Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/13

John Donoso Cortès was born at Valdegamas, the sixth of May, 1809. At five years of age he entered a primary school, and at eleven he had finished the humanities; at twelve he entered the University of Salamanca, in order to study law; and at sixteen, like Leibnitz, he was prepared, had he not been too young, to receive his degree of Bachelor. In the mean time he devoted all his energies to the study of philosophy, history, and Belles-lettres, under that able and philosophical writer, Emanuel Quintana. From Quintana he received the current ideas of the day: an admiration of French authors, a contempt for those of Spain, in a word, that learned incredulity which prevailed among the last generation.

For more than two centuries Jansenism and philosophism had corrupted the land of Pelagio and the Cid. D'Aranda and Pombal had dared to attack those very laws, proclaimed by the Council of Toledo, which had shown the magnificent influence of the Church in the maintenance of liberty and justice. Spain was no longer distinguished above others as the Catholic nation, the nation of profound and heartfelt convictions; the traditional grandeur of her faith had taken the place of the reality; and faith, instead of being an absolute necessity, had degenerated into a mere habit.

Donoso was affected by the spirit of the age in which he lived, and was in his earlier youth, like the greater number of those