foreigner, was unmoved by these considerations, and, to the astonishment of all Spain, he, on the mere ground of political expediency, set at naught the principles of the Church, and not only concluded an alliance with the Mohammedans, but supplied them with arms and with money.215 It is, indeed, true that, in these and similar measures, Alberoni opposed himself to the national will, and that he lived to repent of his boldness. It is, however, also true, that his policy was part of a great secular and anti-theological movement, which, during the eighteenth century, was felt all over Europe. The effects of that movement were seen in the government of Spain, but not in the people. This was because the government for many years was wielded by foreigners, or by natives imbued with a foreign spirit. Hence we find that, during the greater part of the eighteenth century, the politicians of Spain formed a class more isolated, and, if I may so say, more living on their own intellectual resources, than the politicians of any other country during the same period. That this indicated a state of disease, and that no political improvement can produce real good, unless it is desired by the people before being conferred on them, will be admitted by whoever has mastered the lessons which history contains. The results actually produced in Spain, we shall presently see. But it will first be advisable that I should give some further evidence of the extent to which the influence of the Church had pros

diversos capitulos." Uztariz, Theorica y Practica de Comercio, Madrid, 1757, p. 399. This is the third edition of a book, which, considering the circumstances under which it was written, is a very remarkable production.

215 Compare Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain, London, 1815, vol. ii. p. 314, with The History of Alberoni, London, 1719, pp. 119, 253; and Bacallar, Comentarios de la Guerra de España, vol. ii. pp. 168, 169. The outcry which this caused, may be easily imagined; and Alberoni, finding himself in great peril, took advantage of the secrecy of the negotiations, to deny part, at least, of the charges made against him. See his indignant, but yet cautious, letter to the Pope, in History of Alberoni, 1719, p. 124. Ortiz, who had evidently not looked into the evidence, is so ill-informed as to suppose that this was a calumnious accusation brought against Alberoni after his fall. "Caido ya por entonces Alberoni de su grandeza, expelido ignominiosamente de España, y aun perseguido por el Rey en Italia, preso en Roma por orden del Papa, etc. no era dificil atribuirle culpas agenas ó no cometidas." Note in Ortiz, Compendio, vol. vii. p. 321.

trated the national intellect, and by discouraging all inquiry, and fettering all freedom of thought, had at length reduced the country to such a plight, that the faculties of men, rusted by disuse, were no longer equal to fulfil the functions required from them; so that in every department, whether of political life, or of speculative philosophy, or even of mechanical industry, it was necessary that foreigners should be called in, to do that work, which the natives had become unable to perform.

The ignorance in which the force of adverse circumstances had sunk the Spaniards, and their inactivity, both bodily and mental, would be utterly incredible, if it were not attested by every variety of evidence. Gramont, writing from personal knowledge of the state of Spain, during the latter half of the seventeenth century, describes the upper classes as not only unacquainted with science or literature, but as knowing scarcely any thing even of the commonest events which occurred out of their own country. The lower ranks, he adds, are equally idle, and rely upon foreigners to reap their wheat, to cut their hay, and to build their houses.216 Another observer of society, as it existed in Madrid in 1679, assures us

66

216"Leur paresse, et l'ignorance non seulement des sciences et des arts, mais quasi généralement de tout ce qui se passe hors de l'Espagne, et on peut dire même hors du lieu où ils habitent, vont presque de pair, et sont inconcevables. La pauvreté est grande parmi eux, ce qui provient de leur extrême paresse; car si nombre de nos Français n'alloient faucher leurs foins, couper leurs blés et faire leurs briques, je crois qu'ils courroient fortune de se laisser mourir de faim, et de se tenir sous des tentes pour ne se pas donner la peine de bâtir des maisons." "L'éducation de leurs enfans est semblable à celle qu'ils ont eu de leurs pères, c'est-à-dire sans qu'ils apprennent ni sciences ni exercices; et je ne crois pas que parmi tous les grands que j'ay pratiqués, il s'en trouvât un seul qui sût décliner son nom." Ils n'ont nulle curiosité de voir les pays étrangers, et encore moins de s'enquérir de ce qui s'y passe.' Mémoires du Maréchal de Gramont, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78, 82, 83, in Collection des Mémoires par Petitot et Monmerqué, vol. lvii. See also Aarsens de Sommerdyck, Voyage d'Espagne, Paris, 1665, 4to, p. 124. "La terre mesme n'y est pas toute cultiuée par des gens du pays: au temps du labourage, des semailles et de la recolte, il leur vient quantité de paysans du Bearn et d'autres endroits de France, qui gagnent beaucoup d'argent, pour leur mettre leurs bleds en terre et pour les recueillir. Les architectes et charpentiers y sont aussi pour la plûpart estrangers, qui se font payer au triple de ce qu'ils gagneroient en leur pays. Dans Madrid on ne voit pas un porteur d'eau qui ne soit estranger, et la plûpart des cordonniers et tailleurs le sont aussi."

