{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61930/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61930","id":"gutenberg_61930","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61930","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - European","Category: History - Religious","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Catholic Church -- Spain","Spain -- Description and travel","Spain -- Religion","Spanish literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1819 George Smallfield edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n                      [Picture: Public domain cover]\n\n\n\n\n\n                               OBSERVATIONS\n                                    ON\n                                THE STATE\n                                    OF\n                         RELIGION AND LITERATURE\n                                    IN\n                                  SPAIN,\n\n\n                               MADE DURING\n\n                    _A JOURNEY THROUGH THE PENINSULA_\n\n                                 IN 1819.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 London:\n\n                 _Printed by George Smallfield Hackney_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  1819.\n\n\n\n\nOBSERVATIONS, &c.\n\n\nTHERE are in Spain, according to Antillon\u2019s {3a} calculations, two\nhundred thousand ecclesiastics.  They possess immense revenues and an\nincalculable influence over the mass of the people; though it is certain\nthat influence is diminishing, notwithstanding the countenance and\nco-operation of a government deeply interested in preserving their\nauthority.\n\nIt would be great injustice to the regular clergy of Spain to class them\nwith the immense hordes of monks and friars, scattered over the face of\nthe Peninsula, some possessing rich and well-stored convents, large\nestates and accumulating wealth, and others (the mendicant orders) who\nprey more directly on the labours of the poor, and compel the industrious\nto administer to their holy, uninterrupted laziness.  The former, though,\ndoubtless, by far too numerous, are for the most part intelligent and\nhumane: dispensing benevolence and consolation in their respective\nparishes; friendly, in many instances, to liberty and devoted to\nliterature.  The latter, with few, but striking exceptions, {3b} are\nunmanageable masses of ignorance and indolence. {3c}  They live (as one\nof the Spanish poets says) in a state of sensual enjoyment between the\norgan-loft and the refectory, to which all other enjoyment is but\npurgatory; {3d} the link which should connect them with the common weal\nfor ever broken; the ties of family and friend dissolved; their authority\nfounded on the barbarism and degradation of the people, they are\ninterested in stemming the torrent of improvement in knowledge and\nliberty, which must in the end inevitably sweep away these \u201ccumberers of\nthe soil.\u201d  No society in which the sound principles of policy are at all\nunderstood, would consent to maintain a numerous body of idle,\nunproductive, useless members in opulence and luxury, (at the expense of\nthe active and the laborious,) merely because they had chosen to decorate\nthemselves with peculiar insignia\u2014to let their beards grow, or to shave\ntheir heads; and though the progress of civilization in Spain has been\ngreatly retarded, or rather it has been compelled to retrograde under the\npresent system of despotism, yet, that great advances have been made\nsince the beginning of the late Revolution, is happily too obvious to be\ndenied. {4a}\n\nThat Revolution, in fact, has produced, and will continue to produce, a\nvery favourable influence on the ecclesiastical government of Spain.\nLeaving out of consideration the immense number of priests and friars who\nperished during the atrocious invasion of their country, the destruction\nof convents, the alienation of church property, and the not unfrequent\nabandonment of the religious vow, unnoticed amidst the confusion and\ncalamities of active war, more silent, but more extensive changes have\nbeen going on.  The Cortes, when they decreed that no Noviciates should\nbe allowed to enrol themselves, {4b} gave a death-blow to the monastic\ninfluence, and since the re-establishment of the ancient despotism, the\nchasm left by this want of supply has not been filled up, nor is likely\nto be; for, the greater part of the convents (except those very richly\nendowed) complain that few candidates propose themselves, except from the\nlower classes of society, who are not likely to maintain the credit or\nadd to the influence of the order.  Examples are now extremely rare of\nmen of family and fortune presenting themselves to be received within the\ncloisters, and offering all their wealth and power as the price of their\nadmission.  Another circumstance, the consequence of the Revolution, has\ntended greatly to lessen the influence of the regular clergy, where it is\nmost desirable it should be lessened, among the lower classes.  Driven\nfrom their cells by the bayonets of _enemies_, or obliged to desert them\nthat their convents might become hospitals for their sick and wounded\n_friends_, they were compelled to mingle with the mass of the people.  To\nknow them better was to esteem them less, and the mist of veneration with\nwhich popular prejudice had so long surrounded them, was dispersed, when\nthey became divested of every outward distinction, and exhibited the same\nfollies and frailties as their fellow-men. {4c}  He who, in the imposing\nprocession, or at the illumined altar, appeared a saint or a prophet, was\nlittle, was nothing, when mingling in the common relations of life he\nstood unveiled before his undazzled observers.  For the first time it was\ndiscovered that the monks were not absolutely necessary for the\npreservation even of religion.  Masses were celebrated as before: the\nhost paraded the streets with its accustomed pomp and solemnity: the\ninteresting ceremonials which accompany the entrance and the exit of a\nhuman being in this valley of vicissitude, were all conducted with their\nwonted regularity.  Still less were they wanted to implore the blessing\nof Heaven on the labours of the husbandman, whose fruits grew and were\ngathered in with unvarying abundance.  Without _them_ the country was\nfreed from the ignoble and degrading yoke of the usurper, while success\nand martial glory crowned the arms of their military companions, (the\nBritish,) who cared little for \u201call the trumpery\u201d of \u201cfriars white,\nblack, or grey;\u201d and if the contagion of their contempt did not reach\ntheir Catholic friends, they lessened, at least, the respect with which\nthe inmates of the convent had been so long regarded.\n\nBut in anticipating a period in which the Spaniard shall be released from\nmonkish influence, it must not be forgotten how interwoven is that\ninfluence with his most delightful recollections and associations.  His\nfestivities, his romerias, {5a} his rural pastimes, are all connected\nwith, and dependent on the annual return of some saint\u2019s-day, in honour\nof which he gives himself up to the most unrestrained enjoyment.  A mass\nis with him the introductory scene to every species of gaiety, and a\nprocession of monks and friars forms a part of every picture on which his\nmemory most delights to dwell.\u2014And a similar, though, perhaps, a stronger\nimpression is created on his mind by the enthusiastic \u201clove of song,\u201d\n{5b} so universal in Spain.  He lives and breathes in a land of poetry\nand fiction: he listens with ever-glowing rapture to the Romanceros, {5c}\nwho celebrate the feats of his heroes, and surround his monks and hermits\nwith all the glories of saints and angels: he hears of their mighty\nworks, their sufferings, their martyrdom; and the tale, decorated with\nthe charms of verse, is dearer to him than the best of holy writ.  The\npeculiar favourites of the spotless Virgin, their words fall on his ear\nlike the voice of an oracle, their deeds have the solemn sanction of\nmarvellous miracles.  