measurements, that would enable me to write more definitely on this exceedingly important subject.

From the foregoing remarks, and those which I have previously made on the improvement of the Mississippi river, the following conclusion may be drawn:

1st. That shoals, bars and islands, circuitous and expanded channels, have each and all of them the effect of checking the velocity of the water, preventing its free discharge, increasing the deposits, elevating the bed of the river, adding to the vertical rise of its surface, and increasing the danger of overflow; and, also, that outlets, by diminishing the volume of its water, tend to the very same end.

2d. That, by making the channel, as far as practical, straight, uniform and of a normal breadth, and by confining the entire volume of water within the main channel, shutting up all outlets not absolutely necessary to be left open, the water will be discharged more freely, the velocity will be made more uniform, shoals and bars will be swept away, the bed of the river lowered, the vertical rise of the surface reduced, and overflows, if not entirely prevented, rendered less frequent and less destructive.

3d. That, by regulating the quantity of water to be discharged by the Mississippi and the outlets above named, the tendency of the former to elevate its bed, and of the latter to deepen and enlarge their channels, may be so counteracted as to prevent permanent mischief to the present main channel and the interests connected with its continu

ance.

4th. That, in order to place within the reach of those who may be selected to direct the works that may be undertaken for the improvement of the Mississippi, all the information necessary to enable them to direct to the best advantage, correct hydrometrical measurements, levels and observations, should be taken to determine the normal breadth of the river, the proper distance of the levees from each side of the channel, the cross-sectional area of the stream in the main channel, and the outlets for mean and high water, the velocity of the water at every important point in the main channel and outlets from the Gulf up, as far as may be deemed necessary, &c., &c.

The above views, such as they are, I offer to the consideration of those who are most interested in inquiring whether they are correct or not. They are not mere idle speculations, adopted without reflection, and supported only by hasty and superficial examinations. They are in accordance with the principles laid down by the best writers on hydraulics. I have ventured to lay them before the public, because I have long felt satisfied that no system based upon principles different

from those embraced in them, can ever permanently improve the condition of the Mississippi, and that to these views those most interested in the improvement of that river must come at last, if they desire to continue the present channel and preserve themselves from ruin. MOBILE, May 5, 1850.

ART. IX-LITERATURE OF SPAIN.*

EARLY HISTORY OF SPAIN; THE SPANISH LANGUAGE; THE EARLY BALLADS; ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY; THE PARTIDAS; THE INQUISITION; CERVANTES AND DON QUIXOTE; LOPE DE VEGA AND CALDERON; DECLINE OF SPANISH LETTERS.—BY THE EDITOR.

It is with emotions of melancholy we are accustomed to regard the decline of Spain, and her glories faded into dust, from the high rank in the politics of Europe accorded, at one time, to her by universal consent. The victim of arbitrary and despotic power-the theater of court intrigues and revolutions-with a wealthy, dominant, but unscrupulous, hierarchy fattening upon the substance of the land, and repressing and crushing out the vital energies of the people by a system of intolerence the most perfect, and a total suppression of all light and knowledge; broken up, by almost impassable physical divisions, into provinces distinct in character, institutions and customs; without commerce or manufactures; with agriculture degraded to the lowest condition, and the landed interests monopolized by princes and nobles of Church and State; industry denied its accustomed motives, security and reward: such is Spain; and we naturally contrast her position with what it was when Charles V had extended his dominions too widely for the sun ever to set upon them—or when, at a still earlier period, her monarch parceled out the world by treaty, and reserved to himself, of its empire and its treasures, by far the greater and the wealthier part. The admonition is a solemn one, which it becomes us all to heed in the day of our pride, our arrogance and our power!

To imagine that the literature of a nation will not be influenced and determined by its political and social condition, would be in violation of all the teachings of experience. The history of Spain, in every period, confirms the judgment; and we gather, with a fidelity and truthfulness which is never once at fault, from the earliest ballads of the country-the chronicles, the books of chivalry, romanceros and dra

* History of Spanish Literature, by George Ticknor. 3 vols. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1849. Glimpses of Spain, or Notes of an Unfinished Tour in 1847, by S. T. Wallis. Harper & Brothers. 1849.

ma-all the incidents and evidences of progress or decline of the Spanish people, through their romantic struggles, defeats and triumphs, from the earliest Moorish invasion to the present times.

We were in almost entire ignorance of the variety, richness and extent, of the literature of Spain, before the publication of the comprehensive work of Mr. Ticknor, referred to at the head of our article. The world is indebted to this gentleman for one of the most elaborate and faithful exhibitions of the literary progress and decay of a nation, at all times attracting a romantic interest, which has appeared in any language; and the scholar will not know which to admire most, the elegance of its arrangement and classic beauty of style, or the profound and enthusiastic researches, conducted amidst the buried, obscure and almost forgotten, records of the remote past.

The work of Ticknor, we need not say, is a credit to American literature, and, like those of Prescott and Irving, marks an epoch in its history. It has been the labor almost of a life-as the author tells us he began, as early as 1818, the collection of materials for it, in a visit to Spain, and has added to them ever since, until he has gathered the most magnificent collection of Spanish literary works to be found in America.

The volumes on our table possess a degree of interest and attraction, not to be surpassed by any that have been published in the present century, and open upon us a world as novel as that which the genius of Columbus made bare to the adventurers of Castile and Aragon.

