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CORDOVA.
119

intellects which, like their own promenade, had an immovable idea in their centre, unapproachaWe through a stagnant lake?

Toward 1816 the illustrious and liberal Dean Funes succeeded in introducing into the ancient university of the city the studies previously so much contemned: mathematics, living languages, public law, physics, drawing, and music. From that time the youth of Cordova began to direct their ideas into new channels which, ere long, led them to consequences of which we will speak hereafter. At present, I am describing the old traditional spirit of the place, which was the dominant one.

The Revolution of 1810 found the ears of Cordova closed to it at the very time when all the provinces were at once responding to the cry of "To arms! Liberty!" It was in Cordova that Liniers began to raise armies to put down the revolution in Buenos Ayres. It was to Cordova that the Junta sent one of its members and its troops to decapitate Spain. It was Cordova, which, offended by this outrage, and looking for vengeance and reparation, wrote, with the learned hand of the University, and in the idiom of the breviary and the commentators, that celebrated acrostic[1] which pointed out to those who passed the spot the tomb of the first royalists who were sacrificed upon the altars of the state.

In 1820, a force stationed in Arequete revolted, and General Bustos, its leader, abandoning the banners of

  1. Concha.
    Liniers.
    Allende.
    Moreno
    Orellana.
    Rodriguez.