of Ecuador, engaged in one of the tasks for which posterity thanks him most, the study and classification of the numerous varieties of cinchonas. For, although his thirst for knowledge would lead him to explore all departments of science, there were a few fields which attracted his attention mostly, and botany was one of these. In 1801, Mutis, knowing his enthusiasm for botany, had sent him Linnaeus's Philosophia Botanica, which Caldas studied and made his own. Later, Caldas was ambitious to join Mutis's famous Botanical Expedition, and, in point of fact, became its most conspicuous member. And thus, in the years 1804 and 1805, Caldas travelled through the Andean forests, engaged in the study of the cinchona and made important discoveries and for the first time a thorough classification of the varieties of one of the most interesting and useful members of the vegetable kingdom.

An attack of malaria acquired in the forests of Ecuador while studying the plant which was destined to become a specific for that same disease hardly interrupted his work. Almost at the same time, we find him in Bogota taking charge of an astronomical observatory recently constructed and which, to use Caldas's poetic expression, was "the first temple erected to Urania on the New Continent."

A new phase of Caldas's activity now presents itself to us. European periodical publications have not seldom praised the Colombian nation for the interest taken by her great men in the education of youth. If we open the catalogue of a Colombian college, we generally find among the members of its faculty some of the most eminent men of the nation. This reminds us of Socrates devoting his genius to the education of the Athenian youth, and we ask ourselves whether it is only on account of her literary achievements that Bogota has been called the Athens of South America. The same spirit reigned in New Granada at the dawn of the nineteenth century. In 1793, we already find Caldas giving lectures in the law school of the University of Popayan. In 1809, in spite of the excessive work entailed by his scientific researches, he managed to teach in the College of the Rosary.

His teaching was not limited to the professor's chair. His

influence through the press was also very great. In El Semanario del Nuevo Reino de Granada, which he founded in 1808, there appeared articles on agriculture, industry, commerce, science, all that could make the country greater and more prosperous. With all his might and main he endeavored to excite in the hearts of the Colombian youth a love for scientific pursuits. "Let us recognize," wrote he in 1799, "that the cultivation of a science is an almost insuperable barrier to vice. Would that parents were convinced of this truth! Would that, instead of threatening and chastising their children, they would give them a taste for some field of science! Young men would then be less vicious, wiser and better."

The Semanario soon opened competitions for the solution of the most important social and economical questions which then interested the country and counted among its contributors the most eminent men New Granada then possessed. The Colombians are unanimous in asserting that, since Caldas's day, there has not appeared in the republic so notable a periodical as El Semanario.

The year 1810 is a memorable date in South American history. It marks the beginning of the great struggle which was to continue for so many years and to snatch from the domains of the Spanish monarch an entire continent. But, how much blood was to be shed before the newborn republics could peacefully enjoy their independence! How many heroes were destined to die without witnessing the freedom of their country!

While Bolivar combatted the Spaniards with the sword, Caldas attacked them with the pen. He understood that the revolution could not be successful unless the people were instructed. In collaboration with Joaquin Camacho, he founded the Diario Politico, the first number of which appeared on the 27th of August, 1810. The South Americans were thus able to understand what grievances had led to the war, what were the aims and the hopes of the revolutionists. With a wisdom seldom found in great political crises, Caldas took pains to make plain what true liberty is: "What is liberty?" asked he, "Does it consist in breaking all law and all respect? In shaking off the yoke of all moral and civil obligation? In giving course

and satisfaction to all passions? By no means.

This would

be libertinage, an accumulation of all vices and all evils." "A free man is the man who obeys the law and is not subject to the caprice and the passions of the rulers."

"We must be slaves to the law in order to be free." "To be free, it is necessary to be virtuous. Without virtue there is no freedom. A corrupted people cannot be free." "We have had enough valor to conquer liberty; shall we have enough virtue to preserve it?"

A new mission was soon confided to Caldas. In 1812, on taking possession of the presidency of Cundinamarca, General Nariño appointed him captain of engineers. And he who had just instructed the public through the press now instructed the army in the science of war.

His activity was then unequalled. We see him almost at the same time in all parts of the country engaged in the fortification of towns, in the manufacture of gunpowder, in the organization of artillery establishments. In Medellin, he founded a school of military engineering in which all that could lead to the success of the war was carefully studied.

It was no easy task to dislodge the Spaniard from the American soil. Often, during the great war, the future appeared gloomy and the patriots were disheartened. In 1816, Morillo and Enrile arrived from Spain with the purpose of reconquering the American colonies at any cost. All means appeared lawful in their eyes and the reign of terror began.

In the southern part of the country the cause of the revolutionists soon became desperate. The patriots were defeated at Cuchilla del Tambo and Popayan was captured. On hearing of these dismal events, Caldas hastened to the point where his presence was most needed; but he was captured with some friends in his mansion of Paispamba, in that same mansion where he had lived so many happy days with his family, and where he had made his first scientific experiments.

Many of his friends at once took a deep interest in his fate. Even his captor, Muñoz, offered him facilities to escape; but, since the same facilities were refused to his companions in captivity, he rejected the proposal as an insult to his dignity.

Life was dear to him, however. He craved to live to see the freedom of his country; he craved to complete his scientific pursuits. And he therefore wrote a letter to Enrile asking him to pardon his life for the benefit of science. "Spain needs no scientists," was the answer he received. Let us believe that these harsh words were not the expression of the will of a nation which was destined to give Ramon y Cajal to the world.

The College of the Rosary, where Caldas had learned the rudiments of science, where later he had so generously contributed to the education of the Colombian youth, now became his prison. Between its walls he learned the fatal sentence. In the same cloister he had so dearly loved, he prepared his soul for the great journey. On the 29th of October, 1816, the greatest South American was shot by the Spaniards as a traitor to the king. He breathed his last with the valor of the hero; but the cause he had espoused did not die. Colombia is now free; and, after one hundred years, the memory of the man who gave his life for her freedom is universally venerated.

JOSEPH L. PERRIER.

THE NEW IRISH ART.

The work of the "Irish Players," about which we hear so many varied opinions at the present day, is not purely Irish in character. The genuine Irish drama is written in the Irish language, but, being in its infancy and dealing largely with the ephemeral topics suggested by Gaelic propagandism, it has hardly reached the standard of genius, nor does it display as much brilliancy and wit as the works of the AngloIrish playwrights. There is an important difference between the spirit of the Anglo-Irish drama and that of the purely Gaelic movement. The former is not a child, though it may be called a cousin of the Gaelic League. Both are to be traced to a wide-spread tendency towards a Gaelic renaissance, which during the last century began to assert itself in more directions than one. That is the only connection between the work of the Irish Players and the Gaelic League. Members of the Anglo-Irish Dramatic Society are not officials of the Gaelic League, nor distinguished Gaelic scholars. Unlike the Anglo-Irish dramatic movement, the Gaelic League is often, though not necessarily, Catholic in spirit, since the Irish language itself is so redolent of the purest Catholicity, that its revival, like the romantic renaissance, cannot fail to turn many minds to things Catholic. Ordinarily salutations in Irish are generally prayers, such as, "God bless you," and the answer, "God and Mary bless you." It is the only language in which one finds a separate name for the Blessed Virgin, Muire, while Maire is the name for any other Mary.

The chief figures in the Anglo-Irish dramatic movement are W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge, P. Colum, and Lady Gregory. Yeats and Synge are the greater lights and the others are subordinate satellites revolving round these central luminaries. Before turning his attention to drama, Yeats was a poet of considerable standing. One of his lyric poems, "The Lake

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