Brocense?" Antonio de Nebrija composed learned grammars and dictionaries, before the names of Clenardus, Levita, and Calepinus were more than a learned rumor. Pedro Simon Abril made "ponies" for Alcalá and Salamanca nearly three hundred years prior to Bohn and Harper. But a large number of the versions into Castilian were and remain anonymous, like that of the Vitas Patrum or "Tales of the Fathers," compiled by one Hieronymus, not the saint, the Hispanicizer of which quietly tells us in 1536, that he had long before translated the New Testament into Spanish. What mysteries lie about Spain and her religious history! Will they ever be unravelled? Sleidan and Seckendorf have given us the northern statement; no Sleidan has yet appeared for the south, not even a D'Aubigné. Among the chivalry books, the Ticknor collection possesses the beautiful and very rare Venetian Amadis of 1533, edited by that naughty friar who called himself "Delicado" in Italy, and was "Delgado" at home, albeit his earlier Loçana Andaluza would scarcely prove a "delicate" morsel to the average American palate. While on Amadis, it may be curious to note a contemporary critic whose name even has never descended to posterity. Don Rodrigo Manrique de Acuña, in the dedication to one of the suppressed and unknown volumes hinted at above, takes occasion to explain in 1548 why good books ought to be converted from the learned tongues into the vernacular of the simple. After exhausting his stock of reasons and arguments set forth in the choicest language, he proceeds to add: "In my judgment, then, there is no country where translations from sacred things are so indispensable as in Spain, to offset the abundance of profane writings termed books of knight errantry, and other vile works that have appeared and are daily appearing, drawn up by lying tongues and mischievous men of leisure, the mother of every vice. Nor can these fail to produce their natural fruit, not only in persons of every age and station, but especially in young women, whose fathers with signal lack of common sense, keep closely guarded and secured behind seven keys, leaving them, however, free to employ their time in reading Amadis, Florisando, Esplandian, Lisuarte, and others infinite, or what is worse, in devouring the Celestinas living, dead, and raised to life-for not content with one, they have invented four, to the greater corruption of tender minds that with far less exertion might learn to read profitable and virtuous matter."* These salutary suggestions of the valorous knight, for so was don Rodrigo, were met by the prompt suppression of his book by the minions of the Inquis itor-General Valdés, while the chivalry books and Celestinas were coolly let alone till far down in the century, and then only after the omission had become a scandal to Europe, by reason of Protestant caricatures. Novelesque fiction goes hand in hand with the popular Ballad, part recitation and part song. Alas! that we cannot linger. But Josey the Sightless-Pepillo el ciego-the blind minstrel of Madrid, still improvises couplets by the hour, if only half encouraged by his street audience on a festal day. "Gentlemen, God preserve your sight," he begins, with pathetic irony, and striking the acera with his staff, slowly lifts his countenance to the bright firmament of Spain. Then suddenly he will burst forth in the very dolorous ballad of Mariana de Pineda, or tip them a cancioncita narrating the fate of the liberal boys of 1819: Hijos caros de madre Edetánia-a-a, All these glories of that semi-Oriental literature of which Europe elsewhere can vaunt no parallel, and whose echoes still linger in our memory like rhythms of a song half died away, have at last found a worthy setting in the magnificent volume whose title introduces this Article. To say that such a digest of names, dates and subjects is well compiled, is small eulogy. By those who have waded through the wildernesses of Crevenna, Matthaire, Heber and the rudes indigestaeque moles of the elder Bibliographies, the bright clearing of Mr. Whitney's work can alone be adequately appreciated and welcomed. All that an intelligent common, or rather uncom*Psalterio de David, | con las Paraphrases y breues | declaraciones de Raynerio Snoy Goudano. Agora nueuamente tradu- | zido en lengua Castellana, etc. Antwerp, Juan Steelsio, 1555. (8) 266 leaves. Library of Mr. Gayangos, Madrid. The first edition was printed at Valladolid in 1548. 