This was our final excursion in Brazil. The next morning we returned to the city; and the few remaining days were spent in preparations for departure, and in bidding farewell to the friends who had made Rio de Janeiro almost like a home to us. Among the pleasant incidents of this last week, was a breakfast given by Mr. Ledgerwood, who was then conducting the business of the American legation in the temporary absence of our Minister, General Webb. This occasion, at which Mr. Agassiz was invited to meet several members of the Brazilian administration, gave him an opportunity of expressing his sense of their uniform kindness and consideration in furthering to the utmost the scientific objects which had brought him to Brazil. On the following day (the 2d of July), we sailed for the United States, carrying with us to our northern home a store of pleasant memories and vivid pictures to enrich our life hereafter with tropical warmth and color.
CHAPTER XVI.
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL.
Religion and Clergy.—Education.—Law, Medical, and Scientific Schools.—High and Common Schools.—Public Library and Museum in Rio de Janeiro.—Historical and Geographical Institute.—Social and Domestic Relations.—Public Functionaries.—Agriculture.—Zones of Vegetation.—Coffee.—Cotton.—Timber and other Products of the Amazons.—Cattle.—Territorial Subdivision of the Great Valley.—Emigration.—Foreigners.—Paraguayan War.
I cannot close this book, written for the most part by another hand, without a few words as to my general impressions of Brazil. No one will expect from me an essay on the social and political aspects of the whole country, even had I remained there long enough to acquire the right of judgment on these matters. I am so unaccustomed to dealing with them that my opinions would be entitled to little weight. There is, however, another point of view, more general, but perhaps more comprehensive also, from which every intelligent man may form an estimate of the character of a people which, if sincere, will be in the main sound and just, without including an intimate knowledge of their institutions, or the practical working of their laws. My scientific life has brought me into relations with a world wholly unknown to me before; under conditions more favorable than were possible for my predecessors in the same region, I have studied this tropical nature, so rich, so grandiose, so instructive; I have seen a great Empire founded in the midst of unlimited material resources, and advancing to higher civilization under the inspiration of a sovereign as enlightened as he is humane. I must have been blind to everything except my science, had I not a word to say of Brazil as a nation,—of her present condition and her future prospects.
There is much that is discouraging in the aspect of Brazil, even for those who hope and believe as I do, that she has before her an honorable and powerful career. There is much also that is very cheering, that leads me to believe that her life as a nation will not belie her great gifts as a country. Should her moral and intellectual endowments grow into harmony with her wonderful natural beauty and wealth, the world will not have seen a fairer land. At present there are several obstacles to this progress; obstacles which act like a moral disease upon the people. Slavery still exists among them. It is true that it is on the wane; true that it has received a mortal blow; but the natural death of slavery is a lingering illness, wasting and destroying the body it has attacked. Next to this I would name, among the influences unfavorable to progress, the character of the clergy. In saying this I disclaim any reference to the national religion. It is of the character of the clergy I speak, not of the church they represent. Whatever be the church organization in a country where instruction is still so intimately linked with a state religion as it is in Brazil, it is of infinite importance that the clergy themselves should not only be men of high moral character, but of studious, thoughtful lives. They are the teachers of the people, and as long as they believe that the mind can be fed with tawdry street processions, with lighted candles, and cheap bouquets; and as long as the people accept this kind of instruction, they will be debased and enfeebled by it. Shows of this kind are of almost daily occurrence in all the large cities of Brazil. They interfere with the ordinary occupations, and make working days the exception rather than the rule. It must be remembered that in Brazil there is no laborious, cultivated class of priests, such as have been an honor to ecclesiastical literature in the Old World; there are no fine institutions of learning connected with the Church. As a general thing, the ignorance of the clergy is universal, their immorality patent, their influence very extensive and deep-rooted. There are honorable exceptions, but they are not numerous enough to elevate the class to which they belong. But if their private life is open to blame, the Brazilian priests are distinguished for their patriotism. At all times they have occupied high public stations, serving in the Legislative Assembly, in the Senate, and even nearer to the throne; yet their power has never been exerted in favor of Ultramontane tendencies. Independent religious thought seems, however, rare in Brazil. There may perhaps be scepticism; but I think this is not likely to be extensively the case, for the Brazilians are instinctively a believing people, tending rather to superstition than to doubt. Oppression in matters of faith is contrary to the spirit of their institutions. Protestant clergymen are allowed to preach freely; but, as a general thing, Protestantism does not attract the Southern nations, and it may be doubted whether its advocates will have a very wide-spread success. However this may be, every friend to Brazil must wish to see its present priesthood replaced by a more vigorous, intelligent, and laborious clergy.
