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Tolerance

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Caroline Warman

44. José Cadalso y Vázquez de Andrade (1741-1782), Defence of the Spanish Nation against Persian Letter 78 by Montesquieu, 17751

Testo integrale

  • 1 Defensa de la nación española contra la carta persiana LXXVIII de Montesquieu en agravio de la reli (...)

1José Cadalso y Vázquez de Andrade, Spanish soldier and man of letters, was a prolific author across a range of genres – poetry, drama, and philosophy. In this extract, from what is probably one of his first texts, he defends Spain against accusations levelled at it by Montesquieu in one of his famous Persian Letters. listing instead a series of French crimes committed in the name of religion. It was published secretly and anonymously, and this is how it ends:

2It was the Spanish who…? What? No. These monsters and those like them are not French and they are not Spanish. They come from a country of savages called fanatics, and it is an insult unworthy of a noble pen to blame a whole nation for the abuses of a few. Such men have existed in all places and in all times, in some centuries more than in others, according to whether ignorance or enlightenment has the upper hand.

Read the free original text online, 2002 edition: http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/​obra-visor/​defensa-de-la-nacion-espanola-contra-la-carta-persiana-lxxviii-de-montesquieu--0/​html/​ff72e830-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html

Note

1 Defensa de la nación española contra la carta persiana LXXVIII de Montesquieu en agravio de la religión, valor, ciencia y nobleza de los españoles, ed. Guy Mercadier, Toulouse: Iberie Recherche, Université de Toulouse, 1970, p. 27, n. 20.

Indice delle illustrazioni

Titolo Portrait of José Cadalso by unknown artist (1855)
Credits https://commons.wikimedia.org/​wiki/​File:Josecadalso.jpg
URL http://books.openedition.org/obp/docannexe/image/3004/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 140k

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