people's opinions; of a retiring disposition he was especially given to observe, and record his impressions. He jotted down, among other things, an infinite number of homely, terse Spanish sayings which he quite invariably translated for the benefit of his British public, and he illustrated the great age of many a custom by striking references to the Greek and Latin classics. The latter, however, he does not render in English, for he could assume in his day and generation that none of his readers needed a translation, while in this iron age there are only a few of us left who can almost decipher their meaning. Ford, too, had a delightful sense of humor, not unlike that of the Spaniards, which makes all racial barriers less formidable to any stranger dwelling among them. Moreover, seeing things as they were he was not inclined to take windmills for giants, nor every repellent exterior as the indication of a bloodthirsty heart. He says at the beginning of his guide-book: "Of the many misrepresentations regarding Spain, few have been more systematically circulated than the dangers and difficulties which are there supposed to beset the traveller." We shall see how the agent of the Bible Society was one of those who indulged in many misrepresentations.

Borrow, on the other hand, had received only an unsystematic, home-made education; by temperament fearless and impulsive, he could undertake nothing gently, nor did he comprehend why the Lord who would naturally support the efforts of the British Bible Society did not furnish him with the necessary clap of thunder whenever he himself entered on the scene. He took to noisy advertising at first, then to remonstrance, then, as his schemes met with opposition, to scolding and vituperation. He was like a character out of an opera bouffe, inclined to pose and fond of being conspicuous. He never made one of a friendly group. A "perambulating polyglot," who boasted that he could speak and write some thirty tongues, he was always ready to show his skill. Although he is one of the most brilliant letterwriters in the English language when summarizing his

experiences, he lapses into verbiage or evangelical cant when he philosophizes or reflects. He had come into Spain with one object, that of scattering Testaments, and one pre-conceived notion, that Spain was the most heathenish place in Christendom. He did manage to scatter several thousands of Testaments, but he performed an even greater miracle, that of leaving Spain after a sojourn of several years with precisely the same prejudices and unfounded opinions which he had entertained before setting foot on Spanish soil. Being a solitary individual he suffered from quickly changing moods, and his observations are therefore frequently so highly colored as to be wholly untrustworthy. Nothing is more amusing in his career than his impatience with the ungrateful authorities who did not appreciate his mission of light, but took him for an impertinent intruder and thrust him into vile Spanish dungeons without any reason whatever. For was he not justified in interrupting the Spaniard's traditional siesta to sell him a Testament and a tract on British religious enlightenment?

One of the fine and really attractive qualities of the average Spaniard is his conservatism: he finds certain features of his life as endurable and proper as they were two thousand years ago, perhaps because they were endurable and proper that long ago. Much that is implied in the unpoetic word innovation has remained a sealed book to him. Speed has been contrary to his native dignity, and he has never appreciated the advantage of travelling faster to places to which he does not care to go. Just so his provincial customs, his altar and his hearth have been dear to him. He has developed a homely and sound philosophy in the midst of humble conditions; he has accumulated an inexhaustible fund of humor with which to illustrate this most imperfect scheme of life; he has become convinced that the universal hardships of all existence, intensified by the hot Spanish sun, justify protracted repose and deliberate procedure in daily routine. He has also realized that the less we move about the less we see of foolish people.

All of this is what Borrow never grasped. Moreover, the Spaniard is an inveterate smoker, and Borrow hated tobacco. The idiomatic flavor of the Spanish language had no interest for him apart from its linguistic traits. Indeed, at times the reader is inclined to believe that Borrow was either ignorant of the English equivalents of certain Spanish words or that he wrote nonsense on purpose. Thus he invariably translates caballero, 'cavalier,' or 'sir cavalier,' when he must have known after years of experience that it either means 'man' or that it is the ordinary way of accosting any man, as for example, "Dispense usted, caballero" which simply means, "I beg your pardon, sir." "Usted' he translates 'your worship' when it would never occur to anyone to say to a waiter, for example, "Will your worship bring me another glass?" Here, for example, is a piece of bonne blague which Borrow sets down as the usual Spanish manner of speech. He is addressing a simple soldier: "I dismounted, and taking off my hat, made a low bow to the constitutional soldier, saying, 'Señor Nacional, you must know that I am an English gentleman travelling in this country for my pleasure. I bear a passport, which on inspecting you will find to be perfectly regular. It was given to me by the great Lord Palmerston, Minister of England, whom you of course have heard of here. At the bottom you will see his own handwriting. Look at it and rejoice; perhaps you will never have another opportunity. As I put unbounded confidence in the honor of every gentleman, I leave the passport in your hands whilst I repair to the posada to refresh myself. When you have inspected it, you will perhaps oblige me so far as to bring it to me. Cavalier, I kiss your hands.'"