No country in Europe has passed through a greater number of changes and revolutions than Spain. Its earliest records run back in antiquity to the Iberians, a fierce and warlike people who overspread the peninsula, and whose descendants are supposed to be the Biscayans, from many peculiarities in their institutions and manners of the present day. This people were overpowered by the Celts, who were among the earliest of those hordes that poured down upon Europe from Asia; but at what period the event occurred is involved in obscurity. The contest was long and terrible; and, when the races, at last, were extinguished in each other, their names were preserved in the appropriate appellation, derived from the two, Celtiberian. The reputation of the country for the precious metals attracted, soon after, the Phenicians, from across the Mediterranean; and they planted colonies near the pillars of Hercules, near Cadiz, and on the banks of the Guadalquiver-adding greatly thereby to their own wealth, rank and consequence. The Carthagenians, who were of the same race, after the first Punic war, took entire possession of the country, which they

at last yielded to the Scipios and the triumphant Roman armies, in the year 201, B. C. Two whole centuries of bloodshed and crime elapsed, before the Roman power was securely established in the peninsula.

The Romans introduced innumerable colonies into Spain, and with them all the civilization and refinement of Italy. On every hand was clearly recognized the influences of a power, which, having shaken the thrones of all the world, began itself to exhibit the tokens of decay. Extraordinary privileges were accorded to this favorite province, which, in return, contributed more than any other to the resources and wealth of the capital. The Latin became almost the language of the country-corrupted, it is true, on the introduction of Christianity, by ignorant ecclesiastics. The first foreigners elevated to the consulship, or honored with a public triumph, was Balbus, from Cadiz; and the first that occupied the throne of the Cæsars, was Trajan, a native of Seville. Portius Latro, a Spaniard, opened, in the metropolis, a school for Roman rhetoric, and numbered, among his pupils, Octavius Cæsar, Mæcenas, Marcus Agrippa and Ovid. The two Senecas, Lucan, Martial, Columella, the able writer on agriculture, and, probably, Quinctilian, were also natives of Spain.

The fifth century introduced a new and melancholy era in the history of southern Europe, and witnessed every trace of civilization and progress swept away in wreck and ruin, by the barbarian hordes. who, emerging from the northern fastnesses of Asia, from Tartary and from Germany, tumultuously passed the Rhine and possessed themselves, by easy conquest, of the gardens of the world.

In the character of her conquerors Spain was fortunate. The Goths had already occupied Italy, and become acquainted with its laws, manners and language. The Visigoths were converts to Christianity, and exhibited a remarkable disposition for law and order, as we perceive, in the criminal and civil code adopted by them, among the first measures of administration. Their language, being unwritten, remained barbarous and but slightly affiliated with the corrupted Latin which continued to maintain its rank. The union of the two languages, at last, went very far toward the production of the modern Spanish.

But Spain was destined to another great convulsion, whose influences extended over eight centuries, and are associated with nearly every thing that is chivalrous, romantic and glorious, in her early history. The followers of Mohammed had overrun Asia, Egypt, and all the north of Africa. They descended upon Spain, and, in the battle of the Gaudalete, and in the three succeeding years, shattered to pieces the Gothic power, except in the north-west, where, under Pelayo, the

Christians had taken refuge. From this point began those heroic but desperate struggles-in which were involved, on the one hand, all the associations of home, of nationality and religion; and, on the other, the pride, the power and splendor, of the Mohammedan empire-lasting through eight hundred years, and only brought to a close, after the fall of Granada witnessed the triumph of Christian power, and the banner of the Cross floating over the Alhambra, and over every wall and tower of the peninsula.

The Moorish power in Spain was marked by much that was glorious in civilization, in luxury and letters; and, amid the darkness and gloom which had settled upon Europe, shone forth with steady and almost dazzling brightness. Men of letters congregated there from all the world, attracted by its libraries, its schools and its scholars; and many of the regenerating influences which, long afterward, dissipated the night of the middle ages, may be traced to the intellectual empires of Cordova and Granada.

The Gothicized Latin of the Christians, coming now in intimate association with the Arabic, a more polished and refined one, adopted many of its forms, and borrowed copiously from its vocabulary. The change was gradual and continuous, and, about the middle of the twelfth century, the amalgamated elements had risen to the dignity of a written language, known, ever since, as the Castilian, or Spanish. From this period is traced the history of Spanish literature.

Here we recognize, according to Mr. Ticknor, the existence, in Spain, of a language, spreading gradually throughout the greater part of the country, different from the pure or the corrupted Latin, and still more different from the Arabic, yet obviously formed by a union of both, modified by the analogies and spirit of the Gothic constructions and dialects, and containing some remains of the vocabularies of the Spanish tribes, of the Iberians, the Celts and the Phenicians, who, at different periods, had occupied nearly or quite the whole of the peninsula. This language was called, originally, the Romance, because it was so much formed out of the language of the Romans; later it was alled Spanish, and at last, more frequently, called Castilian, from that portion of the country whose political power grew to be so predominant, as to give its dialect a preponderance over all others. The proportion of all these elements is estimated, by Sarmiento: six-tenths of Latin origin, one-tenth Greek and ecclesiastical, one-tenth northern, one-tenth Arabic, one-tenth East Indian, American, Gipsey, modern German, French and Italian.

The remarks which we shall now venture upon the literature and writers of Spain, will be arranged under the three great divisions