A reformer on the same lines was the Benedictine, BENITO GERÓNIMO FEIJÓO Y MONTENEGRO (1675-1764), whose _Teatro crítico_ and _Cartas eruditas y curiosas_ were as successful in Spain as were the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ in England. Feijóo's style is laced with Gallicisms, and his vain, insolent airs of infallibility are antipathetic; yet though his admirers have made him ridiculous by calling him "the Spanish Voltaire," his intellectual curiosity, his cautious scepticism, his lucid intelligence, his fine scent for a superstitious fallacy, place him among the best writers of his age. A happy instance of his skill in exposing a paradox is his indictment of Rousseau's _Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts_. His rancorous tongue raised up crowds of enemies, who scrupled not to circulate vague rumours as to his heretical tendencies: in fact, his orthodoxy was as unimpeachable as were the services which he rendered to his country's enlightenment. His cause, and the cause of learning generally, were championed by the Galician, Pedro José García y Balboa, best known as MARTÍN SARMIENTO (1695-1772), the name which he bore in the Benedictine order. Sarmiento's erudition is at least equal to Feijóo's, and his industry is matched by the variety of his interests. As a botanist he won the admiration and friendship of Linné; Feijóo's _Teatro crítico_ owes much to his unselfish supervision; yet, while his name was esteemed throughout Europe, he shrank from domestic criticism, and withheld his miscellaneous works from the press. He owes his place in literature to his posthumous _Memorias para la historia de la Poesía y Poetas españoles_, which, despite its excessive local patriotism, is not only remarkable for its shrewd insight, but forms the point of departure for all later studies. Not less useful was the life's work of GREGORIO MAYÁNS Y SISCAR (1699-1781), who was the first to print Juan de Valdés' _Diálogo de la Lengua_, who was the first biographer of Cervantes, and who edited Luis Vives, Luis de León, Mondéjar, and others. Though much of Mayáns' writing has grown obsolete in its methods, he is honourably remembered as a pioneer, and his _Orígenes de la Lengua castellana_ is full of wise suggestion and acute divination.