PERIODICAL WORKS. 



301 



Father Olavarrieta, aware that the abundance of good and 

 bad criticisms with which Europe has been inundated, were 

 not, on account of the diversity of circumstances, adaptable 

 to the civil and domestic system of the country he had newly 

 chosen for his residence, the defedts of which required a par- 

 ticular demonstration, in the same way as the physical mala- 

 dies of each climate demand a distinct remedy, proposed to 

 himself to apply the valuable departments of criticism to the 

 particular objects and occupations of the capital of Peru. His 

 a6five genius, and profound literary attainments, genercdly 

 admitted by the philosophers of Europe, eminently qualified 

 him for this undertaking, in announcing which, the editor of 

 the Mercury makes this observation: "Lima has at length 

 placed itself on a footing with Mexico, at the time of the 

 greatest splendour of the latter city, by possessing a Diary, a 

 Mercury, and a Weekly Critic. If these three papers should 

 alike meet with a flattering encouragement, a new author 

 may perhaps one day present himself on the literary theatre, 

 to propose the idea of publishing the essence, or spirit, of the 

 best periodical papers of Lima." 



At Santa Fc, a weekly journal was set on foot at the com- 

 mencement of the month of February, 1791, under the simple 

 title of the " Periodical Paper of Santa Fe de Bogota," and 

 bearing the Latin device, from Livy: Communis utilitas societa- 

 tis maxhnimi est v'mculum. In the prelimiinary article of the 

 first number, intended as a prospe£lus, the author employs 

 the following short episode, to shew the principles of the feli- 

 city of man : "Of the three philosophies, the political, which 

 leads us to the knowledge of the government of nations, the 

 moral, which influences the regularity of our customs, and the 



3 A econo- 



