Properly to appreciate this master-piece of Cervantes, it should be read in the noble, sonorous language of the gods, as the Spanish has been imaginatively termed; and next to this, with a view to arrive with some degree of correctness at the moral intention of the author, and of the peculiar wit of the phraseology which he employs, we should endeavor to understand the genius of the style which he affects. To render into a foreign tongue a language which abounds in idiomatic expressions, is at all times a difficult undertaking, because few nations assimilate in their selection of phrases for idiomization, and fewer use the same style of idiom, when they happen to be so selected. To illustrate: Suppose a foreigner desired to translate into his own language the American phrase, Go ahead.' Literally, the Spaniard would render it, ‘Ir a cabeza,' which would be sheer nonsense. The Frenchman would say, 'Aller à tête,' an expression equally absurd; while the Italian would write, 'Andare a testa,' which, if possible, sounds still more ridiculous.

There is, however, a way out of the difficulty, and it is to be regretted that some such plan has not been adopted, in order that American and English readers might be afforded an opportunity of forming a closer acquaintance than has yet been attained with this delightful work. Let us follow out this branch of the question with the same example. A Spaniard might render the national expression, Go ahead,' by the Spanish phrase, Avanzar, or adelantar la proa;' literally, to advance the bow' (of a ship or vessel); and the affinity which exists in our minds between the steam-boat and this common adjuration might be told in a short marginal annotation-a means by which the Spanish reader would be made acquainted at once with the idioms of our language, and their origin, construction, and object. This is the kind of translation which is wanted of Don Quixote, in order that those who do not read the Spanish language may look on the melancholy knight as something more than a mere madman, and on his doughty squire as better than a 'drôle,' or miserable dolt.

The style of Dickens has often been compared with that of Cervantes, from whom it is highly probable that the former, as well as Fielding, adopted the principles of their peculiar writing. Judging of the productions of Cervantes and Dickens, we must perhaps accord to Dickens the greater merit, on account of the greater amount of good which, politically speaking, has rewarded some of his works. Cervantes wrote to satirize the follies of the age, and to correct among his fellow-countrymen certain growing evils, the existence of which he discovered in their character. Dickens, on the other hand, appeals rather to the domestic feelings of his readers, and endeavors to show vice in its worst colors, while he strives to supply virtue with the most lovely tints, in order that he may inculcate morality by rendering the one disgusting and the other attractive. The only work of Dickens which may be said to be without this claim to praise is Pickwick,' which is merely a recital of ludicrous adventures ironically expressed. But it would be only proper to say, that if the works of Cervantes are not so highly marked as those of Dickens with the benevolent desire to extend happiness by extending virtue, it is only because Cervantes lived in an age when the rights of man were only vaguely understood and partially recognized. That straining of the cord of

Power which is called Tyranny, had not yet roused suffering humanity to successful rebellion, nor had Education so far extended her influence as to teach men who bent submissively in chains at the feet of those who bound them, that great moral truth which it was left for America to pass into an axiom, that 'All men are born free and equal.' In the time of Cervantes, the Poor had not been sufficiently educated, nor had the Noble been sufficiently taught the value of the Poor, to appreciate the lessons or the uses of the ennobling study of Freedom.

Few men have known more of human nature than did the author of 'Don Quixote Cervantes saw and studied it in many of its phases and in almost all its positions in life. As a soldier, he had suffered the hardships of war in the struggle between the Venetians and the Turks, in 1570, when the former were aided by the arms of Spain. He had known privation on the field of battle, and had been wounded in naval engagements. He had suffered the horrors and hardships of captivity among barbarians, in countries where the religion of CHRIST was regarded as a stain and a degradation. He had basked in the sunshine of the Court of Spain; and it was while experiencing the miseries of a prison in his native country, that he commenced his world-famed 'Historia del Ingenioso Hidalgo, Don Quixote de la Mancha.'

It may be said that in this work Cervantes has received some assistance from the character of the language in which he wrote; for if there be any tongue in the world which can aid a pathetic story by its flowing beauty, or which can assist the relation of bold and adventurous heroism by its sonorous sweetness, it is the noble Castilian. Full, rich, and rounded, its every syllable expresses in its mere sound, and without perhaps the assistance of association, the meaning and force of the passion or feeling which it is intended to convey. But Cervantes has been accused of introducing an Italian construction into much of the language employed in this work. This can in a great measure be accounted for by his long residence in Italy, during which period the many attractions which that soft tongue possesses led him to acquire a fondness for it which never wholly deserted him, and induced him occasionally to take liberties with his own language which perhaps only render his style more piquant.

