Weekly national intelligencer., 1852-06-26
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

ar;ss ~ the snanish Academy, Terreros and Saliva,
upon the basis of Seoane's edition OF Neumsn ana pa
rett, and from the English dictionaries OF webster,
Worcester and Walker with the addition of more than
eight thousand words idoms, and familiar phrases,
the Irregularities Of all the verbs and grammatical sy
nopsis Of both languages BY MARIANA VELAsouEz DE
=. CApEsA Professor of the Spanish Language and
literature in Columbia College, New York. and Core
snondino member of the National Institute, Washing
ton. Pp 1900 New York D. Appleton Co., 1852.
The title-page Of this important work, as above
given, is SO photographic that we are relieved from
any detailed analysis of its parts just such Co
pious and accurate dictionary this appears to be
has been long desiderated by every student and
atcionado of Spanish literature and that there
many Of these among us is attested by the demand
for such an elaborate work as that now before us,
and by the currency and popularity in literary cir
cles of kindred works relative to the rich and spen
did tongue of Spain. Among the more recent indi-
cations Of taste for Spanish letters, the schoarke
volumes of Prof George Ticknor of course, deserve
the first and highest notice. In his History Of
Spanish Literature" he has accomplished every thing
which was to have been expected from materials the
most ample in the hands of an accomplished scholar
and man of genius, as much surprising that labo-
rious German, Frederic Bouterwek, or his eloquent
plagiarist Sismondi, in the richness, wisdom, and
justice of his critical observations as in the unri-
vailed copiousness Of his collection of Spanish
should be deeply interesting to every lover Of Anne
rican literature, since some of the richest contrbu-
tions which the latter has received derive their color
and complexion from the former; we need scarcely
say we allude to the charming fctions whose scene
Mr. Washington Irving has laid in that romantic
country, and to the historical writings Of Mr.. Will
liam H. Prescott, the historian of both hemspheres
and whose name, as Mr.. Tcknor well observes will
not be forgotten in either but whose honors will all
ways be dearest to those who have best known the
discouragements under which they have been won,
and the modesty and gentleness with which they
are worn.
But the literature of Spain is in itself worthy of
the highest estimation, and will repay the most en-
thusiastc study. The Spanish language itself is in
many respects the noblest ofshoo Of that majestic
mother tongue, the ancient Latin, nsomuch that
Charles v. would seem to have spoken with much
of truth as national enthusiasm when he said that
those who used it'"spoke like kings" Superior to
the Italian in native diomatc vigor, it is equally
superior to the French in the stateiness of its pc
riods and the dstinctness of its sonorous articula
tions; for while the language of Italy is SO soft
that it
CT melts like kisses in female mouth,
And sounds as if it should be writ satin"
it is deficient in grandeur and magnifcence, and the
Gallo tongue though possessed of wondrous fexi-
biity in expressing the "quips and qurks and wan
ton wiles" of human thought is nevertheless better
adapted to chat than to the "speech of great wits
is abundantly testified by all the French versions
Of Shakespeare, that drunken savage" as Voltaire
called him, and by Monsieur Dellile's rhymes pur-
porting to be translation of Milton Paradise Lost.
Cesarott an Italian and poet is admitted to have
made of the most exact and faithful translations
in his native tongue of the Ossianc poems that has
ever been executed in any language; yet, as Ma
dame De Stael somewhere observes, the very sound
of the words in his soft italian version has an air
de ste which contrasts strongly and anonymously
with the sombre ideas they express and recall to the
mind
In the mere pronunciation of the Spanish Ian
guage, the most characteristic peculiarity and the
one which especially distinguishes it from the sister
tongues which acknowledge the Latin their great
mother" is the presence of a cultural sound like
that of the early Gothic tribes or of the Shemitic
family of nations The Spaniards themselves and,
of course most others who have touched on this sub
ject, with great unanmity have attributed the intro
duction of this alien sound in the Castilian speech
to the influence of the Arabic tongue spoken by the
Moors during the Moorish occupation of the penin-
sula consequent It's conquest in the eighth GEN.
tury; but it should be remembered that the Visi-
goths had also made incursion into Spain as early
as the fifth century, if not earlier; and it seems
more natural and probable to suppose that this pc
culiarity originated with them, since they specially
affected the sound, and since we find in the mutilat
ed and corrupted spelling of many Latin words, COM
posing at present part of the Spanish tongue,
mistakable traces OF Gothic mixture and transfu-
sion in the elder Castilian. But, as we have ad-
verted to this fact only for the sake of remarkng
peculiar feature of the Spanish language which con-
duces greatly to its individuality and expressveness,
compared with the mincing speech of the Gaul
and that other melodious modern tongue of singing
men and singing women, we hasten to pass to other
considerations lest we suffer ourselves to be involy
ed in tedious and ill-placed disquisitions
But, in addition to the propitious influence Of
Spanish letters on the literary culture of at least
two Of our most distinguished authors, and apart
from the intrinsic beauty of the Spanish tongue and
the richness of its literature, the circumstances at
tending the discovery and colonization of the New
World have conspred to invest all that relates to
the mother of empires" with surprising interest
to all inhabitants of the western hemisphere and
we need not more than advert to recent events
which have brought the citizens of our own country
into still closer contact with and proximity to the
descendants of those who in Europe boast Of their
"pure and noble Castilian." In this way attention
has been drawn literally VI et arntis to the Spanish
people and the Spanish language; the intercourse
between the inhabitants of the United States and of
New Mexico promises to become and more intimate
with each revolving year; in either House Of Congress
members from New Mexico and California represent
ing in part Spanish constituency and Tehuantepec