Who need wonder, after this, if even the lowliest Spaniard speaks of himself with a certain haughtiness, which in any one else would be pronounced presumptuous? “The Spaniard is a Gascon of a tragic type;” so says a French traveller. With him deeds always follow words. He is a boaster, but not without reason. He unites qualities which usually preclude each other, for, though haughty, he is kindly in his manners; he thinks very highly of himself, but is considerate of the feelings of others; quick to perceive the shortcomings of his neighbours, he rarely makes them a subject of reproach. Trifles give rise to a torrent of sonorous language, but in matters of importance a word or a gesture suffices. The Spaniard combines a solemn bearing and steadfastness with a considerable amount of cheerfulness. Nothing disquiets him; he philosophically takes things as they are; poverty has no terrors for him; and he even ingeniously contrives to extract pleasure and advantage from it. The life of Gil Blas, in whom the Spaniards recognise their own likeness, was more chequered than that of any other hero of romance, and yet he was always full of gaiety, which even the dark shadow of the Inquisition, then resting upon the country, failed to deprive him of. “To live on the banks of the Manzanares,” says a Spanish proverb, “is perfect bliss; to be in paradise is the second degree of happiness, but only on condition of being able to look down upon Madrid through a skylight in the heavens.”

These opposites in the character of the Spaniards give rise to an appearance of fickleness which foreigners are unable to comprehend, and they themselves complacently describe them as cosas de España. How, indeed, are we to explain so much weakness associated with so many noble qualities, so many superstitions in spite of common sense and a keen perception of irony, such ferocity of conduct in men naturally generous and magnanimous? A Spaniard, in spite of his passions, will resign himself philosophically to what he looks upon as inevitable. Lo que ha de ser no puede faltar, “What is to be will be,” he says, and, wrapped up in his cloak, he allows events to take their course. The great Lord Bacon observed, three hundred years ago, that the “Spaniards looked wiser than they were;” and, indeed, most of them are passionately fond of gambling, and their apathetic fatalism accounts for many of the ills their country suffers. The rapid decay which has taken place in the course of three centuries has led certain historians to number the Spaniards amongst fallen nations. The edifices met with in many towns and villages speak of a grandeur now past, and the despoblados and dehesas, which we encounter even in the vicinity of the capital, tell of once fertile fields returned to a state of nature.

Buckle, in his “History of Civilisation,” traces this decay to the physical nature of Spain and to a long succession of religious wars. The Visigoths defended Arianism against the Franks, and when the Spaniards had become good Catholics their country was invaded by Moors, and for more than twenty generations they struggled against them. It thus happened that patriotism became identical with {375} absolute obedience to the behests of the Church, for every one, from the King down to the meanest archer, was a defender of the faith rather than of his native soil. The result might have been foretold. The Church not only took possession of most of the land won from the infidels, but it also exercised a baneful influence upon the Government, and, through its dreaded tribunals of the Inquisition, over the whole of society.

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Fig. 137.—DEHESAS IN THE ENVIRONS OF MADRID.

Scale 1 : 450,000.

But whilst these long religious struggles tended to the moral and intellectual abasement of the Spaniards, there were other causes which operated in an inverse sense, and these Buckle does not appear to have properly appreciated. The kings, in order to secure the support of the people in their wars against the Mussulmans, found themselves compelled to grant a large measure of liberty. The towns governed themselves, and their delegates, as early as the eleventh century, sat with the nobility and clergy in the Cortes, and voted the supplies. Local government conferred advantages upon Spain then enjoyed only in few parts of Europe. Industry and the arts flourished in these prosperous cities, and a stop was even put to the encroachments of the clergy long before Luther raised his powerful voice in Germany.

A struggle between the supporters of local government and of a centralized monarchy at length became imminent, and no sooner had the infidels been expelled than civil war began. It terminated in favour of King and Church, for the comuneros of the Castiles met with little support in the other provinces, and their towns were ravaged by the bloodthirsty generals of Charles V.

The discovery of the New World, which happened about this period, proved a disaster to Spain, for young men of enterprise and daring crossed the Atlantic, and thus weakened the mother country, which was too small to feed such huge colonies. The immense amount of treasure (more than £2,000,000,000 between 1500 and 1702) sent home from the colonies contributed still further to the rapid decay of Spain, for it corrupted the entire nation. Money being obtainable without {376} work, all honest labour ceased, and when the colonies no longer yielded their metallic treasures the country saw itself impoverished, for the gold and silver had found their way to foreign lands, whence Spain had procured her supplies.