A Manual of Spanish Art and Literature

From the PREFACE.

This little manual grew out of a want felt by the writer in her experience as a teacher,—viz., that of light and interesting sketches of the famous men of art and letters whose genius has filled the civilized world with their immortal renown.

The desire to supply in some measure this want has induced the preparation of this little volume; and Spain has been selected as the field for a first experiment, because no literature is more distinguished than is the elder Spanish for richness of invention, for beauty of style, for purity of moral tone, and for a lofty spirit of national pride and patriotic devotion.

"With its projected companions, the Manuals of Italy and Germany, it is intended to awaken in the young reader a taste for literature and art, the gratification of which will be a source of future enjoyment.

As the local habitation which has been rendered illustrious by the genius of the great always excites a feeling of interest, the writer has adopted cities rather than centuries as the basis of connection or arrangement for the sketches of the several characters. It is due to the Rev. Robert Turnbull to state that this plan was first suggested by his interesting book, "The Genius of Italy."

Occasionally a ballad or brief poetical extract has been introduced; but generally the simple aim has been to inspire interest, and lead the reader to peruse the charming pages of Ticknor, Roscoe, Sismondi, Hallam, arid Schlegel, as well as the original writers in Spanish, Italian, and German literature. To Professor Ticknor the author desires to render the most grateful acknowledgments for the kind permission given to make use of his valuable work on Spanish Literature; a permission of which she has been happy to avail herself in nearly all of the translations from that language which appear in these pages.

"Fame," to use the striking language of Sismondi, "does not possess a strong memory. For a long flight, she relieves herself of all unnecessary incumbrances. She rejects, on her departure and in her course, many who thought themselves accepted by her, and she comes down to late ages with the lightest possible burthen." Therefore the names chosen in the manuals are few, and those chiefly whom we behold "through a succession of ages, like the loftiest summits of the Alps, which, the farther we recede from them, appear to rise higher."