THE SPANISH CHARACTER

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22355, 19 March 1938, Page 20

THE SPANISH CHARACTER

Two Illuminating Books

Wars of Ideas in Spain. By Jose Costillejo. John Murray. 168 pp. (6/-net.) Invertebrate Spain. By Jose Ortega y Gasset. Allen and Unwin, 212 pp. (7/3 net.)

[Reviewed by R. G. C. McNAB.]

Events in Spain have produced two more books; two books of extraordinary value, which will probably be read long after present controversy and warfare have been forgotten; two books of social history and philosophy as exciting and informing as any history of military campaign or record of leadership. That the excitement is intellectual and spiritual encourages the hope that the books will survive this turmoil. Senor Ortega y Gasset wrote his book in days of quietness; but its sharp appropriateness to 19361938 is the more deadly for that reason. He has written as one who thinks and feels, and as one who has, with effort, surveyed the follies and weaknesses of his country and judged them as impartially as a human being can. Professor Castillejo’s book is perhaps more valuable. Its scope is enormous, its judgment very wise, its information complete. Every non-Spaniard who reads “Wars of Ideas in Spain” will pray that such a book may be written about his own country.

continuous. A change of government means a revolt or a coup d’etat. And the governed are, for the most part, sunk in the petty pride of ruralism, a state possibly comfortable, but without idealism, except, if it be idealism, to continue to live in a vegetative way wrapped in the tatters of a meaningless pride. And Spanish pride is that worst pride which prohibits and shuns progress and new ideas, because it is unable to perceive the excellence of the achievements or character of its neighbours. For an instance of blind, self-satisfied rural contentment the writer describes the Anda-

Each of these Spaniards has been a leader of reform in his country. Professor Castillejo is known as a statesman; he is famous as a leader in education, and he is as independent in his patriotism and humanity as the greatest national leaders of his country. His conclusion is that, given time, ample and free education might have saved Spain, that the spread of scientific and political notions might thus have been made more general and less intense, but that passions and theories and physical force were caught up by political and religious agencies which used them to preserve themselves. Education did not have time. There is the lesson for countries not yet rent by conflict. That Spain is a testing ground for Western civilisation is not, however, entirely the truth, for history has shown that the Spanish character and temper use good innovations badly. A short paragraph defines the national temperament.

lusians, and, for a province beginning to be progressive enough to float on the current of the times, he points to the Asturians. But both are Spaniards, as the Civil War has shown.

“Invertebrate Spain” is a series of essays written between 1915 and 1925. Each, though timeless and permanently valuable, bears upon some phase of social philosophy that has been emphasised fay events in contemporary Europe. One essay is an account of the psychology of Fascism; another is a sad survey of the general spirit of European nations. The definition 'of this spirit will surprise those who mistake military and physical activity for the work of an enterprising, creative mind.

The utilitarian British character sees first and foremost the positive and accesifale side at everything; the fierce, combatant attitude of the Spaniard .emphasises the negative or aggressive dualities. Where the English mind seeks attraction and agreement, the unyielding Spanish soul demands submissions, The patience of the Spaniard ends when,' instead of inert matter, he touches living reactions. His -individuality wakes up violently and he forgets any purpose beyond the momentary assertion of his own supremacy, . Events and Minds From afi analysis of the, Spanish character Dr. Castillejo proceeds to study the historical influences .that have modified the spiritual state of Spaniards: the resistance to the intolerance of Roman, rule, the absorption of some parts of Moorish culture and the uncertainty caused bv the clash of n<(tive and Moorish faiths, the decline, by the fourteenth century, of tolerance and the awakening of intellectual forces, and. the physical and mental turbulence caused by the, opposition to Italian and French influences. Then came the extraordinary spiritual and intellectual vitality that fol-

In Europe to-day there is no esteem for the present; institutions, ideas, pleasures have a sour taste. What is desired in exchange? Simply nothing. There is no crop of appetites. There is a complete absence of that inciting anticipation of a desirable -future which is an organ essential to human biology. Desire, that refined secretion of every healthy mind, is the first to be exhausted when life declines . . . For the ills of Spain described by me there is no medicine to be found among the great nations of to-day. . . Perhaps the hour has come when life is going to have more meaning among smaller and somewhat uncivilised peoples.

And with that poor ray of hope th.. Spanish philosophers barely, lighten the gloom that overhangs their own country. The outer darkness is unrelieved. He who reads these books will be depressed, but he will have encountered two minds that have tried to find and tell the truth, harsh as it is, about what they hold most dear.

lowed the activity of Spanish soldiers, explorers, and colonists in the sixteenth century. The latter half of the book concerns the last

100 years, the hope of enlightened freedom inspired by Giner de los Rios, and the belief three generations agp that the Spanish polity could be organised for tolerance and peace as well as for firm rule and 6ure prosperity. Again there was a hope that education could establish Spain oh justice and fair opportunity. By 1900 these high democratic hopes had faded; but individual leaders and groups fought on, seeing national salvation only in a reformed educational system. Such leaders and groups showed that they could succeed if they were given time; but entrenched and fearful authority gave no one time.

One strange and inspiring chapter describes how, in the ,midst of dictatorship, a number of families founded a private school whose methods and results were very fine. The' cut short its life and Dr. Castillejo fears it may never be revived. At every stage of this study the military, economic, and political systems are revealed in a sentence of penetrating understanding. Few books so short have contained so much. After noticing that the Spanish Republic has used some of the political methods of the worst monarchies, the historian concludes; The fact that the same has happened in other countries of Europe, whether backward or enlightened ones, suggests that perhaps the supreme public power, responsible for order and justice, is not the right organ to direct the economic or the educational any more than the religious life. Nor perhaps ought men qf science, seekers of impassive truth, to take the place of rulers who are the voice of a changeable public will. Both philosophers write with the same detachment and objectiveness; but both are felt to be at heart passionately concerned. This self-com-mand resembles the outward calm nobility* of some of the men whom Velasquez . painted, men behind whose firm composure can be perceived burning emotions. Senor Ortega y Gasset writes more closely and minutely than Professor Castillejo. He examines the nature and origin of national prejudices and feelings, and lays bare, like a surgeon, the places where decline and weakness have caused corruption. The final statement is this: Energy, effort, courage, impetus. This is the true power of the Spaniard. In the long spectacle of history we Spaniards appear as a courageous attitude. This is the whole of our greatness, this is the whole of our misery. Energy, effort, by itself and without the guidance of an idea, is an untamed force, a blind anxiety

which hits out endlessly in all directions . . . But where does pure effort, m pure energy by itself lead? Nowhere. Or rather to a single end —melancholy. In his Quixote, Cervantes composed the critique of pure energy.

Pride, the Foe of Progress Senor Ortega y Gass A refers often to the “sectionalism, regionalism, t*paratism” of his country, which is a large human agglomeration, but not a society. In this condition of disunion man is strong enough and willing enough to undo but not to dp, not even to make sure of his own rights. There has always been insufficient co-operation to make an eminent minority, without which government cannot be peacefully