ISBN: 9780217488181

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustra… Mehr…

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905. Excerpt: ... say whether they would or not, Well, what of it, are we not all Moors here still? Meet the mysterious insolence of the dazzling gipsy eye, feel the hot sunshine and the beating shadows, the languor, the burning breath of day, the craving for the night. Listen, and see and feel, and yet know nothing--that is Andalusia. What contrast can be found within so small a compass as that between Cordova and Seville? Cordova seems to have wrapped herself within a veil and to stand sorrowfully apart, far from the sensuous atmosphere of gardens, of the courts of love and of pleasure. For only what was vigorous in the life and death of Moorish days has come down to us here; its promise and ambition, its monuments, its honoured niche where stood the lamp in which the flame of learning was kept burning till Western nations, wondering at such magnificent light, bore it away to illumine their own path. Black as the shadows in a canvas by Ribera are those cast by that great past, and only strong light could have cast them. All here is strong shadow and echo--echo which seems to repeat with resignation the words of Renan upon the profundity of Arab science and learning and art-- La langue, rien que la langue... But the vast central vistas of columns in the great mosque are still instinct with far more force and virility than can be found in the graceful chambers of the Alcazar at Seville, or in the voluptuous courts of Granada. Even the massive fountain in the cathedral orangery has a certain sternness of its own, surrounded by brawny drawers of water, and echoing to their strident laughter. Such is Cordova, vital sepulchre for the life of to-day, and as though to emphasise still further the atmosphere of detachment between the past and the present, the contrast between... Sybil Fitzgerald, Books, History, In The Track Of The Moors; Sketches In Spain And Northern Africa Books>History <