(2) the influence exerted by
foreigners on the country's fate, (3) the individualistic spirit of the
clanspeople, (4) the short duration of a Spanish nation, nipped in the
bud before it could bloom, and (5) the formation of an oligarchy
(_caciquismo_) which hindered the establishment of an educated
_bourgeoisie_.

The first of the above conclusive observations needs no further remarks,
considering that we are studying church architecture. It suffices to
indicate the great number of cathedrals, churches, hermitages,
monasteries, convents, cloisters, and episcopal palaces to be convinced
of the Church's influence on the country and on the purses of the
inhabitants.

The Spaniard, psychologically speaking, is no artist; it is doubtful if
illiterate and uneducated people are, and the average inhabitant of
Spain forms no exception to this rule. His artistic talents are
exclusively limited to music, for which he has an excessively fine ear.
But beauty in the plastic arts and architecture leave him cold and
indifferent; he is influenced by mass, weight, and quantity rather than
by elegance or lightness, and consequently it is the same to him whether
a cathedral be Gothic or Romanesque, as long as it be dedicated to the
deity of his choice.

The difference between Italian and Iberian is therefore very marked.
Even the landscapes in each country prove it beyond a doubt. In Italy
they are composed of soft rolling lines; the colours are varied,--green,
red, and blue; the soil is damp and fruitful. In Spain, on the contrary,
everything is dry, arid, and savage; blue is the sky, red the brick
houses, and grayish golden the soil; the inhabitants are as savage as
the country, and the proverbial "_ma e piu bello_" of the Italian does
not bother the former in the slightest.

All of which goes to explain the Spaniard's insensibility to the plastic
arts, as well as (for instance) the universal use of huge _retablos_ or
altar-pieces, in which size and bright colours are all that is required
and the greater the size, the more clashing the colours, the better.

Neither is it surprising that the Spaniard created no architectural
school of his own. All he possesses is borrowed from abroad. His love of
Byzantine grotesqueness and of Moorish geometrical arabesques is
inherited, the one from the Visigoths, and the other directly from the
Moors. The remaining styles are northern and Italian, and were
introduced into the country by such forei