The same luxury appears in the carriages. There is a great num. ber of coaches, and many of them very elegant, The physicians have a peculiar kind of carriage of a ridiculous appearance. - Luxury, however, does not extend to the interior of the houses: the furniture is simple; tapestry and carpets are very rare. We see none of those glasses or clocks, none of those diversified pieces of furniture which embellish our' apartments; no elegant chimneys, girandoles, chandeliers, bronzes, and china ornaments; the walls are bare, or at most lightly paint. ed with some festoons; the floors are matted; the chairs are straw. bottomed; and their large lustres, which constitute the principal ornaments of their rooms, are of white glass. The women are tolerably handsome; their persons, which are above the middle size, are slim and light: they have large fine eyes, and a whiter skin than is commonly met with in Spain. Character, Manners, Customs, and Habits of the Spaniards in general. [From the same.] The Spaniards are usually represented as lean, dry, meagre, and of a yellow and swarthy complexion. They are not indeed of the gross habit usually observed in the inhabitants of the north; I but their thinness is neither excessive nor disagreeable; it is suitable to their stature. Their complexion is swarthy in some provinces; those, for instance, of the south; it is so also, but in a less degree, in the Castiles, though The The Castilians appear delicate, but they are strong. The Galicians are large, nervous, robust, and able endure fatigue. The inhabitants of Estramadura are strong, stout, and well made, but more swarthy than any other Spaniards. Andalusiaus are light, slender, and perfectly well proportioned. The Murcians are gloomy, indolent, and heavy; their complexion is pale, and often almost lead-coloured. The Valencians are delicate, slight, and effeminate; but in telligent and active in labour. The Catalans are pervous, strong, active, intelligent, indefatigable, and above the middling stature. The Aragonese are tall and well made; as robust, but less active than the Catalans. The Biscay. ans are strong, vigorous, agile, and gay; their complexion is fine, their expression quick, animated, laughing and open; the Roman historians describe them as brave, robust, endowed with constancy and a firmness not to be shaken; fierce in their disposition, singular in their customs; always armed with daggers, and ready to give themselves death rather than suffer themselves to be subjugated or governed by force; roused to opposition by obstacles, and patient of " of labours and fatigue. In fact the Calabrians were the Spanish people who longest resisted the arms of the Roman republic. The Spanish women here deserve a separate article; compared with the men, they seem to form a dif., ferent nation. air, but the charm of which is inexpressible. As soon as they get a little acquainted with you, and have overcome their first embar rassment, they express themselves with ease; their discourse is full of choice expressions, at once deli cate and noble; their conversation is lively, easy, and possesses a natural gaiety peculiar to themselves. They seldom read and write, but the little that they read. they profit by, and the little that they write is correct and concise. They are of a warm disposition; their passions are violent, and their imagination ardent, but they are generous, kind, and true, and ca pable of sincere attachment. The females of Spain are naturally beautiful, and owe nothing to art. The greater part are brown; the few that are fair are chicfly to be found in Biscay. They are in general well proportioned, with a slender and delicate shape, small feet, well-shaped legs, a face of a fine oval, black or rich brown hair, a mouth neither large nor small, but agreeable, red lips; white and well set teeth, which they do not With them, as with the women long preserve, however, owing to of other countries, love is the chief the little care they take of them. business of life; but with them They have large and open eyes, it is a deep feeling, a passion, usually black or dark hazel, deli- and not, as in some other parts, cate and regular features, a pecu. an effect of self-love, of vanity, of liar suppleness, and a charming coquetry, or of the rivalries of sonatural grace in their motions, with ciety. When the Spanish women a pleasing and expressive gesture. love, they love deeply and long; Their countenances are open, and but they also require a constant full of truth and intelligence; assiduity, and a complete depend their look is gentle, animated, ex- ence. Naturally reserved and mo. pressive; their smile agreeable; dest, they are then jealous and they are naturally pale, but this impetuous. They are capable of paleness seems to vanish under the making any sacrifices; but they brilliancy and expressive lustre of also exact them. On these occasi their eyes. They are full of graces, ons they discover all the energy of which appear in their discourse, in their character; and the women their looks, their gestures, in all of no other nation can compare their motions, and every thing that with them in this point. The Casthey do. They have usually a tilian women excel all the rest in kind of embarrassed and heedless love. There are many shades of manner, which does not fail, how difference in the manner in which ever, to seduce, even more than this passion is displayed by the fe wit and talents. Their counte- males of different provinces. Those Dance is modest, but expressive. of Castile have most tenderness: There is a certain simplicity in all and sensibility; the Biscayans are: they do, which sometimes gives more ardent; the Valentians and them a rustic, and sometimes a bold, Catalans more impetuous; the Aragonese Aragonese most exaeting and imperious; the Andalusian women most adroit and seducing; but the general disposition is nearly the same in all. There is a freedom in the man. ners and conversation of the Spa. nish women, which causes them to be judged unfavourably of by strangers; but on further acquain. tance, a man perceives that they appear to promise more than they grant, and tha they do not even permit those freedoms which most