Python for Scientists (3rd Edition) John M.

Stewart pdf download

https://ebookmass.com/product/python-for-scientists-3rd-edition-
john-m-stewart/

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookmass.com

Here are some recommended products for you. Click the link to
download, or explore more at ebookmass.com

Prototyping Python Dashboards for Scientists and Engineers

Padraig Houlahan

https://ebookmass.com/product/prototyping-python-dashboards-for-
scientists-and-engineers-padraig-houlahan/

Applied Numerical Methods with Python for Engineers and

Scientists Steven C. Chapra

https://ebookmass.com/product/applied-numerical-methods-with-python-
for-engineers-and-scientists-steven-c-chapra/

Prototyping Python Dashboards for Scientists and

Engineers: Build and Deploy a Complete Dashboard with
Python 1st Edition Padraig Houlahan
https://ebookmass.com/product/prototyping-python-dashboards-for-
scientists-and-engineers-build-and-deploy-a-complete-dashboard-with-
python-1st-edition-padraig-houlahan/

Mathematics Pocket Book for Engineers and Scientists 5th

Edition John Bird

https://ebookmass.com/product/mathematics-pocket-book-for-engineers-
and-scientists-5th-edition-john-bird/
Statistical Thinking From Scratch: A Primer For Scientists
M. D. Edge

https://ebookmass.com/product/statistical-thinking-from-scratch-a-
primer-for-scientists-m-d-edge/

Python Distilled David M. Beazley

https://ebookmass.com/product/python-distilled-david-m-beazley/

Beginning Programming with Python For Dummies 3rd Edition

John Paul Mueller

https://ebookmass.com/product/beginning-programming-with-python-for-
dummies-3rd-edition-john-paul-mueller/

Precalculus - Mathematics for Calculus 8th Edition James

Stewart

https://ebookmass.com/product/precalculus-mathematics-for-
calculus-8th-edition-james-stewart/

Student Solutions Manual, Chapters 10-16 for

Stewart/Clegg/Watson's Multivariable Calculus (9th
edition) James Stewart
https://ebookmass.com/product/student-solutions-manual-
chapters-10-16-for-stewart-clegg-watsons-multivariable-calculus-9th-
edition-james-stewart/
Python for Scientists
Third Edition
The third edition of this practical introduction to Python has been thoroughly updated,
with all code migrated to Python 3 and made available as Jupyter notebooks. The note-
books are available online with executable versions of all the book’s content (and more).
The text starts with a detailed introduction to the basics of the Python language,
without assuming any prior knowledge. Building upon each other, the most important
Python packages for numerical math (NumPy), symbolic math (SymPy), and plotting
(Matplotlib) are introduced, with brand new chapters covering numerical methods
(SciPy) and data handling (Pandas). Further new material includes guidelines for writing
efficient Python code and publishing code for other users.
Simple and concise code examples, revised for compatibility with Python 3, guide
the reader and support the learning process throughout the book. Readers from the quan-
titative sciences, whatever their background, will be able to quickly acquire the skills
needed for using Python effectively.

j o h n m. s te wa rt was Emeritus Reader in Gravitational Physics at the University of

Cambridge, and a Life Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge, before his death in 2016.
He was the author of Non-equilibrium Relativistic Kinetic Theory (Springer, 1971) and
Advanced General Relativity (Cambridge, 1991), and he translated and edited Hans
Stephani’s General Relativity (Cambridge, 1990).

m i c h ae l m om m e rt is Assistant Professor for Computer Vision at the University of St.

Gallen, Switzerland, where he combines computer vision and Earth observation to im-
plement efficient learning methods for a wide range of use cases. Before, he was a solar
system astronomer and actively wrote scientific open-source code for this community.
Python for Scientists

Third Edition

JOHN M . S TE WA RT
University of Cambridge

MI C HAE L MO MM E RT
University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
 Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8EA, United Kingdom
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India
103 Penang Road, #05–06/07, Visioncrest Commercial, Singapore 238467

Cambridge University Press is part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment,

a department of the University of Cambridge.
We share the University’s mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of
education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781009014809
DOI: 10.1017/9781009029728
First and Second editions © John M. Stewart 2014, 2017
Third edition © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2023
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions
of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take
place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
First published 2014
Second edition 2017
Third edition 2023
Printed in the United Kingdom by CPI Group Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
A Cataloging-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-1-009-01480-9 Paperback
Additional resources for this publication at www.cambridge.org/9781009014809.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment has no responsibility for the persistence
or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this
publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Contents

Preface page xi

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Python for Scientists 1
1.2 Scientific Software 1
1.3 About This Book 4
1.4 References 4

