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558 His main work is in the field of criticism and psychology (Meditaciones del Quijote, El Espectador). To this same school may be ascribed Jose Martinez Ruiz (b. 1876), better known under his literary name as " Azorin." His art has all the finish and exquisiteness, all the smallness also, of miniature-painting. He has had the rare merit of applying it to the interpretation of national scenes and places (Castilla, Los Pueblos), and has thus contributed in no small measure to the movement for national self-knowledge which is noticeable in contemporary Spain.

In fiction, though belonging to an older generation, Vicente Blasco Ibanez (b. 1866) must be mentioned, since he continued to wield a never-idle pen. His creative vigour was unabated. His war novel, Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis, made him famous with the English-speaking public. Older novels have been translated, such as Sangre y Arena (as The Matador) and La Barraca (as The Cabin). Blasco Ibanez represents a kind of art which is Spanish only in its subject, but not in its spirit, manner or style. He is more closely related to the French naturaliste school than to any Spanish literary tradition. Of a younger generation, Pio Baroja (b. 1872) is perhaps the most widely read. A Basque, with all the acuity of mind of his race and not a little of its rustic independence and antagonism to civilization, Baroja writes abundantly and carelessly, with more spirit than art. He is more capable of rendering with remark- able accuracy separate aspects of truth than of weaving them into an organic unity endowed with life. His best work is perhaps Idilios Vascos, where he has rendered the quaint charm of his own country. Ram6n Perez de Ayala (b. 1881), a critic of great talent, has written several novels, the best of which are Novelas Poemdticas and Belarmino y Apolonio.

Jacinto Benavente (b. 1866) is still the dominating figure of the Spanish theatre. His most famous play, Los Intereses Creados (1907), is not representative, for it illustrates but one phase of the talent of this many-sided author. A more powerful tragedy, La Noche del Sdbado, is of the same period. In more recent times he has given an intense drama of love in La Mal- querida. There is, however, a type of play in which Benavente must yield the prize to the brothers Alvarez Quintero (Serafin, b. 1871; Joaquin,b. 1873). As authors of ComediasdeCostumbres these two writers, who always work together, are unsurpassed. The list of their comedies is long (Las de Cain, Puebla de las Mujeres). Other playwrights of note are Linares Rivas (b. 1866), remarkable for his skill in the handling o,f dialogue; Martinez Sierra (b. 1881), a delicate psychologist; and Pinillos (" Par- meno," b. 1875), a vigorous painter of social conflicts. But drama and comedy are but one, and not the more important, aspect of the Spanish theatre. Still more typical of the nation is what is modestly known in Spain as genera chico (small genre) , a full growth of theatrical production, generally short and accompanied with music, and ranging from variety pieces akin to operettas to little masterpieces of musical drama. Its best-known exponents are the brothers Quintero and Carlos Arniches (b. Alicante, 1866).

The two main currents which influenced Spanish poetry towards the close of the ipth century, i.e. the national tradition and the symbolist school of France, more or less interpreted by South American poets, such as Ruben Dario (b. 1867), remained still observable up to 1920, though the first was more vigorous and conscious, the second widened so as to include all influences, from those of d'Annunzio to those of Maeterlinck and even Rabindranath Tagore. As more typically national, we shall mention Miguel de Unamuno (Rosario de Sonetos Liricos, El Cristo de Velazquez), strong and somewhat unharmonious, but true and austere; Antonio Machado (b. 1875) (Soledades, Campos de Castilla), whose pessimistic serenity is in keeping with the landscape of central Spain which inspires his poems; and Salva- dor de Madariaga (b. 1886), whose Romances de Ciego restate, in a new spirit, the old Spanish theme of Jorge Manrique. Other poets appear under more complex influences. Thus Manuel Machado (b. 1874), whose main inspiration is popular and south- ern, has, however, written excellent verse in which the influence of French elegant sensibility is discernible. Juan Ramon Jimenez

(b. 1881), more remarkable for his exquisite sensibility than for his power (Arias Tristes, Elegias), is led by his melancholy moods towards fluid rhythms which, though more subtle, remind one of Maeterlinck and, through him, of Rossetti. Ramon del Valle Inclan (b. 1870), perhaps the most skilful musician amongst modern Spanish poets, has given in La Marquesa Rosalinda an admirable example of the adaptability of the Spanish language to the most refined rhythms. Ram6n Perez de Ayala (b. 1881), in El Sendero Innumerable, succeeds in effecting a happy wedding of thought with harmonious poetry, in a work not wholly unin- fluenced by Francis Jammes, d'Annunzio and Walt Whitman.