women of other countries think there is no harm in allowing. A modern traveller, who is some times severe, often hasty in his judgments, has anticipated me in this remark; but he deduces from it an inference unfavourable to the Spanish women. "Feeling," says he, "their own weakness, and knowing how inflammable they are, they are distrustful of themselves, and fear they should yield too easi. ly." This is supposing them very abandoned, and very calculating, and they are neither one nor the other. This reserve belongs to their notions and manners; it sometimes proceeds from the embarrassment of which we have spoken, and of. tener from their ideas of love, which forbid them to grant their favours by halves, or to employ that coquetry so common among the women of other countries. If the Spanish ladies are agreea ble, if they are sometimes well.in. formed, they owe it only to them. selves, and in no degree to their education, which is almost totally neglected. If their native quali. ties were polished and unfolded by a careful instruction, they would become but too seductive. - Many different people have cecupied Spain in succession: the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Suevi, the Alani, the Vandas, the Arabs, and the French; and with all, these the natives have been confounded. Towards the end of the eighth and beginning of the ninth century, four principal nations inhabited the country: the natives, then known by the name of Romans; the Goths, comprehending the remains of the Sucri, Alani, and Vandals, a portion of whom were also confounded with the natives and with the Moors, whilst a considerable part had taken refuge in the Asturias and in Navarre; the Moors, with whom the natives of Africa were mingled; and the French, who occupied a great part of Catalonia, Navarre, and the Pyrenees. Each of these nations brought with it its own genius, manners, laws, and customs. When the Moors were driven out of Spain, several independant sovereignties were formed; each of which had its own laws, cus. toms, constitution, and particular form of government. Galicia, Leon, the Castiles, Biscay, Na. varre, Aragon, and Catalonia, had each its own sovereign. Andalu. sia, Murcia, and Valencia, were peopled by a mixture of different nations. Hence resulted a diver sity in genius, temper, manners, and customs; and this diversity, though modified by the present uniformity of government, by the more intimate communication between different provinces and their inhabitants, and by the assimilation of general customs, left to each country a peculiar tinge, of which vestiges, more or less dis. tinct, may still be traced. The national characters are not yet destroyed; they pass through the uniformity which government endeavours to introduce, and which imitation and example cause to be insensibly adopted. There are no two provinces of which the manners and character are exactly alike. In travelling through France, one is surprised to find there the ruling character of some parts of Spain; the Biscayan may be compared to the Basque; the Catalan to the Provencal; the Valencian to the native of Lower Languedoc; the Galician to the Auvergnese; the Andalusian to the Gascon. Some customs, however, and some traits of character, run through all the provinces. The national pride is every where the same. The Spani. ard has the highest opinion of his nation and himself, which he ener getically expresses by his gestures, words, and actions. This opinion is discovered in all ranks of life, and classes of society; in crimes and in virtues; amongst the great and the small; under the rags of poverty as much as in the royal palace. Its result is a kind of haughtiness, repulsive sometimes to him who is its object, but useful in giving to the mind a sentiment of nobleness and self-esteem, which fortifies it against all meanness. This pride may be considered as one cause of the great number of persons who quit the world, and embrace the ecclesiastical profession: the slightest contempt, the least constraint, often produce, on these haughty dispositions, the effect of real mis. fortunes The Spaniards possess, almost universally, a natural dignity of VOL. LI. sentiment, which is certainly_su perior to the pride of birth. It is often stigmatized as pride, because we are pleased so to call spirit in those classes in which we are accustomed to find a base humility. We cannot bear that a muleteer should answer us; that a peasant should refuse to sell us what we wish to buy, because he keeps it for his family; we are astonished that, immovably attached to his own habits, he should be regard. less of our expostulations and our anger;-that he should think him, self as good as we, and show that he does so: but, if we see in this man, instead of any thing base, a native greatness of mind ;-instead of intemperance, a sobriety of which we should be incapable ;— instead of that luxury and vanity which amongst us is not incompatible with poverty, and indifference to the indulgencies of life carried to as high a pitch as the austerity of the ancient republics; if we observe in him, instead of bad faith, of the instinct of theft and avidity, disinterestedness, honour, and fidelity; instead of impu dence, reserve and respect;-—and instead of impiety, a fervent faith; we shall no longer be surprised to see men of the lowest class under. stand the pleasures of solitude, seek them at the price of the severest trials, and form to themselves a mode of life at once simple and sublime, made up of labour and prayer, nature and heaven. The national pride of the Spaniards is commonly attributed to their success in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries." The Spaniard of the sixteenth century bas disappeared," says M. Bourgoing, "but his mask remains; under 3 & which, All most brilliant enterprizes. their own historians deplore the effects of this apathy, this fatal recklessness, which has almost always kept them dependent on the indus. try of their neighbours, or at least behind them in improvement, The happiest ages of their mo narchy have not been exempted from this evil, which seems to be as much the product of the climate as of the administration. NATURAL |