not be expected of him within the bounds of a single
volume. Often he must ignore details and register only
matters of culminating interest; a perusal of his book will
show that he has realized the issue here involved and has
tried conscientiously to meet it. Politics, social circum-
stance, literature, and the fine arts, as the rolling centuries
have seen them elaborated in Spain from the earliest
period to our day -- all pass before our eyes on his pages,
and all receive his comment. The picture is absorbingly
interesting as presented by him; his coloring is in part
borrowed from others who have treated this or that ele-
ment, yet in larger part it is his own. It is obvious that he
does not accept too readily the pronouncements of other
critics, but often brings his own judgment to bear upon the
phenomena that he lays before us. Hence his book ex-
hibits a freshness of statement and discussion which is
seldom found in our manuals, and particularly in our his-
tories of literature. The author makes us feel that in the
domain of letters some subjects are still susceptible of a
divergent estimate, and that the last word has not been
said about them.

Among the most difficult of a nation's characteristics to
treat with intelligent appraisal is its attitude in the matter
of religion. An alien observer, however sympathetic he
may be in general toward the nation whose civilization he
is reviewing, necessarily risks the possibility of misappre-
hension in evaluation. With the best intentions in the
world he may overemphasize censure, and understate
compensating influences upon which a people whose ways
of thought are alien to his own may place another estimate.
The historian who undertakes to record the development of
a people differing markedly from his own in culture, re-
ligion, and all the complex characteristics of inheritance,
runs an obvious risk; and when an American author elects
to tell the story of Spain, whose religiosity has its peculiar
traits, he must be aware of this difficulty at every turn.

-viii-