The character of Don Quixote is gleaned from the first few chapters of the history, and is soon related. A man of weak intellect, but of strong superstitious habits, and very excitable temperament, becomes imbued with the spirit of chivalry from reading those fabulous accounts of heroic knights with which Spain abounded at that period. The most marvellous tales were told of these worthies, among whom Amadis de Gaula stood prominently forward. These histories of dreadful encounters with many-headed giants, battles with fiery dragons, struggles with innumerable lions, and incessant opposition to powerful and wicked enchanters, formed the most attractive source of instruction to the worthy gentleman, who read and studied them so often that at last they turned his brain, and made a monomaniac of a man who, but for them, would perhaps have filled a respectable though quiet position in his native district all his life. But constantly dwelling on this darling subject, and always admiring actions which his limited education did not permit him to regard as fabulous, but which appeared most worthy of imitation, he determined

in his insanity to leave his house and wander up and down the world in search of wrongs which he might set right, cruelties which he might abolish, tyrants whom he might annihilate, distressed damsels whom he might console, aggrieved widows whom he might succor, and ruined orphans whom he might set up on the thrones of their fathers.

Satirical as is this exodus of Don Quixote from his comfortable home to establish a social millennium upon the earth, Cervantes had a great object in view when he imagined it. There was then in Spain, as there is now, but in a much greater degree, that adoration of noble birth so highly characteristic of the Castilian. This distinctive pride gave rise to much that was honorable and heroic in the Spanish character; but that in some measure it induced men to look down with contempt upon their fellow-beings, it is impossible to deny; and as the descendants of Spanish knights, who had been much renowned for deeds of chivalry, possessed the objectionable feeling in a more than ordinary degree, one object of Cervantes appears to have been to read a marked lesson on the profession of knight-errantry to those whose only glory was in the reflection of a false light, shining through the page of history, from the tombs of their ancestors.

The author would also appear to have desired to teach those who, like many in our own times, being dissatisfied with the bountiful present, are ever sighing after the unattainable past, that in wishing for the reëstablishment of an extinct folly, they sought after a vain thing, which was entirely without their reach, and which could not exist contemporaneously with the spirit of a later age.

Cervantes desired also to manifest that the so-called great and noble deeds and magnificent exploits recorded in the fables of chivalry were, in nine cases out of every ten, instances of the most unblushing interference with private liberty, the most tyrannical attempts at a violation of human justice, and an unjustifiable gratification of vanity, pride, and conceit, at the expense of common sense, and of that religion which chivalry pretended to uphold, but which inculcates meekness, charity, and universal brotherhood.

Properly to estimate these great objects of a great author, we must remember the prevalent spirit of the age in which Cervantes attempted, entirely unaided, to stem the torrent of popular prejudice, to uphold the birth of the infant giant Democracy, and to attack with the keenest of weapons, (one indeed whose wounds few men are ever found to pardon,) ridicule; a principle which, how wrong and unwise soever in itself, the upper classes of the country had been taught to reverence with feelings of holy awe and superstitious respect. He undertook to combat the prejudices of the aristocracy, when he could not expect to receive the assistance of the people, who were too ignorant to understand his motives and too careless to appreciate them.

The manner in which Cervantes carried out his objects may be briefly expressed as follows. For the purpose of demonstrating the inapplicability of knight-errantry to the then present age, he introduces an imaginary knight riding up and down among the high-roads and by-ways of his native province, seeking adventures which might redound to the honor of his own name and to the glory of that of his inamorata. In order to place his

knight on the stage without the committal of anachronisms, he makes the hero of his tale a madman; and with a view to find a ready access for his lessons to all sorts of men, he makes the incidents connected with his hero truly ludicrous and satirical, by describing the knight throughout the work in the most ridiculous positions and embarrassed situations. These are generally conceived in a style of humor and wit which far outdoes any modern author. Not only are the expressions of the knight absurdly farcical, and therefore calculated to excite the mirth of the reader, but there is also a degree of depth and profundity in their construction which mark the power of an author who does not in these instances, like Mr. Dickens, call in the aid of either irony or slang. I will presently introduce a few sentences, in order to prove the correctness of this assertion.

For example, when the mad knight, on the road to his house, (whither he was going with the wise intention of providing himself with money and clean linen previous to a second and more important departure,) meets the merchants, he thus declaims to the astonished passengers, his lance in the rest, his shield before his breast, and his heart fully prepared for battle: Let every one beware if every one does not confess that there is not in the whole world a more beautiful maiden than the Empress of La Mancha, the unequalled Dulcinea del Toboso.' 'Todo el mundo se tenga si todo el mundo no confiesa que no hay en el mundo todo doncella mas hermosa que la Emperatriz de la Mancha, la sin par Dulcinea del

Toboso.'