To them he owes that his country is the special\ncharge of the queen of angels, the mother of God; and in every convent he\nsees the records of the wondrous interpositions of heaven, which has so\noften availed itself of the agency of the _sainted_ inmates, while every\naltar is adorned with the grateful offerings of devout worshipers,\nmiraculously restored to health or preserved from danger.  He feels\nhimself the most privileged among the faithful.  On him \u201cour Lady of\nProtection\u201d (del Amparo) smiles; to him the Virgin of Carmen {6a} bows\nher gracious head.  In his eye ten thousand rays of glory encircle the\nbrow of his patron-saint, the fancied tones of whose voice support,\nassure and encourage him: he believes that his scapulary {6b} (blessed by\na Carmelite friar) secures him from every evil: his house is adorned with\nthe pope\u2019s bull of indulgences\u2014a vessel of holy water is suspended over\nhis bed, and what more can he want, what danger can approach him?  His\nmind is one mass of undistinguishing, confiding, comforting faith.\n_That_ faith is his religion, his Christianity!  How difficult will it be\nto separate the evil from the good, if, indeed, they can be separated!\nWhat a fortress must be overthrown before truth and reason can advance a\nsingle step!  What delightful visions must be forgotten, what animating\nrecollections, what transporting hopes!  Have we a _right_ to rouse him\nfrom these blessed delusions?  This is indeed the ignorance that is\nbliss.  Is it not folly to wish him wise?\n\nBut, alas! this is only one side of the picture! for, however soothing,\nhowever charming the contemplation of contented ignorance may be to the\nimagination, in the eye of reason the moral influence of such a system is\nbaneful in the extreme.  All error is evil; and the error which\nsubstitutes the external forms of worship for its internal influence on\nthe heart, is a colossal evil.  Here we have a religion, if such it may\nbe called, that is purely ceremonial.  Its duties are not discharged in\nthe daily walk of life, not by the cultivation of pure and pious and\nbenevolent affections, but by attending masses, by reciting Paternosters\nand Ave Marias, by pecuniary offerings for souls in purgatory, and by a\nthousand childish observances, which affect remotely, if they affect at\nall, the conduct and the character.  The Spaniard attends his parish\nchurch to hear a service in an unknown tongue; {6c} he bends his knees\nand beats his bosom at certain sounds familiar to his ear, but not to his\nsense; he confesses and communicates with undeviating regularity; {6d}\nand sometimes, perhaps, he listens to a sermon in the eloquent style and\nbeautiful language of his country, not, indeed, instructing him in the\nmoral claims of his religion, but celebrating the virtues and recounting\nthe miracles of some saint or martyr to whom the day is dedicated.  He\nreads his religious duties, not in a Bible, but an Almanack; and his\nAlmanack is but a sort of Christian mythology.  His saints are more\nnumerous than the deities of the pantheon; and, to say the truth, there\nare many of them little better than these. {7a}\n\nHe is told, however, that his country exhibits the proudest triumphs of\northodox Christianity.  Schism and heresy have been scattered, or at\nleast silenced: and if in Spain the eye is constantly attracted, and the\nheart distressed, by objects of unalleviated human misery; if the\nhospitals are either wholly unprotected, or abandoned to the care of the\nvenal and the vile; if the prisons are crowded with a promiscuous mass of\ninnocence and guilt, in all its shades and shapes of enormity {7b}\u2014what\ndoes it matter?  Spain, Catholic Spain, has preserved her faith\nunadulterated and unchanged, and her priests assure us that an error in\ncreed is far more dangerous, (or to use their own mild language,) far\nmore damnable, than a multitude of errors in conduct.  A depraved heart\nmay be forgiven, but not an erring head.  This is, in fact, the fatal\nprinciple, whose poison spreads through this strongly-cemented system.\nTo this we may attribute its absurdities, its errors, its crimes.  This\nhas created Dominicks and Torquemadas.\n\nIn a word, intolerance, in its widest and worst extent, is the foundation\non which the whole of the Spanish ecclesiastical edifice rests.  It has\nbeen called the main pillar of the constitution, and is so inwrought with\nthe habits and prejudices of the nation, that the Cortes, with all their\ngeneral liberality, dared not allow the profession of any other religion\nthan the \u201cCatolica Apostolica Romana unica Verdadera.\u201d {7c}  The cry of\n_innovation_ there, as elsewhere, became a dreadful weapon in the hands\nof those who profess to believe that errors become sanctified by age.\nToo true it is, that if long usage can sanction wrong, persecution might\nfind its justification in every page of Spanish history, from the time\nwhen Recaredo, the gothic monarch, abandoned his Arian principles (with\nthe almost solitary exception of the tolerant and ill-treated Witiza).\nLong, long before the Inquisition had erected its frightful pretensions\ninto a system, or armed itself with its bloody sword, its spirit was\nabroad and active.  Thousands and tens of thousands of Jews and Moors had\nbeen its victims, and its founders did no more than obtain a regal or a\npapal licence, for the murders which would otherwise have been probably\ncommitted by a barbarous and frenzied mob, excited by incendiary monks\nand friars.\n\nThe Inquisition has, no doubt, been greatly humanized by the progress of\ntime; as, in order to maintain its influence in these more enlightened\nand inquiring days, it has availed itself of men of superior talent,\nthese have softened the asperity, or controlled the malignity and petty\ntyranny of its inferior agents.  Its vigilance and its persecutions are,\nindeed, continually at work, yet, I believe its _flames_ will never again\nbe lighted.  Its greatest zeal is now directed against Freemasons, of\nwhom immense numbers occupy its prisons and dungeons.  I have conversed\nwith many who have been incarcerated by the Inquisition, and they agree\nin stating that torture is no longer administered. {7d}  But its\ninfluence on literature is perhaps greater than ever; for though Spain\npossesses at the present moment a great number of admirable writers, the\npress was never so inactive.  The despotism exercised over authors {8a}\nand publishers is so intolerable, that few have courage voluntarily to\nsubmit to it.  Often after authorizing the publication of a work, they\norder it to be suppressed, and every copy to be burnt, and never think of\nreparation to those who are so cruelly injured.  Their presumption in\ncondemning whatever they cannot understand, {8b} their domiciliary\nvisits, their arbitrary decrees, against which there is no security and\nno appeal, make them fearful enemies and faithless friends.\n\nWith the difficulty, delay, expense and frequent impossibility of\nobtaining a licence for the publication of any valuable work, may be well\ncontrasted the ridiculous trash which daily issues from the Spanish\npress.  Accounts of miracles wrought by the different virgins, {8c} lives\nof holy friars and sainted nuns, romances of marvellous conversions,\nlibels against Jews {8d} and heretics and Freemasons, histories of\napparitions, and so forth, are generally introduced, not by a mere\nlicence of the inquisitor, but by long and laboured eulogiums.\n\nIt is no novel observation, that the most cruel and intolerant\npersecutors have often been men wholly devoid of religious principle;\nmen, who consider the religion of the state only as a part of its civil\npolicy, and who treat the denial of a national creed with the same\nseverity as the infraction of an established law, or rather as a species\nof treason against the supreme authority.  