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52 Modem Spanish Literature

through Spanish literature writers have worshipped the
man of flesh and bones in all his stark realism. They were
so much in love with real life that they never thought of
founding schools of abstract thought; the tendency in Spain
has always been that while the schools failed the individuals
became great. Spanish literature unfolds for us a vast
panorama of great individuals. The Spaniard in all his folk-
lore is rooted to the earth, and yet just as every tendency
creates its own opposite, we find this desert-dweller weaving
fantastic images far away from the real world. It is thus
that Spain has produced an extraordinary band of mystics of
the calibre of St. Theresa and St. John of the Cross. Take
the “Night of the Soul” by St. John, with all its ethereal
journey of the soul. Here we are in the higher realms of
fantasy and yet the book was created by a mystic and realist
who was intensely alive to life in this world. In such allegori-
cal works we follow the mystic as he journeys in his dream-
world; he climbs the mystic ladder and his soul wears suc-
cessively the three colors of “faith,” “hope,” and “charity”
—the white representing faith, the green, hope, and then
finally it dons the red of charity. It is important to realize
this antithesis between intense realism and mysticism because
the antithesis is as true today of Spain as it has always been.
Spain is always the same because always the same forces are
at work.

All the representative deeds of Spaniards have been
patterned on the epics of the Cid and Don Quixote, the Con-
quistadores, who set out with their tiny bands to conquer
new countries; St. Ignatius Loyola, and St. John of the
Cross; all these are representative of what I have said.
Every Spaniard stands alone. As Ortega once said: “Our
greatest artist has always been Adam.” Goya was an Adam ;
he stands alone. Even though like every other Mediter-



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