"On ne tue pas les idées!"
An English writer says of this:—
"Let those acquainted with Senor Sarmiento say whether he has fulfilled his mission. There is in these few words satire which tells volumes. It brands his enemies with ignorance, at the same time that it is extremely ludicrous and cutting. It is not too much to say that less interesting anecdotes than this have appeared in Disraeli's 'Curiosities of Literature.'"[1]
Again he emigrated to Chili, thought seriously of establishing himself there, and had the intention of opening a college, but one of his compatriots dissuaded him from it, and facilitated his writing for the periodic press. By way of experiment, he sent from Santiago to the only journal of Chili, the "Valparaiso Mercury," an anonymous article signed "A Lieutenant of Artillery," upon the battle of Chacabuco, which attracted notice in literary and political society by its freshness of style and elevation of thought.
A mutual jealousy of each other's glory has always prevailed among the States of South America, occasioned by their efforts to establish themselves as distinct nations, with more definite limits than any previously suggested by their geography or by the history of their war for independence. This jealousy has often led to the perversion of history, and, at the time we are considering, Chili had well-nigh erased from her records the glorious name of San Martin, and thrust into the background the share of the Argentines in the battles of Chacabuco and Maypo, which decided the establishment of Chilian independence.
- ↑ River Plate Magazine, No. 3, page 151.
