The scope of this work is to be confined to those nations on the continent of South America which use as their national tongue the Spanish language. This excludes consideration of Brazil, whose language is Portuguese and which possesses a rich literature of its own. Another country is omitted, Paraguay, not from oversight, but because this inland republic is so backward in culture and development that it possesses nothing which can be dignified with the term national literature. Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela - these are the countries of Spanish America with which this discussion will be concerned
