When I remember what thou wert of old, Birth-place of Senecas;—nurse of arms and arts; When to thy schools from earth’s remotest parts The nations crowded—while thy sons unroll’d Thy chronicles of wisdom;—when I see The spot Averröes lov’d, and tread the sod Maimonides and Abenezra trod; Or seek the umbrage of some rev’rend tree, Beneath whose shade Mena or Cespedes At noon-tide mus’d:—when I remember these Or other hallow’d names, and see thee _now_ Shrouded in ignorance and slavery:— O Cordoba! my spirit weeps o’er thee, And burning blushes kindle on my brow. {13} While the majority of the most distinguished writers of Spain have been expatriated, it may be supposed literature is at a very low ebb there. Melendez and Estála have died in exile,—while Moratin and Llorente will probably never again revisit their native land. Marina, Quintana, Argüelles, Gallego, and other estimable men, occupy the hopeless dungeons to which tyranny has consigned them; while this island, in particular, has had the honour of welcoming and of sheltering many a generous patriot and many an enlightened scholar, whose virtues and talents are lost to a country which has so much reason to deplore their removal. I trust, however, that a work which has been so long a desideratum, viz. a History of Spain under the dominion of the Moors, compiled from Arabic documents, will, ere long, be published, by Don José Antonio Conde, the learned Orientalist, whose erudition and diligent research promise a most valuable and interesting narration. The Spanish Academy are now printing, at Madrid, a new edition of Don Quixote, in five volumes, which will be prefaced by a Life of Cervantes, by Navarrete. This piece of biography will be peculiarly gratifying, as many documents connected with the history of Cervantes have lately been discovered, especially the records of the proceedings against him, before his imprisonment. {14a} Herrera’s celebrated work on Agriculture is also being printed by the Academy. The biographical notices are written by Don Mariano Lagasca, whose name is a sufficient pledge for their excellence.