The soul of Spain / by Havelock Ellis.

  • Havelock Ellis
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The soul of Spain / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    will cast aside not a few of the things which now draw us to Spain. There can be no doubt that this attitude of the Spaniard of to-day, inevitable in any case, has been greatly increased by the war. Thought- ful observers of great movements have often felt that the old cry “ Vse victis ! ” requires very serious and even radical modification. This feel- ing was indeed long ago expressed by Calderon in his Magico Prodigioso :— More The battle’s loss may profit those who lose Than victory advantage those who win. In many a war it has been the vanquished, not the victor, who has carried off the finest spoils. Cuba and the Philippines have been like a tumour in the side of Spain and dragged her down in the race of civilisation. They have drained her life-blood and disturbed all her national activities. Only a serious surgical operation could remove this exhausting excres- cence, and Spaniards themselves have been the first to recognise that the operation, though painful, was in the highest degree beneficial. Not even the most patriotic of Spaniards dreams of regaining these lost possessions. There was indeed a passing moment of exasperation against Columbus for having discovered the New World, on one occasion the mob stoned the Columbus statue at Barcelona,—but the war was scarcely
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