The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-06-05

TO nght ana burn ana plllage as tney
could. By the year 1923, A. D., the
Arabs were driven into the south and
we find in the north the beginnings
of the Spanish kingdoms of CASTLE,
Sion, Aragon and Navarro. This is
the beginning of modern history in
Spain.
Art and Literature in Spain.
Up to the fifth century the value
of learning was very generally ac-
knowledged by the people of south
ern Europe. Public schools were
erected in almost all the larger cities
of the Roman empire, and public in
structors we're set apart for the edu-
cation of the young, who we're paid
out of the private purse of the en-
peror. During the barbarian inva-
sions the liberal arts and sciences
would have been totally extinguished
had they not found refuge in the
Bishops palaces and the monasteries.
If we expect some poor remains Of
learning yet to be found at Rome
and certain cities of Italy, by the
eighth century the sciences would
seem to fed the continent to find
lodging in Ireland and Britain.
With the Arabs of the eight CEN
tury came some fruitful intellectual
impulse. The Saracens. it has been
said, over ran science as they did
the shores of the Mediterranean. For
nearly eight centuries, under her
Mohammedan rulers, southern Spain
set all European an example of an en-
lightened state. The professors and
teachers of the Cordora made her the
center of European culture. Stu
dents came from all parts of Europe
to study under her famous doctors.
The Arabic verses of this period sug-
gested models for the martial ballads
of Spanish minstrels and the songs
of the Troubadours of Provence and
Italy. There were reckoned to be no
less than 10000 silk weavers in the
city. Pottery was carried to great
perfection. Wonderfully beautiful
vessels of glass, iron and brass were
made; some beautiful specimens of
ivory carving are still in existence.
Among Christian people knightly
education had most civilizing effect
upon popular manners, tending great
ly to soften and polish social inter
course. The artistic spirit long suf-
fered eclipse in Spain from the fact
that the artist could paint or carve
only such subjects as suited the
priests, and according to an unalter-
able form of execution; hence we
have in Spain no national school OF
art. The Spanish painters of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were
feeble imitators of the Italian treas
ures which the enterprises of Charles
V. opened up to them. At the open
ing of the seventeenth century Span
ish art had no representative abroad,
except Murillo and Velasquez. The
best known of Murillo's pictures is
the Immaculate Conception, now in
Louvre. This is said to have been a
favorite subject with him, he having
repeated it no less than twenty five
times. Velasquez was a master in
landscape, genre and religious co M
position. His Phillip ~. on horse
back is reckoned as one of the world e
twelve great pictures. Two hundred
and seventy-five pictures have been
attributed to him, seven of which are
in this country.
Not until the opening of the twelfth
century do we find the beginnings OF
a Spanish literature. The Romance
poem of the Cid is one of the great
literary products of the middle ages,
There is some doubt as to whether
Rodrigo Diaz, the hero of the poem,
really belongs to history. The En-
cyclopedia Britannica, relying mainly
on the researches recently made by
Prof. Dozy, of Leyden, says: "There
is Cid of romance and a Cid of his
tory, differing very materially in char
acter, but each filling large space
in the annals of his country, and ex-
erting singular influence in the de-
velopment of the national genius.
The history of the eleventh century
is full of examples of the employment
of Christian brigands by Moorish
princes.
Historically the Cid was one of
these; Christian brigand fighting
upon the side which promised him
the most pay. In romance he is the
type of knightly virtue, the mirror of
patriotic duty, the flower of every
Christian grace, the magnanimous,
the invincible. The poem of the Cid
is but a fragment of three thousand
seven hundred and and forty-four
lines. A passage quoted by Edward