Note 1312 — Chapter VIII

The more sensible among the Spaniards notice, with regret, this national contempt for every form of useful industry. See Campomanes, Educacion Popular, p. 128, and Sempere, Monarchie Espagnole, vol. ii. pp. 277, 278. A traveller in Spain in 1669, says of the people, ‘ils méprisent tellement le travail, que la plûpart des artisans sont étrangers.’ Voyages faits en divers Temps par M. M****, Amsterdam, 1700, p. 80. Another traveller, between 1693 and 1695, says, they ‘think it below the dignity of a Spaniard to labour and provide for the future.’ Travels by a Gentleman (by Bromley?), London, 1702, p. 35. A third observer, in 1679, assures us that ‘ils souffrent plus aisément la faim et les autres nécessitez de la vie, que de travailler, disent-ils, comme des mercenaires, ce qui n'appartient qu'à des esclaves.’ D'Aulnoy, Relation du Voyage d'Espagne, Lyon, 1693, vol. ii. pp. 369, 370. For further illustrations of this, see Labat, Voyages en Espagne, Paris, 1730, vol. i. pp. 285, 286. Capmany, Qüestiones Criticas, pp. 43, 49, 50. Laborde's Spain, vol. i. p. i. Ranke's Spanish Empire, p. 103. Townsend's Journey through Spain, vol. ii. pp. 240, 241.