Very few writers upon Argentina refer to the subject of religion at all, and those who do give very scanty information. There are in existence several good-sized works which make not the faintest allusion to the Church. And yet one would have thought that the subject possessed some general importance, or, at any rate, that in a daughter State of Spain and one of the great fields of Jesuit labour there was room for a few remarks upon the relations of the Church to the State and people, and also upon the general religious and moral conditions of Argentina.

The Spanish conquerors of South America were zealous crusaders, as eager to add subjects to the Kingdom of Christ as to add territory to the estates of their earthly sovereign. During the process of conquest they displayed few Christian virtues, but in the Plate districts, where they were not demoralised by lust of gold, their proceedings were relatively good, and, in general, when Spanish America was settled, the masters were anxious to do their duty by their servants according to their lights and if they were negligent in attending to the religious and material welfare of the Indians, their negligence was speedily rebuked by the home authorities. One of the conditions of holding land was an undertaking to educate the Indians and teach them Christianity. The wise and good Las Casas laid down on the subject of the conversion and treatment of the Indians Thirty Propositions,[82] two of which may be given in substance: "The means for establishing the Faith in the Indies should be the same as those by which Christ introduced His religion into the world—mild, peaceable, and charitable; humility; good examples of a holy and regular way of living, especially over such docile and easy subjects; and presents bestowed to win them. Attempts by force of arms are impious, like those of Mahometans, Romans, Turks, and Moors; they are tyrannical, and unworthy of Christians, calling out blasphemies; and they have already made the Indians believe that our God is the most unmerciful and cruel of all gods."

The rough Spanish soldiers of fortune, as might have been expected, recked little of such principles, and some of the priests were little better than their flock, for Father Valverde is said to have instigated Pizarro to the treacherous and cruel arrest of Atahuallpa. But the principles adopted both by spiritual and temporal powers were those of justice and mercy, as far as the circumstances permitted, and thus there was implanted in the new settlements something of the crusading spirit which was engendered in Spain by the struggle with the Moors. The pioneer in forest or plain was not merely amassing land and wealth for himself; there was a spiritual harvest, and as he received new lands, he had new duties in religious administration and protection. Thus the Spanish religious fervour was nourished in the overseas dominions.

The religious spirit was handed down unimpaired from father to son until the time of the Revolution. The question as to whether the power of the Church was beneficial or not is a matter of controversy, and travellers have uttered the most various opinions, but few candid men will deny that the Jesuits performed a noble task which could have been carried out by no other human power, and the disparaging remarks which are found in many notebooks are usually due to the cant of irreligion that was common among the Englishmen of the time between the French Revolution and the Oxford Movement. On a subject which does not interest them they say, without having troubled to make inquiries, what they would say about any Roman Catholic country or what some freethinking acquaintance in Buenos Aires has told them.

With the Revolution came a great shock to the faith of the people, and the same principles that undermined their faith undermined their loyalty. The philosophers of France ever urged that the Church must be overthrown before there could be any progress, and the priests ever fought against their doctrines as destructive to all religion. Consequently the male population of Buenos Aires formed habits of mind[83] which they have by no means entirely shaken off at the present day. Apathy towards religion or even absolute hostility is by no means uncommon, and perhaps in well-to-do houses it is generally true that the women go to church and the men stay away. And yet it would not be true to describe the nation as irreligious on the whole. Materialism has, no doubt, to some extent corrupted the upper classes; they devote themselves to business and pleasure and ignore the things of the spirit. But the churches are crowded with men as well as women, and it is certain that the poor love the Church and doubtless find the priests their best friends. Cordoba and Mendoza are looked upon as the cities where the Church is strongest, but its general hold upon the masses is possibly almost as strong as ever. Intellectually it is weak; few of the better-class Argentines will take priests' orders, and nearly all the prelates are foreigners. Beyond a doubt, in Spanish America there is an unexampled field for a devout missionary; the foe is merely apathy, and if a warmer spirit were breathed into the Church in Argentina, and if the clergy paid more attention to the intellectual side of their calling, the results would be remarkable. But if the religious indifference spreads downwards, Argentina, like France, may see her population dwindle, and her army decay, and may be prevented from taking a high position among world Powers.

Statistically, there can be no doubt that Argentina belongs unreservedly to Rome; only the merest fraction, perhaps forty thousand, of the population is outside that Church. In 1895 there were sixty-eight Reformed Churches, but of these twenty-five belonged to the Welsh colonists at Chubut. There were 1,019 Roman Catholic churches, or one to every four thousand inhabitants. The prevailing religion is also the State religion, but all others are tolerated. There is an archbishop at Buenos Aires and eight suffragan bishops, including one for Paraguay.

