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whose artistic excellence and l>Tic grandiloquence he
seems to parallel. The bulk of his preserved verse is
not great, but it is marked by a lyric perfection hith-
erto unsurpassed in the New World. His masterpiece
is the patriotic poem, "La victoria de Junln", which
celebrates Bolivar's decisive victory over the Span-
iards on (> August, 1824. Its diction is pure, its versi-
fication harmonious, and its imagery beautiful, al-
though at times rather forced and over-wrought.
Other noteworthy poems of Olmodo are the "Canto
al General Flores", praising a revolutionary general
whom he later on assails in bitter terras, and "A un
amigo en el nacimiento de .su primogenito", in which
he gives expression to his philosophical meditations.
After reaching middle hfe he jiroduced nothing, and
when he became silent no inspired jioet appeared to
take his place. Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-75),
a sturdy Catholic, wTote some satires; Juan Le6n
Mera (1832-9-1), a literary historian and a critic of
force as he evinces in his "Ojeada historico-crltica
sobre, la poesia ecuatoriana" (2nd ed., Barcelona,
1893), produced a popular novel, "Cumanda", besides
his "Poesias" (2nd ed., Barcelona, 1893) and a
volume of "Cantares del pueblo". This latter has,
in addition to songs in Spanish, a few in the Quichua
language. Mention may be made of a few more
recent poets, such as Vicente Piedrahita, Luis Cordero,
Quintiliano Siinchez, and Remigio Crespo y Toral.
Colombia. — The United States of Colombia was formerly known as Xew Granada. In 1819, soon after the beginning of the revolution, a state called Colombia was established, but this was later divided into three indejiendent countries, Venezuela, Xew Granada, and Ecuador. In 1861 Xew Granada as- sumed the name Colombia; recently Colombia has lost the part of the territory running u]) on the Isth- mus of Panama. It is generally admitted that the literary production of Colombia (including the older New Granada) has exceeded that of any other Spanish- American country. Menendcz y Pelayo, the Spanish critic, has called its capital, Bogota, "the Athens of .Vmerica". During the colonial period, however. New Granada produced but few literary works. The most important among them is the verse chronicle or pseudo-epic of the Spaniard Juan de Caistcllanos (b. 1.5.52) which, because of its 1.50,000 lines, has the doubtful honour of being the longest poem in Spanish. Largely prosaic in character, it does reveal poetic flights and it is valuable for the light which it throws upon the lives of the early colonists. Its first tlu'ee parts, entitled "Eleglas de varones ilustres de Indias" (of these only the first was pubhshed in 1.589), are to be found in the " Biblio- teca de autores espaiioles" (vol. IV); the fourth part is pubhshed in two volumes of the "Escritores caste- llanos" as the "Historia del Xuevo Rcino de Gra- nada". The seventeenth century, too, was far from fertile. There appeared posthumously in 1(396, at Madrid, a long cjiic poem, re|)lete with Gongorism, and coming from the pen of Hernando Dominguez Camargo, already mentioned in connexion with Evia's "Kamilletc". It is called the "Poema heroico de San Ignacio de Loyola" and treats, of cour.se, of the career of the illustrious founder of the Jesuit Order.
Early in the eighteenth century a nun, Sor Fran- cisca Josefa de la Concepci6n (d. 1742), wTote an account of her life and spiritual experiences reflecting the mysticism of St. Teresa. About 1738 the print- ing press wa.s brought to Colombia by the Jesuits, and there ensued a great intellectual awakening. Many colleges and universities had already been founded, following the first of them established in 1.5.54. The famous Spani.sh botanist Jos<; Celestino Mutis took, in 17(i2, the chair of muthematics and astronomy in the Colegio del Rosario, and there he trained many scientists, notablv Francisco Josd de Caldas (1771-1816; shot by the Spaniards). An
astronomical observatory was soon established and it
was the first in America. As has already been said,
the advent of Humboldt in ISOl fostered scientific
research. In 1777 a public library was founded and
in 1794 a theatre. Prominent among the works
published in the second half of the eighteenth century
are the "Lamentaciones de Puben" of Canon Jos6
Maria Gruesso (1779-1835) and several compositions
of Jo.s6 Maria Salazar (1785-1828), including his
"Placer publico de Santa ¥6", his "Colombiada",
and his Spanish verse translation of the "Art po6-
tique" of Boileau. During the revolutionary period
two poets of note made their appearance. They were
Jos6 Fernandez Madrid (fl. 1830), whose lyrics praise
Bolivar and show hate for Spain, and Luis Vargas
Tejada (1802-29), whose patriotic verse was directed
against Bolivar. The four most prominent poets of
Colombia are J. E. Caro, Arboleda, Ortiz, and Gu-
tierrez Gonzalez. Juan Eusebio Caro (1817-53) sang
of God, love, and hberty with great fervour and his
poems evince (Bogota, 1873) no little philosophical
meditation. He underwent the influence first of
Quintana and then of BjTon. Under the stress of
romanticism and through his knowledge of English
prosody he sought to introduce into Spanish verse
writing certain metrical changes that have not found
favour with the critics in the motherland.
Julio Arboleda (1817-61) was a friend of Caro and, like him, a representative of the most polished and aristocratic tj^pe of Colombian writers of the first half of the nineteenth century ("Poesias", New York, 1S83). Assassinated before he could assume the office of President of the Republic to which he had been elected, he left in a fragmentary state his epic poem, "Gonzalo de Oy6n", which, if completed, might have been the most tiistinguished work of its cla.ss produced in Sjianish-America. Absolutely Catholic in the exjiression of his religious feeling, Jose Joaquin Ortiz (1814-92) favoured the romantic movement without ceasing to be partly neo-classic. Gregorio Gutierrez Gonzdlez (182{)-72), jurisconsult and poet, has no inconsiderable amount of senti- mentalism in his verse of a lyric nature. His best work is the Georgic "Memoria sobre el cultivo del maiz en Antioquia", which is concerned with the rustic labours of the country-folk of his native Colom- bian region of Antioquia. Of lesser poets of the first half of the century there may be cited: Manuel Maria Madicdo (b. 1815); German Gutierrez de Pineres (1816-72); Joaquin Pablo Bosada (1825-80); Ricardo Carrasquilla (b. 1827); Jo.s6 Manuel Marroquin (b. 1827), notable as a humorist; Jose Maria Samper (b. 1828); Jos6 Maria Vergara (1831-72), noted for his Catholic devoutness; Rafael Pombo (b. 1833); Diego Fall6n (b. 1834) ; Jorge Isaacs (1837-95), better known for his popular novel, "Maria". In the second half of the nineteenth century the most eminent man of letters has been Miguel Antonio Caro (b. 1834), a son of J. E. Caro. He hiis worked for classical ideals in literature, and his translation of Virgil ranks high among the Spanish versions. Of the many writers of the closing years of the centurj' we may point out: Di6genes Arrieta (b. 1848), Ignacio Gutii-rrez Ponce (b. 1850), Jos(5 Rivas Groot (b. 1864), and the authoress Agripina Montes del Valle.
]'enczuela. — This state, the old Captain-generalcy of Caracas, has the honour of having given to Spanish- America the great liberator, Simon Bolivar, and the eminent man of letters, Andres Bello. The growth of literary cidture in the region was slow, in part because politically and otherwise it was overshadowed by the neighbouring district of New Granada, to which for a while it wa,s subject, and in part- because the heterogeneous nature of its population, with a preponderance of n:ilive Indian and negro elements, largely lacking civilization, retarded the course of events. The Culegio de Santa Rosa was founded at
