Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/523

495 REVIEW OF THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 495 of Cortes had already penetrated into the golden chapter realms of Montezuma ; and Pizarro, a very few years later, following up the lead of Balboa, em- barked on the enterprise which ended in the down- fall of the splendid dynasty of the Incas. Thus it is, that the seed sown under a good sys- tem continues to yield fruit in a bad one season of the most brilliant results, however, is not always that of the greatest national prosperity. The splendors of foreign conquest in the boasted reign of Charles the Fifth were dearly purchased by the decline of industry at home, and the loss of liberty. The patriot will see little to cheer him 1524. The period ornational The ^■"^^' with that relish for the Italian, which produced such results in the education of their children. The new revolution penetrated far below the superficial forms of versification ; and the Castilian poet relinquished, with his redondillas and artless asonantes, the homely, but heartful themes of the olden time; or,if he dwelt on them, it was with an air of studied elegance and precision, very remote from the i)oric simplicity and freshness of the romantic minstrelsy. If he as- pired to some bolder theme, it was rarely suggested by the stirring and patriotic recollections of his nation's history. Thus, nature and the rude graces of a primitive age gave way to superior refine- ment and lettered elegance ; many popular blemishes were softened down, a purer and nobler standard was attained, but the national char- acteristics were effaced ; beauty was everywhere, but it was the beauty of art, not of nature. The change itself was perfectly natural. It corresponded with the external circumstances of the nation, and its transition from an insulated position to a component part of the great European commonwealth, which subjected it to other influences and principles of taste, and obliterated, to a certain extent, the peculiar features of the national physiogno- my. How far the poetic literature of Castile was benefited by the change, has been matter of long and hot debate between the critics of the country, in which I shall not involve the reader. The revolution, however, was the growth of cir- cumstances, and was immediately effected by individuals, belonging to the age of Ferdinand and Isa- bella. As such, I had originally proposed to devote a separate chap- ter to its illustration. But I have been deterred from it by the unex- pected length, to which the work has already extended, as well as by the consideration, on a nearer view, that these results, though prepared under a preceding reign, properly fall under the domestic history of Charles V. ; a history which still remains to be written. But who will attempt a pendant to the delineations of Robertson ?