Among historians of literature the work of Marcelino Menen- dez y Pelayo is continued by D. Ramon Menendez Pidal (b. 1869), whose works on the Poem of Myo Cid and on the Spanish chronicles have thrown great light on the origins of Spanish epic poetry. Francisco Rodriguez Marin (b. 1855), the editor of Don Quixote, a specialist in Spanish folklore, has succeeded the master as head of the National Library. In the younger genera- tion, Federico de Onis (b. 1885) has edited Fr. Luis de Leon, and Americo Castro (b. 1885) has worked on Lope de Vega.

Journalism, always a great art in Spain, where the paper is infinitely more read than the book, is cultivated by all writers, and every one of the names quoted above might be quoted here again as a journalist. Mention must be made, however, of two eminent contemporary writers whose work is almost exclusively journalistic Ramiro de Maeztu (b. 1874), a versatile mind whose educating influence on the Spanish reading public has been incalculable; and Luis Araquistain, a powerful dialectician and a master of the polemic style. (S. DE M.)

SPECTROSCOPY (see 25.619). As developed in more recent years (1910-21) the science of spectroscopy has for one of its chief purposes the analysis of spectra, and the deduction therefrom of the nature of the atoms and molecules which generate the spectra. The progress which has been made in this connexion has depended upon improved determinations of the wave-lengths of spectral lines, the further investigation of the varying spectrum of the same substance when excited to luminosity in different ways, the more complete analysis of certain spectra into regular series systems, and, finally, on theoretical investigations. In another direction, important advances have been made in the interpretation of the spectra of the various classes of celestial bodies, which may be regarded physically as experiments on large masses of matter at various high temperatures.

Standards of Wave-Length. Extensive interferometer determinations of wave-lengths in the arc spectrum of iron, based upon 6438-4696 "international" angstroms for the red cadmium line, have been made by K. Burns' and others, which provide valuable standards for the general determination of wave-lengths by inter- polation. It has been found, however, that the wave-lengths of many lines differ considerably in different parts of the arc, so that special precautions are necessary in order to obtain comparison spectra in agreement with the tabulated standards. Probably the most accurate set of standards are those given by St. John and Babcock, 2 who used a small central zone of a " Pfund ' iron arc operated between no and 250 volts, with five amperes or less, at a length of 12 mm. This list contains 1026 lines, from X337O to X&75O, and for most of them the wave-lengths are believed to be accurate to o-ooi angstrom.

Flame, Arc and Spark Spectra. The range of spectroscopic re- search has been almost indefinitely extended by the discovery that in nearly all cases the same substance yields different spectra when stimulated in different ways. Such differences are of little importance from the point of view of chemical analysis, but they have become of great significance to the physicist, and have also greatly aided in the interpretation of the spectra of celestial bodies.

The three typical methods of producing luminosity for the observation of the spectra of metallic elements or their salts are the flame, the electric arc and the electric spark. As a general rule, the three sources exhibit important differences. In the flame the lines are comparatively few in number; in the arc the flame lines remain prominent, but many more lines, including some which are as strong as the flame lines, make their appearance. In the spark, there is a tendency for many of the typical arc lines to disappear, whilst other lines may be much intensified, and entirely new lines may also be present. The important class of lines which are intensified, or which only appear, under the violent action of the condensed spark were

1 Lick Obs. Bull., No. 247 (1913) ; Zeit. f. Wiss. Phot, xii., 209. 1 Astrophys. Jour, liii., 260 (1920).