ART. XIII. LIST OF WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR FEBRUARY, 1822.

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Art. I. Repertoire Portatif de l'Histoire et de la Littérature des Nations Espagnole & Portugaise. Par le Chevalier Alvar Augustin de Liágno, Espagnol, aujourd'hui Bibliothécaire de S. M. le Roi de Prusse, et de S. A. R. Monseigneur le Prince Henri, Frére du Roi. Tome I. 8vo. pp. xvi. 508. Berlin. 1820.

THE

HE Author of these memoirs is a Spaniard and a Protestant, a combination not a little remarkable; we fear almost anomalous. We are unacquainted with the circumstances which led to his conversion to the Reformed Faith; but the enlightened and pious spirit which breathes through these volumes, leads us to believe that it is not a nominal or merely speculative change of sentiment, which has rendered irrevocable his exile from his native land. The ardent love of liberty, civil and religious, by which, in common with many of his fellow patriots and the Liberals of the Continent, he is actuated, is evidently subordinate, in his mind, to an attachment to the Gospel of Christ. His patriotism and his liberality are not the ebullition, the insurrection of the feelings, but principles of a truly Christian character. We rejoice to find that there is at least one such writer among the continental literati, and that as librarian to the King of Prussia, he has found an honourable asylum in a foreign land.

The portion of the Repertory at present before us, is occupied

* Among all the proscribed Spaniards,' says the Chevalier, I know not of one who has united himself to a Christian communion separated from Rome, except a learned ecclesiastic, now a member of the Church of England, and myself. Thank God, we both hold in horror the irreligious opinions which confound Christianity with the corruptions of the Papal court; but such is the force of prejudice, that, perhaps, Spaniards who partake of these opinions, and are ashamed of the Gospel, will be preferred above us in our own country.'

VOL. XVII. N.S.

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with a preliminary Essay on the history of the Spanish and Portuguese nations. It is, in fact, a spirited outline of their history, to which it is the Author's intention to annex in the form of illustrative notes, a series of historical essays on the different eras or portions into which the annals of the two nations are divided, together with supplemental memoires pour servir à l'histoire des reines Espagnoles et Portugaises.' These are to be followed up with remarks on the antiquities and medals of the Spanish and Portuguese nations; a notice of the writers whom it would be requisite to consult in prosecuting the study of Spanish and Portuguese history; and a chronology of the Spanish Peninsula, down to the death of Charles III. In the subsequent volumes, should the work meet with adequate encouragement, the Author designs to give the biography of celebrated men and writers, as well as their bibliography, extracts from their works, and a poetical anthology.I shall endeavour,' he says, to present to learned Europe, in five or seven volumes octavo, all that can be wished for in order to rectify, complete, and give a useful direction to the most diversified researches into the history and literature of two great nations, the study of which is perhaps as important as it is interesting.' The first epoch is that of the ante-historical age,-Spain in the time of the Phenicians and the Greeks, respecting which the little that is known, is wrapped up in fable, or blended with hypothesis. The tradition that derives the aborigines from Japhet through Tubal, is unworthy of serious examination. There is the highest probability, that the Peninsula was first peopled from Africa, and if so, by the descendants of Ham.

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Spain overrun and partly subjugated by the Carthaginians, is the second epoch marked out by the Author for separate illustration. In pursuing the career of the great Hannibal,' he remarks, we shall have occasion to regret, that a man of such a genius and character was unable either to establish a prosperous and permanent empire in Spain, or to save Carthage.' 'Quelle leçon contre l'esprit de conquète! Quelle demonstration de cette vérité, qu'un grand conquérant est presque toujours un citoyen inutile pour sa patrie quand il n'en prepare pas la ruine en

tiére !?

The disastrous period during which Carthage and Rome made the Iberian soil the arena of their sanguinary contest, is very significantly adverted to, as replete with the most important instruction. The Author must be pardoned should he be thought to regard as somewhat similar, the long protracted contest on the same soil, between two nations whom he would perhaps designate as the modern Carthage and the modern Rome. In some important points, however, the parallel fails.

Speaking of the moral and political lesson to be derived from this part of the history of Spain, the Author remarks :"

Two great nations contending for the empire of the world and the means of subjugating it, is a circumstance which must necessarily lead the historian to develop almost all the principles which ought to actuate nations and their sovereigns, in their projects, their enmities, and their alliances. As regards morality, what more useful lesson could the historian find, than that which is presented by the cruel strife between Carthage and Rome? At what other period has been more evidently displayed the fatal opposition which so often separates moral honesty and state policy? Carthage and Rome were two rival states, both alike proud, unjust, and oppressive, and both, at the same time, alike hypocritical. The upright historian feels a secret pleasure in having been born at a period when he may in some degree avenge the victims of these two tyrants. The noble nations who inhabited Spain, were perhaps the most illustrious of those victims: alternately misled and overwhelmed, they attached themselves to their oppressors. In no other direction do we find people aspiring to be really free. For the most part, the nations seemed to imagine themselves incapable of existing without a master: one was all enthusiasm for Rome, another admired and almost adored Carthage. The result of this state of delirium was that long series of combats and disasters which ultimately rendered Spain incapable of enjoying her rights, and of existing, as she deserved, independent and free. I judge that the European nations stand in need of reflecting upon this terrible period in the annals of the world.'

The fourth epoch, Spain consolidated into a Roman province under the first imperial Cæsar, was for a long time adopted by Spanish writers as the commencement of their era, being thirtyeight years earlier than the birth of Christ;-in Aragon till the year 1358, in Castile twenty-five years later, and in Portugal so late as 1415. The fifth section of the Author's plan would bring down the history of the Spanish provinces to the disastrous period, when the effeminacy of the children of Theodosius the Great produced, as a necessary consequence, the fall of the Roman empire.'

It is well known that those unworthy princes gave it up to the Scythians, to innumerable hordes of ferocious barbarians, whom history compels us to call by that name, although those same barbarians were our ancestors, the founders of the nations to which we belong. This is a terrible epoch; but it is most useful to recal it to mind in the present day, when Europe is so prone to forget the lesson it reads us. It is by placing before her this period in her annals, that we shall be able to shew her the absurdity of some of the maxims which she proclaims, and the numberless evils which proceed from the corruption of Christianity, from a priesthood in hostility against its august Founder, from institutions and laws opposed to the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, and yet revered as the very spirit of the doctrine of that Divine legislator. It is beyond all doubt, and we flatter our