French and the Spaniards have evolved from the same Latin stock two tongues so different in music and in spirit, is sufficient to dispose of the legend of ' The Latin Peoples ' in so far as this name is meant to suggest a similarity in nature and character between the Romance-speaking nations. The point is the more important for the subtle association of ideas which connects the word Latin ' with the classics and antiquity. Now, though there is much to be said for an interpretation of French character and culture as a more or less direct descendant of Athenian wisdom and intellectual acumen, and though Italy may be said to be closely related to Greek ideals of life, nothing in Europe is farther removed from the Spanish genius than the genius of Greece. Certain Roman traits, stoicism, pomp, there are in the Spanish character. But if Latin is to mean classical polish and culture there are few countries in Europe more un-' Latin ' than Spain.1

Spanish, though Latin in body, is in spirit a language instinct with a genius of its own, thoroughly different, not only from French and Italian, but from that vague ethnical entity which goes by the name of Latinity. Forget for one moment its unfortunate commercial preponderance. Divest your mind from the pitiless statistics which prove its dominions to be second in area and third in population among those of the other languages of Europe, and think of it purely as an instrument for the expression of man. Where among living tongues is there one more beautiful ?

Its range of musical possibilities is wider than that

1 History confirms this purely critical observation. Thus, Professor Altamira remarks that the civilization of modern Spain began in Galicia, Asturias, Leon, and Castile, that is in the least Romanized parts of the Peninsula, while the east and south, regions where the influence of Rome had been greatest, remained under Moorish sway (Historia de Espana y de la Civilization Espanola, vol. ii, p. 239, ed. 1913).

of French, German, or Italian, and at least equal to that of English. Over Italian it has the superiority of its stronger framework and its more clear-cut architecture. German is a powerful organ and French an exquisite violin. But each has the limitations of its powers. Even if the German language can render such tuneful moanings as :

Les sanglots longs Des violons

De l'automne ..

it can hardly attain the frail delicacy of airs such as :

Un petit roseau m'a suffi

Pour faire fremir l'herbe haute Et tout le pre,

Et les dour saules,

Et le ruisseau qui chante aussi. Un petit roseau m'a suffi

A faire fremir la fork. . . .

The French language, on the other hand, has not enough volume of voice to fill out with sound sentences such as :

In eurem Namen, Mutter, die ihr thront Im Granzenlosen, ewig einsam wohnt

Und doch gesellig.   Faust, ii. 6427,

still less to achieve that musical plenitude which Milton attains in one line :

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers ! Paradise Lost, x. 459.

English can be light and airy, and in its best Elizabethan form has a spontaneous charm which is to the grace of French poetry what fresh-gathered violets are to perfume of exquisite manufacture. Usually, however, it is only under the weight of thought that it softens its somewhat jerky monosyllabic stride, and it does not seem to be able to glide peacefully along in dreamy passivity.