No plea of modest inquiry, of\nconscientious doubt, or honest difference of opinion, is allowed to\noppose for a moment their sanguinary and despotic sway.  There are no\nterms of safety but those of unresisting, instant, absolute prostration.\nSuch men are generally the prime movers of the gagging engine of\nreligious intolerance; and such men are to be found too abundantly in\nSpain.  Others there are who imagine they see in the pomp and parade of\nthe Romish ritual, a system of delusion admirably adapted to beguile, or\neven to bless the ignorant.  They fancy themselves beings of a higher and\nnobler order, and that, while they bask in the sunshine of intellect and\nknowledge, they may be well content that the uninstructed mass should\ntrudge on in darkness below.  Why should they throw their pearls to\nsenseless swine; or shower down truth and virtue on those who fatten on\nvice and error?\n\nBut perhaps a larger class, which would include too the majority of the\nlearned clergy of Spain, are they whose honest opinions are made up of\nheresy and infidelity; but their worldly interests are so inwrought with\nthe existing system, that the thought of sacrificing those interests to\nthe higher claims of right, has never occurred to them; or, if it has\noccurred, has never obtained a moment\u2019s attention.  To them it is a\nglorious and gold-giving superstition.  If they can persuade themselves\nthat, on the whole, it is harmless, they are satisfied.  They do\nmore\u2014they say it is beneficial, and they have repeated this so often,\nthat they, perhaps, almost believe it is true.  Would they look round\nthem they might see the melancholy effects which superstition and\nintolerance have produced in their hapless country.  What is Seville\u2014the\nonce renowned Seville, with its hundred and twenty-five churches and\nconvents?  The very shrine of ignorance.  It was there that the Spanish\nchart of liberty was trampled under foot, amidst ten thousand shouts of\n\u201cLive the King and the Inquisition!\u201d  \u201cPerish the Constitution!\u201d  Or\nCordoba, so long the cradle of the arts, the favourite seat of retiring\nwisdom?  It is become the chosen abode of vice and barbarism!  The press,\nwhich was established there in the short era of Spanish liberty, has been\ntorn in pieces by a frantic mob, who, excited by the monks, paraded the\nstreets of this unfortunate capital, threatening death to every\nindividual whose name had been connected with that of liberty.  How many\na town and city, once illustrious, has sunk into nothingness! {9a}  \u201cWhat\nremains of their ancient glory?  The ruins of palaces, of fabrics, of\nstore-houses and dwellings; and undilapidated churches and monasteries\nand hospitals, outliving the misery of which they have been the cause.\u201d\n{9b}\n\nOne might surely expect that in a country possessing eight archbishops,\nmore than fifty bishops, and more than a hundred abbacies, with a\njurisdiction almost episcopal; \u201cin which,\u201d to use the language of a\nSpanish writer, \u201cthere are more churches than houses, more altars than\nhearths, more priests than peasants;\u201d in which every dwelling has its\nsaint, and every individual his scapulary;\u2014one might expect to see some\nbenefits, some blessings resulting from this gigantic mass of\necclesiastical influence.  Let us, then, look upon a picture drawn by the\nhand of an acknowledged master.\n\n    \u201cOur universities {10a} are the faithful depositaries of the\n    prejudices of the middle age; our teachers, doctors of the tenth\n    century.  Beardless noviciates instruct us in the sublime mysteries\n    of our faith; mendicant friars in the profound secrets of philosophy;\n    while barbarous monks explain the nice distinctions of metaphysics.\n\n    \u201cWho goes into our streets without meeting cofradias, {10b}\n    processions or rosaries; without hearing the shrill voice of eunuchs,\n    {10c} the braying of sacristans, the confused sound of sacred music,\n    entertaining and instructing the devout with compositions so exalted,\n    and imagery so romantic, that devotion itself is forced into a smile?\n    In the corners of our squares, at the doors of our houses, the\n    mysterious truths of our religion are commented on by blind beggars\n    to the discordant accompaniment of an untuned guitar.  Our walls are\n    papered with records of \u2018authentic miracles,\u2019 compared to which, the\n    metamorphoses of Ovid are natural and credible.\n\n    \u201cAnd ignorance has been the parent, not of superstition alone, but of\n    incredulity and infidelity.  The Bible, the argument and evidence of\n    our Christian faith, has been shamefully abandoned, or cautiously\n    buried beneath piles of decretals, formularies, puerile meditations,\n    and fabulous histories.\n\n    \u201cMonkish influence has given to the dreams and deliriums of foolish\n    women, or crafty men, the authority of revealed truth.  Our friars\n    have pretended to repair with their rotten and barbarous scaffolding,\n    the eternal edifice of the gospel.  They have twisted and tortured\n    the moral law into a thousand monstrous forms, to suit their passions\n    and their interests.  Now they describe the path to heaven as plain\n    and easy,\u2014now it is difficult,\u2014to morrow they will call it\n    impassable.  They have dared to obscure with their artful\n    commentaries the beautiful simplicity of the Word of God.  They have\n    darkened the plainest truths of revelation, and on the hallowed\n    charter of Christian liberty, they have even erected the altar of\n    civil despotism!\n\n    \u201cIn the fictions and falsehoods they have invented to deceive their\n    followers, in their pretended visions and spurious miracles, they\n    have even ventured to compromise the terrible majesty of heaven.\n    They shew us our Saviour lighting one nun to put cakes into an oven;\n    throwing oranges at another from the _sagrario_; tasting different\n    dishes in the convent-kitchens, and tormenting friars with childish\n    and ridiculous playfulness.  They represent a monk gathering together\n    the fragments of a broken bottle, and depositing in it the spilt\n    wine, to console a child who had let it fall at the door of the\n    wine-shop.  Another, repeating the miracle of Cana to satisfy the\n    brotherhood, and a third restoring a still-born chicken to life that\n    some inmate of the convent might not be disappointed.\n\n    \u201cThey represent to us a man preserving his speech many years after\n    death, in order to confess his sins; another throwing himself from a\n    high balcony without danger, that he might go to mass.  A dreadful\n    fire instantly extinguished by a scapulary of Estamene.  They shew us\n    the Virgin feeding a monk from her own bosom; angels habited like\n    friars, chanting the matins of the convent, because the friars were\n    asleep.  They paint the meekest and holiest of men torturing and\n    murdering the best and the wisest for professing a different\n    religious creed.\n\n    \u201cWe have indeed much _religion_, but no Christian charity.  We hurry\n    with our pecuniary offerings to advance any _pious work_, but we do\n    not scruple to defraud our fellow-men.  We confess every month, but\n    our vices last us our lives.  We insist (almost exclusively) on the\n    name of Christians, while our conduct is worse than that of infidels.\n    In one concluding word, we fear the dark dungeon of the inquisition,\n    but not the awful\u2014the tremendous tribunal of God!\u201d {11a}\n\nThis is the representation of a Spaniard.  Though the colouring is high,\nit is a copy from nature, and the shades might have been heightened had\nhe witnessed the conduct of numbers of the monastic orders during the\nlate convulsions of Spain.  There are, indeed, few examples of such\ninfamous want of principle as was exhibited by many of them on the king\u2019s\nreturn.  