WALF-YEARLY RETROSPECT OF SPANISH LITERATURE. 
—— Ee - 
TT HE defign of our periodical Retro- 
{pect of native and foreign litera- 
ture is to diftinguifh the advances of the 
liberal arts in different countries, and to 
give a comparative view of fcience in 
every region where intellect is refpected. 
Our readers will draw many impoitant 
conclufions from thefe premifes: they 
will fee where the mind of man ts dilated 
by its own inherent powers, and where it 
is contracted by exterior caufes: they 
will trace with pleafure the fources of 
mental vigour in private virtue, and poll- 
tical liberty ; and with pain the origin of 
intellectual infirmity in the vices of the 
individual, and the corruption of the ftate. 
It has been juitly obferved, that the 
arts and fciences were luxuriant on that 
foil alone which was fertile to liberty; 
that the refinement of the Greeks, not- 
withftanding their poverty and fimplicity, 
was never approached by the effeminate 
Afiatics ; and, that after the conqueft of 
Alexander, when they loft their freedom, 
the iciences forfook their territory. 
At the beginning of the fifth century, 
the Roman empire was fubverted, and the 
Suevi took poffeflion of Spain; at the 
conclufion of the fixth, the Goths con- 
quered the whole country. ‘Thefe were 
fucceeded by the Saracens at the com- 
mencement of the eighth century, who, 
with the exception of a mountainous dif- 
trict of Afturias and Bifcay, (in which 
the remains of the Goths took refuge) 
vanquifhed the entire peninfula. During 
nearly eight hundred years, thefe northern 
fugitives contended with the partifans of 
Mahomet; they fought for their country, 
their liberty, and their God, and thus the 
principles of civil and religious freedom 
were nurtured in the breafts of Spaniards, 
as the foundation on which their fecurity 
and their happinefs were to be eftablifhed. 
From the energies which this glorious 
ftruggzle engendered arofe the fuperio- 
rity of the Spanifh people to every other 
nation of Europe during the fixteenth 
century. It was this that formed the vi- 
gorous minds of their dramatic poets, 
who fubftituted the ebullitions of nature 
for the infipid prolixity of oratorical de- 
clamation. At that pericd Spain was 
not lefs admired and beloved by her 
friends, than refpected and feared by her 
enemies. To this triumph of reafon and 
truth fucceeded the reign of priefts and of 
bigots; feeble princes fubmitted to the 
authority of crafty confeffors, the muni- 
cipal rights were abolifhed, the Cortes 
was diflolved, the inquifition was efta- 
blifhed, and ignominious fetters profaned 
all that was heroic, all that was Roman, 
in the Spanifh people. In the flow pro- 
grefs of two hundred years, not one great 
writer has appeared ; Lopes de Vega, the 
contemporary of our immortal Shake- 
{peare, lived nearly a century, as if to pro- 
tract to the utmoft the duration of talent 
in his country: he has been fucceeded by 
a herd of fervile copyilts, to whom the 
divinity by which he was infpired is 
wholly unknown. Even the monaftic in- 
ftitutions, thofe boafted feminaries of 
learning, where they tell us Greek is as 
familiar to the brain, as the cowl to the 
tonfure; have produced little of late years 
but meagre tranflations from the French 
claffics, tor which a fchool-boy would be 
afhamed to have recourfe in our public 
academic inftitutions. 
The circumftances which conduced to 
this unfavourable change in that country, 
when every other nation of Europe cultt- 
vated the liberal arts with increafing fuc- 
cefs, is one of the moft curious and inte- 
refting enquiries of literary hiftory ; but 
to detail the caufes of the decline of learn- 
ing in Spain, is foreign to our purpofe at 
this time; all we undertake is to afford 
fome general idea of the objects to which 
improvement is direéted, and this duty 
we have endeavoured to perform inthe fub- 
fequent catalogue. 
To the pericdical publications we no- 
tice the acceffion of the ‘* Corneo de Cor- 
doba’’, and of the ** Compendio del ano 
Chriftiano ;°” the former is applied to li- 
terary difquifition in general, the latter 
principally to religious fubjeéts. Thole 
which have more efpecially occupied the 
writers of that country will be found un- 
der the titles Agriculture and Botany; 
Chronology, Topography, Statiftics, and 
Geography; under Drama, Jurifpru- 
dence, ‘Fheology, and Ethics; and under 
that branch of the latter called Politics, 
which we have feparated from its generic 
arrangement, on account of the change in 
its modern acceptation, and that our read- 
ers may perceive, that ** the domineering 
influence of French councils, and ot 
French principles,’ have not fo ma- 
terially affected the literary tranfac- 
tions 
