destinée à maintenir l'Ordre plutôt qu'à défendre la foi," says the
Protestant historian Guizot (Hist. Mod. Lect. II).
[13] Every Spanish child knows the story of Guzmán _el bueno_ at Tarifa.
The rebel infante threatened to kill Guzmán's son, were the city not
surrendered, whereupon the hero flung his own knife down from the walls;
rather the death of him he loved best than disloyalty to his trust and
king. The boy was killed under his father's eyes.
When the tomb of this national hero was opened in 1570, the skeleton
discovered was nine feet long, just as Jaime I _el Conquistador_, a
contemporary of Guzmán, was found to be of gigantic proportions when the
pantheon of the Aragonese kings in Poblet was sacked in 1835.
[14] "León Cathedral is indeed in almost every respect worthy to be
ranked among the noblest churches in Europe. Its detail is rich and
beautiful throughout, the plan very excellent, the sculptures with which
it is adorned quite equal in quality and character to that of any church
of the age, and the stained glass with which its windows are filled some
of the best in Europe."
G. E. STREET: "Gothic Architecture in Spain."
[15] "Libro del Paso Honroso" written by an eye witness, Pero Rodríguez
de Lena. Prescott says that no country has been more fruitful in the
field of historical composition than Spain. The chronicles date from the
twelfth century, every great family, every town and every city had its
chronicler. Compare the minute details we have of Cortés in Mexico about
1517, with the meager accounts we find of the North American settlers
some generations later.
[16] It is amusing to find Napier, whose "History of the Peninsula War"
is one of the most one-sided of chronicles, laying down the law in this
fashion: "The English are a people very subject to receive and to
cherish false impressions, proud of their credulity, as if it were a
virtue, the majority will adopt any fallacy, and cling to it with a
tenacity proportioned to its grossness."
[17] Frequently in Spain one comes on Irish names among the leading
families. The O'Donnells, Dukes of Tetuán, have had several generations
of distinguished men. In the 18th century Count Alexander O'Reilly led
the Spanish armies in the New World and the Old, and when Governor of
Andalusia, he so reformed economic conditions in Cadiz that a beggar was
unknown on the streets. He too was followed by an able son. Reading
Spanish books the traces of Irish exiles are many: thus a Doña Lucía
Fitzgerald organized and drilled a woman's regiment during the siege of
Gerona in 1808; and the beautiful wife of the poet Campoamor was a Doña
Guillermina O'Gorman.
"We're all over Austria, France, and Spain,
Said Kelly, and Burke, and Shea."
[18] "L'un des signes distinctifs des mystiques c'est justement
l'équilibre absolu, l'entier bon sens." J.-K. Huysmans: "_En Route_."
[19] "La Mystique est une science absolument exacte. Elle peut annoncer
d'avance la plupart des phénomènes qui se produisent dans une âme que le
Seigneur destine à la vie parfaite; elle suit aussi nettement les
opérations spirituelles que la physiologie observe les états différents
du corps. De siècles en siècles, elle a divulgué la marche de la Grâce
et ses effets tantôt impétueux et tantôt lents; elle a même précisé les
modifications des organes matériels qui se transforment quand l'âme tout
entière se fond en Dieu. Saint Denys l'Aréopagite, saint Bonaventure,
Hugues et Richard de Saint Victor, saint Thomas d'Aquin, saint Bernard,
Ruysbroeck, Angèle de Foligno, les deux Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, Denys le
chartreux, sainte Hildegarde, sainte Catherine de Gênes, sainte
Catherine de Sienne, sainte Madeleine de Pazzi, sainte Gertrude,
d'autres encore ont magistralement exposé les principes et les théories
de la Mystique." J.-K. Huysmans: "_En Route_."
[20] It has been said that there never was a spiritually minded man,
who, knowing Saint Teresa's works, was not devoted to them. In his
"Journal Intime," that most distinguished prelate of modern France, Mgr.
Dupanloup, wrote: "La vie de Sainte Térèse m'y a charmé.... J'ai
rarement reçu, dans ma vie, une bénédiction, une impression de grâce
plus simple et plus profonde."
[21] "Just as the Church of Rome has absorbed Platonism in the doctrine
of the Logos and of the Trinity, and has absorbed Aristotelianism in the
doctrine of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, so we may naturally
expect that in its doctrine of its own nature, it will some day absorb
formally, having long done so informally, the main ideas of that
evolutionary philosophy, which many people regard as destined to
complete its downfall; and that it will find in this philosophy--in the
philosophy of the Darwins, the Spencers, and the Huxleys--a scientific
explanation of its own teaching authority, like that which is found in
Aristotle for its doctrine of Transubstantiation.... It may be said that
the Roman Church itself developed without being conscious of its own
scientific character, just as men were for ages unconscious of the
circulation of their own blood.... Like an animal seeking nutriment it
put forth its feelers or tentacles on all sides, seizing, tasting, and
testing all forms of human thought, all human opinions, and all alleged
discoveries. It absorbs some of these into itself, and extracts their
nutritive principles; it immediately rejects some as poisonous or
indigestible; and gradually expels from its system others, condemned as
heresies, which it has accidentally or experimentally swallowed." W. H.
Mallock: "Doctrine and Doctrinal Disruption." 1900.
[22] Moro made a replica of this portrait (or perhaps the Prado picture
is the replica) which Mary gave to her Master of Horse. It now
fortunately is in America, in Mrs. J. L. Gardner's notable collection in
_Fenway Court_, Boston. It is hard to recognize in the Mary of the
Flemish Master the queen of whom Motley wrote in his "Dutch Republic":
"tyrant, bigot, and murderess ... small, lean and sickly, painfully
nearsighted yet with an eye of fierceness and fire, her face wrinkled by
lines of care and evil passions."