Those who had gone about preaching the rights of man,\nproclaiming the wisdom and exalting the blessings of the new\nconstitution; exhorting their hearers, often with a vehemence little\nbecoming their situation, to live and die for its preservation, and\nhurling their bitterest anathemas against those who dared to question the\nwisdom of a single article,\u2014when the king refused to sign that\nconstitution, became the eulogists of every act of tyranny, the\npersecutors of the _liberales_, and the chosen friends of Ferdinand.\n{11b}  They have had their reward: and though a few of them have occupied\nthe vacant sees, and have been caressed and recompensed with no sparing\nhand, the finger of hatred and of scorn points them out to the execration\nof betrayed and suffering millions, while their names will go down to\nposterity, accompanied with reproaches, curses and infamy.  If those be\nforgiven who have gone on in one consistent career of servitude and\ndegradation; who have betrayed no cause of liberty\u2014for they are by habit\nand by election slaves; who have sacrificed no manly principles\u2014for manly\nprinciples they had none;\u2014still no charity can wash away the stains of\nthose traitors to freedom, to humanity, to Spain, who so atrociously\ndeserted the banners of their country\u2019s welfare, to range themselves\naround the standards of a profligate and unexampled tyranny.\n\nThe most notorious of those, however, who co-operated to establish that\nfatal and ferocious despotism which now degrades and oppresses Spain,\nhave already become its victims.  In their sorrow and suffering and\nexile, let the unshaken friends of constitutional liberty, who are\nscattered over Europe, console themselves with remembering that their\npersonal fate is no more severe than that of the base tools of a wretched\nmonarch, who have nothing to accompany their wanderings but sadness,\nshame and self-reproach, dark and barren prospects, and desolate\nremembrances; while _those_ shall receive from all around them, the\nsmiles and the praises of the wise and good.  They may look back on the\n\u201cbread\u201d of virtue which they have \u201ccast on the waters,\u201d and forward in\nthe confident hope that they \u201cshall find it again after many days:\u201d but\nthey who sacrificed their country to their cold-hearted and selfish\navarice, have wholly erred in their calculations.  Their country is\nfallen indeed, but they, too, have been buried in its ruins.  Ferdinand,\nwho has just as much of gratitude as of any other virtue, {12} has\nalready trampled on the miserable tools of his early tyranny.  It were\nwell if those who \u201cput their trust in princes,\u201d would study the many\nimpressive lessons which the reign of the Spanish tyrant affords.\n\nIt is consolatory to turn from the profligacy and vice so often prominent\namidst extraordinary political revolutions, to the spirit of truth and\nliberty which they always elicit; and Spain has had a most triumphant\nlist of patriots.  Their names must not be recorded: for, to receive the\ntribute of affection and gratitude from any hater of a tyrant, would be\nsufficient to subject them to his merciless ferocity.  How wretched that\ncountry where no meed of applause may follow the track of talent or of\nvirtue\u2014where knowledge and the love of freedom are pursued and persecuted\nas if they were curses and crimes!  Otherwise, with what delight should I\nspeak of some who, buried in the obscurity of the cloister, or retiring\ninto solitude from the noisy crowd, sigh in secret and silence over the\nwretched fate of the land of their birth, their admirable powers of body\nand mind fettered and frozen by the hand of despotism!  All around them\nis slavery and ignorance; to them remain alone the joy of holding\nconverse with the wise and the good of departed time, and the ecstatic\nhope that their country will one day burst from its death-like slumbers,\nand spring forth \u201cinto liberty and life and light.\u201d\n\nAnd let those illustrious exiles, the martyrs of truth and freedom, who\nhave been driven by an ungrateful and cruel tyrant from their homes and\ntheir country, and doomed \u201cto wander through this miserable world,\u201d take\nheart; for a brighter and better day is about to dawn upon Spain.  I have\nexpressed a hope, it should rather be a conviction, that this period\ncannot linger long.  If the extreme of evil brings with it its own\nremedy; if human endurance will only support a certain weight of\ndespotism; if \u201cthere is a spirit in man;\u201d if there is a strength in\nvirtue or in liberty\u2014the intolerable fetters _must_ be broken.\n\n    \u00bfQue es esto, Autor eterno\n    Del triste mundo? tu sublime nombre\n    Que en el se ultraja \u00e1 moderar no alcanzas?\n    \u2014\u00bf \u00e1 infelices venganzas\n    Y sangre y muerte has destinado el hombre?\n          \u00bfA tantas desventuras\n    Ningnu termino pones?  \u00bf\u00f3 el odioso\n    Monstruo por siempre triunfar\u00e1 orgulloso?\n\n                                                               _Melendez_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nThe object, for which the foregoing observations were written, made it\nnecessary to exclude some particulars, which perhaps deserve record.\n\nA correct idea of the state of learning in Spain might be formed from the\ngeneral decline of the public _colegios_ and universities, and the almost\nuniversal ignorance of those to whom the important business of education\nis intrusted.  At Alcal\u00e1 de Henares, where there were formerly four or\nfive thousand students, there are now less than three hundred, and the\nnumber is yearly declining.  A similar decay may be observed elsewhere.\nI found every thing in a melancholy state of derangement and dilapidation\nat Bergara, though this, I believe, is now the only public school which\nhas been able to maintain itself.  The philosophical and mathematical\ninstruments had been destroyed by rust, or rendered useless by violence,\nand every thing connected with instruction appeared conducted as if the\ndreadful apprehension that _too much_ wisdom might be communicated, were\nconstantly present to the _enlightened_ directors.\n\nThere are few objects more touching, more humiliating, than those scenes\nsacred once to liberty and to literature, and associated with the names\nof the noblest and \u201cthe wisest of our race;\u201d but now become the\nfortresses of ignorance, profligacy and despotism.  Who would not sigh\nover Cordoba?\n\n    When I remember what thou wert of old,\n       Birth-place of Senecas;\u2014nurse of arms and arts;\n       When to thy schools from earth\u2019s remotest parts\n    The nations crowded\u2014while thy sons unroll\u2019d\n    Thy chronicles of wisdom;\u2014when I see\n       The spot Averr\u00f6es lov\u2019d, and tread the sod\n       Maimonides and Abenezra trod;\n    Or seek the umbrage of some rev\u2019rend tree,\n       Beneath whose shade Mena or Cespedes\n       At noon-tide mus\u2019d:\u2014when I remember these\n    Or other hallow\u2019d names, and see thee _now_\n       Shrouded in ignorance and slavery:\u2014\n       O Cordoba! my spirit weeps o\u2019er thee,\n    And burning blushes kindle on my brow. {13}\n\nWhile the majority of the most distinguished writers of Spain have been\nexpatriated, it may be supposed literature is at a very low ebb there.\nMelendez and Est\u00e1la have died in exile,\u2014while Moratin and Llorente will\nprobably never again revisit their native land.  Marina, Quintana,\nArg\u00fcelles, Gallego, and other estimable men, occupy the hopeless dungeons\nto which tyranny has consigned them; while this island, in particular,\nhas had the honour of welcoming and of sheltering many a generous patriot\nand many an enlightened scholar, whose virtues and talents are lost to a\ncountry which has so much reason to deplore their removal.\n\nI trust, however, that a work which has been so long a desideratum, viz.\na History of Spain under the dominion of the Moors, compiled from Arabic\ndocuments, will, ere long, be published, by Don Jos\u00e9 Antonio Conde, the\nlearned Orientalist, whose erudition and diligent research promise a most\nvaluable and interesting narration.