8° mon, sense, applied to a wieldy subject, beset with inexact antecedents of authorities, could achieve, has here received its latest and best expression. With it the beginner may assume the airs of an old connoisseur in any and every department that it has cost his contemporaries a life-time to know. With such a catalogue and the treasures it represents, more Irvings, Prescotts, Ticknors, Longfellows and Motleys may be confidently looked for in our country, and if the future does not realize the vaticination, it will not be for the lack of materials. or inspiration. ARTICLE X.-THE TAXATION OF MORTGAGES. IN the recent discussion concerning the taxation of mortgages that took place in the Atlantic Monthly, the argument of Mr. Brooks Adams was certainly a sufficient reply to all the common objections to a reform. These objections are based entirely upon the delusion that both mortgages and estates. mortgaged are at the same time property. Nothing better in the way of political education can be accomplished than the clearing people's heads of this delusion, and any words may be deprecated that shall seem to hinder this good work. But in the course of his argument Mr. Adams makes some statements that can hardly be accepted without question. His end is to change existing laws regulating taxation, and it is of the utmost importance that such changes be made understandingly. Before a line of policy is reversed we must know what the result of the present course is, and what will be the result of the change. We propose to show that Mr. Adams has not fully explained the operation of existing laws, nor given satisfactory reasons for changing them. แ Mr. Adams asserts: . . . . "The difficulty with all this taxing of debts is not only that it is absurd in theory but that it is iniquitous in practice. The borrower always has to pay. If four per cent. is the market rate for money, and taxes amount to two per cent., we have seen that the mortgagor can borrow only at seven per cent. The capitalist will collect the tax for the government, but he pays himself at the expense of the borrower for his risk and trouble in so doing. No statute can change this law of trade. The only effect of taxing loans. is to raise the rate of interest." This, the orthodox doctrine, is established generally by reasoning somewhat as follows. In the employment of capital, according to economic theory, an approximately equal rate of profit will be obtained, no matter what the department of business. The apparently higher rates of profit secured in some cases are explained as the reward of increased risk, greater If it is discovered that uncertainty and other considerations. any branch of trade is securing to itself greater profits than others, capital will seek that employment until the returns are reduced by competition aud the equilibrium is restored. If then a man proposes to invest a certain capital in building houses, it is plain that he will expect to receive a certain rate of profit. He will not expect one rate of profit when he sells for cash and a different and lower rate when he sells upon credit. He would rather expect, however, to receive a higher rate in the second case than in the first. To put our reasoning in the concrete form, a builder expends, let us say, $1600 upon his house, expecting to get for it $2,000. If he sells for cash at this price he realizes his expectation. If the whole transaction has required a year, we may allow $100 for interest and call the profit $300. What, now, must be the return if credit is to enter into the transaction? Can it be any less than where payment is made in cash? Let us suppose that the terms of sale are $1000 down, and a mortgage. If capital is loaned at six per cent. and there is no tax upon mortgages, this mortgage will be sold for $1000 at six per cent. The builder can sell it and make his profit of $300 as well as if he had sold his house for cash. But if there is a tax of two per cent. upon mortgages, a mortgage for $1000 would not sell for that sum. Money otherwise loaned brings six per cent. and loaned upon such a mortgage it would bring but four per cent. If the builder is to make his profit the mortgage must be at eight per cent, or else for a larger sum at six per cent. For an obvious reason, where there are no usury laws, the former course will be adopted. Nothing can be clearer therefore than that the buyer of the house must pay the mortgage tax. There are two lines of criticism upon this argument that it is practicable to take up. The first and most thorough-going is extremely intricate and difficult to comprehend without some acquaintance with and indeed some mastery of economic principles. The second is altogether more obvious and less profound; but it will serve to introduce the other, for it suggests questions that unavoidably excite our curiosity. The first course requires an investigation of the causes that deter |