We have had false revolutions which have dethroned people, but not ideas.

It is true we have advanced a little, but timidly, with halting footsteps and disorderly retreats, like one who advances fearfully, and suddenly, at the slightest noise, rushes back to the point of departure.

The transformation has been more exterior than interior.

The minds of the people are still in the seventeenth century; they still feel the fear and cowardice engendered by the inquisitorial bonfires.

The Spaniards are slaves to their very marrow; their pride and their energies are all on the surface; they have not lived through three centuries of ecclesiastical servitude for nothing.
They have made revolutions, they are capable of rebelling, but they will always stop short at the threshold of the Church, who was their mistress by force and remains so still, even though its power has vanished.