Page images
PDF
EPUB

25. A Votive Statue of an elderly man, holding a basket of fish in his left hand.

26. A bust of Zeno.

27. A terminal head of the Bearded Bacchus.

25. A recumbent figure of Diana, of the size of small life, with closed drapery, resting on the left hand, and advancing the right. On the plinth is her bow, with the heads of gryphons at the end of it. Mr. Dallaway supposes, that it formed one of the decorations of a fountain, in the magnificent gardens of Sallust, near the Circus of Flora, and the Salarian Gate of Rome, on the site of which it was found, in the year 1766.

29. A terminus of the Bearded Bacchus. This terminus is entire, and the only one in the collection that is so; the other terminal heads are placed upon modern cippuses of wood. It is six feet high.

(To be continued.)

ON THE SPANISH CHARACTER.

From the Spanish of Colonel Don Josef De Cavahalso. TO any one who has travelled in the interior of Spain, it will be evident that the national character is, at this day, in many points, the same that it was three or four centuries ago. But to judge of this, it is not sufficient to have seen Madrid and some other of the great cities. In the vicinity of every court, modes and customs are Continually changing, as well from the concourse of strangers by which they are always attended, as from other causes; but, in the interior provinces of Spain, which, by reason of their little commerce, bad roads, and total want of amusements, are not liable to be influenced in a similar manner, the present inhabitants, along with the manners and habits, retain nearly the same virtues and vices which distinguished their ancestors of the 15th century. If the Spanish character, generally speaking, is composed of zeal for religrn, bravery, and attachment to their sovereign, on the one hand; and of vanity, indolence, and contempt of industry, with too great a propensity to amorous intrigue on the other: if this mixture of good and bad qualities constituted the general character of the nation five hundred years ago, the same may be said, with little variation, of the Spaniards of the present day. For one fop, who alters his dress according to the suggestions of his tailor, or the variations of French or English fashions, there are a hundred thousand persons who will not depart, in the smallest particular, from the style of their ancient habit. Where one is to be found lukewarm in regard to matters of faith, there are a million who would

sacrifice

sacrifice any one daring enough to call its dogmas in question. For one that steadily follows a useful occupation, there are thousands ready to shut up their shops and retire to the Asturias, or to the mountains, to seek for the patent of their ancestors' nobility. Amid the evident decline of the national character in many points, however, some genuine traits of their ancient spirit are occasionally to be met with; nor, indeed, can it be otherwise. To suppose that there is any people that will retain its virtues, which are more peculiarly its own, and banish its peculiar vices, for the purpose of acquiring in their room the good qualities of other nations, is to imagine a republic like that of Plato. Nations resemble individuals. Every man possesses good and bad qualities, more or less peculiar to himself; and it is very laudable to endeavour to diminish the one, and augment the other, by every possible means; but it possible to eradicate that which forms part of the constitution.

One of the weaknesses, generally imputed by other nations to the Spaniards, is their pride; and if the reproach is well founded, (of which there is but little doubt,) it is somewhat curious to remark in what manner the foible exhibits itself among them; for, as in falling bodies, the tendency to descend increases the nearer they approach the earth, so the lower the character of its subject, the more does this vice seem to abound. Once a year, the king, accompanied by all the royal family, washes the feet of twelve poor men. The grandees, or nobles of the first class, although they do now and then talk of the greatness of their ancestors, are yet courteous and affable, even to the lowest of their servants. Those of a less elevated rank are more in the habit of boasting of their families and connexions; and those again, who hold only a middle rank between the nobility and citizens, and who are chiefly to be found in the great cities, are still more tiresome in this respect. Before they will either visit a stranger, or admit him into their society, they must know who was his great-great grandfather; upon no account dispensing with this piece of etiquette in favour of any one, however great or generally acknowledged his merit. And even should it turn out that he is descended from one of the most illustrious families, they will still consider it an inexcusable defect his not having been born in their city; equal purity of nobility being, of course, not to be found elsewhere in the kingdom.

