rcery,
a devilish science that could only be understood by anointing oneself
with an ointment used by witches. The theologians rejected the project
of a canal to unite the Tagus and the Manzanares, saying that this
would be a work against the will of God; but having laid this
down--fiat--the two rivers joined themselves even though they had
been separated from the beginning of the world. The doctors of Madrid
begged Philip IV. to allow the refuse to remain in the streets
'because the air of the town being exceedingly keen, it would cause
great ravages unless it were impregnated with the vapours from the
filth,' and a century later, a famous theologian in Seville registered
in a public document with those who were discussing with him, 'that
we would far rather err with Saint Clement, Saint Basil and Saint
Augustin, than agree with Descartes and Newton.'

"Philip II. had threatened with death and confiscation anyone who
published foreign books or who circulated manuscripts, and his
successors forbade any Spaniard to write on political subjects, so,
finding no ways of expansion for thought, they devoted themselves to
fine arts and poetry; painting and the theatre rose to a higher level
than in any other country; they were the safety valves of the national
genius; but this spring of art was only ephemeral, for in the midst of
the seventeenth century a grotesque and debasing decadence overwhelmed
everything.

"The poverty in those centuries was horrible; that same Philip II.,
though he was lord of the world, put up titles of nobility for sale
for the sum of six thousand reals, noting on the margin of the decree
'that it was not necessary to inquire much into the quality and origin
of the people.' In Madrid the people sacked the bakeries, fighting
with their fists for the bread. The president of Castille travelled
through the province with the executioner to wring the scanty harvest
from the peasants. The collectors of taxes, finding nothing that they
could collect in the towns, tore off the roofs of the houses, selling
the woodwork and the tiles. The families fled to the mountains
whenever they saw in the distance the king's representative, and so
the towns remained deserted and fell into ruins. Hunger came in even
to the royal palaces, and Charles II., Lord of Spain and of the
Indies, was unable on several occasions to procure food for his
servants. The ambassadors of England and Denmark were obliged to sally
forth with