The Arab elements belonged to the same class with the Phœnician, though to a different section of it. So did the Jewish, which were introduced earlier, and, if not of equal amount, were, at least, of longer duration. The Jews brought with them the oldest civilization in the world. But they were important physical influences as well. They came with their families, and, consequently, were less thrown upon the necessities of intermixture than the majority of the Arabs. The intermixture, however, was in both cases considerable. As long as the Arian kings of the Gothic stock held their sway, the Israelite was tolerated and something more. His industry was protected, and his earlier familiarity with letters and the civilizing influences of commerce respected. The prejudices against intermixture were chiefly on his side. Orthodoxy, however, introduced persecution. Some of its earliest enactments forbid Christian wives and Christian mistresses to Jews, a sure proof of the previous prevalence of an opposite custom. In the Mahometan parts of the Peninsula, the toleration was considerable throughout. Lastly must be noticed the great extent to which the pride in his real or supposed purity of blood characterizes the Hidalgo. This would not have been the case if purity of blood were the rule, and an Arab or Jewish cross the exception. The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella was signalized by the double ejection of the Jews from the Peninsula in general, and the Arabs from their last possession, the kingdom of Grenada. Such ejectments are never complete. Each, however, of these was one of remarkable magnitude. The Normans, who settled on so many of the coasts of southern Europe, made a smaller impression on the Iberian peninsula than elsewhere. Still they must be recognised as an element. Such is the basis of the Spanish stock, and such the chief superadded elements--Iberic in the first instance: then Phœnician, Greek, Roman, Gothic, Vandal, Alan (?), Jewish, Arab, and Norman, to say nothing about the cases of French and other settlers from the modern kingdoms of Europe. These elements are differently distributed over the several provinces; and at the present moment each has some peculiar characteristics. The most regular features, and the most purely brunette complexions are found in Andalusia, conjoined with a gay, pleasure-loving disposition; not given to the sterner virtues, but with considerable intellectual capacity, as shown both in art and literature; and, in Andalusia, the foreign elements are at their _maximum_--chiefly oriental, but partly (in the belief, at least, of the present writer) Slavonic. Yet it is not safe to refer the one to the other. The soil and climate of Andalusia--the favoured valley of the most southern river in Spain--have also their peculiarities. In Grenada the habits are ruder, and Grenada is chiefly a mountain range.