the greatest of the four. Hamlet is too much of a dream and Faust too much of an idea. But Don Quixote and Don Juan are men of flesh and blood, of our own flesh and blood, and they will live and grow as long as men are moved by love of justice or love of woman.

Thus, a brief series of rough valuations shows Spain to be in the front line of European powers when judged by spiritual standards. Each of these powers brings to the European genius a contribution of its own, a complex national spirit which is difficult to define yet can be briefly suggested. Bar England, and Europe loses that sense of harmony between ethical Heaven and positive Earth which is to the progress of mankind what the instinctive alliance of eyes and feet is to man's walk. Bar France, and Europe is the poorer for the geometric spirit which in the confusion of nature's forms can detect the: immovable lines of principles. Bar Italy and the sense of polished culture and intellectual enjoyment of life disappears from the European world. Bar Germany, and Europe is left without her central laboratory and storehouse where all her thoughts are received, compared, tested, and developed and made into one. Bar Russia, and the stem which unites the European branch to its Asiatic root is cut off. Bar Spain, and what will be the loss to Europe ?

We may approach the definition of it by a negative remark. The contribution of Spain to Europe is least important in the region of principles and theory. True, the scientific work of Spain is generally underestimated, and in this as in many other subjects a thorough revision of prevalent ideas must sometime be undertaken. But it is, I believe, possible to set down two observations on the matter. The first, that the scientific work of Spain has always been and

still is most prominent in applied science ; that though Spain has given to the world many a philosophic and scientific minor genius, she cannot be said without obvious exaggeration to have given birth to a single genius of the first magnitude in either science or philosophy. Men of the intellectual eminence of Newton or Pascal, Descartes, Kant, or Poincare, there never were south of the Pyrenees. Still less can we speak of any great school of scientific or philosophic thought having taken birth or brilliant development within the cultural boundaries of Spain ; for not only were the intellectual leaders lacking, but the tendency towards extreme individualism to be observed in Spanish thought no less than in Spanish life always worked against the fusion of individual opinions into collective systems or movements. So that on the whole it may not unfairly be said that, much as applied sciences, such as geography, natural history, and jurisprudence, owe to Spain, the contribution of Spain to the spirit of Europe is least important in the region of abstract thought.

We are thus confronted with the first feature of Spanish thought. It is concrete and it is applied. It shuns abstraction. Pure speculation is not to its taste and it abhors byzantinism. In this respect there is a close likeness between the Spanish and the English character, since both find in practice and action their most congenial task. Yet there is an all-important difference. Direct observation will show that the ideal of the Englishman is ethical, social, and positive ; that of the Spaniard is asthetical, individual, and personal. The Englishman's norm is virtue, the Spaniard's norm is honour ; the Englishman seeks action in order to conquer things ; the Spaniard in order to conquer men. For the main interest of the Spaniard is in man.

But we must define this word, MAN, which is too

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