Christ had been converted into bread, not the bread into that body. But it would be endless and tedious to trace all the links, of which the Inquisition has formed the chain that binds and weighs down the human mind among us. Acquiescence in the voluminous and multifarious creed of the Roman church is by no means sufficient for safety. A man who closes his work with the O. S. C. S. R. E. (_Omnia sub correctione Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ_) may yet rue the moment when he took pen in hand. Heterodoxy may be easily avoided in writing; but who can be sure that none of his periods _smacks of heresy_ (sapiens hæresim)--none of his sentences are of that uncouth species which is _apt to grate pious ears_ (piarum aurium offensivas)? Who then will venture upon the path of knowledge, where it leads straight to the Inquisition?[15] [15] ... Il s’est établi dans Madrid un systême de liberté sur la vente des productions, qui s’étend même à celles de la presse; et que, pourvu que je ne parle en mes écrits ni de l’autorité, ni du culte, ni de la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en crédit, ni de l’Opera, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne à quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement, sous l’inspection de deux ou trois censeurs.--_Marriage de Figaro, Act 5, Sc. 3_. “Yet such is the energy of the human mind, when once acquainted with its own powers, that the best organized system of intellectual tyranny, though so far successful as to prevent Spanish talent from bringing any fruit to maturity, fails most completely of checking its activity. Could I but accurately draw the picture of an ingenuous young mind struggling with the obstacles which Spanish education opposes to improvement--the alarm at the springing suspicions of being purposely betrayed into error--the superstitious fears that check its first longings after liberty--the honest and ingenious casuistry by which it encourages itself to leave the prescribed path--the maiden joy and fear of the first transgression--the rapidly-growing love of newly discovered truth, and consequent hatred of its tyrants--the final despair and wild phrenzy that possess it on finding its doom inevitable, on seeing with an appalling evidence, that its best exertions are lost, that ignorance, bigotry, and superstition claim and can enforce its homage--no plot of romance would be read with more interest by such as are not indifferent to the noblest concerns of mankind. As I cannot, however, present an animated picture, I shall proceed with a statement of facts.