2 About Python 5
2.1 What Is Python? 5
2.1.1 A Brief History of Python 6
2.1.2 The Zen of Python 7
2.2 Installing Python 8
2.2.1 Anaconda and Conda 9
2.2.2 Pip and PyPI 10
2.3 How Python Works 11
2.4 How to Use Python 11
2.4.1 The Python Interpreter 11
2.4.2 IPython and Jupyter 12
2.4.3 Integrated Development Environments 16
2.4.4 Cloud Environments 17
2.5 Where to Find Help? 17
2.6 References 19

3 Basic Python 22
3.1 Typing Python 22
3.2 Objects and Identifiers 23
3.3 Namespaces and Modules 26
3.4 Numbers 28
3.4.1 Integers 28
3.4.2 Real Numbers 28
3.4.3 Booleans 29
3.4.4 Complex Numbers 30
vi Contents

3.5 Container Objects 31

3.5.1 Lists 32
3.5.2 List Indexing 33
3.5.3 List Slicing 34
3.5.4 List Mutability 35
3.5.5 List Functions 36
3.5.6 Tuples 38
3.5.7 Strings 39
3.5.8 Dictionaries 41
3.5.9 Sets 42
3.6 Python if Statements 42
3.7 Loop Constructs 44
3.7.1 The for Loop 44
3.7.2 The while Loop 46
3.7.3 The continue Statement 46
3.7.4 The break Statement 47
3.7.5 List Comprehensions 48
3.8 Functions 49
3.8.1 Syntax and Scope 49
3.8.2 Positional Arguments 54
3.8.3 Keyword Arguments 54
3.8.4 Arbitrary Number of Positional Arguments 54
3.8.5 Arbitrary Number of Keyword Arguments 55
3.8.6 Anonymous Functions 55
3.9 Python Input/Output 56
3.9.1 Keyboard Input 56
3.9.2 The print() Function 56
3.9.3 File Input/Output 59
3.10 Error Handling 60
3.10.1 Traceback 60
3.10.2 Errors, Exceptions, and Warnings 62
3.11 Introduction to Python Classes 63
3.12 The Structure of Python 66
3.13 A Python Style Guide 67
3.14 References 68

4 NumPy: Numerical Math 72

4.1 Arrays 72
4.1.1 One-Dimensional Arrays 73
4.1.2 Basic Array Arithmetic 77
4.1.3 Two (and More)-Dimensional Arrays 79
4.1.4 Broadcasting 84
4.1.5 Array Manipulations 86
 Contents vii

4.2 Working with Arrays 94

4.2.1 Mathematical Functions and Operators 94
4.2.2 Sums and Products 96
4.2.3 Comparing Arrays 96
4.2.4 Advanced Array Indexing 99
4.2.5 Sorting and Searching 100
4.3 Constants 101
4.4 Random Numbers 102
4.5 Simple Statistics 104
4.6 Polynomials 107
4.6.1 Converting Data to Coefficients 107
4.6.2 Converting Coefficients to Data 107
4.6.3 Manipulating Polynomials in Coefficient Form 108
4.7 Linear Algebra 108
4.7.1 Basic Operations on Matrices 108
4.7.2 Matrix Arithmetic 110
4.7.3 Solving Linear Systems of Equations 111
4.8 File Input/Output 112
4.8.1 Text File Input/Output 112
4.8.2 Binary File Input/Output 115
4.9 Special Array Types 116
4.9.1 Masked Arrays 116
4.9.2 Structured Arrays 117
4.10 References 118

5 SciPy: Numerical Methods 120

5.1 Special Functions 120
5.2 Constants 121
5.3 Numerical Integration 122
5.3.1 Integrating over Functions 122
5.3.2 Integrating over Sampled Values 124
5.4 Optimization and Root Search 124
5.4.1 Local Univariate Optimization 124
5.4.2 Local Multivariate Optimization 125
5.4.3 Function Fitting 127
5.4.4 Root Search 129
5.5 Numerical Interpolation 131
5.5.1 Univariate Interpolation 131
5.5.2 Multivariate Interpolation 133
5.6 Linear Algebra 134
5.6.1 Matrix Operations 135
5.7 Statistics 138
5.7.1 Univariate Continuous Probability Distributions 139
5.7.2 Multivariate and Discrete Probability Distributions 141
viii Contents

5.7.3 Correlation Tests 144

5.7.4 Distribution Tests 145
5.8 Ordinary Differential Equations 147
5.8.1 Initial Value Problems 148
5.8.2 Boundary Value Problems 151
5.9 SciKits: A Whole New World 153
5.10 References 153

