176 



UNIVERSITY OP ST. MARK. 



from the system of Aristotle : that those of Newton, Gassendi, 

 and Des Cartes, did not symboHze so much with revealed 

 truths ; and that neither had their predecessors sought to be 

 legislators, by the introdu6l:ion of a more exquisite taste in the 

 sciences, nor could the university presume to become the au- 

 thor of new methods when that of Alcala asserted, at the 

 above time, that the study of Roman jurisprudence ought 

 to be the first obje6b of those who devote themselves to the 

 laws :" at that very epoch, we say, the academy of St. Mark 

 adopted the new plan of studies which had been drawn up for 

 their better regulation. Free from the decay by which many 

 other seminaries of learning have been obscured, it has pre- 

 served a brilliant succession of eminent subjedls in all the fa- 

 culties. The list of them would be immense ; and the works 

 with which they have enlightened the public, would form a 

 colle6lion of no small consideration. 



If many of the excellent proda6lions of American genius 

 have remained buried in oblivion, without having, through 

 the medium of printing, obtained the recompense of fame, 

 it was, in past times, the efFe6l of the impossibility of defray- 

 ing the expences, combined wuth the risks attendant on their 

 conveyance to Europe* ; and at all times that of the distance 



which 



* Father Melendez, in the introduflion to his Tesoro verdadero de Indias (real 

 treasure of the Indies), speaking of the MS. work, entitled, *' Description and 

 Population of the Kingdoms of Peru," by Reginaldo de Lizarraga, bishop of Chile, 

 vyhich, having been sent to Madrid to be printed, was denied that advantage, through 

 the neglefl of the person ia whose possession it was, remarks as follows : " Such 

 are the risks incurred by the unfortunate writers of South America, who send their 

 books to be printed in Spain, that the correspondents retain the money, theirs being 



the 



