History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic, vol 1 | Page 3

and had no prospect of again recovering it. This was a serious obstacle
to the prosecution of a work requiring the perusal of a large mass of
authorities, in various languages, the contents of which were to be

carefully collated, and transferred to my own pages, verified by minute
reference. [2] Thus shut out from one sense, I was driven to rely
exclusively on another, and to make the ear do the work of the eye.
With the assistance of a reader, uninitiated, it may be added, in any
modern language but his own, I worked my way through several
venerable Castilian quartos, until I was satisfied of the practicability of
the undertaking. I next procured the services of one more competent to
aid me in pursuing my historical inquiries. The process was slow and
irksome enough, doubtless, to both parties, at least till my ear was
accommodated to foreign sounds, and an antiquated, oftentimes
barbarous phraseology, when my progress became more sensible, and I
was cheered with the prospect of success. It certainly would have been
a far more serious misfortune, to be led thus blindfold through the
pleasant paths of literature; but my track stretched, for the most part,
across dreary wastes, where no beauty lurked, to arrest the traveller's
eye and charm his senses. After persevering in this course for some
years, my eyes, by the blessing of Providence, recovered sufficient
strength to allow me to use them, with tolerable freedom, in the
prosecution of my labors, and in the revision of all previously written. I
hope I shall not be misunderstood, as stating these circumstances to
deprecate the severity of criticism, since I am inclined to think the
greater circumspection I have been compelled to use has left me, on the
whole, less exposed to inaccuracies, than I should have been in the
ordinary mode of composition. But, as I reflect on the many sober
hours I have passed in wading through black letter tomes, and through
manuscripts whose doubtful orthography and defiance of all
punctuation were so many stumbling-blocks to my amanuensis, it calls
up a scene of whimsical distresses, not usually encountered, on which
the good-natured reader may, perhaps, allow I have some right, now
that I have got the better of them, to dwell with satisfaction.
I will only remark, in conclusion of this too prolix discussion about
myself, that while making my tortoise-like progress, I saw what I had
fondly looked upon as my own ground, (having indeed lain unmolested
by any other invader for so many ages,) suddenly entered, and in part
occupied, by one of my countrymen. I allude to Mr. Irving's "History of
Columbus," and "Chronicle of Granada;" the subjects of which,
although covering but a small part of my whole plan, form certainly

two of its most brilliant portions. Now, alas! if not devoid of interest,
they are, at least, stripped of the charm of novelty. For what eye has not
been attracted to the spot on which the light of that writer's genius has
fallen?
I cannot quit the subject which has so long occupied me, without one
glance at the present unhappy condition of Spain; who, shorn of her
ancient splendor, humbled by the loss of empire abroad, and credit at
home, is abandoned to all the evils of anarchy. Yet, deplorable as this
condition is, it is not so bad as the lethargy in which she has been sunk
for ages. Better be hurried forward for a season on the wings of the
tempest, than stagnate in a deathlike calm, fatal alike to intellectual and
moral progress. The crisis of a revolution, when old things are passing
away, and new ones are not yet established, is, indeed, fearful. Even the
immediate consequences of its achievement are scarcely less so to a
people who have yet to learn by experiment the precise form of
institutions best suited to their wants, and to accommodate their
character to these institutions. Such results must come with time,
however, if the nation be but true to itself. And that they will come,
sooner or later, to the Spaniards, surely no one can distrust who is at all
conversant with their earlier history, and has witnessed the examples it
affords of heroic virtue, devoted patriotism, and generous love of
freedom;
"Chè l'antico valore ----non è ancor morto."
Clouds and darkness have, indeed, settled thick around the throne of
the youthful Isabella; but not a deeper darkness than that which covered
the land in the first years of her illustrious namesake; and we may
humbly trust, that the same Providence, which guided her reign to so
prosperous a termination, may carry the nation safe through its present
perils, and secure to it the greatest of earthly blessings, civil and
religious liberty.
_November_, 1837.
FOOTNOTES