\n\nThe Spanish Academy are now printing, at Madrid, a new edition of Don\nQuixote, in five volumes, which will be prefaced by a Life of Cervantes,\nby Navarrete.  This piece of biography will be peculiarly gratifying, as\nmany documents connected with the history of Cervantes have lately been\ndiscovered, especially the records of the proceedings against him, before\nhis imprisonment. {14a}\n\nHerrera\u2019s celebrated work on Agriculture is also being printed by the\nAcademy.  The biographical notices are written by Don Mariano Lagasca,\nwhose name is a sufficient pledge for their excellence.\n\nThe Spanish Drama had been in a progressive state of decay from the death\nof Candamo, till Moratin\u2019s {14b} attempts to introduce the regularity and\nunity of the Parisian theatre were crowned with complete success.  It is\na different, and will be considered as a lower order of merit, by all who\nplace Nature and Shakespeare above Art and the French Drama.  If,\nhowever, Calderon and Lope, Moreto and Montalvan, Solis and Candamo,\nseldom occupy the Spanish stage, it is because the national taste, or the\nnational indifference, has chosen to sanction or permit the puerile\ntrifles imported from the other side of the Pyrenees, to occupy the seats\nwhich might be so much more honourably filled by native genius.  An\nactive controversy is going on as to the respective merits of the French\nand Spanish theatres; but it does not seem to excite much interest beyond\nthe immediate circle of combatants.  A new dramatic writer (Gorostiza\n{15}) has lately appeared, and his first effort, \u201cIndulgencia para\ntodos,\u201d in spite of some improbabilities in the story, and some\nvulgarisms in the style, gives fair hopes for the future.\n\nBy way of conclusion, I would remark, that ultra-royalism and bigotry may\nreceive from the present wretchedness of Spain a _salutary_ and\n_corrective_ lesson.  They may there see the unalloyed triumph of their\nprinciples, and study the consequences in the degradation, the\ndisquietude and the wretchedness of a once renowned and illustrious\nnation.  They have there a king reigning in \u201call the glory\u201d of\nuncontrolled majesty, and a state-religion undisturbed by heretics or\nschismatics;\u2014there is the dull death-like silence of abhorred submission,\nunbroken by any hated shouts of liberty\u2014\u201cthe prostration of the\nunderstanding and the will,\u201d that neither dares nor wishes to inquire.\n\nAs to the character of Ferdinand, it has been greatly misunderstood or\ngreatly misrepresented.  It has been well said of him, that he has all\nthe crimes and none of the merits of his ancestors.  He appears to care\nlittle about the church or the clergy, except inasmuch as he can make\nthem the instruments of civil despotism. {16}  His habits are gross and\nlicentious; yet he is inaccessible to any sentiment of benevolence or\ngenerosity.\u2014He never forgave a fancied enemy, and perhaps he never\npossessed a real friend.\u2014From his very childhood his untameable and\nbarbarous propensities made him the object of fear and dread; and\nadversity (that touchstone of character) has served only to excite and\nheighten the dark ferocity of his disposition.  What, indeed, could be\nexpected from an ingrate, who rewarded those that replaced in his\nworthless hand the sceptre he had cast away, with persecution and exile,\nimprisonment and death?\n\n    Was it for this through seven long years of war\n       We bore the miserable wants of woes\n       Pour\u2019d on our naked heads by barb\u2019rous foes,\n    While thou a patient captive\u2014absent far,\n    Nor heard\u2019st our cries, nor saw\u2019st the bloody star\n       That o\u2019er our helpless, hapless country rose?\n    Did we not break the intolerable bar\n       Forged by the master-tyrant?  Interpose\n    To rescue\u2014not our country\u2014but mankind?\n    Did we not break thy prison-doors, unbind\n    Thy fetters, and with shouts of joy that rent\n    The very arches of the firmament\n    Receive thee?\u2014And is this our destiny?\n    Insults and slavery, and a wretch like thee!\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                     G. SMALLFIELD, Printer, Hackney.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES.\n\n\n{3a}  Antillon\u2014I cannot mention this illustrious name without a tribute\nof admiration and gratitude.  A life devoted to virtue and literature, an\nunwearied struggle in the cause of civil and religious liberty, rewarded\nby the fatal blow of a hired assassin, leaves behind it an impress on the\nhearts of the generous and the good which will not and cannot be erased.\n\n{3b}  It cannot be denied that the seclusion of the convent is so\nfriendly to contemplation and research, that, literature has been, and\nstill is, greatly indebted to it.  A glance at the columns of Nich.\nAntonio\u2019s Biographical Dictionary will give striking proof of this.\n\n{3c}  There are many convents in which no book could be found but the\nservice of mass or the rules of the order.  In others, there are\nexcellent libraries, of whose value friars have no idea whatever.  In the\nconvent of San Miguel de los Reyes, near Valencia, I examined some of the\nmost interesting MSS. in existence, which are in charge of a brotherhood\nof unlearned Geronomites.  The librarian refused to shew me a celebrated\nMS. of the Roman de la Rose, \u201cbecause\u201d (he said) \u201cit was the work of a\nheretic;\u201d though he added, he had written some verses in it to frighten\nany inquirer who might accidentally open it.  He had been recommending\n_the burning_ a noble illuminated MS. of the \u201cDivina Commedia,\u201d\napparently contemporary with Dante, as \u201cthe wretch had dared to send even\nPopes to hell.\u201d  Ancient copies of Virgil, Livy and others, are in some\ndanger, should our zealous friar stumble on their history, and learn that\nthey never went to mass.\n\n{3d}  Montalvan.\n\n    Es Purgatorio\u2014\n    Toda dicha, comparada\n    Con la de un frayle, cifrada\n    Desde el coro al refectorio.\n\nThe whole description is admirable, and I am tempted to introduce it\nhere.\n\n    Friend, thou art right!  A world like this\n    Hath nothing equal to the bliss\n    Enjoyed by yonder lazy friar,\n    Between refectory and choir!\n    The morning pass\u2019d in sacred song,\n    (The task is short\u2014the triumph long!)\n    Why should our portly friar repine?\n       Enough for him\u2014good man! to see\n    His cellar stor\u2019d with rosy wine,\n       His table pil\u2019d with luxury.\n    Come now, come with me, and partake\n       Our friar\u2019s _poor_ and _modest_ board:\n    Meek sufferer\u2014for Jesus\u2019 sake!\n       Self-sacrific\u2019d\u2014to please the Lord!!\n    And is this rich and gay domain\n    His place of penury and pain?\n    That table _his_, where rang\u2019d in state\n       I see so many jovial brothers,\n    Each with his fingers in his plate,\n       And his eyes fix\u2019d upon another\u2019s?\n    O \u2019tis indeed a lovely sight\n    To see thus earth and heav\u2019n unite;\n    And what an enviable union\n    Of church and kitchen in communion!\n    While, hark! a voice at intervals,\n    The _pious_ grace devoutly bawls\n    Gratias tibi, Domine!\n    While up and down their arms are moving\n       Like engines in a factory:\n    Thus most indisputably proving\n       How calm and meek and patiently\n    These pious souls submit to all\n       The _sorrow_, _suff\u2019ring_ and _privation_\n    Which may an earthly saint befal:\n       O unexampled resignation!!\n\n                                                      Principe Perseguido.\n\n{4a}  Much was apprehended from the recalled Jesuits: they came\u2014not the\nlearned, the illustrious fathers of former days, but a handful of\nignorant, helpless old men, incapable of good, and, I trust, incapable of\nevil.  Father Juan Andres died in Rome in 1817.