In order to form a just estimate of the present condition of education in Brazil, and its future prospects, we must not consider it altogether from our own stand-point. The 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 national 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 independent existence, intellectual progress in Brazil is manifested 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 professional 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 studies. The instruction in both is thorough, though perhaps limited; at least I felt that, in the former, in which my own studies have prepared me to judge, those accessory branches which, after all, lie at the foundation of a superior medical education, are either wanting or are taught very imperfectly. Neither zoölogy, comparative anatomy, botany, physics, nor chemistry is allowed sufficient weight in the medical schools. The education is one rather of books than of facts. Indeed, as long as the prejudice against manual labor of all kinds exists in Brazil, practical instruction will be deficient; as long as students of nature think it unbecoming a gentleman to handle his own specimens, to carry his own geological hammer, to make his own scientific preparations, he will remain a mere dilettante in investigation. He may be very familiar with recorded facts, but he will make no original researches. On this account, and on account of their personal indolence, field studies are foreign to Brazilian habits. Surrounded as they are by a nature rich beyond comparison, their naturalists are theoretical rather than practical. They know more of the bibliography of foreign science than of the wonderful fauna and flora with which they are surrounded.
Of the schools and colleges in Rio de Janeiro I have more right to judge than of those above mentioned. Several of them are excellent. The Ecole Centrale deserves a special notice. It corresponds to what we call a scientific school, and nowhere in Brazil have I seen an educational institution where improved methods of teaching were so highly appreciated and so generally adopted. The courses of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and the natural sciences are comprehensive and thorough. And yet even in this institution I was struck with the scantiness of means for practical illustration and experiment; its professors do not yet seem to understand that it is impossible to teach any of the physical sciences wholly or mainly from text-books. The facilities granted to pupils in this school, and perhaps still more in the military school, are very great. The instruction is entirely gratuitous, and in the military school the students are not only fed and clothed, etc.; they are even paid for their attendance, being considered as belonging to the army from the time they enter the school.
The Dom Pedro Segundo College is the best school of that class I have seen in Brazil. It may be compared to our New England high schools, and fully deserves the reputation it enjoys.
Of the common schools I saw little. Of course, in a country where the population is sparsely scattered over very extensive districts, it must be difficult to gather the children in schools, outside of the large cities. Where such schools have been organized the instruction is gratuitous; but competent teachers are few, the education very limited, and the means of instruction scanty. Reading, writing, and ciphering, with the least possible smattering of geography, form the groundwork of all these schools. The teachers labor under great difficulties, because they have not the strong support of the community. There is little general appreciation of the importance of education as the basis without which all higher civilization is impossible. I have, however, noticed throughout Brazil a disposition to give a practical education, a training in some trade, to the poor children. Establishments of this kind exist in almost all the larger cities. This is a good sign; it shows that they attach a proper value to labor, at least for the lower classes, and aim at raising a working population. In these schools blacks and whites are, so to speak, industrially united. Indeed, there is no antipathy of race to be overcome in Brazil, either among the laboring people or in the higher walks of life. I was pleased to see pupils, without distinction of race or color, mingling in the exercises.