The critic

Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658) wrote and published in three installments one of the most ingenious works in Spanish of all times, which has always been at the height of the great criticisms of the Christian mentality of his time, satirizing in an original and elegant way.

Human prudence and judgment

The underlying argument of this extensive and intense allegory of an entire society is the virtue of prudence and the importance of seeing beyond first impressions to know very well the type of person and the degree of immaturity and coherence he possessed in order to be able to judge with equanimity.

Certainly the sapiential books of the Old Testament and the critical eye of the Jesuits of all times are perfectly reflected and sharply exaggerated for the amusement of the people.

Social and religious criticism

Cátedra's edition, as always very careful, technically impeccable and endowed with the annotations of Professor Santos Alonso, full of erudition and enlightening notes that not only bring the text closer to the university public, but also enhance the immense culture of the Jesuit Gracián.

After reading the “Criticón”, one can understand the eventful life of Baltasar Gracián and the accusations he was accused of exercising a merciless criticism of the usual practices of the time. In reality, what he does is to discover the baseness of the human heart when he judges mercilessly and coldly people or the decisions of civil and ecclesiastical authorities.

In fact, pride, vanity, the desire to excel and the great manifestations of vainglory are the most cruelly treated. In a way, the Pharisees were no less criticized by Jesus. But, certainly, the Lord was asking them to have faith in Him and they would understand everything. Gratian simply uncovers the hidden intentions of the human heart.

Narrative style and perspective

Certainly, for today's mentality the work is uneven and often lacks narrative pulse, but Baltasar Gracián is indoctrinating the people and especially the ruling classes of the country in all orders. He manifests a deep distrust of fallen and repaired human nature. At times he adopts a tone of skepticism.

Precisely in the first pages, one of the narrators, well acquainted with the situation of the world and Christian beliefs, exclaims: “to come to see with novelty and warning the greatness, the beauty, the concert, the firmness and the variety of this great created machine” (77).

Certainly, there is a lack of illusion, optimism and positive sense in many moments of the work. There are so many ridiculous falsehoods that it produces disappointment. At the same time, there is a critical wryness full of relief that certainly makes one laugh at other times.

Religious references and truth

It must also be recognized that Gratian, throughout the treatise, will return to the New Testament again and again, to find the eternal promises of the Creator. For example, the parable of the seed fallen by the wayside, or on stony ground, or in the brambles and on the good soil, have an eternal lesson of response to God's grace, and a daily invitation to love from God. Moreover, Gratian will tell us that it happens every day. Hope rests on the fact that God forgives, forgets and trusts in man: “the very end is the beginning, the destruction of one creature is the generation of another. When it seems that everything is over, then it begins again: nature is renewed, the world is renewed, the earth is established and the divine government is admired and adored” (92).

It is of great interest the disappearance and cornering, in practice, of the concept of truth: “It is very connatural in man the inclination to his God, as to his beginning and his end, whether loving him, or knowing him (...) Thus, a philosopher rightly defined this universe (Job) as a great mirror of God” (95). And, further on, “Truth has been forsaken and forsaken and cast so far away that even today we do not know where it has stopped” (140).

As we have already emphasized at the beginning, references to the virtue of prudence are constant and of great interest: “the truly wise are prudent and virtuous” (415). This is key both textually and contextually (181). Likewise, there are constant calls to see things from different angles in order to make that prudential judgment that enriches the person, makes him/her have criteria (182) and avoids disappointment (185).

Particularly important is the reference to and praise of freedom throughout the work, both as self-determination and as free will: “freedom: great thing that of not depending on the will of others, and more of a fool, of a modorro, that there is no torment like the imposition of men over one's head” (274).

Core values

Much emphasis is also placed on the importance of friendship: “He who has no friends, has neither feet nor hands, he lives one-armed, he walks blindly. And woe betide the lonely, for if he falls he will have no one to help him up” (337).

We do not want to fail to highlight a veiled criticism of Baltasar Gracián to the School of Salamanca and, specifically, to the famous precarious loans that Francisco de Vitoria had approved in the merchandising in order to fully recover the capital avoiding falling into usury, which Gracián will call with his subtle criticism with the term “palliated usury” (425).

Likewise, he will fit with sportsmanship the veiled criticisms of Traiano Boccalini on the expansionist eagerness of Spain in Italy with its effective presence in Milan and Naples and, by means of agreements, in Genoa and Venice (63, 696). Within what he will call “the thin thread of life” (764).