The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-06-12


of it's original magnificence. In the
center stands the fountain famous in
song and story. The alabaster ba-
sins still shed their diamond drops,
and the twelve lions which support
them cast forth their crystal streams
as in the days of Boabdil. The arch
itecture is characterized by ele-
gance rather than grandeur, bespeak-
ing delicate and graceful taste"
Spanish Discoveries.
The one thing which has shed most
luster on the Spanish people is the dis
covery of this western continent. In
1892 Columbus discovered Cuba,
Hayti, Jamaica and the Little Antil-
les. In 1893 he found the mouth of the
Orinoco River. Amerigo Vespucci
was Florentine, but he was in the
employ of Spain when he explored
the coasts of South America. In 1913
Balboa fought his way across the
isthmus of Panama and beheld the
Pacific Ocean from the Peak of OAR
len. In 14S5 fernando Cortez came
to Mexico; by 1547 he had conquered
the King and taken full possession
of the country. The conquest of
Peru was effected by two illiterate
and cruel adventurers, Pizarro and
Almago. Orellena, an officer in Pi-
zarros army, descended the Amazon
in 1541. In 1912 Ponce de Leon
came 70 Florida. In May 1541 De
Soto discovered the Mississippi. In
discoveries, then. as in literature, the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries may
be said to have been the golden age
of Spain. In 1892 the last bulwark
of the Moors in Spain gave way be-
fore the crusade of Ferdinand and
Isabella. The great epoch of lsa-
bella, Charles v, Phillip III, Colum-
bus, Cortez, Pizarro, shed last halo
about dying state. Then follow
the abomination of desolation, the
rule of the Inquisition, the blackness
of darkness in which Spain has been
plunged ever since.
All this long time the Spanish
Peninsula has occupied unique po-
sition tamong the countries of Eur
ope. Cut off from the mainland on
all sides except for short distance
on the northeast, even on that side
by the rocky heights and defiles of
the Pyrenees, her people have always
had characteristics which have set
them apart. There have been times
within the limits of recent history
when the rulers of Spain gave laws
to Europe. 1t is hard to believe when
we read of Martial, Lucan, the Sene-
cas-, Quintilian, the greatest writers
of the first century; of the greatest of
the Roman emperors, Hadrian, Ira
ian and Theodosius all born at, or
near Seville; of Hannibal and his
cohorts, of knightly chivalry, of bold
adventures, of brave navigators, of
Phillip and the Armada, it is hard
then to believe that people once so
great can today find none so poor as
to do them reverence.
What are the reasons for this con-
dition of things? One thing is GER
tain, the main cause must be in the
people themselves. The waxing SUI
premacy of England has had in times
past, more than it has now, a retard-
ing influence upon the people of the
continent; not more disastrously up
on the people of Spain than of the
other countries if her people had had
the same determined patriotic spirit.
No people so sunken in sloth, ignor-
ance and superstition can expect to
hold it's own against the social and
political forces at work in these past
centuries. The time spirit is strong
and vital. Spain has been crushed
by it.
If we go back to our question
"Why," there are two reasons; first,
she deserved to be; second, the
strong ecclesiastical influence under
which she exists. We cannot say
under which she struggles, as Eng
land did in the days of the Reforma-
tion, for she does not struggle; she is
supine and satisfied. We cannot say
under which she lives, for she does
not live; we say only under which
she exists.
First, Spain has deserved her fate.
The history of the cruelties, the in
Justice, the horrid atrocities of which
Spanish monarchs, adventurers, and
military leaders were guilty in the
days of their power convince us that
the only possible redress for the
worlds grievances was to crush the
oppressor. The story of Pizarro and
the Montezumas, of Cortez and the
Incas, of Phillip and Alva in Hol-