PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



481 



advantages of education, there is something in their home- 

 life SO restricted, so shut out from natural contact with ex- 

 ternal influences, that this in itself tends to cripple their 

 development. Their amusements are as meagre and scanty 

 as their means of instruction. 



In writing these things I but echo the thought of many 

 intelligent Brazilians, who lament a social evil which they 

 do not well know how to reform. If among our Brazilian 

 friends there are some who, familiar with the more pro- 

 gressive aspect of life in Rio de Janeiro, question the 

 accuracy of my statements, I can only say that they do 

 not know the condition of society in the northern cities 

 and provinces. Among my own sex, I have never seen 

 such sad lives as became known to me there, — lives de- 

 prived of healthy, invigorating happiness, and intolerably 

 monotonous, — a negative suffering, having its source, it is 

 true, in the absence of enjoyment rather than in the pres- 

 ence of positive evils, but all the more to be deplored be- 

 cause so stagnant and inactive. 



Behind all defects in methods of instruction, there lies a 

 fault of domestic education, to be lamented throughout 

 Brazil. This is the constant association with black ser- 

 vants, and, worse still, with negro children, of whom there 

 are usually a number in every house. Whether the low 

 and vicious habits of the negroes are the result of slavery 

 or not, they cannot be denied ; and it is singular to see 

 persons, otherwise careful and conscientious about their 

 children, allowing them to live in the constant companion- 

 ship of their blacks, waited upon by the older ones, play- 

 ing all day with the younger ones. It shows how blind we 

 may become, by custom, to the most palpable dangers. A 

 stranger observes at once the evil results of this contact 



21 EE 