Education has not made remarkable strides in Argentina, for exactly half of the people over six years of age are illiterate. In 1885 some 25 per cent. of the children of school-going age attended school, and in 1904 the percentage had only risen to 45, and of these only a fraction could read or write. The defects of primary education[84] are comparatively unimportant, for the country needs agriculturists rather than clerks, and when the peasants really desire instruction they will not be long in obtaining it. But indifferent University and secondary education are the curse of Latin America. Beyond anything else Argentina requires a real aristocracy—a large, cultivated, and public-spirited upper class—and this class, owing chiefly to defective education, is now very small. There are at Cordoba and Buenos Aires national Universities, and provincial Universities at La Plata, Santa FÉ, and Parana. But the unfortunate materialism is not eradicated by these institutions, which, in Latin America, are too often merely bread-winning concerns, which neglect humane studies because they are "useless." If the Holy See would encourage the foundation of a religious University, the country would benefit in every way.

Secondary education (it is difficult to obtain up-to-date figures) does not appear to have been particularly flourishing in 1905. There were 16 lyceums, 450 professors, and 4,103 pupils. There were also 35 normal schools with 2,011 pupils. It is, of course, a common practice for wealthy parents to send their children to Europe to be educated, and perhaps, under the circumstances, that is the best course. But with a sound and liberal course of studies and good moral and religious discipline, the young might be kept in the country till they had completed their University career, and then sent for a short residence abroad. There is a temptation that besets cultivated Argentines, who are the most necessary to the welfare of their country, to seek diplomatic posts or some duties that will take them abroad. Most of the distinguished authors publish in Madrid or Paris, and thus there is an intellectual and moral drain which would be checked if the system of education were improved.

As regards primary education, there were in 1905, 5,250 schools, 14,118 teachers, and 543,881 pupils. The average attendance was 408,069. Considering that in 1899 about one million sterling was spent upon education, and that for a generation Argentina has spent probably more per head upon each school-child than any other country except Australia, the results are by no means satisfactory, and, like all new nations, the Argentines require to learn the lesson that learning and enlightenment cannot be obtained by money or bricks and mortar.[85]

As regards the journalism of Argentina, it would be difficult to speak too highly of the two principal daily newspapers, La Nacion and La Prensa. La Nacion may perhaps claim the front place. It is the oldest daily journal in Buenos Aires, dating from 1852, and it was long under the influence of General Bartolome Mitre, for, as a French writer[86] remarks, no politician can succeed[163]
[164] without a newspaper, and no newspaper can hope to obtain much influence without the support of a politician. It has a circulation of about ninety thousand. The paper is on a very large scale and full of matter; its tone is admirable, the ability of the leading articles is remarkable, and the literary pages, which are lavishly provided, reach a very high standard indeed. Hardly second to La Nacion is La Prensa, which has offices, situated in the Avenida de Mayo, said to be more splendid than anything of the kind in existence. It is not as old as its rival, dating from about 1872, and it may be described as being of much the same size and scope as the Daily Telegraph, but rather more attention is given to literary style. Sobriety and moderation, as well as great ability, are its characteristics. It is the property of Dr. JosÉ C. Paz, who is said to have made a large fortune by it.

El Diario is an enterprising evening paper, and has a very large circulation. The journal possessed of the largest circulation of all (said to approach two hundred thousand) is La Argentina, which appeals more to the man in the street. Other Spanish dailies are El Pais, El Tiempo, La Razon, El Diario de Comercio, and El Correo EspaÑol.

There is a French daily, Le Courier de la Plata, and several German and Italian. At the same office as La Argentina is printed the Standard, an old English newspaper of high repute. This was founded in 1861 by the Mulhalls—an honoured name in Buenos Aires—and besides being extensively read by English residents, it has considerable influence with the authorities. Very similar in appearance and scope, but less influential, is the Buenos Aires Herald, another English daily paper, the property of Mr. Thomas Bell.

The provincial towns have also meritorious journals, but they are, of course, overshadowed by those of the capital. The daily press of Argentina is perhaps the most elevating influence in the country. It is a really useful daily help, containing a splendid assortment of foreign telegrams, and news and dissertations to suit the most varying tastes. While conducted with unflagging enterprise and commercially very valuable, as is shown by the interminable columns of closely printed advertisements, it is honourably free from the sensation-mongering and vulgarity which is rampant in the United States and which has, to some extent, infected our own daily newspapers.

