THE SPANISH DRAMA AS AN ELEMENT OF

MORAL EDUCATION.

BY DR. RAFAEL ALTAMIRA, F.R.S.L.

[Read March 26th, 1924.]

NEVER SO much as to-day has there been felt, all over the world, the necessity of great moral ideas, as the only salvation for the danger that threatens us on all sides. The superiority of that sentiment in modern times over its previous manifestations lies in the fact that in past times the force and necessity of these ideas were principally considered from the point of view of the perfection and salvation of the individual, or at the most, of the contribution of the individual to the common life of his group or nation, whereas to-day they are considered rather in deference to international life. It is clear beyond doubt to all thinking men, that, grave as are the internal complications and problems with which each separate country has to grapple at the present time, far more important are those that concern the relations between the different countries of the world. As regards internal problems, the hope is everywhere cherished of solving them, sooner or later, by the application of national forces. But international problems depend for their solution on a combination of forces, foreign one to another, which taken together are more effective than the separate components, and therefore possess a power superior to theirs. Should

the equilibrium be disturbed in this order of human society, it is certain that it would drag in its train the internal life of all peoples, not only because it would oblige them to neglect their own particular problems in order to concentrate all their forces on the international ones; but also because, as becomes more evident every day, no nation can satisfy its needs by its own unaided efforts, and the solidarity of mankind grows closer in proportion as civilization increases.

This

I bring before your minds these truths of very immediate application, known as they are to all, only in order to make clear the motives for my adoption of the subject of the present lecture. I think that at any time it would be an interesting subject to bring before a meeting of this Society, but its interest has undoubtedly increased by reason of those actual world-circumstances which I have noted. increase of interest arises from the fact that thinking people (and let us trust that there are some of our politicians and business men among them) are coming to realize that the only efficacious solution of the present crisis lies with spiritual and not with material forces. In other words, granted that everything human, even that which appears most material, is linked up with the spirit, the great need, without which all else is useless, is to assure the supremacy of motives of wide human interest, of generous ideas and of ethical principles, over the egotistical principles which have hitherto dominated the world. When a short while ago Mr. John Galsworthy asked the chemists, the inventors and the engineers if they proposed to continue being citizens of one particular

state rather than men, in regard to the production of means of destruction, he did no more than bring to our minds that same moral basis to which we all look as the sheet-anchor of salvation. The ultimate victory of that basis presupposes a change in man's mental outlook, not indeed of all men, for that is impossible, but of a majority, and perhaps in some nations, not even that, but only of the governing minorities. For it is a fundamental truth in education, that unless the motivating ideas in the person educated be changed, he will continue in his conduct obeying those which he has previously received, though in after life he may hear other voices far different, and observe examples of other tendencies.

It is clear, then, that this immense work of the renovation of the ideals of man cannot be undertaken by any single country or group of men, nor by any single social factor of the many factors that influence our minds. If we desire it to have all the potency, all the rapidity of movement that the circumstances demand, it must be a universal labour, shared in by all the spiritual forces of the world which are capable of being inspired by this new ideal (new only because it has never yet been fulfilled), or who have already shown themselves to be so inspired.

One of those forces is literature, which, like every expression of art, is amongst the most widespread and universally comprehensible of humanity's creations. It would be wasting time in commonplaces to linger over the explanation of the enormous influence exercised by literature at all times over the ideals of the nations. Even adopting the opposite point of view -held by some critics-that a country's literature

is not a formative element in its development, but an expression of what is already existing, in essence, in the nation's soul, the practical effect would be the same as regards the international social value of literature. First, because it would reveal to us something even more substantial and useful as an incentive to action than a collection of books, namely a collective soul ready armed for action; and secondly, because one can always rely on the effect of example and suggestion, which have in the history of the world produced many cases of spiritual influence and imitation.

From whatever point of view one takes Spanish literature, whether as an educative factor of the people which produced it, or as a presentation of what is fundamental in the soul of its creator, it offers to the world at large a moral value which can contribute to that work of the reconstruction of ideals which is so urgent, apart altogether from the artistic value it offers to the man of letters and the critic. This moral value springs from the nature of the subjects which to a large extent have inspired our writers, and also to the orientation of their ideas as regards the concept. of human life, the relations between human beings, and the mainsprings of emotion and of will. That value is perceptible in all classes of Spanish literature, and from this point of view, I have no doubt my hearers will have before their minds Don Quixote. But concerning Quixote there has been said all that could be said, and something over; and besides, the novel is not with us the form which displays most consistently the moral characteristics with which I am about to deal.

It is in the theatre that I find these more frequently and more forcefully treated, and for that reason I have chosen it as the principal example for my purpose. Furthermore, with regard to the subject under review, our theatre shows the special circumstance of being bound together all through its history until the present day, by a tradition which, if at times. obscured from view, has soon appeared again. This fact seems to indicate the existence of a characteristic such as the old school of philosophers would have called a "law "law" of human activity. By diving deep into the sources of that characteristic, one might perhaps discover it in the stratum derived from Seneca which exists in our psychology, and which is revealed at every step in the purest and most elevated manifestations of the Spanish soul, afterwards augmented and purified by the delicacy of Christian sentiment, properly so called. And since the theatre is perhaps the most genuine and natural expression of our literary activity, it is not strange that it is especially in the theatre that the moral direction of our thought has flourished and continues to flourish.

As far as my knowledge of foreign literatures goes, it is my belief that the Spanish theatre displays an original moral tendency which may be characterized thus A definite concern with the most important ethical problems; a solution of these from a high moral point of view; a sentiment of justice as superior to law; and a serene and optimistic outlook on life. Assuredly, when I say this, there is not present in my thought the foolishly patriotic pretension of denying the existence of any or all of these notes in the theatre of any other country. But what

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