With cruelty it is much the same. The habits of the sphex surprise while
bull fights disgust us. The more cruelty and stupidity are dressed up,
the more hateful they become.
THE ANTERIOR IMAGE
I wrote an article once called, "The Spaniard Fails to Understand."
While I do not say it was good, the idea had some truth in it. It is a
fact that failure to understand is not exclusively a Spanish trait, but
the failing is a human one which is more accentuated among peoples of
backward culture, whose vitality is great.
Like a child the Spaniard carries an anterior image in his mind, to
which he submits his perceptions. A child is able to recognize a man or
a horse more easily in a toy than in a painting by Raphael or by
Leonardo da Vinci, because the form of the toy adapts itself more
readily to the anterior image which he has in his consciousness.
It is the same with the Spaniard. Here is one of the causes of his want
of comprehension. One rejects what does not fit in with one's
preconceived scheme of things.
I once rode to Valencia with two priests who were by no means unknown.
One of them had been in the convent of Loyola at Azpeitia for four
years. We talked about our respective homes; they eulogized the
Valencian plain while I replied that I preferred the mountains.
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