Bibliotecas y Museos_, Tercera época (1918), vol. XXXVIII, pp. 1-19,
170-190; (1918), vol. XXXIX, pp. 53-67, 237-266; (1919), vol. XL, pp.
447-466, 562-594.

J. F-K.


PS. Had they reached me in time, the following two items would have
been included in the respective sections of the foregoing summary
bibliography: _Poesías originales de Fray Luis de León_, ed. F. de
Onís, San José de Costa Rica, 1920; Ad. Coster, _Notes pour une
édition des poésies de Luis de León_ in the _Revue hispanique_ (1919),
vol. XLVI, pp. 193-248.




I


We are all of us familiar with the process of 'whitewashing'
historical characters. We are past being surprised at finding Tiberius
portrayed as an austere and melancholy recluse, Henry VIII pictured as
a pietistic sentimentalist with a pedantic respect for the letter of
the law, and Napoleon depicted as a romantic idealist, seeking to
impose the Social Contract on an immature, reluctant Europe. Though
the 'whitewashing' method is probably not less paradoxical than the
opposite system, it makes a stronger and wider appeal, inasmuch as it
implies a more amiable attitude towards life, and is more consonant
with a flattering conception of the possibilities of human nature. A