Among weekly periodicals the Review of London and the River Plate, which deals principally with industrial and economic subjects, is a high-class publication, and the Standard has a weekly edition. There are several other weekly and monthly journals, and there are numerous comic papers,[87] but few periodicals deal exclusively with literature or special subjects. These matters, however, are treated so generously in the daily organs that it may be supposed that there is little opening for one-subject journals. After all, the circulation of the dailies is very large when we consider the limited population. It is curious to notice how entirely cut off each South American Republic is from the other. In Buenos Aires it is difficult to procure a Brazilian, Uruguayan, or Chilian newspaper, and the commercial intercourse is astonishingly small. For example, the trade of Argentina with Holland is more than twice as large as her trade with Chile.

As is frequently the case with periodical literature, some of its most valuable instances are to be found among the defunct publications. Prominent among these is the Nueva Revista de Buenos Aires, which only lived from 1881-1885. It was edited by SeÑor V. G. Quesada and Dr. Ernesto Quesada, and, as a monthly review, chiefly literary, but also dealing with politics, history, and philosophy, it was a work of the highest excellence. Nearly all the articles are signed, and most of the eminent Argentine men of letters of those days have either written or been reviewed in its pages. Another good magazine, which lived from 1871-1874 was the Revista del Rio de La Plata. This dealt with the same subjects, but was more historical than literary. In Buenos Aires 189 newspapers are published. Of Spanish there are 154, Italian 14, German 8, English 6, and the others are Scandinavian, French, Basque, and Russian.

The excellent journalism of Argentina has not, as yet, developed into literature of a class correspondingly high. Those who deal with the literature of a new country usually strike an apologetic note, and their main stumbling-block is the absence of originality, for it has to be admitted that the poets and romancers of the young nations are too often mere craftsmen imitating old European models. This admission has to be made in the case of Argentina, but in other respects her literature may well stand forth on its own merits; the artists are not imported but American-born, and though they may not have produced an indigenous literature, yet their creations are European with a difference. They are Spanish American, not Spanish, and those of Argentina are quite distinct in tone from those of their kinsmen on the same continent.

A foreigner has considerable difficulty in dealing with the literature of a country whose publications are little studied in Europe, and apparently little information can be gathered except from the actual writers. It is, therefore, necessary to begin with Dr. Ernesto Quesada, whose ReseÑas y Criticas (Buenos Aires, 1893) is a mine of information.

He remarks in the Preface: "In Europe the creations of the mind are kept, polished, revised, accomplished, and completed for publication very slowly and with tender care: in America we look upon writing as a mere incident, and though we may as far as possible do it with the long study and the great love of which the poet spoke, we do not boast ourselves of it, or, perhaps, keep a record. Our life draws us to action and into such strange vicissitudes that it is not possible to see what to-morrow will bring." There is, then, an amateurish air about Argentine literature; it has at present more grace than strength. The writer has been before the public for more than thirty years. "Un Invierno en Russia," a book of travel, was published in 1888, and long before that he produced a youthful work on Juvenal and Persius—an unusual subject, for Latin Americans usually look upon the study of Latin and Greek as waste of time. Dr. Quesada has also written on political and ecclesiastical subjects. In the first-mentioned book of essays he deals with the poetry, history, and jurisprudence of his native land, as well as the Latin-American Congress, the Argentine Universities, the intellectual movement in Argentina, and a number of other subjects which are exactly those upon which a thoughtful observer of a foreign country desires information.

Cultured Argentines have devoted considerable attention to history; their nation has played a great part in the revolutionary wars; they are proud of it and demand chroniclers. Mention must first be made of Dean Funes, who lived in the days of the Revolution and whose "Ensayo de la Historia Civil del Paraguay, Buenos Ayres y Tucuman" is, to one who wants a comprehensive view of Argentine history, the most valuable work upon the subject. Upon the Revolution itself General Bartolome Mitre is the best authority, and D. F. Sarmiento has written well upon the troubled times of the mid-century, but in general English and French works deal with the history of modern Argentina quite as satisfactorily as do her own writers.

