Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1840 edition. Excerpt: ... famous, that, when 1 came to Madrid, I saw wrote over the doors of most houses that sold wine, Vino Sainte Clemente. As to tha temperance of the people, I must say, that, notwithstanding those two excellent qualities of good and cheap, I never saw, all the three years I was prisoner there, any one person overcome with drinking. It is true, there may be a reason, and a political one, assigned for that abstemiousness of theirs, which is this, that if any man, upon any occasion, should be brought in as an evidence against you, if you can prove that he was ever drunk, it will invalidate his whole evidence. I could not but think this a grand improvement upon the Spartans. They made their slaves purposely drunk, to show their youth the folly of the vice by the sottish behaviour of their servants under it: but they never reached to that noble height of laying a penalty upon the aggressor, or of discouraging a voluntary impotence of reason by a disreputable impotence of interest. The Spaniard, therefore, in my opinion, in this exceeds the Spartan, as much as a natural beauty exceeds one procured by art; for, though shame may somewhat influence some few, terror is of force to deter all. A man, we have seen it, may shake hands with shame; but interest, says another proverb, will never lie. A wise institution, therefore, doubtless is this of the Spaniard; but such as I fear will never take place in Germany, Holland, France, or Great Britain. But though I commend their temperance, I would not be thought by any means to approve of their bigotry. If there may be such a thing as intemperance in religion, I much fear their ebriety in that will be found to be over-measure. Under the notion of devotion, I have seen men among them, and of sense too, guilty...

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.