WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 115 



believe not the stories of those who have had a 

 hand in the sad tragedy. Go to Brazil, and see 

 with thine own eyes the effect of Pombal's short- 

 sighted policy. There vice reigns triiunphant, 

 and learning is at its lowest ebb. Neither is this 

 to be wondered at. Destroy the compass, and 

 will the vessel find her far-distant port? "Will 

 the flock keep together, and escape the wolves, 

 after the shepherds are all slain? The Brazilians 

 were told that public education would go on just 

 as usual. They might have asked government, 

 who so able to instruct our youth as those whose 

 knowledge is proverbial? who so fit, as those who 

 enjoy our entire confidence? who so worthy, as 

 those whose lives are irreproachable? 



They soon found that those who succeeded the 

 fathers of the Society of Jesus had neither their 

 manners nor their abilities. They had not made 

 the instruction of youth their particular study. 

 Moreover, they entered on the field after a defeat, 

 where the officers had all been slain; where the 

 plan of the campaign was lost; where all was in 

 sorrow and dismay. No exertions of theirs could 

 rally the dispersed, or skill prevent the fatal con- 

 sequences. At the present day, the seminary of 

 Olinda, in comparison with the former Jesuits' 

 college, is only as the waning moon's beam to the 

 sun's meridian splendour. 



AVhen you visit the places where those learned 

 fathers once flourished, and see with your own 

 eyes the evils their dissolution has caused; when 

 you hear the inhabitants telling you how good, 

 how clever, how charitable they were; what will 

 you think of our poet laureate for calling them, 



