Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



471 



THE SPANISH REVIEWS. 



Cervantes occupies so important a place in 

 Spanish literature that one expects to find 

 essays on " Don Quixote" tolerably often in 

 the periodicals. La Lectiira opens with a lec- 

 ture on tJvit chapter of the masterpiece which 

 concerns the meeting with the galley slaves, in 

 the course of which many explanations of words 

 and customs are given. The slaves are chained 

 together, each with a ring round his neck, 

 securely padlocked; that was a common sight, 

 and the writer quotes from an old oHicial docu- 

 ment concerning prisoners as an illustration. 

 Other explanations and references are equ;dly 

 entertaining. The second contribution to this 

 issue will command more attention from the 

 non-Spanish reader; it is an account of a jour- 

 ney to Tihuanacu, in Bolivia, and a description 

 of the ruins to be seen there. The writer tells 

 us how he journeyed to Tihuanacu via Huyana, 

 i'otosi and lllampu, near Lake Titicaca, and he 

 dwells on the glorious landscape. Tihuanacu 

 may be called the tomb of the race of Aymara. 

 There is a church or temple, with two granite 

 figures in the doorway ; the lineaments of these 

 elFigies seem as if moulded rather than produced 

 by incisions. Of the great Palace of Kal.isa- 

 saia there remain some stones and pillars, but 

 one's curiosity is aroused by the huge blocks 

 of lava used in the construction of part of the 

 edifice. How were they brought to this place? 



Nuestro Tiempo has a long article on the 

 laws relating to the disposal of family pro- 

 perty in various provinces, showing the methods 

 of division among descendants and ascendants. 

 It might form a good subject for discussion 

 in a p<:)litical debating society. There is an 

 appreciation of Henri Poincar(5, the French 

 scientist, and an es.say on " Rousseau and His 

 Influence." According to this essay, the 

 influence of the great Frenchman can be traced 

 in many celebrated men — Kant and Huxley 

 among others. 



The concluding instalment of the essay on 

 " The Science of Customs " appears in Ciudad 

 df Dios. In how far custom affects one's ideas 

 of right ;md wrong it is difTicult to determine, 

 says the author ; l>efore we can make a science 

 of such a matter we must be able to state 

 definitely what arc the exact factors, just as 

 the astronomer and the naturalist do. A long 

 contribution follows concerning the four cele- 

 brated portraits of Philip II. to be seen in the 

 Escurial, the construction of which was due 

 to that monarch. The writer observes at the 

 outset that h«' dix.'s not propoM- to deal with 

 the portraits not in the Fscuri.il, for the simple 

 reason that he has not .seen them. He con- 



trives to give some very interesting details of 

 the monarch who sent the Invincible Armada 

 to our shores and of his counterfeit present- 

 ments. 



The story of Beatrice of Aragon, who 

 became Queen of Hungary, is continued in the 

 current issue of Espai'ia Modeina. From the 

 many incidents here recorded, the following is 

 one of the most striking : In 1475 she wrote to 

 the Pope concerning the crmonisation of a priest 

 named Bonaventura, dead long prior to that 

 date : she urged that this honour should be 

 done because he was so saintly and because a 

 miracle had happened in connection with his 

 mortal remains. His body had long since 

 become dust, except the tongue with which he 

 had preached the Gospel so earnesth' ; th.-it 

 member had remained intact, without the 

 slightest trace of decay. Sr. J. Perez de 

 Guzman deals with the Educati\e Methods of 

 Latin and British Civilisations, showing how 

 the Neo-Latin peoples have differentiated from 

 I he old Romans and how the Anglo-Saxons 

 have improved from the almost savage state of 

 their ancestors and acquired virtues similar to 

 those of the Romans. In the course of his 

 remarks he speaks of lying; among the Latin 

 peoples a falsehood uttered by a lad provokes 

 a smile at his smartness, whereas the result of 

 being found out in a lie would mean a severe 

 castigation for a British boy. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 



Tun North American Review for September 

 presents a wide variety of topics and writers. 

 I-'our of the articles have been separately men- 

 tioned. 



William F.lliot (Iridiths contributes a very 

 glowing panegyric of Mutsuhito the Great, 

 whose character he maintains is revealed in his 

 poetry. 



Miss Edith Wyatt finds in Mr. \V. D. Howclls 

 a national contribution. " Whatever else he 

 m.iy say, Howells tells the talc of tlie speculative 

 soul of America." Rev. P. .S. Moxom sketches 

 TurgeniclT the man. 



Mr. .Arthur Benington contributes interesting 

 illustrations, grotesque .and serious, of the way 

 in which Shakespeare and other great writers 

 have been translated. 



Mr. Charles Johnston warns the American 

 farmer against the true inwardness of Socialism. 



Mr. John Burrout,'lis indulges in a reverie 

 U|K)n " the phantoms behirul us," the long pro- 

 cession of different forms of life through which 

 life has evolved in'o man. 