But all this is nothing to the vanity of a country gentleman— Hidalgo de Aldea. This latter stalks magisterially up and down the dull public walk of his miserable village, wrapped up in the idea of his own importance, and in his thread-bare cloak; surveying, with infinite complacency, the coat of arms stuck up over the door of his house, which seems ready to fall about his ears, and thank

ing

ing heaven that he is Don Pedro Francisco Fernando de such a one, He will by no means degrade himself so much as to show the least attention or politeness to any stranger, who may be obliged to stop a day in passing through his village, although it should be the governor of the province, or the president of the first court in it. The most he will condescend to do, is to inquire if his family is known out of Castile; what coat of arms he bears; and whether any of his relations are known in the neighbourhood?

The degree in which this vice is found in the poorest mendicants is equally surprising. They ask charity, and should their importunity fail in extorting it, and they be denied in a way which they conceive not sufficiently respectful, they immediately become as insolent and abusive as a moment before they were abject in their supplications; which has given rise to the proverb, El Aleman pide limosna cantaedo, el Frances elorando, el panol roganando;' which may be Englished thus:

The German begs singing, the Frenchman despairing,
The Spaniard's entreaties are cursing and swearing.

POPULATION AND EXTENT OF SPAIN, 1803.

From El Censo De Frutos y Manufacturos de España.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

General Amount of the Population of Spain.

Guipuzcoa (most populous)
Cuenca (least populous)
Northern maritime provinces
Southern maritime provinces
Northern internal provinces
Southern internal provinces
The whole of the maritime provinces
The whole of the interior provinces

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Souls to a Square League.

2,009

[ocr errors]

311 . 887

926 . 604

[ocr errors]

428

. 904

[ocr errors]

507

If the whole of Spain were as well peopled as the province of Guipuzcoa, the population would amount to, 30,146,050 souls.

I

LEISURE HOURS.-No. I.

BY DICK DISTICH.

Animorum

Impulsu, et cæca magnaque cupidine ducti.—JUVENAL.

Vain man runs headlong, to caprice resign'd,
Impell'd by Passion, and with Folly blind.

AM one of those unlucky fellows whom the world calls enemies to themselves, and who, wanting prudence, are thought to want every other virtue. A few particulars of my life will perhaps be of service to the rising generation; and I shall make no apology for troubling it with them.

I am

I am descended from the ancient family of Distich, long known in Shropshire; the name of Distich being originally given to my great grandfather, who filled the double occupation of crier and parish clerk for his skill in rhyming. It is said, he wrote poetry to the tinkling of his bell; and certain it is, that his rhymes have in reality bore the bell from his own time down to the present moment: the knack of versifying gradually descended to his posterity, and was jocularly called by the neighbours, a 'family complaint.' My mother was an honest country wench, who had listened too much to the exhortations of itinerant preachers; which, my father's disposition being waggish, caused many disputes between them, which is to be hoped were all amicably settled, for in due time the good people died, leaving me under the protection of an old maiden aunt, who was very rich, and known to all the religious gossips for many miles round. Her chief companions and penswers were a lusty deacon, who kept a two-penny ordinary, a velous understrapper in the truth! Timothy Doleful, a blackSmith, Simon Razor, a barber, and Billy Goose, a sanctified tailor: among such an assembly, I could not have failed of making a rapid progress, had I been so inclined; but fortune ordained it otherwise. I had already become notorious; I was often heard to sing unseemly ditties, such as Old Sir Simon the King, and Nancy Dawson. I had, at sundry times, been convicted of robbing orchards, and at divers periods shot cats, the property of certain antiquated ladies of the place. I had also been guilty of digging a pitfall, into which the lusty deacon tumbled, much to the despoiling of his sacred person, and discomposure of his animal spirits. I had likewise added no particular beauty to the countenance of Timothy Doleful, by setting fire to some brandy which had been spilt there, when Timotheus was a little in his cups. I had likewise blunted the sharp instruments of Simon Razor, greatly to the disadvantage of his daily practice, and much to the discomfiture of his pious mind: and lastly, had most diabolically raised an attack against the harmless Billy Goose, by driving pins through the chair on which he usually sat. There was not an old woman in the village who did not turn up her eyes when she beheld me; and it was a general prophecy among them, that I was born to be hanged. But though I neglected the admonitions given me by the deacon, I still closely applied myself to my studies, and in time became no contemptible scholar.

There lived in the neighbourhood a singular character, known by the name of Pegasus Highfly, but whose real one was only Jemmy Stitchem, having been originally intended for a tailor, in which capacity his parents hoped to see him cut a figure. But Jemmy had contrived to find out the difference betwixt the swans of Helicon

and

« PreviousContinue »