e the original manuscript of the _Bachelier de Salamanque_, which
would overthrow at least one portion of our hypothesis?

The object of _Gil Blas_ is to exhibit a vivid representation of the
follies and vices of the successive administrations of Lerma, Uzeda, and
Olivarez; to point out the actual state of the drama in Spain under the
reign of Philip IV., who, indolent as he was, possessed the taste of a
true Spaniard for dramatic representation; to criticise the absurd
system pursued by the physicians, abuses of subordinate officers of
justice, the follies of false pretenders to philosophy, the disorders
and corruptions which swarm in every department of a despotic and
inefficient government, the multitude of sharpers and robbers in the
towns and highways, the subterranean habitations in which they found
shelter and security, the ingenuity of their frauds, and daring outrages
of their violence--in short, to hold up every species of national error,
and every weakness of national folly, to public obloquy and derision. In
dwelling upon such topics the writer will, of course, describe scenes
and characters common to every state of civilized society. The broad and
general features of the time-serving courtier, of the servile coxcomb,
of the rapacious mistress, of the expecting legatee, the frivolous man
of fashion, and the still more frivolous pedant, will be the same,
whatever be the country in which the scene is laid, and by whatever
names they happen to be distinguished. France had, no doubt, her
Sangrados and Ochetos, her Matthias de Silva and Rodrigo, her Lauras and
her Archbishops of Granada.

"Pictures like these, dear madam, to design,
Asks no firm hand, and no unerring line;
Some wandering touches, some reflected light,
Some flying stroke, alone can hit 'em right."

Where the touches are more exact and delicate, where the strokes are
laid on with the painful labour of a Flemish pencil, where the business
and the bosoms of men are addressed more directly, there it is we shall
find proofs of the view and purpose of the author; such traits are the
key with the leather strap that verified the judgment of Sancho's
kinsmen. To what purpose should a Frenchman, writing in the time of
Louis XIV., censure the rapacity of innkeepers, and the wretchedness of
their extorted accommodation, when France, from the time of Chaucer to
the present hour, has been famous for the civility of the one and the
convenience