that men, even of the highest position, never thought it necessary that their sons should study; and that those who were destined for the army could not learn mathematics, if they desired to do so, inasmuch as there were neither schools nor masters to teach them.217 Books, unless they were books of devotion, were deemed utterly useless; no one consulted them; no one collected them; and, until the eighteenth century, Madrid did not possess a single public library 218 In other cities professedly devoted to purposes of education, similar ignorance prevailed. Salamanca was the seat of the most ancient and most famous university in Spain, and there, if any where, we might look for the encouragement of science.219 But De

217 "Mais aussi de quelle manière les éleve-t-on ? Ils n'étudient point; on néglige de leur donner d'habiles precepteurs; dès qu'on les destine à l'épée, on ne se soucie plus qu'ils apprennent le latin ni l'histoire. On devroit au moins leur enseigner ce qui est de leur mestier, les mathematiques, à faire des armes et à monter à cheval. Ils n'y pensent seulement pas. Il n'y a point ici d'Academie ni de maîtres qui montrent ces sortes de choses. Les jeunes hommes passent le tems qu'ils devroient emploïer à s'instruire dans un oisiveté pitoïable." Letter from Madrid, dated 27th June 1679, in D'Aulnoy, Relation du Voyage d'Espagne, Lyon, 1693, vol. ii. pp. 232, 233.

218 Madrid étant la capitale d'une monarchie aussi vaste, il n'y eut dans cette ville jusqu'à l'époque du règne de Philippe V aucune bibliothèque publique." Sempere, De la Monarchie Espagnole, Paris, 1826, vol. ii.

p. 79.

219 The university was transferred from Palencia to Salamanca, early in the thirteenth century. Forner, Oracion Apologética por la España, Madrid, 1786, p. 170. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, it had become very prosperous (Sempere, De la Monarchie Espagnole, vol. i. p. 65); and in 1535, it is described as a great Universitie, conteyning seven or eight thowsand students." See a letter from John Mason, dated Valladolid, 3d July 1535, in Ellis' Original Letters, second series, vol. ii. p. 56, London, 1827. But, like every thing else which was valuable in Spain, it declined in the seventeenth century; and Monconys, who carefully examined it in 1628, and praises some of its arrangements which were still in force, adds, "Mais je suis aussi contraint de dire après tant de louanges, que les ecoliers qui étudient dans cette université sont des vrais ignorans." Les Voyages de Monsieur de Monconys, Quatrième Partie, vol. v. p. 22, Paris, 1695. However, their ignorance, of which Monconys gives some curious instances, did not prevent Spanish writers, then, and long afterwards, from deeming the University of Salamanca to be the greatest institution of its kind in the world. "La mayor del orbe, madre gloriosísima de todas las ciencias y de los mas vehementes ingenios, que han ilustrado las edades." Vida de Calderon de la Barca, pp. iii. iv., reprinted in Keil's edition of Calderon, Leipsique, 1827. Compare Davila (Felipe Tercero, p. 81), "Salamanca, madre de ciencias y letras;" Yañez (Memorias, p. 228), "Universidad

Torres, who was himself a Spaniard, and was educated at Salamanca, early in the eighteenth century, declares that he had studied at that university for five years before he had heard that such things as the mathematical sciences existed.220 So late as the year 1771, the same university publicly refused to allow the discoveries of Newton to be taught; and assigned as a reason, that the system of Newton was not so consonant with revealed religion as the system of Aristotle.221 All over Spain, a similar plan was adopted. Every where, knowledge was spurned, and inquiry discouraged. Feijoo, who, notwithstanding his superstition, and a certain slavishness of mind, from which no Spaniard of that age could escape, did, on matters of science, seek to enlighten his countrymen, has left upon record his deliberate opinion, that whoever had acquired all that was taught in his time under the name of philosophy, would, as the reward of his labour, be more ignorant than he was before he began.222 And there can be

insigne, y Oficina de las buenas Letras de España;" Bacallar (Comentarios, vol. i. p. 238), "El emporio de las ciencias;" and Ximenez (Vida de Ribera, P. 6), Salamanca, cathedra universal de las artes, y emporio de todas ciencias."