\n\n{4b}  They enacted this under the pretence that all young men were wanted\nfor the defence of the country.  Even the friars were obliged to be\nsilent against such a plea.\n\n{4c}  Nor are there wanting instances of friars atoning on the scaffold\nfor crimes of the deepest dye; and I could mention examples of fraud,\nviolence and murder committed since the king\u2019s return by individuals\namong them, whose monstrous atrocity it would be difficult to parallel.\n\n{5a}  Romerias.  That these acts of devotion are always attended with\nshameful profligacy is sufficiently known.  Even Calderon bears testimony\nto their danger:\n\n       \u2014 Todos los concursos\n    De varias romerias,\n    Tal vez en zelo empiezan\n    Y acaban en delicia;\n    El verse unos con otros\n    Conmuevese \u00e1 la alegria,\n    La alegria al banquete\n    El banquete \u00e1 la risa,\n    La risa al bayle, al juego\n    A la vaya, \u00e1 la grita\n    Escollos en que siempre\n    La devocion peligra.\n\n                                                       A Maria el Corazon.\n\nSo, indeed, says the old proverb, \u201cQuien muchos romerias anda tarde \u00f3\nnunca se santifica.\u201d\n\n{5b}  The Roman Catholic Church has made a glorious league with the fine\narts, each of which has been made subservient to its purposes, and has\nmaintained its mighty influence.  Poetry, painting and music can never\npay the immense debt they owe to the gorgeous machinery of the Romish\nritual.\n\n{5c}  Perhaps I may be allowed to introduce a few specimens of the style\nof the Romanceros.  For instance, their praises of the Virgin:\n\n    La reyna de los cielos\n    Emperatriz soberana\n    Fuente de amor y dulzura\n    Rio de bondad y de gracia\n    Pielago de perfecciones\n    Tranquilo mar de gracias\n    Iris de serenidades\n    Lucero de la ma\u00f1ana\n    Del cielo norte seguro.\n\n                                                               San Onofre.\n\n    Sagrada Virgen Maria\n    Antorcha del cielo empireo\n    Hixa del eterno Padre,\n    Madre del supremo bixo\n    Del sacro espiritu esposa.\n\n                                                       Jayme del Castillo.\n\n    Hermosisima Maria\n    Preciosisima a\u00e7ucena\n    Que con tu divina gracia\n    Nos libertais de la pena,\n    Florida y hermosa rosa\n    Palma, cipres, virgen bella\n    Lirio, olivo, torre hermosa\n    De encumbrada fortaleza\n    Cielos, sol y luna hermosa\n    Fuente llena de clemencia\n    Que con tu divina gracia\n    Triunfos y lauros aumentas:\n    Gran Se\u00f1ora del Carmelo\n    Suplicote, sacra reyna\n    Que abogada y protectira\n    Con el rey de gracias seas.\n\n                                                          Judio de Toledo.\n\nGreat, however, as is their devotion, it is less than their bombast.\n\n    Paren en sus movimientos\n    Ayre, fuego, tierra y ondas\n    Sol, luna, estrellas, luceros\n    Los planetas y la Aurora\n    Mientras mi pluma remonta\n    Su vuelo al mas sacro asunto\n    De la estacion dichosa\n    Quando vino la Cruz de Grao.\n\n                                                             Cruz de Grao.\n\n    Remonte el vuelo mi pluma\n    Hasta la region mas alta\n    Del viento donde lucida\n    Brille, dando \u00e1 aquesta plana\n    Y principio al suceso\n    Mas admirable de que narra\n    En sus anales el tiempo\n    Y las historias pasadas.\n\n                                                          Jayme de Aragon.\n\n{6a}  The Carmelites will have it that Elias (whom Thomas Waldenses calls\nthe first virgin among men, as Mary is among women), dedicated a temple\nto \u201cthe mother of God\u201d on Mount Carmel, nine hundred years before her\nbirth.  Those who wish to be acquainted with the wonderful miracles\nwrought by the \u201cVirgen del Carmen,\u201d may consult an immense list published\nby Friar Juan Serrer, most of which are certified by notaries, priests,\nmagistrates and friars.\n\n    {6b}  El bendito Escapulario\n    Que al infierno lo amedrenta.\n\n                                                                  Romance.\n\n{6c}  It may, however, be noticed, that great numbers are drawn away from\nthe religious services of the regular clergy, by the greater parade with\nwhich the friars attract their devotees to the convent chapel.\n\n{6d}  Spain is a striking example of the influence of the habit of\nconfession on public morals.  It has there, no doubt, given the full\nreins to licentiousness.\n\n{7a}  Feijoo, a Benedictine monk, says that his order has fifteen\nthousand canonized saints.\n\n{7b}  Of the numerous banditti, for which Spain has been always\ndistinguished, there is, perhaps, not an individual who neglects any of\nthose ceremonies which are considered binding on all faithful Catholics.\n\n       \u2014 These murderous bands\n    In holy water wash their hands;\n    They never miss a mass\u2014they wear\n    A rosary and scapulaire:\n    They damn all heretics, and say\n    Their pious Aves twice-a-day;\n    They bend at every virgin\u2019s altar;\n    And can such saints deserve a halter?\n\n{7c}  The absurdity of introducing such an expression into a\nconstitutional code could not be unnoticed by the illustrious body of\ndeputies, to whom the Cortes had confided its arrangement.  It is\nbelieved their object was to remove any suspicion as to their thorough\northodoxy, in order that they might effect hereafter some plans of\necclesiastical reformation.\n\n{7d}  Torture has been abolished in Spain for many years.  However, that\nmonster in the form of man, Elio, the captain-general of Valencia, has\ndared to employ it; and when I was in that capital I was informed, (and\nthe fact has had abundant confirmation,) that it had been applied a few\ndays before to no less than 147 individuals, whose cries and shrieks were\nheard by all the inhabitants of Murviedro, where they were confined.\nThis tiger might allege, indeed, the example of his royal master, who\ncaused numbers to be tortured in Madrid, after the last conspiracy there.\n\n{8a}  Don Gonzalez Carbajal, a poet of no common merit, whose verses have\nbeen well compared with those of Fr. Luis de Leon, is now publishing a\nmetrical version of the Psalms.  The MS. was sent to the inquisitorial\ncensors, who replied, that, though they saw nothing absolutely\nobjectionable in the work, they deemed it very extraordinary and very\nsuspicious that no allusion was made in it to the Sumo Pontifice!\n\n{8b}  I will mention one of a thousand instances of ignorance which I\nhave individually witnessed.  As I did not choose to expose myself to be\nannoyed by inquisitors, I travelled without any English books, except a\nsmall collection of hymns.  They pounced upon it at Miranda del Ebro,\nwhere there is a rigid examination: there was some dispute whether or not\nit should be condemned, when some word like the name of a Spanish town,\ncaught their eye: \u201cO, \u2019tis a book of roads,\u201d said our learned scrutineer,\nand he returned it to me.\n\n{8c}  Of the \u201cdifferent virgins\u201d who divide the adoration of the devout\nin Spain, (each individual choosing his favourite,) it would be difficult\nto say which has the pre-eminence in general estimation.  I believe \u201cour\nLady of Montserrat,\u201d in Catalonia, and \u201cour Lady of the Pillar,\u201d of\nZaragoza, have amassed for their guardian friars the largest piles of\nwealth.\n\n{8d}  As an instance of the fraud, the falsehood and the folly of those\nwho sway the minds of the lower classes, I would quote, from among many\nexamples, the \u201cCentinela contra Judios,\u201d a book of great popularity,\nintroduced by several pages of inquisitorial praises.  It gives the\nfollowing account of the crimes and punishments of the twelve tribes:\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Judah treacherously delivered up our Lord, and thirty\n    of them die by treason every year.\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Reuben seized our Lord in the garden, and therefore the\n    curse of barrenness is on all they sow or plant, and no green thing\n    can flourish over their graves.