The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

'Wanderings irs Spuin. BylissEg'lS:lllLl OLVTIII/L.

Coke. si.d Co. --
Every one who remembers the French newspapers
in the palmy days ot the feualet ma, remembers
Theoihi:e Gintier. He has less imagination than
Janiu, but more of tho picturesque faculty; less
humour, but more noireti% ; less brillianey, but MUM
even beauty. His " Wanderings in Spain," now
translated, are the very perfection of that delightful
kind of narrative which puts you in possession of the
knowledge of everythimt worth seeing in u country,
at the same time that it gives you reasons for your
admiration, which you acknowledge to be true,
although you never would have dreamed of making
the analysis. The author wanders on with as much
insouciance tui)ou would like to indulge in yourself,
but while at the journey's end you would re-
member little but the yawns you gave at the
several objects pointed out to jou, jou find to your
astonishment that your agri eabie teuillefot.ist has
had a telescopic eye for what is distant, a micro-
scopic c for that wrdeli is close at hand. The tract
between Dan and Beersheba which you were on the
point of entering into your journal as all barren,
turns out to be bristling itta beauty. Without any
scientific pretensions, without any parade of history,
without the smallest soupcon of pedantry, the author
has written the most readable account of a journey
in Spaiu that has ever come under our notice. The
accuracy of his visiou is only equalled by the perfec-
tion of his touch when he describes. How often must
a feeling of what is indicated below have snuck tra-
vellers, out when has it been brought out so dis-
tinctly?

SPANISH IDLINWS.
Every one employs his time, most conscientiously, in
doing nothing. ti tWutry, eigarrettes, the mu,. ufacture of
quatrains and octaves, and especially card.p!aying, are
foiled sudicieut to ICI up n mat's existence a ry agreahly.
In ()ranger you re hothart4 of th furietui resthsress,
that noces%ity for action and change of place which tor.
meats the pemsk of the nurth. The Speeder struck me as
being vi ry philosophical. They attach hardly any impor-
tance mots-nail& • and ere tinelly incise/rest about com-
fort. The thousand factitious wants created by the civilise
lion et aorthern etuntrles, appear to them puerile and
troubleanne ralsoments. Not h tying to protect them-
selves cohtinraily spirt the climate, the edvantages of
the English hoar have no attractions in their eyes. What
dope•.ple,who would tee. thiny pit, for a breeze or a
draught of sir, if they could obtain such a th ng, care
whether or not the windows close pr iperly ? Favoured by
• beautiful sky, they htve reduced human existence to its
simplest expreri .0: this sobriety, and wideration in
everything eualtees them to enjoy • huge amount
of liberty, a mete of extreme independence; they
bare time ei.iiesh to live, which we cannot
my that wa bsae. Spit:tiaras cannot understand how
• man car labour first in °lda to rest afterwards.
They very moth pram. Fuming an opposite omit, and
I think 'not by so dohs they show theizeoperier
A workman who has tedarl • few rale loaves his work.
throws his fine *career rest jacket "ter his shoulders, takes
his itui•ae, mil gars aad dames or maks& love to the awns
of kit aeqmiu.auee' until he lies not a single risotto kit ;
he then retorts to his empl •yonent. An Aodalusian can
live splendidly for three or four sous • day. For this sow
ha eir have the whitest bread, an enormous olsettof water-
make, and • ',nail glass of aniseed, while his lodging roots
him nothing more than the trouble of spreading bis cloak
upon the ground under some portico or the arch of some
bridge. A. • general rule, Spaniards consider work as
oomethinif herniating sad unworthy of a freeman, which,
in my opinion, is a very nature. and very reasonable idea,
since Heaven, withing to punish man far his ili,obeelience,
found no greater it flectice than the obligiag him to gain his
daily bread by the sweat of his brow.