Undoubtedly it is in jurisprudence, particularly in International Law, that writers of this country have accomplished most original work. Prominent among her publicists is Carlos Calvo (1824-1893) who lived chiefly abroad in pursuit of his diplomatic career. In 1868 he published in Paris his "Derecho internacional teorico y practico de Europa y America," which was at once translated into French and took place as one of the highest modern authorities on the subject. Calvo observes: "I have called my work 'The International Law of Europe and America in Theory and Practice,' because I am endeavouring in it to make amends for the neglect of my predecessors and contemporaries who have almost entirely omitted to deal with the vast American continent, which nevertheless is growing daily in influence and power and marching side by side with the civilisation of Europe." The book is a minute analysis of the principles and practice of International Law and is specially valuable on account of its historical treatment and copious instances. Calvo also did good service to Argentine history by his collection of documents, but his eminence is in the field of International Law, and he is one of the very few Latin-American authors who have won a world-wide reputation.

While Calvo has surpassed all other South Americans in the importance of his contribution to the theory of International Law, Dr. Luis Maria Drago has done the same as regards the practice. Towards the close of 1902 England, Germany, and Italy had blockaded the coast of Venezuela on account of certain grievances. On December 29, 1902, Dr. Drago, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, despatched a note to the Argentine Minister in Washington. He maintained that no European State was entitled to intervene by force in the affairs of an American nation, still less to occupy its territory, in order to recover a debt due from its Government to the subjects of the intervening State, such intervention being an infringement of the sovereignty of the debtor State and of the principle of the equality of the sovereign States.[88] This doctrine, though never precisely stated, had been foreshadowed by Calvo. It has been pointed out[89] that the blockade of 1902 was not originally instituted on account of Venezuela's failure to pay debts, but to obtain redress for outrages inflicted upon the subjects of the blockading Powers, that Venezuela had refused the suggestion of arbitration, that Dr. Drago misunderstood the Venezuelan question, and that the Powers never intended permanently to occupy any part of Venezuela. Further, Mr. Hay, in his reply to Dr. Drago, said: "The President declared in his Message to Congress, December 3, 1901, that by the Munroe Doctrine 'we do not guarantee any State against punishment if it misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of the acquisition of territory by any non-American Power.'" Although the practice, against which the Drago Doctrine protests is liable to be abused, it would hardly be prudent on the part of European Powers nor conducive to progress in backward States, if the right of collecting debts were surrendered altogether; and this view was taken at the Hague Conference of 1907. It adopted the Drago Doctrine in a modified form, providing that force must not be used for the recovery of ordinary public debts originating in contracts, but the prohibition was not to apply if the debtor State refused or ignored an offer of arbitration, obstructed the process, or repudiated the decision. The resolution was adopted by thirty-nine votes. There were five abstentions, including Venezuela, which had no liking for the modifications. This tangible addition to the public law of the world, which was one of the few successes of the Conference, was a great personal triumph for Dr. Drago, who was then the Argentine Delegate to the Conference. There have been many other meritorious Argentine writers on legal subjects of all kinds, as well as commercial and economic, but this account of two great names must suffice.

After the splendid achievements of Argentina in jurisprudence, the work of her writers in more purely literary fields may appear to be eclipsed. But in the charming branch of essay-writing many good authors have appeared, and these were mostly trained in the excellent periodicals of a quarter of a century ago and upwards. Prominent among these is Martin Garcia MÉrou, who will also claim notice as a poet. He is an author of long standing, having first appeared before the public in 1880 with a volume of poems which was published at Barcelona. As before remarked, it is a practice of many Argentine writers to publish in Paris or Madrid in preference to Buenos Aires, and indeed the influence of Spain upon Argentine literature is now quite as strong as that of England used to be upon the United States. It was at Madrid that Garcia published, in 1884, an acute critical work, "Estudios Literarios" and also "Impresiones," a book of travel, but since then he has reverted to Buenos Aires. One of his most spirited works appeared there in 1900, "El Brasil Intelectual," which is a rich storehouse of information about a country which is perhaps somewhat neglected by Argentines. Garcia has a deservedly high reputation among his countrymen, and has been warmly praised by Dr. Ernesto Quesada. Among this class of writer J. M. Gutierrez has done valuable editorial and critical work, and some have held that he is the most eminent man of letters, in the ordinary sense of the word, who has appeared in Argentina. M. Daireaux[90] remarks caustically: "He knew no joys but those of literature; he had all the traditional American curiosity, he made researches in the chronicles and caused them to live again, he re-discovered all the thoughts of the greatest men of the world, and illuminated them with the powerful rays of his gigantic intellect. But withal, as he was not a politician with influence at his disposal, nor a lawyer with a numerous group of clients around him, as he had nothing but a great soul, he occupied in society but a humble rank. I used to speak of him with men who appreciated him, and I never drew from them more than a shrug and this word of pity: 'What would you have? He is a literary man!' They did not even say a member of the literary profession; the profession did not exist, was not classed; he was only a literary man—not even, as they say in France, a man of letters." The writer adds that the profession is now recognised in Buenos Aires.

