Gay, warm-hearted oasis atop a harsh barren plateau. The highest in altitude of any European capital: the nearest heaven. The Andalusians rightly say: “The throne of the Spanish king is the first after the throne of God.”

Madrid is truly a moral triumph, heightening man’s belief in his own virtue. And when I say “virtue,” I mean tenacity and strength. That is why straight off, from the first moment, Madrid arouses sympathy, as a landmark of human triumph.

Days of Madrid, full of noise and black eyes and women’s curls and sun and rain and fertile conversations in offices and homes and museums. How the human mind delights in hearing one side, then the other side, in order to acknowledge the relative excellence of all sides; and, out of all the fanatical conflicting ideas, to try and create a single solid synthesis! Men of energy are always, of necessity, one-sided and narrow-minded. If they were otherwise, they would end up ridiculous amateurish types, incapable of hewing a definite line for their practical lives to follow, incapable of assuming responsibility. The theoretical mind, far removed from action, is very fortunate, for it has the privilege of looking both right and left, and so joining the two wings that raise the Spirit.