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MORALES, AMBROSIO. 



MORALES, AMBROSIO. 



330 



crushed by the second French invasion, and in 1823 found ifc advisable 

 to emigrate to England. Here he declined to receive any share of the 

 allowance made by the English government to the emigrants, and 

 relied for support on his literary exertions. He was recommended by 

 his friend Blanco White to Mr. Ackermann of the Strand, who was at 

 that time directing his attention . to a branch of literary commerce, 

 which has been extensively cultivated by several publishers in France, 

 and almost totally neglected by those of England the supply of 

 Spanish books adapted to the wants of the natives of Spanish America. 

 For this purpose he set-up an establishment in Mexico, and others in 

 Columbia, Buenos Ayres, Chili, Peru, and Guatemala, and procured at 

 once from the Congress of the Spanish American republics a privilege 

 which the English American republics have not yet been persuaded to 

 grant the recognition of his sole right of publication and sale of the 

 works whose copyright he paid for. Mr. Ackermann had just achieved 

 a bril iaut success by his introduction into England of the annuals 

 which had been so long fashionable in Germany. His ' Forget-me-Not,' 

 the earliest of a legion, whose career has turned out as short as it was 

 splendid, was made the basis of a -Spanish work of the same kind, 

 under the title of ' No me OJvides,' to which De Mora contributed the 

 whole of the literary matter, partly original and partly translated. The 

 first of the set was published in 1^24, and the last we believe in 1827. 

 He also wrote for the ' Repertorio Americano,' a periodical issued by 

 Ackermaun for the American market. Among his separate works in prose 

 were a history of the Arabs, chiedy of their career in Spain (' Cuadros 

 de la hi.-toria de los Arabes,' 2 vols, London, 1826), and several anony- 

 mous catechisms of the sciences ; he also wrote in verse a volume of 

 ' Meditaciones Poeticas,' London, 1826, 4to. By his translations of 

 'Ivanhoe' and 'The Talisman' he was the first to introduce to the 

 Spanish reader the novels of bir Walter Scott. In a few years his name 

 was well-known and popular in Spanish America, and he received 

 several invitations from the governments of that part of the world to 

 enter their service. In 1S27 he went to Buenos Ayres at the desire of 

 the president Rivadavia, who had previously represented the state in 

 London, and whose government he supported in a ' Cronica politica y 

 Hteraria.' On the fall of that government he went to Chili, where for 

 some years he directed an educational establishment bearing the name 

 of the 'Chilian Lyceum,' and edited in conjunction with Don Jose 

 Passaman the ' Mercurio Chileno,' an amusing; periodical unconnected 

 with politics. In Chili he was undersecretary of state, and he drew 

 for the Congress the present constitution of that state. Being an 

 ardent free-trader, he availed himself of his influence on the Chilian 

 government to establish a free-trade tariff as far back as 1830 ; and to 

 this liberal move is due the astonishing prosperity of that country and 

 it* pacific progress during the last twenty-five years. It is worth 

 mentioning likewise that he was the first person to press on the 

 government of Chili the necessity and policy of paying regularly the 

 Eiigliih creditors, and it was through his influence that the first remit- 

 tance of money to Europe for that purpose was made. Another change 

 of affairs drove him to Peru, where he gave a course of lectures on law 

 at Lima, and endeavoured to introduce in another course the Scotch 

 system of philosophy, to which ha has always been much attached. 



In 1334 he went to Bolivia a* private secretary to General Santa 

 Cruz, the president of that republic; and in 1633 he returned to 

 Europe as consul-general of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation at London. 

 It was partly during his residence in South America, and partly ou 

 board of English vessels, in which he made several voyages, that he 

 composed his most important poetical work, a volume of ' Leyendas 

 Espanolas,' or ' Spanish Legends,' which were published in London in 

 1840. In 1843 he returned to Spain, residing first at Seville and then 

 at his native city of Cadiz, where he bad the direction of the college 

 of San Felipe. A ' Revieta Hispaua-Americana,' or 'Spanish and 

 American Review," on the plan of the French ' revues,' which" answer 

 to English ' magazines,' was commenced by him iu the year 1843 at 

 Madrid, but was brought to a speedy close by a crisis in the publish- 

 ing trade, occasioned by the agitations of that year. In 1843 he also 

 edited, for Hivadeueyra's collection of the Spanish classics, the works 

 of Luis de Granada, one of the most celebrated of the four thousand 

 and forty-four religious authors who are enumerated by Nicolas 

 Antonio in his ' Bibliotheca Hispaua,' ai.d whose ' Guide to Shiners ' 

 has been translated even into Japanese. Towards the end of 1856 

 Sefior de Mora was appointed Spanish consul in London a post which 

 be occupied once before, and which he at present occupies (1857) to 

 general satisfaction. 



Do Mora's merits as a poet have been highly spoken of by Ferdi- 

 nand Wolff in his ' Floresta de Kimas Modernas Castellauas.' " All 

 Ids compositions," says the German critic, " display lightness, grace, 

 and elegance; but his talents are displayed to most advantage in the 

 line of satire." Even in the 'Spanish Legends' the tone is often 

 light and sportive, and some of the octaves in ' Don Opas,' as for 

 instance the ludicrous history of the capture of Gibraltar by the 

 English, appear to be modelled on those of Byron's ' Don Juan.' One 

 of the finest passages in the volume is the description of Illimani, a 

 mountain in Bolivia, within sight of which it was written ; and the 

 reader feels some regret that the poet hag not made more frequent use 

 of the poetical material supplied by his very extended travels. Sefior 

 de Mora, it should be mentioned, is a determined advocate of rhyme, 

 and a foo to the ' Aeonantcs ; ' the fatal facility of wliich has, he main- 



tains, been of much more detriment than service to Spanish poetry. 

