Excerpt from Spain To write every detail of such a history for English readers, would literally not be worth the ink and the paper which it would cost. Of what is forgotten in it, much is well forgotten, and no writer need at tempt to raise it from its grave. But we have thought that the reader of to-day ought to know what are the successive steps by which the Iberia, which was almost a fabled country to the Romans of the time of the Consuls, has become the Spain of to-day, with the proud record of Spain in literature, in adventure, in discovery, in statesmanship, and in war. The book which the reader holds undertakes to show these important steps. We pass, intention ally and without a word, much of the detail of long periods, that we may have the more space and chance to describe the essential movements of his tory, on which the real fortunes of Spain have de pended, and, in many instances, the fortunes of the world. What is left out is by no means without interest, and we do not pretend that it is without importance. We shall be glad, indeed, if in the story as we tell it, the reader shall be tempted to search for himself, in thosefnarratives in different languages, by which he can fill out our intentional omissions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.