\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Gad put on the crown of thorns, and on every 25th of\n    March, their bodies are covered with blood from deep and painful\n    wounds.\n\n    \u201cThose of Asher buffeted Jesus, and their right hand is always nearly\n    a palm shorter than the left.\n\n    \u201cThose of Naphthali jested with Christ about a herd of swine, since\n    when they are all born with tusks, like wild boars.\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Manasseh cried out, \u2018His blood be on us and on our\n    children,\u2019 and at every new moon they are tormented by bloody sores.\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Simeon nailed our Lord to the cross, and on the 25th of\n    March, four deep and dreadful wounds are inflicted on their hands and\n    feet.\n\n    \u201cThose of Levi spat on the Saviour, and the wind always blows back\n    their saliva in their faces, so that they are habitually covered with\n    filth.\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Issachar scourged Christ, and on the 25th of March\n    blood streams forth from their shoulders.\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Zebulon cast lots for the garments, and on the same day\n    the roof of their mouth is tortured by deep wounds.\n\n    \u201cThe tribe of Joseph made the nails for crucifying Jesus, and blunted\n    them to increase his sufferings; and therefore their hands and feet\n    are covered with gashes and blood.\n\n    \u201cThose of Benjamin gave vinegar to Jesus; they all squint and are\n    palsied, and have their months filled with little nauseous worms,\n    which, in truth, (adds our author,) is the case with all Jewish women\n    after the age of 25, because it was a woman who intreated the tribe\n    of Joseph not to sharpen the nails used for the crucifixion of our\n    Lord.\u201d\n\nThis is a fair specimen of a book of 220 pages.\n\n{9a}  Seville, Cordoba, Santiago, Burgos, Toledo\u2014in a word, all the\nplaces where ecclesiastical authority is most active, have been the most\nstrenuous opposers of the progress of civil, to say nothing of religious\nliberty.  And these, too, are universally the most barbarous of the\nSpanish cities.  How the clergy at Santiago frustrated the attempts of\nthe heroic Porlier to establish the Constitution, is notorious.\n\n{9b}  Informe de la Sociedad de Madrid sobre la Ley agraria, \u00a7 166.\n\nAt every step one finds in Spain enough to excite the most melancholy\nrecollections.  I went to Alcal\u00e1 de Henares to visit the house in which\nCervantes was born.  (If I had undertaken a pilgrimage I could not have\nrepaid the enjoyment, the delight, I have received from the works of this\nwonderful genius!)  It had been destroyed, that a herd of friars might\nenlarge their kitchen-garden!  I inquired for the MSS. of Ximenes\nCisneros: they had been cut up for sky-rockets to celebrate the arrival\nof some worthless grandee!\n\n{10a}  Some of the Professors of the Spanish universities, those\nespecially of civil law and medicine, and perhaps even some of theology,\nare enlightened men and lovers of liberty.  This is decidedly the case at\nSalamanca and Alcal\u00e1, and partially so at Valencia.  To the rest the text\nmay safely be applied.\n\n{10b}  Cofradias\u2014assemblies for religions objects.\n\n{10c}  Eunuchs are not now common in Spain.  The inhuman practice, once\nso frequent, is now prohibited by law.\n\n{11a}  Translated from a little tract called \u201cPan y Torus,\u201d attributed to\nJovellanos.  It was written before the Revolution.\n\n{11b}  Such men as Father Martinez, (Mercenario) who has been appointed\none of the preachers of the royal chapel, should be held up to public\ndetestation.\n\n    \u201c\u00a1Grande epoca de nuestra felicidad y de nuestra regeneracion!\n    Rubricad la constitucion con un juramento inviolable, selladla con la\n    sangre de vuestras venas.  Sus legisladores han sido inspirados por\n    la Sabiduria divina\u2014\u00a1Gloriosa instalacion de las Cortes!  Feliz\n    transito de una casi mortal agonia \u00e1 una vigorosa robustez politica.\n    Mejor de los gobiernos\u2014Cortes! precioso nombre qui despierta en\n    nuestra alma todas las ideas de la antigua libertad y grandeza\n    Espa\u00f1ola!  Solo remedio de nuestros males, suspirados por todo\n    Espa\u00f1ol, amante de su patria.  Constitucion sabia y liberal\u2014excelsa\n    fabrica!  \u00bfQue ofrecen Grecia y Roma comparable \u00e1 nuestro augusto\n    congreso y \u00e1 su codigo tan completamente acabado?  \u00a1Nacion sabia y\n    entendida, que proclama con voz en\u00e9rgica su libertad, su\n    independencia y soberania!  Libre \u00e9 independiente, y no el patrimonio\n    de ninguna familia \u00f3 persona.  _El Rey no puede_.  _El Rey no puede_.\n    Averg\u00fcenzense los brutales id\u00f3latras del Atila \u00f3 Gengis Khan de la\n    Europa\u2014la Espa\u00f1a tiene una barrera firmisima contra el despotismo.\n    Emancipados Espa\u00f1oles\u2014segunda vez, loor sempiterno, himnos de\n    bendicion \u00e1 nuestros sabios legisladores!  Leyes fundamentales,\n    liberales y sabias\u2014despues del catecismo de la religion estudialas,\n    meditalas, canonizalas\u2014\u00e1 la par del catecismo de la religion pon en\n    las manos de tus hixos y nietos el codigo constitucional.  Pronunciad\n    con entusiasmo el juramento inviolable que va \u00e1 ser rubricado con la\n    sangre del divino cordero, y que los angeles habr\u00e1n ya escrito en las\n    columnas del emp\u00edreo.  Los corazones Castellanos dicen mucho mas que\n    lo que los labios pronuncian; ardientemente desean que al lado de\n    aquella ara augusta se erija una pir\u00e1mide, donde sea escrita en\n    letras de oro esta inscripcion sencilla, _Juramos ser fieles \u00e1 la\n    constitucion_: _por ella vivir\u00e9mos gloriosos_: _y por ella_, _si\n    menester_, _fu\u00e9re_, _gloriosamente morir\u00e9mos_.\u201d  Sermon preached in\n    Valladolid, 13th September, 1812.\n\nThis recreant friar in a letter to the Patriarch of the Indies, dated\n20th February, 1815, thus writes:\n\n    Of the Cortes: \u201cHici\u00e9ron publicar y jurar con la mas escandalosa\n    premura una constitucion ignorada.  Su formacion fu\u00e9 viciosa \u00e9\n    ilegal; el codigo fu\u00e9 hecho por los ama\u00f1os y malas artes de una\n    faccion de anarquistas.  Cortes\u2014nombre hoy de infausto ag\u00fcero\u2014Junta\n    de cabalas Gaditanas.\u201d\n\n    Of the constitution: \u201cSe la public\u00f3 casi en la forma qui se public\u00f3\n    el Alcoran todo por sorpresa, todo premura y todo militar.  \u00a1Sus dias\n    de terrorismo!  Jur\u00e9 un odio eterno \u00e1 los principios democraticos de\n    la llamada constitucion y las ideas anarquicas \u00e9 irreligiosas del\n    partido liberal.\u201d\n\n    Of Ferdinand: \u201cNuestro idolatrado rey.  Nuestro suspirado monarca, el\n    mas justo de los reyes.\u201d\n\n    Of himself: \u201cMi conducta me granje\u00f3 el favor de todos los buenos de\n    Galicia, que me mir\u00e1ban como una columna del partido servil.  El\n    consejo de Castilla me honr\u00f3 confi\u00e1ndome la censura de varios papeles\n    qui califiqu\u00e9 de sediciosos, subersivos \u00e9 injuriosos \u00e1 la soberania\n    de S. M.  El primer nombrado por la Junta de Obispos por la censura\n    de todos los escritos revolucionarios \u00e9 impios fu\u00e9 el Padre Martinez\n    _nemine discrepante_.  El ayuntamiento de Santiago me comision\u00f3 que\n    diere gracias \u00e1 S. M. por el reestablecimiento de la Inquisicion\n    pidiendo \u00e1 S. M. por los P.P. Jesuitas.  \u2018El Rey en atencion al\n    distinguido merito y servicios del Padre Martinez\u2019 me nombra su\n    predicador supernumerario: y despues, \u2018S. M. en consideracion \u00e1 la\n    solida literatura de V. S. y \u00e1 los servicios hechos \u00e1 su real\n    persona, la religion y al estado,\u2019 le nombra Consexero de la Suprema\n    de la Inquisicion!