The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1879-08-13
Recent Literature.


SPAIN IN PROFILE A Summer among Olives
and Aloes. BY James A. Harrison, author OF
Greek Vignettes, etc. Houghton, Osgood &
Co..
We always hail with special welcome, fresh
books from the hands of Southern writers; for
they furnish the best kind of evidence, that the
intellectual sloth, with which, as a people we
have been too Justly tainted, is givingplace to a
new order of things and that a quickened men
tai activity is being awakened all over the South
Prof Harrison, of Washington and Lee Univer
sity, cannot certainly be charged with any Of the
Incidence of which we speak. Spain IN Profile
Is the third popular volume which we have from
his pen within brief period; and yet he is an
indefatigable worker in the line Of his professor
ship giving US these charming volumes, as the
mere pastime and result of his summer vacations.
Having been educated in Germany, he has learn
ed from the tireless German the secret Of putting
to account every moment of time hence in ad-
dition to his routine work in the University
which closely occupies him nine months in the
year, and upon which he spares no labor,-be
ing, as his classes testify, a most accomplished
lecturer and teacher-he yet finds time to utilize
even his vacations, (Which he generally spends
abroad, for the benefit and pleasure of his many
readers. We render him all due honor, there
fore, for his ceaseless industry which so accrues
to our benefit; and we shall look forward to
many future volume; for with his youth, "the
world is all before him, where to choose" his
paths of travel.
This dainty book before us is much more
than its author claims for it 4 Profile he calls
it: but profile gives no hint of color, expires
sion form, beyond mere serene outline or va
riety of contour; and we have all these and
more, in his pages. Whoever follows him from
Bayonne, in the northeast corner of the Basque
provinces, down through Valencia, Toledo, Sar-
agossa, Granada Levile, Legoria, Madrid, Al
cala,-over into Portugal, along the Tagus, into
the marvellous richness of the gardens of Cintra,
up and down the terraces of Lisbon and Coimbra
through Andalusia, and back again to the
ramparts Of the Pyrenees,-whoever does this,
we say-(and few readers who open his book
viii do less,) viii have better, clearer, more
succinct idea of Spain as it now offers itself to
the tourist, than he ever had before. Professor
Harrison has delightful way Of dashing in with
afew strokes, a picture that makes itself effective
at once to the reader. Our eyes grow blinded
with the white glare of Spanish dust; our ear is
Initiated with the sonorous music of the rich
Castihan tongue our wonder expends itselfupon
the magnificent ruins of the Alhambra-its cary
iIgs, its mosaic pavements, Its wreathed and
futed pillars of variegated marble, its mauresque
ornamentation, its consummate art; our thoughts
lose themselves among the forests Of aisles that
impart such majesty to the splendid cathedrals of
ancient cities: our feet stumble over the cobble
Of many wildly depicted plaza or blood cur
dies at the horrors of the bull-fght our scorn is
evoked by the lazy, impecunious sordid, and
still naughty hj3algo, with his seventeen ways
of arranging over his handsome shoulders his
traditional cloak our contempt becomes over
towering, as we look upon the numberless, in
dolent leech-hke priesthood who drain the life
bloom from the body polite: and as we close
the book, after having been thus spirited away
on the Arabian-nights' carpet spread for us by
the enchantment of our traveller, we draw
thankful breath, that our lot has been cast among
sturdy, honest, energetic truthful Anglo-Saxon
people, who have no such national vices as curse
poor Spain, and drag her to the dust.
With these few hints as to the contents Of this
fresh volume Of travel, we trust we have said
enough to show the reader that instead of Spain
IN Profile, Prof. Harrison has greatly more than
fulfilled his promise; that in fact he has given
US Spain IN Photograph. The present volume
is written less glowingly than his two earlier
ones, so that his critics VIII be deprived of the
pleasure Of railing at his rhetoric nevertheless
the style is warm and vivid, and the fragrant
aroma of delicate scholarship is everywhere sds-
cephble. NJ. ]. P.
A Touch of Heresy.