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[197] by supposing an absolutely and originally different conformation of the organs of speech?. . . .

The Library owes its existence to the French dynasty, for the Austrian never thought of such a thing. Philip V. founded it in 1726, and Charles III. added the Cabinet of Medals. The printed books amount to above 110,000, the Mss. to 3,500, and the medals to 106,000. It is, like the libraries of the Escorial, a mine for future discovery, for it is so ill arranged, and has so bad a catalogue, and is so abominably administered, that all that is known of its curiosities and rarities is by accident. The collection of coins and medals is a perfect confusion worse confounded, and yet Eckhel stands on the shelf. I asked Gonzalez, the chief man of the whole establishment, what book this was, and he said it was an old book on numismatics, that he had never looked into! They have, too, a lumber-room, where there is a great pile of books called useless. The second librarian showed it to me, advising me that it was mere wastepaper. I ventured, however, to look in, and the second book I took up was Laplace's Mecanique Celeste. Ex pede Herculem.

The two Academies owe their existence to the tertulia of the Marquis de Villafranca. The one for the Spanish language was founded in 1714, and has only occupied itself with dictionaries, grammars, orthographies, etc., and with promoting the publication of important works relating to the language, such as Garces' Fuerza y Vigor; new editions of old standard works, such as Balbuena, etc.

The other, for Spanish history and belles-lettres, founded in 1735, is the most respectable literary establishment in Spain; for such men as Navarrete, Marina, Conde, and Clemencin are enough to make an academy respectable in any country. They keep it, too, extremely pure; but the consequence is, that they have only eight or ten members; and yet the five volumes they have published, with their ‘Chronicles,’ Partidas, Fuero Juzgo, etc., do them infinite credit, and show like the work of a great body of learned men. . . . .

Even in the large cities and the capital it is astonishing to see how much they are behindhand,—how rude and imperfect is their house furniture, and how much is absolutely wanting. A great deal of the better sort is brought from Paris and London; and when an ambassador has kept a carriage two or three years, until it has become soiled and worn, he can sell it, as they all do, to some grandee, for more than it cost him. In the country it is, of course, worse. The chief persons in a village — I mean the respectable ecclesiastics and the alcaldes


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