6 Matplotlib: Plotting 156

6.1 Getting Started: Simple Figures 156
6.1.1 Frontends 156
6.1.2 Backends 157
6.1.3 A Simple Figure 157
6.2 Object-Oriented Matplotlib 159
6.3 Customizing Plots 161
6.3.1 Figure Size 162
6.3.2 Axis Range and Scaling 162
6.3.3 Ticks 163
6.3.4 Grid 164
6.3.5 Legend 164
6.3.6 Transparency 164
6.3.7 Text and Annotations 164
6.3.8 Mathematical Formulae 165
6.3.9 Colors 166
6.4 Cartesian Plots 169
6.4.1 Line Plots 169
6.4.2 Scatter Plots 170
6.4.3 Error Bars 171
6.4.4 Plotting Filled Areas 172
6.4.5 Bar Plots 173
6.5 Polar Plots 174
6.6 Plotting Images 175
6.7 Contour Plots 178
6.8 Compound Figures 179
6.9 Multidimensional Visualization 181
6.9.1 The Reduction to Two Dimensions 181
6.9.2 3D Plots 181
6.10 References 185

7 SymPy: Symbolic Math 187

7.1 Symbols and Functions 187
7.2 Conversions from Python to SymPy and Vice Versa 190
 Contents ix

7.3 Matrices and Vectors 191

7.4 Some Elementary Calculus 193
7.4.1 Differentiation 193
7.4.2 Integration 193
7.4.3 Series and Limits 196
7.5 Equality, Symbolic Equality and Simplification 197
7.6 Solving Equations 199
7.6.1 Equations with One Independent Variable 200
7.6.2 Linear Equations with More than One Independent Variable 201
7.6.3 More General Equations 203
7.6.4 Solving Ordinary Differential Equations 204
7.6.5 Solving Partial Differential Equations 207
7.7 Plotting from within SymPy 207
7.8 References 212

8 Pandas: Data Handling 214

8.1 Series 214
8.2 DataFrames 216
8.2.1 Axis Labels and Indexes 218
8.2.2 Accessing Data 220
8.2.3 Modifying Data 224
8.2.4 Dealing with Missing Data 231
8.3 Specific Types of Data 234
8.3.1 Categorical Data 234
8.3.2 Textual Data 235
8.3.3 Dates and Times 237
8.4 Functions 238
8.5 Data Visualization 241
8.6 File Input/Output 243
8.7 Pandas Hints 246
8.8 References 247

9 Performance Python 250

9.1 How to Write Efficient Python Code 250
9.1.1 Measuring performance 250
9.1.2 Optimization Starts before Coding 253
9.1.3 Optimizing Basic Python 254
9.1.4 NumPy 256
9.2 Parallelization 259
9.2.1 Multithreading 260
9.2.2 Multiprocessing 263
9.3 What Else? 264
9.4 References 265
Visit https://ebookmass.com today to explore
a vast collection of ebooks across various
genres, available in popular formats like
PDF, EPUB, and MOBI, fully compatible with
all devices. Enjoy a seamless reading
experience and effortlessly download high-
quality materials in just a few simple steps.
Plus, don’t miss out on exciting offers that
let you access a wealth of knowledge at the
best prices!
x Contents

10 Software Development Tools 267

10.1 Version Control 267
10.1.1 git 268
10.2 Create Your Own Python Module 274
10.3 Publish Your Code 276
10.3.1 GitHub 277
10.3.2 Python Package Index 277
10.4 References 278
Index 280
Preface

I bought a copy of Python for Scientists at a conference booth in 2016, looking for an
affordable and easily readable textbook for a Python course I was teaching at that time.
I was intrigued by how straightforwardly even complex things were explained in this
book. It was a perfect match for my course and my students, despite my impression that
the book was rather heavily focused on mathematical applications.
It has been five years since the second edition of Python for Scientists was released.
This is a long time in the life cycle of a programming language that is still under active
development. It was definitely time for an update.
Unfortunately, John is no longer with us to provide this update himself. Instead, I was
honored that this task was offered to me, and I could not decline.
Besides updating the Python code examples shown in the book, I took the opportunity
to also update the content of the book with the goal of making it accessible to a broader
audience of scientists, especially those with a quantitative focus in their work. This in-
cludes a more in-depth discussion of numerical mathematics with NumPy (Chapter 4)
and SciPy (Chapter 5), plotting capabilities with Matplotlib (Chapter 6), and, for the
first time, data handling with Pandas (Chapter 8), performance computing with Python
(Chapter 9), and an outline of software development techniques that are useful to scien-
tists (Chapter 10). However, in order to keep the book reasonably short and affordable,
other content, such as the detailed treatment of ordinary and partial differential equa-
tions, had to be significantly shortened or removed altogether – Python packages for
dealing with such problems exist, but their discussion is beyond the scope of this begin-
ner book.
I sincerely hope the third edition of Python for Scientists will be a useful companion on
your long journey to becoming a scientific programmer.

