Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/659

Rh has suffered reverses, but it may be said to still live in one of the two seminarios controlled by the clergy of this diocese, and so with that of Chiapas. With the advance of education, however, we may safely predict the speedy reopening of one or more of these institutions, and on a basis, it may be hoped, that will serve to stimulate the growing love for education throughout its branches, and serve to retain at home the many young men who now been it necessary to seek European schools. Mexicans are undoubtedly promising pupils, the mestizo being remarkably quick to apprehend, and the Indian holding out bright promises of adding to the list of men like Juarez and Altamirano, the latter one of the foremost scholars in the country. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that as the youth grow up docility yields to indolence at the time when the reflective powers could be best trained. Hence self-culture is not widely developed, and where it is followed we find the national lack of thoroughness interposes serious obstacles to the regeneration of a loose and shallow mind.