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Nine editions of the First Part of "Don Quixote" had already appeared

before Cervantes died, thirty thousand copies in all, according to his

own estimate, and a tenth was printed at Barcelona the year after his

death So large a number naturally supplied the demand for some time, but

by 1634 it appears to have been exhausted; and from that time down to the

present day the streaularly The translations show still more clearly in what request the

book has been from the very outset In seven years from the completion of

the work it had been translated into the four leading languages of

Europe Except the Bible, in fact, no book has been so widely diffused as

"Don Quixote" The "Imitatio Christi" es, and perhaps "Robinson Crusoe" and the "Vicar of

Wakefield" into nearly as many, but in multiplicity of translations and

editions "Don Quixote" leaves them all far behind

Still more remarkable is the character of this wide diffusion "Don

Quixote" has been thoroughly naturalised aht-errantry, if they had any at all, were of the vaguest, who had

never seen or heard of a book of chivalry, who could not possibly feel

the humour of the burlesque or sympathise with the author's purpose

Another curious fact is that this, the most cosmopolitan book in the

world, is one of the hly French, "Tolish, "Rob Roy" not more

Scotch, than "Don Quixote" is Spanish, in character, in ideas, in

senti What, then, is the secret of