[23] "Io cristiano viejo soy, y para ser Conde esto me basta"--old
Spanish proverb, quoted by Sancho Panza. Proverbs, which Cervantes
called "short sentences drawn from long experience," often show the
qualities of a race. In many of the popular sayings of Castile is found
the strong feeling of manhood's equality:
"Cuando Dios amanece, para todos amanece."
"Mientras que duermen todos son iguales."
"No ocupo más pies de tierra el cuerpo del Papa que el del sacristan."
[24] See the frontispiece: Portrait of an Hidalgo, by El Greco.
[25] "Nunca la lanza embotó la pluma, ni la pluma la lanza,"--old
Spanish proverb.
[26] "The Hound of Heaven": Francis Thompson.
[27] "Donde hay música, no puede haber cosa mala."--Spanish proverb.
[28] "Spain is one of the few countries in Europe where poverty is not
treated with contempt, and I may add, where the wealthy are not blindly
idolized."--George Borrow: "The Bible in Spain."
[29] Our Lady of Victory is the patroness of the _cigarreras_.
[30] "O trois fois saints chanoines! dormez doucement sous votre dalle,
â l'ombre de votre cathédrale chérie, tandis que votre âme se prelasse
au paradis dans une stalle probablement moins bien sculptée que celle de
votre ch[oe]ur!"
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER: "Voyage en Espagne."
[31] "One of the commonest types among the Greek figurines, certainly
representing the average Greek lady, might be supposed to represent a
Spanish lady, so closely does the face, the dress, the mantilla-like
covering of the head, the erect and dignified carriage, recall modern
Spain."
"The Soul of Spain."--HAVELOCK-ELLIS.
[32] The same trait is shown in the astonishingly fecund theater of
Spain, where is found for one golden century the indelible mark of the
race. First came Lope de Vega with his dashing picaresque comedies _de
capa y espada_, that more induce to laughter than to vice, the vigorous
and supple Lope, whom all nations have "found good to steal from." Then
followed the powerful Tirso de Molina, a dramatist of vision and
passion, and Ruiz de Alacón with his high ethical aim and equal
execution, and finally Calderón, who in the midst of his plays shows
himself an exquisite lyric poet. In Seville we used to see what would
here be a dime-museum crowd pouring into an hour's bit of frolic, such
as Benevente's "Intereses Creados," of the true cape-and-sword type.
Those plays which we personally saw proved to us Valera's words, that
erotic literature rises in sadness and pessimism, not in the hearty
bravura and zest of life of the Spanish theater.
[33] "Es menester mucho tiempo para venir á conocer las personas," is
one of Sancho Panza's wise saws.
[34] See "L'Espagne Littéraire" by Boris de Tannenberg (Paris, 1903).
[35] "Surely chivalry is not dead!" exclaimed Lieut. R. P. Hobson when
describing the courteous treatment he, as prisoner, had received from
the Spanish officers: "The history of warfare probably contains no
instance of chivalry on the part of captors greater than that of those
who fired on the 'Merrimac.'" The gallant American's account of his feat
in Santiago harbor proves that Spínola's spirit survives on both sides
of the Atlantic.
[36] "In Gerona Cathedral there was a cat who would stroll about in
front of the _capilla mayor_ during the progress of Mass, receiving the
caresses of the passers-by. It would be a serious mistake to see here
any indifference to religion, on the contrary, this easy familiarity
with sacred things is simply the attitude of those who in Wordsworth's
phrase, "lie in Abraham's bosom all the year," and do not, as often
among ourselves, enter a church once a week to prove how severely
respectable, for the example of others, we can show ourselves."
"The Soul of Spain"--HAVELOCK ELLIS (1908).
[37] An idea of Spain's romance of soul can be gathered from the rules
and regulations of her national police, the Civil Guard, who may be
called the descendants of Isabella's _Santa Hermandad_.
"1. Honour must be the chief motive for the Civil Guard, to be preserved
intact and without a flaw. Once gone, honour can never be regained.
" ... 3. The force must be an example to the country of neatness, order,
bearing, good morals and spotless honour....
"8. The Civil Guard ought to be regarded as the protector of the
afflicted, inspiring confidence when seen approaching.... For the Civil
Guard must freely give his life for the good of any sufferer.
" ... 9. Whenever a member of the Civil Guard has the good fortune to
render a service to anyone, he must never accept, if offered, a reward,
bearing in mind that he has done nothing but his simple duty.
" ... 27. The Civil Guard will refrain with the greatest scrupulousness
from drawing near to listen to any knot of people in street, shop, or
private house, for this would be an act of espionage, altogether outside
the office and beneath the dignity of any member of the force."
That such rules have molded her exemplary constabulary, no one will deny
who has traveled much in Spain. They are loved and respected by the
people; witness this popular song:
"Atenta á la vida humana
Siempre la Guardia Civil ...
Y por eso en todas partes
Benediciones la acompañan,
Por eso Dios la protege
Cuando al peligro se lanza,
Por eso la canto yo
Con el corazón y el alma:
Viva la Guardia Civil
Porque es la gloria de España!"
[38] This most beautiful church, dating before the Crusades, one of the
most ancient, with the Asturian churches, Santa María de Naranco and San
Miguel de Lino, in all the Peninsula, was totally destroyed by the
socialist mob, in the riots of July, 1909.
[39] "El principio de la salud está en conocer la enfermedad."--Old
Spanish proverb.
End of Project Gutenberg's Heroic Spain, by Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly