Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/170

126 is incomplete and behindhand in our own race. Of what then were Rivadavia and Buenos Ayres accused? Of not knowing more than the European savans who were their guides? On the other side, how was it possible not to embrace with ardor the general ideas of a people who had contributed so much and so well to make the revolution general? How bridle the imaginations of the inhabitants of an illimitable plain bordered by a river whose opposite bank could not be seen a step from Europe, not knowing even its own traditions, indeed without having them in reality; a new, suddenly improvised people, which from the very cradle had heard itself called great?

Thus elevated, and hitherto flattered by fortune, Buenos Ayres set about making a constitution for itself and the Republic, just as it had undertaken to liberate itself and all South America: that is, eagerly, uncompromisingly, and without regard to obstacles. Rivadavia was the personification of this poetical, Utopian spirit which prevailed. He therefore continued the work of Las Heras upon the large scale necessary for a great American State—a republic. He brought over from Europe men of learning for the press and for the professor's chair, colonies for the deserts, ships for the rivers, freedom for all creeds, credit and the nation bank to encourage trade, and all the great social theories of the day for the formation of his government. In a word, he brought a second Europe, which was to be established in America, and to accomplish in ten years what elsewhere had required centuries. Nor was this project altogether chimerical; all his administrative creations still exist, except those which the barbarism of