\u201d\n\n    Of the above sermon: \u201cHabl\u00e9 con la ligereza y superficialidad de un\n    orador que habla de lo que no entiende.  Era poco instruido en el\n    der\u00e9cho publico Espa\u00f1ol.  Habl\u00e9 constitucional y por conseq\u00fcente\n    disparatadamente.  Sermon de adornos, flores, y ex\u00e2gerados\n    hiperboles, sedicioso, subersivo \u00e9 injurioso \u00e1 la soberania de S. M.\u201d\n\nAnother disgraceful example may be quoted in that of Father Velez, the\npresent Bishop of Ceuta, who has lately published a book, entitled\nDefensa del Altar y del Trono, so infamous, so full of outrages, insults,\nand shameless mendacity, that the very Inquisition refused to license its\nimpression; and our mitred libeller delivered a copy to the king, whose\ntaste it so admirably suited, that he issued an immediate mandate, signed\nby his royal hand, ordering its instant publication.  I believe it is the\nonly book which has been printed for years without the Inquisition\u2019s\nauthority.\n\n{12}  The title of _Ingrato_ is, in fact, the Spanish despot\u2019s right _par\nexcellence_.  A few more such examples would dissolve the spell which\nholds so many slaves in bondage, and lead them to doubt whether\n\n    \u201c_Such divinity_ as doth hedge a king,\u201d\n\ncan really be of celestial origin.\n\n{13}  I know of no city honoured with so proud a list of illustrious men\nin so many departments of literature, as Cordoba.  Strabo (Cap. iii.)\nspeaks of the learning of its inhabitants, and so does Cicero (Orat. pro\nArchi\u00e2).  The two Senecas and Lucan among the Romans; Averr\u00f6es; his rival\nAvicenna, and Abenzoar, distinguished Arabic writers; the three most\nfamous Hebrew Rabbies, Abenezra, Kimki and Maimonides; Ferdinand the\nlogician; Juan de Mena, the father of Spanish poetry; Arias Montano,\nNebrixa, Gongora, the poet, and Cespedes, the every thing\u2014were all\nnatives of Cordoba.  Repeated attempts have been made to revive the\nspirit of learning in this interesting capital, and the literary\nsocieties there have published several striking appeals on the subject;\nbut Cordoba continues without even a bookseller\u2019s stall;\u2014a striking\nmonument of the triumphs of monkery and ignorance over all that is great,\ngood and generous in the human character.\n\n{14a}  Notwithstanding the many discussions as to the birth-place of\nCervantes, and the numerous copies that have been made of the register of\nhis baptism, since the claims of Alcal\u00e1 to the honour of his birth-place\nhave been admitted, it is surprising that no one should have remarked\nthat the name of his father is spelt _Carvantes_ in the original parish\nrecord, which I consulted.  It is in the oldest of the registers of the\nchurch of St. Mary Mayor, at page 192.\n\nFray Jayme Villanueva mentioned a curious circumstance to me at Valencia,\nconnected with Cervantes;\u2014that among the ecclesiastical documents he had\nexamined at Tarragona, there were a great number of letters addressed to\nthe Cabildo, relating various acts of robbery and murder committed by\nRoque Guinart and his band, (vide Don Quixote, Vol. IV. Par. ii. Cap.\n60,) and imploring their assistance to rid the country of these\nfreebooters: these letters are dated 1614.  Now the second part of Don\nQuixote was published in 1615.  How soon did Cervantes avail himself of\nthese events, and how rapid must his composition have been!\n\n    Cervantes! idol of my happiest hours!\n       Generous and joyous spirit! who hast brought\n       From thy rich storehouse of romantic thought\n    Wisdom and truth and valor!\u2014All the powers\n    Of Poetry and Music fill thy bowers.\n       Proud is the monument thy hands have wrought,\n       And beautiful the lesson thou hast taught;\u2014\n    And now the muse of many nations showers\n    Garlands upon thy tomb:\u2014yet thou wert poor\n       And desolate in life\u2014of all bereft,\n       In misery and melancholy left\n    To fix thy dim eye on a prison door!\n    Shame on the world!  No other star shall shine\n    Upon that world with such a light as thine!\n\n    \u201cSe engendr\u00f3 (el Quixote) en una carcel donde toda incomodidad tiene\n    su asiento y donde todo triste ruido hace su habitacion.\u201d\n\n                                                _Prologue_ to Don Quixote.\n\n{14b}  Moratin\u2019s translation of Hamlet is as unworthy of the Spanish as\nof the British bard; but any prose rendering of the beautiful poetry of\nthis extraordinary tragedy must be intolerable to an English ear.\n\n{15}  As none of his writings have probably reached England, I shall be\nexcused for introducing a specimen of his verses from the above comedy.\nTake, for example, the description of a gaming house:\n\n                                _Don Carlos_.\n\n    \u00bfAun la colera se dura?\n    \u00bfQue viste tan malo alii\n    Que asi te altera?\n\n                                _Don Severo_.\n\n                                  Yo vi\n    Un infierno en miniatura\n    Y no merece otro nombre,\n    Porque se deja al entrar\n    Cuanto puede recordar\n    Los privilegios del hombre.\n    En un ahumado aposento,\n    Anegado en porqueria,\n    He visto en un solo dia\n    Lo que no pudiera en ciento.\n    Sobre una mesa \u00f3 bufete\n    Alii un mandil se descubre,\n    Que mas empuerca que encumbre,\n    Y al que se llama tapete.\n    Yace encima un mal belon\n    Moribundo, desdichado,\n    Quien, \u00e1 pesar de su estado,\n    Manifest\u00f3 la intencion\n    Que de alumbrarnos tenia;\n    Mas le falt\u00f3 un requisito,\n    Y fue el aceite maldito,\n    Que estaba en Andalucia.\n    Pues de esta mesa al redor,\n    Y por tal luz alumbrados,\n    Encontramos ya sentados,\n    Esperando un redentor,\n    A una percion de estafermos,\n    Que por ser desali\u00f1ados,\n    Flacos, puercos y estropeados,\n    Me parecieron enfermos.\n    Pero \u00a1ai Dios y que sudores\n    Tuve!  \u00a1Que susto me diste\n    Cuando al oido me dijiste\n    Estos son los jugadores;\n    Luego descubri al banquero\n    Fumando su cigarrito,\n    Manejando aquel librito,\n    O recogiendo dinero.\n    A bosquejar no me atrevo\n    Ni sus dedos, ni sus u\u00f1as,\n    No se quejen las gardu\u00f1as,\n    O chille un Cristiano nuevo:\n    Pero a\u00f1adir\u00e9 sencillo,\n    Que si le encuentro en la calle,\n    En lugar de saludalle\n    Le doi mi capa y bolsillo.\n    \u00a1Qu\u00e9 juramentos!  \u00a1Qu\u00e9 por vidas!\n    Y otras voces conocidas\n    Tan solo entre jugadores.\n    Ac\u00e1 gana una _judia_,\n    Alli las sotas _se dan_,\n    Pi\u00e9rdese un buen _ganar\u00e1n_\n    O quiebra _contra judia_.\n    Alli sin soga, se _amarra_,\n    Se _apunta_ sin escopeta,\n    Sin necesidad _se aprieta_.\n    _Se mata_ sin cimitarra:\n    Tambien _se entierra_ sin ser\n    Doctor ni sepulturero,\n    Y en fin se pierde el dinero\n    Sin oir, sin hablar, sin ver.\n    Estos, amiguito, son\n    Los primores, que sin tasa\n    Se encuentran en esa casa,\n    Que llamas de diversion.\n    Y no siento, ciertamente,\n    Haber jugado y perdido,\n    Sino el haber conocido\n    Pocilga tan indecente.\n\n{16}  I have seen him join the religious processions at Madrid, but with\nevident indifference and impatience.  In the really interesting\nsolemnities of the 2nd of May, (to commemorate the earliest victims of\nthe Revolution,) in the presence of the Court, the Nuncio, and the\ndignified ecclesiastics of Spain, he played idly with his wax taper and\nhis pocket handkerchief, and walked out of church in the middle of mass.\nIf he ever amused himself with embroidering garments for the Virgin,\n(which I do not believe,) or feigned a special devotion in the\necclesiastical ceremonies of his country, he has not thought it necessary\nto wear the mask of hypocrisy any longer.","title":"Observations on the State of Religion and Literature in Spain","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":9640}