Despite every precaution, the colonists had succeeded in educating
themselves up to a certain point; moreover, a number of them, flinging
restrictions to the wind, had now begun to travel abroad, and had
visited European centres. These sons of the New World had adapted
themselves admirably to the conditions of Europe. They had been received
by notable personages in England and France, who had been struck with
the intelligence and ideals of the South Americans. These latter, for
their part, had benefited from an exchange of views and from
conversations concerning many subjects which were necessarily new to
them. With an intercourse of this kind once in full swing it was
inevitable that the regulations of Spain should automatically become
obsolete and, in the eyes of the Americans, ridiculous.
In South America itself, nevertheless, the social gap between the
Spaniard and the colonial continued entirely unbridged, and the contempt
of the European officials for the South American born was as openly
expressed in as gratuitous a fashion as ever. Indeed, as the
opportunities for education broadened for the colonists, it would seem
that their Spanish alleged brethren affected to despise them still more
deeply--no doubt as a hint that no mere learning could alter the solid
fact that their birth had occurred without the frontiers of European
Spain.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219