Y unos sollozando, Otros en silencio, De la triste alcoba Todos se salieron.

A language which can be at the same time so bare and so beautiful is the creation of a great national spirit. -And thus, even if no other facts were available, a study of Spanish poetry would be sufficient to establish that though Spain may not be in the front rank of political and economic powers, she undoubtedly is one of the great spiritual powers of the world.

But in order to give a measure of this greatness, we may look back upon certain historical facts, mere indices of quantity which may serve to fix the scale of Spain's contribution to the spiritual life of Europe.

Thus, if we consider the history of Europe's great achievements, we find Spain the protagonist of the most important event in the life of the human race since the fall of the Roman Empire. The discovery of America was not a mere lucky prize which Fate let fall on the lap of Spain. It was above all a masterpiece of faith and creative imagination. Moreover, it opened an era of Spanish travel and discovery which, taken as a whole, constitutes perhaps the greatest epic which the human race has known. Lapses of cupidity and fits of cruelty there were in it. But particularly when reduced from legendary exaggerations to their real historical dimensions and seen in their true perspective, in relation to the whole attitude of Spanish conquerors and to that of other colonizing races, they do not suffice to abate the splendour of the discovery and conquest of America. Such deeds as Cortes burning his ships, or Balboa kneeling

Silent, upon a peak in Darien,

in sight of the new discovered Pacific are still awaiting a Homer worthy of them.

If from history we turn to literature we shall find the genius of Spain no less great and original. Spain can boast of that unique creation, the Romancero, less an epic poem than an epic growth, which, born almost wild all over her land and preserved by verbal tradition in the memory of her people, has since acquired universal celebrity, and given the seed of inspiration to Heine and Victor Hugo, Southey, Byron, and Walter Scott.

Spain shares with England the rare distinction of having originated a national theatre. The Golden Century is one of the few great literary epochs of the world, comparable to the Elizabethan era and to the

Siecle de Louis XIV '. Though rich in novels and lyrical poetry and essays and every kind of literary production, the Golden Century is above all celebrated for the incomparable splendour of its theatre.

If the six greatest names of European literature be singled out, it is likely that the choice of them would be somewhat as follows : Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dante, Goethe, Rabelais, and Tolstoy. There might be discussions as to this or that name, but if there are two which are safe on the list, they certainly are those of the Englishman and the Spaniard.

As with authors, so with books. Who would doubt that the greatest book written in any European language is Don Quixote ; this novel, the first in date and the first in excellence, from which all other novels in more than one sense descend ?

And if we are to judge nations by their power to create characters—those characters of art which live a life much richer, fuller, and longer than the characters of nature—here again Spain will hold her own in the first rank. Let the four greatest characters of European literature be named. Hamlet and Faust will be of the number ; the other two will have to come from Spain : Don Quixote and Don Juan, and they are