[138.—16 f.] Compare with the author's La duda and Miserere, and Bécquer's La ajorca de oro.
[142.—1-3.] The poet seems to compare the nineteenth century, amidst the flames of furnaces and engines, to the fallen archangel in hell.
[16.] mística, that is, of communion with God, heavenly.
[144.]—¡Sursum Corda!: the lines given are merely the introduction to the poem, and form about one fourth of the entire work. They were written soon after the Spanish-American War. See Sursum Corda!, Madrid, 1904; and also Juan Valera's Florilegio, IV, 413 f.
[8.] The plains of Old Castile may well be called "austere."
[145.—10-16.] Cf. Á España (1860) and Á Castelar (1873).
[147.—11-19]. There are few stronger lines than these in all Spanish poetry.
[148.]—Manuel del Palacio (1832-1895) was born in Lérida. His parents removed to Granada, and there he joined a club of young men known as La Cuerda. Going to Madrid, he devoted himself to journalism and politics, first as a radical and later as a conservative.
Cf. Blanco Garcia, II, 40. For his works, see his Obras, Madrid, 1884; Veladas de otoño, 1884; Huelgas diplomáticas, 1887.