1864 AND 1900.
Reading edition
“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.
“Every friend of Brazil must wish to see its present priesthood replaced by a more vigorous, intelligent, and laborious clergy.”—Prof. Louis Agassiz, 1864.
Eleven years of self-government and a disestablishment of the Church have brought the Brazilian nation out of an imperialism politically and a greater imperialism religiously. Within two years part of the priesthood has been “replaced by a more vigorous, intelligent and laborious clergy” in the State of São Paulo. A. R. H.