ismembering that
strong and healthy Spain of the Arabs, the Christians and the Jews.
You are right, Don Antolin, to say that those kings are not called
the Catholics for nothing. Dona Isabel with her feminine fanaticism
established the Inquisition, so science extinguished her lamp in the
mosques and synagogues, and hid her books in Christian convents.
Seeing that the hour for praying, instead of reading, had come,
Spanish thought took refuge in darkness, trembling in cold and
solitude, and ended by dying. What remained devoted itself to poetry,
to comedies and theological tracts. Science became a pathway that led
to the bonfire; and then came a fresh calamity, the expulsion of the
Spanish Jews, so saturated with the spirit of this country, loving it
so dearly, that even to-day, after four centuries, scattered on the
shores of the Danube or the Bosphorus there are Spanish Jews who weep,
like old Castillians, for their lost country:

'Perdimos la bella Sion;
Perdimos tambien Espana
Nido de consolacion.'[1]

[Footnote 1: 'We lost our lovely Sion; we also lost our Spain, that
nest of consolation.]

"That people who had given Maimonides to the science of the Middle
Ages, and who were the mainstay of all the industries and commerce
of Spain, left our country _en masse_. Spain, deceived by its
extraordinary vitality was opening its own veins to satisfy the
growing fanaticism, believing that it could survive this loss without
danger. Afterwards came what a modern writer has called 'the foreign
body,' interposing itself in our national life--those Austrians who
came to reign and caused Spain to lose her distinctive character."

"Gabriel," interrupted the priest, "you are talking absurdities. The
true Spain began with the emperor, and went on equally gloriously
under Don Philip II. This is the pure and uncorrupted Spain that we
ought to take as an example, and which we hope to restore."

"No. The pure and uncorrupted Spain, the Spanish Spain without foreign
admixture, is that of the Arabs, Moors and Jews, that of religious
tolerance, that of industrial and agricultural wealth, and of free
municipalities; that which perished under the Catholic kings. What
came after was a Teutonic and a Flemish Spain turned into a German
colony, serving as a mercenary under foreign standards, ruining itself
in undertakings in which it had no interest, shedding blood and gold
for the ambition of the so-called Holy Roman Empire. I can u