498 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



truth is that all steady progress in Brazil dates from her 

 declaration of independence, and that is a very recent fact 

 in her history. Since she has passed from colonial to na- 

 tional life her relations with other countries have enlarged, 

 antiquated prejudices have been effaced^ and with a more 

 intense individual existence she has assumed also a more 

 cosmopolitan breadth of ideas. But a political revolution 

 is more rapidly accomplished than the remoulding of the 

 nation which is its result, — its consequence rather than 

 its accompaniment. Even now, after half a century of in- 

 dependent existence, intellectual progress in Brazil is man- 

 ifested rather as a tendency, a desire, so to speak, giving 

 a progressive movement to society, than as a positive fact. 

 The intellectual life of a nation when fully developed has 

 its material existence in large and various institutions 

 of learning, scattered throughout the country. Except in 

 a very limited and local sense, this is not yet the case in 

 Brazil. 



I did not visit San Paolo, and I cannot therefore speak 

 from personal observation of the Faculty which stands 

 highest in general estimation ; I can, however, testify to 

 the sound learning and liberal culture of many of its 

 graduates whom it has been my good fortune to know, 

 and whose characters as gentlemen and as students bear 

 testimony to the superior instruction they have received at 

 the hands of their Alma Mater. I was told that the best 

 schools, after those of San Paolo, were those of Bahia and 

 Pernambuco. I did not visit them, as my time was too 

 short ; but I should think that the presence of the proffis- 

 sional faculties established in both these cities would tend 

 to raise the character of the lower grades of education. 

 The regular faculties embrace only medical and legal 