The intricate characteristics of the Spanish people, their immemorial traditions, their vast literature, their art, the moulding facts of their history are never referred to by Borrow, and unquestionably never interested him. Above all his idea of humor was certainly not that of the Spanish people, nor of the genial Ford. He has, to be sure, presented

the most ridiculous situations in a striking way, but you do not feel sure that he is laughing over them. Men like Borrow seldom find a congenial companion, and he therefore had no one either to laugh with him, or to prevent him from making himself ridiculous. The most unusual events strike him as extraordinary rather than amusing. He had come to Spain with a single object, and it aroused his resentment to find himself hampered by an ignorant people in carrying out his ostentatiously philanthropic plans. Borrow was thus the last man in England to understand the Peninsular character on which the sun, Oriental traditions and the Roman Catholic Church-among other unEnglish influences-had placed a unique stamp.

The recent issue of Borrow's letters to the Bible Society, which had been thought lost, suggests an entirely new point of view of the man and allows us to add a few traits to the portrait of this brilliant vagrant, whose book, The Bible in Spain, has for decades so delightfully entertained and fooled an infinite number of readers. Only a relatively small portion of that book is taken directly from these communications sent to the Society; and they assuredly have more value than his book because they gave his impressions before he had time to doctor them. Wherever the original has been furbished up, the revised version is apt to be topheavy with the ego of the author, consequently his additions present far more of Borrow than they do of Spain. But let us accompany him through his wanderings and note his own first comments. Where it is possible we shall let him speak for himself.

Borrow's orders on leaving England appear to have been very simple: Whosoever will take away the New Testament let him have the Old also, and add thereto a few tracts. His entrance into the Peninsula was bound to be melodramatic. He wrote to the Secretary of the Society that before beginning his campaign in Portugal where he landed, he made inquiries as to "which was the province of that country the population of which was considered the

most ignorant and benighted." Having learned that it was the Alemtejo he at once determined on going thither with a small cargo of Testaments and Bibles. "My reasons I need not state, as they must be manifest to every Christian; but I cannot help thinking that it was the Lord who inspired me with the idea of going thither, as by so doing I have introduced the Scriptures into the worst part of the Peninsula, and have acquired lights and formed connections (some of the latter most singular ones, I admit) which if turned to proper account will wonderfully assist us in our object of making the heathen of Portugal and Spain acquainted with God's Holy Word." He now hired a wild-looking lad to ferry him across the Tagus, but unfortunately the lad did not speak any of Borrow's thirty tongues, for "he gabbled in a most incoherent manner" with a "harsh and rapid articulation" like the "scream of a hyena blended with the bark of a terrier." This circumstance coupled with the fact that a storm arose and that the lad did not know much about sailing made it apparent that it was only "the will of the Almighty that permitted them to gain shelter on the other side." The guide with whom Borrow now proceeds on his way at once regaled him with the "truly horrible" tales of the atrocities which robbers "were in the habit of practicing" in those very spots; and while the mules stopped to drink at a shallow pool, Borrow reflects that the gang "were in the habit of watering their horses at the pool and perhaps of washing their hands stained with the blood of their victims." But his courage went further; he climbed up to the place where once stood the home of the banditti, now in ruins, and found there vestiges of a fire and a broken bottle. "The sons of plunder had been there very lately," so he took the opportunity to leave a "New Testament and some tracts among the ruins, and hastened away." We may take for granted the speedy repentance of these blood-thirsty villains. Continuing his course he meets some wild-looking men who, if they were not banditti, could easily have been mistaken for such.