The contrast between the lofty, spiritual, single-minded knight, and his credulous, simple, yet shrewd, and earth-seeking squire, is an unfailing source of amusement to the reader. It has been disputed which of the two characters, Don Quixote or Sancho, is most skilfully drawn, and best supported through the story. They are both excellent, both suited to each other. The contrast also between the style of the work and the object of it affords another rich vein of mirth. Cervantes’ object was to extirpate by ridicule the whole race of turgid and servile imitators of the older chivalrous tales; which had become a real nuisance in his time, and exercised a very pernicious effect on the minds and taste of the Spaniards. The perusal of those extravagant compositions was the chief pastime of people of every condition; and even clever men acknowledged that they had wasted whole years in this unprofitable occupation, which had spoiled their taste and perverted their imaginations so much, that they could not for a long time after take up a book of real history or science without a feeling of weariness. Cervantes was well acquainted with the nature and the effects of the disease: he had himself employed much time in such pursuits, and he resolved to prepare a remedy for the public mind. That his example has been taken as a precedent by vulgar and grovelling persons, for the purpose of ridiculing all elevation of sentiment, all enthusiasm and sense of honour, forms no just ground of censure on Cervantes, who waged war against that which was false and improbable, and not against that which is noble and natural in the human mind. Nature and truth have their sublimity, which Cervantes understood and respected. The best Spanish editions of Don Quixote are that of the Spanish Academy, in four vols. 4to., 1788; the edition by Don Juan Antonio Pellicer, with a good life of Cervantes, five vols. 8vo., 1798; and the edition by Don Martin F. de Navarrete, five vols. 8vo., 1819. The edition published by the Rev. J. Bowle, six volumes in three, 4to. London, 1781, contains a valuable commentary, explanatory of idioms, proverbs, &c. Of the English translations, the oldest by Skelton is still much esteemed; there are also versions by Motteux, Jarvis, and Smollet. A new translation was made for the splendid London edition of 1818, four vols. 4to., enriched with engravings from pictures by Smirke. Le Sage translated Don Quixote into French; but with omissions and interpolations which render this a very unfaithful version. Next to Don Quixote, Cervantes’ best works are his ‘Novelas.’ They have been translated into English. The language of Cervantes is pure Castilian, and is esteemed by learned Spaniards to be one of the best models for prose composition.