Siete Partidas' (The Seven Parts). Still accepted as a legal authority
in the kingdom, the work is much more valuable as a compendium of
general knowledge than as an exposition of law. The studious king with
astonishing catholicity examined alike both Christian and Arabic
traditions, customs, and codes, paying a scholarly respect to the
greatness of a hostile language and literature. This meditative monarch
recognized that public office is a public trust, and wrote:--

"Vicars of God are the kings, each one in his kingdom, placed
over the people to maintain them in justice and in truth.
They have been called the heart and soul of the people. For
as the soul lies in the heart of men, and by it the body
lives and is maintained, so in the king lies justice, which
is the life and maintenance of the people of his lordship....

"And let the king guard the thoughts of his heart in three
manners: firstly let him not desire nor greatly care to have
superfluous and worthless honors. Superfluous and worthless
honors the king _ought_ not to desire. For that which is
beyond necessity cannot last, and being lost, and come short
of, turns to dishonor. Moreover, the wise men have said that
it is no less a virtue for a man to keep that which he has
than to gain that which he has not; because keeping comes of
judgment, but gain of good fortune. And the king who keeps
his honor in such a manner that every day and by all means it
is increased, lacking nothing, and does not lose that which
he has for that which he desires to have,--he is held for a
man of right judgment, who loves his own people, and desires
to lead them to all good. And God will keep him in this world
from the dishonoring of men, and in the next from the
dishonor of the wicked in hell."

Besides the 'Siete Partidas,' the royal philosopher was the author, or
compiler, of a 'Book of Hunting'; a treatise on Chess; a system of law,
the 'Fuero Castellano' (Spanish Code),--an attempt to check the
monstrous irregularities of municipal privilege; 'La Gran Conquista
d'Ultramar (The Great Conquest Beyond the Sea), an account of the wars
of the Crusades, which is the earliest known specimen of Castilian
prose; and several smaller works, now collected under the general title
of 'Opuscules Legales' (Minor Legal Writings). It was long supposed that
he wrote the 'Tesoro' (Thes