Michael Mommert
St. Gallen, November 2022
1 Introduction

1.1 Python for Scientists

The title of this book is Python for Scientists, but what does that mean? The dictionary
defines “Python” as either (a) a nonvenomous snake from Asia or Saharan Africa or (b)
a computer programming language, and it is the second option that is intended here. By
“scientist,” we mean anyone who uses quantitative models either to obtain conclusions
by processing precollected experimental data or to model potentially observable results
from a more abstract theory, and who asks “what if?” What if I analyze the data in a
different way? What if I change the model?
Given the steady progress in the development of evermore complex experiments that
explore the inner workings of nature and generate vast amounts of data, as well as the
necessity to describe these observations with complex (nonlinear) theoretical models,
the use of computers to answer these questions is mandatory. Luckily, advances in com-
puter hardware and software development mean that immense amounts of data or com-
plex models can be processed at increasingly rapid speeds. It might seem a given that
suitable software will also be available so that the “what if” questions can be answered
readily. However, this turns out not always to be the case. A quick pragmatic reason
is that while there is a huge market for hardware improvements, scientists form a very
small fraction of it and so there is little financial incentive to improve scientific soft-
ware. But for scientists, specialized, yet versatile, software tools are key to unraveling
complex problems.

1.2 Scientific Software

Before we discuss what types of scientific software are available, it is important to

note that all computer software comes in one of two types: proprietary or open-source.
Proprietary software is supplied by a commercial firm. Such organizations have both
to pay wages and taxes and to provide a return for their shareholders. Therefore, they
have to charge real money for their products, and, in order to protect their assets from
their competitors, they do not tell the customer how their software works. Thus the end
users have little chance of being able to adapt or optimize the product for their own use.
2 Introduction

Since wages and taxes are recurrent expenditures, the company needs to issue frequent
charged-for updates and improvements (the Danegeld effect).
Open-source software, on the other hand, is available for free. It is usually developed
by computer-literate individuals, often working for universities or similar organizations,
who provide the service for their colleagues. It is distributed subject to anti-copyright
licenses, which give nobody the right to copyright it or to use it for commercial gain.
Conventional economics might suggest that the gamut of open-source software should
be inferior to its proprietary counterpart, or else the commercial organizations would
lose their market. As we shall see, this is not necessarily the case.
Next we need to differentiate between two different types of scientific software. The eas-
iest approach to extracting insight from data or modeling observations utilizes prebuilt
software tools, which we refer to as “scientific software tools.” Proprietary examples
include software tools and packages like Matlab, Mathematica, IDL, Tableau, or even
Excel and open-source equivalents like R, Octave, SciLab, and LibreOffice. Some of
these tools provide graphical user interfaces (GUIs) enabling the user to interact with
the software in an efficient and intuitive way. Typically, such tools work well for stan-
dard tasks, but they do offer only a limited degree of flexibility, making it hard if not
impossible to adapt these packages to solve some task they were not designed for. Other
software tools provide more flexibility through their own idiosyncratic programming
language in which problems are entered into a user interface. After a coherent group
of statements, often just an individual statement, has been typed, the software writes
equivalent core language code and compiles it on the fly. Thus errors and/or results can
be reported back to the user immediately. Such tools are called “interpreters” as they in-
terpret code on the fly, thus offering a higher degree of flexibility compared to software
tools with shiny GUIs.
On a more basic level, the aforementioned software tools are implemented in a pro-
gramming language, which is a somewhat limited subset of human language in which
sequences of instructions are written, usually by humans, to be read and understood by
computers. The most common languages are capable of expressing very sophisticated
mathematical concepts, albeit often with a steep learning curve. Although a myriad of
programming languages exist, only a handful have been widely accepted and adopted
for scientific applications. Historically, this includes C and Fortran, as well as their de-
scendants. In the case of these so-called compiled languages, compilers translate code
written by humans into machine code that can be optimized for speed and then pro-
cessed. As such, they are rather like Formula 1 racing cars. The best of them are capable
of breathtakingly fast performance, but driving them is not intuitive and requires a great
deal of training and experience. This experience is additionally complicated by the fact
that compilers for the same language are not necessarily compatible and need to be sup-
plemented by large libraries to provide functionality for seemingly basic functionality.
Since all scientific software tools are built upon compiled programming languages,
why not simply write your own tools? Well, a racing car is not usually the best choice
for a trip to the supermarket, where speed is not of paramount importance. Similarly,
 1.2 Scientific Software 3

compiled languages are not always ideal for quickly trying out new ideas or writing
short scripts to support you in your daily work. Thus, for the intended readers of this
book, the direct use of compilers is likely to be unattractive, unless their use is manda-
tory. We therefore look at the other type of programming language, the so-called in-
terpreted languages, which include the previously mentioned scientific tools based on
interpreters. Interpreted languages lack the speed of compiled languages, but they typi-
cally are much more intuitive and easier to learn.

