ruined the fortunes of its predecessors by being so immensely in advance
of them"?[20] What was Cervantes' own last book, as we shall presently
show, but in some kind a romance of chivalry--not free, alas! from some
of the very errors he had himself burlesqued? Nay, what was Cervantes'
own life but a romance of chivalry?

[20] See the essay of Salva's in Ochoa, _Apuntes para una
Biblioteca_, vol. ii, pp. 723-740. I know one great Spanish scholar
who has never forgiven Cervantes for destroying the books of
chivalries. But his anger is rather that of the bibliographer than
of the critic or patriot. He has the best collection of those evil
books in Europe.

That, after all, the overthrow of the books of chivalries was but a small
part of the good work which Cervantes performed in _Don Quixote_ is only
to say that, like all great writers, he "builded better than he knew."
The pen of the genius, as Heine says, is ever greater than the man
himself. Rejecting all the many subtle and ingenious theories as to what
was Cervantes' object in writing his book; that it was a crusade against
enthusiasm, as even Heine seems to suspect; that it was a missionary
tract, intended to destroy popery and throw down antichrist, as some,
even bearded men, have dared to suggest; that it was a programme of
advanced liberalism artfully veiled under a mask of levity, and, indeed,
the forerunner of that gospel of sentimental cosmopolitanism since
preached by other eminent persons supposed to resemble Cervantes in their
characters or Don Quixote in their careers--I hold that the author wrote
but out of the fulness of his own heart, giving us, by a happy impulse, a
fable in which are transparently figured his own character, his own
experiences, and his own sufferings. What is the key but this to the
mystery which makes this book, on a purely local subject of passing
interest, the book of humanity for all time--as popular out of Spain as
among Spaniards? A mere burlesque would have died with the books which it
killed. A satire survives only so long as the person or the thing
satirized is remembered. But _Don Quixote_ lives, and, by a miracle of
genius, keeps _Amadis_ and _Palmerin_ alive.

The invention is the most simple, as it is the most original, in
literature. From _Don Quixote_ dates an epoch in the art of fiction. For
once Cervantes was happy in his opportunity. And what is the secret of
his success? It is