Still, in spite of his capacious intellect, Gutierrez can hardly be looked upon as occupying the first place among the men of letters of Argentina, because he produced little original work.

Prose fiction now fills a very prominent place in the literature of almost every nation, and Argentina is no exception to the rule, but it cannot be said that her writers possess any great distinction. Dr. Quesada considers that JosÉ Marmol, distinguished in other branches of literature, was the best of the early novelists. In 1851 he published a spirited romance named "Amalia," somewhat after the style of the elder Dumas. It can hardly be called historical, for the scene is laid in 1840 and the subject is the tyranny of Rosas, but the author declares that he wishes to describe for the benefit of future generations, the Argentine dictatorship, and that therefore he has treated in a historical manner actual living persons. The book was a success, but Marmol does not appear to have followed it up.

In 1884 Carlos Maria Ocantos published a juvenile work, "La Cruz de la Falta," which was recognised as showing considerable promise, and in 1888 appeared "Leon Saldivar," which was hailed as a national novel. This writer, who, like most Argentine authors, is a diplomatist by profession and a man of letters by temperament, does not follow the trend of Argentine fiction, which is towards historical romances. He is a realist, and "Leon Saldivar" is a powerful study of Argentine life, and particularly life at the capital. The more spiritual people of the city were beginning to complain of it as a noisy, overgrown place, devoted to money-grubbing, and indeed its poets and philosophers in general made haste to quit it for a more favourable atmosphere, and often did not even pay it the compliment of allowing it to publish their works. Ocantos strove to elicit the romance of Buenos Aires as Dickens found out the romance of London. He continued this vein with a still more powerful and sombre work, "Quilito," in 1891. The two writers here briefly noticed illustrate the imitative character of the Argentine novel—the first looks to Dumas, the second to Zola.

Many critics think that the strongest Argentine novel which has yet appeared is "La Gloria de Don Ramiro," published at Madrid in 1908. The author, Sr. Enrique Larreta, lays his plot in the times of Philip II. of Spain, and stirring scenes are described with great verve. The musings of a boy, when his intellect is expanding and his head full of the books he has last read, are always a tempting theme for romancers, and the following passage, in the spirit of "the days of our youth are the days of our glory," reflects the glow of boyish dreams:—

"Fascinated by his books, Ramirio began to imagine himself the hero of the story. He was in turn Julius CÆsar, the Cid, the Great Captain, Cortes, Don Juan of Austria. To take up the Commentaries was to lead the legions across Gaul, but, on the Ides of March, more sagacious than the Dictator, he discovered the treachery of Junius Brutus and, concealing a sword under his toga, he entered the Senate House and slew the conspirators one by one. He conquered the Moors on countless fields, he offered to Spain the kingdom of Naples or the empire of Montezuma, and finally, planting his foot on the prow of a strange ship, he destroyed for ever the whole Turkish fleet, at a new and marvellous Lepanto, which his imagination evoked from the prints. The result was that he began to deem himself chosen by God to carry on the tradition of deathless fame. He put away from his mental view the mediocre, the commonplace, the humdrum. All that was not impulsive and heroic seemed intolerable, for he felt in himself an absolute confidence of winning at a blow the highest honours and becoming, in a short time, one of the foremost knights of the Catholic Faith on earth."

The book is in many ways one of the most remarkable works of the imagination that has been created by an Argentine and Sr. Larreta writes pure and nervous Spanish.

Last comes a branch of literature which is probably the most popular, and certainly the most esteemed, in Spanish America, which takes mediocre poets far more seriously than did Horace, or, indeed, than is the habit of the more stolid East. A somewhat sardonic French traveller[91] lately remarked: "Spanish America has only one thought—love. And love has given to it the one art which it practises, if not in perfection at least in abundance inexhaustible—lyric poetry. It appears that Peru and Colombia and Guatemala possess great poets.... Being a foreigner, I cannot judge about their greatness, but I can see that they are numerous, indeed innumerable. Not a newspaper but contains every morning poems, and their invariable burden is the passion of love. The eyes, the teeth, the lips, the hair, the hands and feet of the American misses are here, one by one, compared to all the beauties of earth and sky. The warmth of sentiment is undoubted, but the expression lacks originality."

