SPAIN 



475 



the narrowness of their outlook may be expected to disappear. The brighter members of the 

 family often become priests, and this tends to raise the standard of culture throughout the 

 class. Like the bourgeois, the peasants form a very stable element of the community; and 

 political changes, of which they are often entirely unaware, find no sympathy in them. They 

 are conservative to the backbone; and so long as they are left to go their way undisturbed, 

 empires, monarchies, and republics may succeed each other without affecting the character of 

 the people. It is only when their life is made absolutely intolerable by oppression and 

 taxation that they stir themselves to political activity. What they are capable of when roused 

 in this way, the Revolution of 1789 has shown the world. 



In religion the French are generally Roman Catholic, the peasants, especially in Brittany 

 and Normandy, being devout and rather superstitious. The old noble families are Roman 



Pliolo bij Valentine <& Sons, Ltd.] 



A SPANISH "FANDANGO." GRANADA. 



[Dundee. 



Catholic; but among the bourgeoisie, whose education is almost entirely secular, there is a 

 good deal of indifference to religious forms, and free-thinking is common. In 1900 there were 

 660,000 Protestants, and the Jews numbered 87,000. 



SPAIN. 



To the same extent and in the same manner as the French the Spaniards are a branch of 

 the great Latin family of nations. The Roman conquest gave to Spain her language and her 

 institutions, without perceptibly modifying the physical attributes of the population. 



Spain occupies, with Portugal, the great peninsula south of the Pyrenees. The lion's 

 share, at least five-sixths of the whole tract, falls to the former country, with 17,550,216 

 inhabitants, according to the estimate of 1887. 



Although it is now under one king and government, Spain formerly consisted of a 



