psychological insight which fancy would fain attribute to the even-present insinuating example of their tortuous valleys ; and that generous spirit, universal and wide as the sea, which explains why the Asturian people excel all the other peoples of the peninsula in political genius. Nor is this the only quality which differentiates them from the rest of Spain. For the softer atmosphere of their little fatherland seems to find its counterpart in a subtlety, a sense of nuances, a capacity for light treatment and suggestion, and above all a sense of humour, which make of them the most gifted of Spaniards in qualities of intellectual distinction.

Indeed, it is not too much to say that the Asturian character is in a sense antithetical to that of the rest of the Spanish race. While Spain is above all creative and excels in genius, Asturias is mostly critical, and its distinctive gift is talent. Asturias is therefore conscious, and in this, the deepest possible sense, it undoubtedly is the most European of the kingdoms of Spain. True, in an external and superficial way, Catalonia would appeal to most people as the representative, in Spain, of European civilization and progress. This opinion we hold to be mistaken. For the genius of Catalonia is mainly imitative and formal, and its character is essentially conservative. Catalonia endeavours to be like Europe. Asturias endeavours to be fully and consciously herself, and this is more truly European. It thus becomes clear why her men should always have been in the van of political progress in the Peninsula. It was in Asturias that Charles III found his enlightened statesmen. It is from Asturias that contemporary Spain draws her pioneers in education, politics, and social reform. Thus Asturias, in whose territory began the Reconquest—the reassertion of Europe over Africa and Asia in the disputed borderlands of Spain--is still the stronghold of the

European spirit in the most Oriental of western countries.

Asturias is represented in Spanish contemporary letters by Don Ramon Perez de Ayala, whose volume of short stories, Prometeo, is now available in English. Perez de Ayala, though young, is not a beginner. Apart from the above-mentioned book, he has published seven novels,' three volumes of verse, and several books of criticism and essays. He is a prominent figure in contemporary Spanish letters, a shrewd critic, a keen student of English literature. Any one of these activities would justify the drawing of an outline of his literary personality.

Perez de Ayala is a typical Asturian in the intelligent and intellectual outlook which distinguishes his writings. He is above all a cultivated man, a modern humanist, a conscious intellect with a comprehensive view of history and a serene understanding of the world and of life. His favourite attitude is that of the spectator, and, though far from indifferent to the ethical issues involved in literature and certainly not devoid of a warm feeling of human fellowship, his aim is neither to judge nor to plead, but merely to understand. His criticism is based on no preference for schools, forms of culture, nations, races, or religions. His mind is open to all the winds, equally transparent to all the rays that emanate from reality. A good European he certainly is in his wide appreciation of all the intellectual values which in the course of history have gone to the making of our old continent. But he would not be a Spaniard if he did not feel the call of Oriental thoughts and faiths, nor if his mind were insensitive to the breadth of new life which comes to Europe over the wide Western Ocean. As a critic, he is not hampered by the iron bars of

Two of them published since this essay was written.