There seems, indeed, to be an inexhaustible demand for a kind of verse which a foreigner has a great difficulty in judging, owing to difference in national temperaments and, perhaps still more, differences in national ages. A thousand years makes a great difference in a nation's point of view, and much that seems fresh and beautiful to the younger people is hackneyed and tedious to the older. The poetry of Argentina and, it is said, of all Latin America, appears to be erotic or spasmodic, or both. It is pretty, but it has not sufficient freshness to conquer a hearing in the great world.

But the earliest work with which we need deal is an anonymous anthology, which forms an exception to the general rule. In 1823 some patriot, by a happy inspiration, collected the snatches of song which the revolutionists had composed and by which they marched to victory, and these form a substantial volume—"La Lira Argentina." It consists of a great number of poems, mostly short—"Marcha patriotica," "Oda" (por la victoria de Suipacha), "Cancion patriotica," "Cancion Heroica," "A La Excelentisima Junta," "Marcha Patriotica" ("Long live our country free from chains, and long live her sons to defend her"), "Marcha Nacional Oriental," and the like. They are full of fire and simple art; they are really a noble national memorial and worth a wilderness of love lyrics. But this view has not been developed, although one would suppose that Argentina, with its mountains and Pampas, deserved better local poetry of manhood and adventure than the rude songs of the Gauchos.

Marmol (1818-1873), already referred to as a novelist, in some way carries on the patriotic tradition, for in 1838 he was thrown by Rosas into a dungeon, and inscribed with a burnt stick the following quatrain on the walls of his prison:—

He managed to survive and became a busy man of letters and subsequently Director of the National Library. Marmol wrote a good many love poems, but he is more remarkable for having attempted a field which seems to have little attraction for his countrymen. He wrote at least two poetical dramas, "El Cruzado" and "El Poeta," the first historical, the second a modern comedy. He is a sound and conscientious literary craftsman, and the literary world of Buenos Aires looks back to him with profound respect. He seems to have approached nearer to the type of the professional man of letters than is common in Argentina.

The other poets are extremely numerous, and it is not necessary to particularise them. With them it is always the hour of night, and the same question always arises: "Why do you come to disturb my calm, image of that being whom I adore, image of that being, for whom alas! I weep, for whom I consume away and die of love?" The quotation in question happens to be from a Colombian poet, but the note is always the same; there is too little distinctiveness about the poets of Argentina to require detailed treatment. The short-lived Adolfo MitrÉ, who was highly praised for his sincerity and passion, or Sr. Martin Garcia MÉrou may stand as types of the rest.

Garcia MÉrou, besides being a poet, is an elegant essayist—already noticed—a good historian, and has shown himself highly appreciative of the work of brother poets. It is, perhaps, to the amateurish state of Argentine literature, which does not engender professional jealousy, that the pleasant comradeship and apparent lack of literary squabbles are due. Garcia MÉrou published many volumes of poems of the usual type in the eighties. In 1891 appeared a different kind of work, "Cuadros Epicos," short poems dealing with various scenes in Spanish-American history. "El Mar de Balboa" is impressive.

The things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme are still the best part of Argentine literature; in new countries material fruit precedes intellectual blossom. This is inevitable in such cases, for it is necessary to live before it is possible to write, and literature is at every disadvantage owing to the scantiness and preoccupation of the people. Prosperity may probably continue to blunt the literary sense, for national dangers and terrors, such as called forth the Elizabethan literature and the Romantic Revival in England, or the modest "Lira Argentina," are unlikely, and the education system, which despises Latin and Greek—i.e., literature—does not foster good writers. The matter must be left to time and events. The people of Argentina are practical, and their literary wants are well supplied in the shape of all that the practical man wants. There are excellent and useful writings on law, adequate histories, lucid essays, a few novels, and, above all, a most excellent press, which last probably forms his complete substitute for a library. He wants no more. Possibly that absence of wants is the most serious want of all; a life that can be satisfied by craftsman, cook, or groom, is at least incomplete, and it may be that earth has something better to show than fat cattle, corn, grapes, or even dollars. These things have not been the distinguishing products of nations in the past which are now inscribed upon the rolls of fame, and, however materialistic men become, such things will not even now hand a nation on to all futurity. The literature of Argentina, though creditable, is by no means on a scale proportionate to her present position among nations.