous of the young men becomes, instead, the tailor's shop, where the 

 fashions are discussed, and the public promenade or parlor, where they can display ultra fine 

 dresses. Conversation with young ladies is not general, as has just been remarked. If they 

 attempt it with any not of their own sex, it is with the mothers, thus voluntarily avoiding 

 intercourse which could not fail in leading to mental improvement, and preparing for more 

 rational domestic life. Neglected by those whom she knows to be inferior in mental as in 

 moral worth, yet whom Nature has assigned as her companions through life bitterly sensible that 

 she will scarcely be permitted the privilege of selection among them, but must take as a husband 

 him whom her parents consider most suitable the girl soon thinks with indifference and 

 apathy of the abilities of the beaux surrounding her, and learns to value them by the contents 

 of their coffers rather than by their characters or talents. 



There are very life-like pictures drawn of both sexes in a little work (Bepertorio ChUeno) pub- 

 lished at Santiago, in 1835. Of the men the author says: "They are indolent to excess, and, 

 whilst possessing moral courage to undertake anything, have neither the resolution to continue 

 nor the constancy to complete it more especially if there are others who direct or take part 

 in it. It is this pernicious and culpable indolence which domineers over and, in a great 

 measure, keeps down public and religious spirit; they themselves confessing to apathy." The 