 A volume of his poetry has beeu lately published at Madrid. To the 

 prose works already mentioned must be added a treatise ou ' Castilian 

 Synonyuies," which has received the approbation of the Spanish 

 Academy, of which Seiior de Mora is a member. 



MORA'LES, AMBROSIO, a Spanish historian aud antiquary, was 

 born at Cordova, in 1513. His father Antonio was an eminent phy- 

 sician, whom Cardinal Xirnenez appointed principal professor of 

 philosophy at Alcala, and to whom the Marquis of Priego presented 

 the house which tradition pointed out as the one that Seneca had 

 inhabited, in order, said the donor, that it might become again the 

 dwelling of the wisest Cordovan. Ambrosio had for his maternal 

 grandfather Fernan Perez de Oliva, who left him a valuable source of 

 information in his geographical work, ' Imagen del Mundo." Another 

 Feruan Perez de Oliva, who was Ambrosio's maternal uncle, and a 

 professor of philosophy and theology at Salamanca, took a prominent 

 part in his education. He was also indebted to Juan de Medina, and 

 to Melchior Cano, two great writers and eloquent professors of divinity 

 of that time, the former at Alcala, the latter at Salamanca, where he 

 was the great antagonist of his eminent colleague Bartholomew 

 Carranza, and a still greater opponent of the Jesuits. This Cano, or 

 Canus, is the author of the excellent treatise ' De Locis Theologicis,' 

 and was a great reformer of the schools, from which he banished 

 many futile and absurd questions. 



While yet a youth Morales produced a translation of the Pinax or 

 Table of Cebes. But a religious enthusiasm rose far above all his 

 literary aspirations, and pervaded all his actions. At the age of nine- 

 teen Morales became a Jeronymite, when his religious fervour being 

 no longer controllable, in order to secure himself against temptation, 

 he attempted to follow the precedent of Origen. The excruciating 

 pain inseparable from this self-mutilation drew from him a shriek 

 which brought a brother monk to his cell in time to give him effectual 

 aid. In order to obtain a papal dispensation for his conduct, he set 

 out for Rome, but fell into the sea, and was saveil, according to his 

 own account, by a miracle. Considering this accident as a warning 

 not to proceed, he joined his friends at court, and lived thenceforward 

 as a secular priest. After the death of his father he became a pro- 

 fessor at Alcala, where he had, among others, Guevara, Chacon, San- 

 doval, and the first Dou Juan of Austria, among his pupils. He 

 sustained the high literary credit of his family by his investigations 

 into the antiquities of Spain. He began to collect materials in 1541, 

 and to arrange them in 1560. On the death of his friend Florian de 

 Ocampo, he obtained the vacant place of royal chronicler; but his first 

 appearance as an author was in defending the historian Zurit.t. When 

 the relics of Justus and Pastor were translated to Alcala, Morales was 

 called upon to record that event and the ceremony on the occasion, 

 together with the martyrdom of those saints. On the death of the 

 chronicler Castro, he was sent to inspect his papers, as belonging iu 

 virtue of his office to the king. The following year he had to examine 

 the Codex Albeldensis, which was a collection of councils given to 

 Philip II. by the Conde de Bueudia.- At the death of the Bishop of 

 Plasencia, tlie collector of manuscripts for the Escurial, Morales suc- 

 ceeded him in that office, which he exercised with zeal and discrimi- 

 nation. He made indices to his fresh acquisitions, such for instance 

 as the Codex Eimlianensis, another collection of councils. 



In the meantime he extended the ' Corouica general de Espana," 

 which Ocampo had carried no further than the death of the Scipios. 

 After he had continued the history to the end of the Gothic period, 

 Morales was sent to Leon, Galicia, and Asturias, to examine sepulchres 

 and temples, archives and libraries : he collected much curious matter, 

 which was published from the original manuscript in the Escurial, 

 by the antiquary Florez in 1765, and has been since inserted in the 

 complete collection of Ambrosio's works, Madrid, 1791-92. It was 

 important to explore all those places, in which alone information 

 could be obtained as to the restoration of the Gothic kingdom, and 

 the centuries immediately following ; papers and documents belonging 

 to less ancient times might be found everywhere, since by the recou- 

 quest of Toledo the Moors were soon driven to southern Spain. In 

 his seventieth year (1583) Morales finished the third volume of his 

 history, which completed the work to 1037. By way of relaxation he 

 printed a volume of the works of his uncle Feruan Perez de Oliva ; 

 aud he inserted at the end of it fifteen essays of his own, his juveuilo 

 version of Cebes, and an exposition of Don Juan of Austria's device. 

 The Inquisition suspended the publication of this book till certain 

 passages in his uncle's works should be corrected, but as the Inquisi- 

 tors neglected to make the corrections, the work remained unpub- 

 lished. The late editor of Morales had a copy before him ; aud the 

 pieces of Morales himself are included in the last and the only com- 

 plete edition of his writings. In his seventy-second year ho recast 

 his favourite manual, ' Artfl para servir a Dios,' the production of an 

 unlettered Franciscan, Alonso de Madrid, adhering however as closely 

 as he could to the mode in which the subject had been treated. In 

 spite of its religious merits, Morales could not help wishing the work 

 had been in better Spanish, and accordingly he undertook the labour 

 of amending the language. He died iu 1591, in his seventy-eighth 

 year, and was buried at Cordova pursuant to his directions. Cardinal 

 Sandoval, his pupil, erected a fine monument to his memory, which 

 was not completed till after his own death. Southey has expressed 



