The literature of Peru reached a period of prolific expression about the middle of the past century, when the inimitable satirists, Felipe Pardo y Aliaga and Manuel Ascencio Segura wrote their comedies on the national manners and customs. Felipe Pardo, the grandfather of President José Pardo, was a statesman as well as a poet, and was representing his government as minister to one of the European courts when he was made a member of the Spanish Royal Academy. His best known work is called _El Espejo de mi tierra_—“The mirror of my country,”—and gives an entertaining picture of Peruvian life fifty years ago. Segura’s comedies, written about the same time, were clever satires on the prevailing creole customs, especially his _La Saya y Manto_, _Ña Catita_, _El Resignado_, and _Lances de Amancaes_. Another writer of the same period, Manuel Atanasio Fuentes, who satirized the political and social foibles of his day in a periodical called _El Murcielago_—“The Bat,”—found in literary work a pleasing diversion. He was a noted jurist and wrote treatises on constitutional law, administration, and similar subjects. The Peruvian critic is often satirical in his treatment of men and books, a keen sense of humor giving piquancy to his judgment. In this art, Don Pedro Paz Soldán y Unánue excelled, his pseudonym “Juan de Arona” being known throughout South America. He was a member of the Spanish Academy and a distinguished Latin and Greek scholar. In _El Chispazo_, a humorous periodical which he edited, his crisp epigrammatic style was at its best. He was born in Lima in 1839 and died in 1895, having employed his talent ably and successfully through the difficult periods when his country was facing the greatest crises that could arise to impede the progress of a young nation. [Illustration: PATIO OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY, LIMA.]