This sort of proceeding, though to a somewhat less extravagant degree, was by no means uncommon in the histories of knight-errantry; and its peculiar absurdity, as applied to a later age, is strongly marked in the sequel to the adventure.

One of the merchants hearing the extraordinary menace of the knight, and marvelling at the strange and uncouth appearance of the madman, answered: 'Señor Caballero, nosotros no conocemos quien es esa buena señora que decis; mostradnosla; que si ella fuere de tanta hermosura como significais, de buena gana y sin apremio alguno confesaremos la verdad que por parte vuestra nos es pedida.' 'Señor Caballero, we know not who is this good lady of whom you speak; show her to us, and if she be of so much beauty as you signify, we will confess the truth which you ask of us with great good-will, and without being at all forced thereto.'

This answer of the merchant was reasonable, and therefore opposed to the principles of knight-errantry, as reason is frequently contrary to the ideas of persons who inculcate new dogmata, or support old fallacies, while they refuse or are unable to convince the world, which is unwilling blindly to lend its faith to doctrines unsupportable by proof. It is in ridicule of such enthusiasts that Cervantes makes his mad hero reply in the following abusive address: 'Si os la mostrara, qué hicierades vosotros en confesar una verdad tan notoria? La importancia está en que sin verla lo habeis de creer, confesar, afirmar, jurar, y defender; donde no, conmigo sois en batalla, gente descomunal y soberbia.' 'If I were to show her to you, what would be the merit in confessing so notorious a fact? The importance is, that without seeing her you have to

believe, confess, affirm, swear, and assert it; otherwise you are at war with me, strange and proud people.'

The satire of the scene in ridicule of the class to which we have alluded, is too pointed to require farther reference.

Again, Don Quixote says to Sancho, his squire, when dining among the goat-herds: Quiero que aqui a mi lado y en compañia desta buena gente te sientes, y que seas una misma cosa conmigo que soy tu amo y natural señor, que comas en mi plato y bebas por donde yo bebiere, porque de la caballeria andante se puede decir lo mismo que del amor se dice quo todas cosas iguala.' 'Idesire that thou shouldst sit at my side here in the company of these good folks, and be one same thing with me who am thy master and natural lord, that you should eat from my plate, and drink where I drink, because it may be said of chivalry as of love, that it makes all things equal.'

Sancho, however, wisely objects to this, alleging that in his station of life he would be more comfortable eating by himself than sitting at the side of an emperor, even though he should have to content himself with his usual coarse fare, because he would be more at his ease in his accustomed manner than if overwhelmed with ceremonies to which he was not used.

This is an admirable reply, and a good lesson to levellers who pretend to be ignorant of social distinctions; but as usual, knight-errantry annuls by force that which it cannot destroy by reason, and Sancho is pulled down to a seat by his master, who coolly remarks: 'Con todo eso has de sentar; porque a quien se humilia Dios le ensalza.' 'Notwithstanding all that, thou hast to sit down; for God raises up him who humiliates himself.'

The advice, however, which Don Quixote gives to Sancho on his departure from the Duke's palace to take possession of his government, is full of profound wisdom and excessive goodness; so much so, indeed, that Cervantes has excused his putting such language into the month of a madman by saying, 'Quien oyera el pasado razonamiento de Don Quixote que no le tuviera por persona muy cuerda y mejor intencionada? Pero como muchas veces en el progreso desta grande historia queda dicho, solamente disparaba en tocandole en la caballeria, y en los demas discursos mostraba tener clara y desenfadado entendimiento.' Who could hear the above reasoning of Don Quixote without supposing him a most sane and prudent person? But as has been many times repeated in the course of this great history, he wandered only on subjects of chivalry, and on all other matters he manifested the possession of a clear and undisturbed judgment.' Among his principal items of advice to Sancho, we find the following:

Firstly, my son, thou must fear GoD, because in fearing HIM there is wisdom, and being wise, thou wilt not be able to err in any thing.

'Secondly, thou must set thy eyes on whom thou art, endeavoring to know thyself, which is the most difficult knowledge that can be imagined. From knowing thyself will proceed thy not swelling thyself like the frog which wished to equalize himself with the ox; for if thou dost this, the recollection of having tended pigs in thine own land will come to be ugly feet for the tail of thy madness.