220 64

Says, that, after he had been five years in one of the schools of the university there, it was by accident he learned the existence of the mathematical sciences." Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, vol. iii. p. 223. A celebrated Spanish writer of the eighteenth century, actually boasts of the ignorance of his countrymen concerning mathematics, and discerns, in their neglect of that foolish pursuit, a decisive proof of their superiority over other nations. "No se dexe deslumbrar con los ásperos calculos é intrincadas demostraciones geométricas, con que, astuto el entendimiento, disimula el engaño con los disfraces de la verdad. El uso de las matemáticas es la alquimia en la fisica, que da apariencias de oro á lo que no lo es." Forner, Oracion Apologética por la España y su Mérito Literario, Madrid, 1786, p. 38. Compare his contemptuous notice (p. 66) of those insignificant persons, who " con título de filósofos han dado algun aumento á las matemáticas;" and his comparison (p. 222) of Mercado with Newton.

221 L'université de Salamanque, excitée par le Conseil, à réformer ses études, en l'année 1771, lui répondit qu'elle ne pouvait se séparer du péripatétisme, parce que les systèmes de Newton, Gassendi et Descartes, ne concordent pas autant avec les vérités révélées que ceux d'Aristote.'” Sempere, Monarchie Espagnole, vol. ii. p. 152. This reply, says M. Sempere, p. 153, may be found"dans la collection des ordonnances royales.' Letters from Spain by an English Officer, London, 1788, vol. ii. p. 256, it is stated, that, in all the Spanish universities, "Newton, and modern philosophy, is still prohibited. Nothing can supplant Aristotle, and the superstitious fathers and doctors of the church."

In

222 Or, as he, in one place, expresses himself, would know "very little

no doubt that he was right. There can be no doubt that, in Spain, the more a man was taught, the less he would know. For, he was taught that inquiry was sinful, that intellect must be repressed, and that credulity and submission were the first of human attributes. The Duke de Saint Simon, who, in 1721 and 1722, was the French ambassador at Madrid, sums up his observations by the remark, that, in Spain, science is a crime, and ignorance a virtue.223 Fifty years later, another shrewd observer, struck with amazement at the condition of the national mind, expresses his opinion in a sentence equally pithy and almost equally severe. Searching for an illustration to convey his sense of the general darkness, he emphatically says, that the common education of an English gentleman would, in Spain, constitute a man of learning. 224

Those who know what the common education of an English gentleman was eighty years ago, will appreciate the force of this comparison, and will understand how benighted a country must have been, to which such a taunt was applicable. To expect that, under such a state of things, the Spaniards should make any of the discoveries which accelerate the march of nations, would be idle indeed; for they would not even receive the discoveries, which other nations had made for them, and had cast into the common lap. So loyal and orthodox a people had nothing to do with novelties, which, being innovations on ancient opinions, were fraught with danmore than nothing." "El que estudió Logica, y Metaphysica, con lo demás que, debaxo del nombre de Philosofia, se enseña en las Escuelas, por bien que sepa todo, sabe muy poco mas que nada; pero suena mucho. Dicese, que es un gran Philosofo; y no es Philosofo grande, ni chico." Feijoo, Theatro Critico Universal, vol. ii. p. 187, quinta impression, Madrid,

1741.

223"La science est un crime, l'ignorance et la stupidité la première vertu." Mémoires du Duc de Saint Simon, vol. xxxv. p. 209, Paris, 1840. Elsewhere (vol. xxxvi. p. 252) he says, "Les jésuites savants partout et en tout genre de science, ce qui ne leur est pas même disputé par leurs ennemis, les jésuites, dis-je, sont ignorants en Espagne, mais d'une ignorance à surprendre."

224"The common education of an English gentleman would constitute a man of learning here; and, should he understand Greek, he would be quite a phenomenon." Swinburne's Travels through Spain in 1775 and 1776, vol. ii. pp. 212, 213, 2d edit., London, 1787.