that are going forward.

If in a conversable humour she will do more. Commencing with the
nearest, or the most conspicuous of the performers in these mute dramas,
she will relate to him the vicissitudes of the respective histories up
to the time then present, and the probabilities which each case may
suggest for the future. Thus your friend, instead of having sacrificed
an entire evening to the dubious amusement of following the plot of a
single opera, which may have been a bad one, or interpreted by bad
actors, will return to rest with some score of plots and romances
filling all the corners of his memory--all possessing the zest of
reality and actuality, as he will have contemplated the heroes and
heroines in their mortal shape, and clothed in indisputable _capas_ and
_mantillas_; besides, another advantage which these romances will
possess over all the popular and standard novels--that of omitting the
most insipid chapter of all, the one containing the _denouement_.

There only remain two public buildings worthy of notice; but they are
such as to rank among the most remarkable of Spain. The Lonja (Exchange)
was erected during the reign of Philip the Second, in the year 1583, by
Juan de Herrera. At this period the excesses committed in all parts of
Spain by the architects, no longer restrained by rule of any sort, had
brought about a salutary effect, after a sufficiently lengthened surfeit
of extravagance. Herrera took the lead in the reaction, and followed the
more correct models of art.

Among the authors of some of the most lamentable specimens of aberration
of style scattered throughout Spain, are found several names high in
rank among the painters of the best period. These artists, desirous of
emulating some of the great masters of Italy, who had attained equal
superiority in architecture, painting, and sculpture, risked their
reputation in these different pursuits with greater confidence than just
appreciation of their peculiar genius. At the head of them was Alonzo
Cano, one of the most distinguished painters of the schools of
Andalucia; and who has been called the Guido of Spain. He may certainly
lay a more legitimate claim to that title than to that of the Michael
Angelo of Spain, accorded to him by some of the less judicious of his
admirers for no other reason than that of his combining the three above
mentioned arts.

His paintings are characterized by a peculiar delicacy of manner,
correct drawing, and