Let us summarize our position. There are prebuilt software tools, some of which are
proprietary and some of which are open-source software, that provide various degrees
of flexibility (interpreters typically offer more flexibility than tools that feature GUIs)
and usually focus on specific tasks. On a more basic level, there are traditional compiled
languages for numerics that are very general, very fast, rather difficult to learn, and do
not interact readily with graphical or algebraic processes. Finally, there are interpreted
languages that are typically much easier to learn than compiled languages and offer a
large degree of flexibility but are less performant.

So, what properties should an ideal scientific software have? A short list might contain:

 a mature programming language that is both easy to understand and has extensive
expressive ability,

 integration of algebraic, numerical, and graphical functions, and the option to import
functionality from an almost endless list of supplemental libraries,

 the ability to generate numerical algorithms running with speeds within an order of
magnitude of the fastest of those generated by compiled languages,

 a user interface with adequate on-line help and decent documentation,

 an extensive range of textbooks from which the curious reader can develop greater
understanding of the concepts,

 open-source software, freely available,

 implementation on all standard platforms, e.g., Linux/Unix, Mac OS, Windows.

 a concise package, and thus implementable on even modest hardware.

You might have guessed it: we are talking about Python here.

In 1991, Guido van Rossum created Python as an open-source, platform-independent,

general purpose programming language. It is basically a very simple language sur-
rounded by an enormous library of add-on packages for almost any use case imagin-
able. Python is extremely versatile: it can be used to build complex software tools or as
a scripting language to quickly get some task done. This versatility has both ensured its
adoption by power users and led to the assembly of a large community of developers.
These properties make Python a very powerful tool for scientists in their daily work and
we hope that this book will help you master this tool.
4 Introduction

1.3 About This Book

The purpose of this intentionally short book is to introduce the Python programming
language and to provide an overview of scientifically relevant packages and how they
can be utilized. This book is written for first-semester students and faculty members,
graduate students and emeriti, high-school students and post-docs – or simply for ev-
eryone who is interested in using Python for scientific analysis.
However, this book by no means claims to be a complete introduction to Python. We
leave the comprehensive treatment of Python and all its details to others who have
done this with great success (see, e.g., Lutz, 2013). We have quite deliberately pre-
ferred brevity and simplicity over encyclopedic coverage in order to get the inquisitive
reader up and running as soon as possible.
Furthermore, this book will not serve as the “Numerical Recipes for Python,” meaning
that we will not explain methods and algorithms in detail: we will simply showcase how
they can be used and applied to scientific problems. For an in-depth discussion of these
algorithms, we refer to the real Numerical Recipes – Press et al. (2007) and all following
releases that were adapted to different programming languages – as well as other works.
Given the dynamic environment of software development, details on specific packages
are best retrieved from online documentation and reference websites. We will provide
references, links, and pointers in order to guide interested readers to the appropriate
places. In order to enable an easy entry into the world of Python, we provide all code
snippets presented in this book in the form of Jupyter Notebooks on the CoCalc cloud
computing platform. These Notebooks can be accessed, run, and modified online for a
more interactive learning experience.
We aim to leave the reader with a well-founded framework to handle many basic, and
not so basic, tasks, as well as the skill set to find their own way in the world of scientific
programming and Python.

1.4 References

Print Resources
Lutz, Mark. Learning Python: Powerful Object-Oriented Programming. O’Reilly Me-
dia, 2013.
Press, William H, et al. Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing. 3rd ed.,
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
2 About Python

Python is currently the most popular programming language among scientists and other
programmers. There are a number of reasons leading to its popularity and fame, es-
pecially among younger researchers. This chapter introduces the Python programming
language and provides an overview on how to install and use the language most effi-
ciently.

2.1 What Is Python?

Python is a general-purpose programming language that is extremely versatile and rela-

tively easy to learn. It is considered a high-level programming language, meaning that
the user typically will not have to deal with some typical housekeeping tasks when de-
signing code. This is different from other (especially compiled) languages that heavily
rely on the user to do these tasks properly. Python is designed in such a way as to help
the user to write easily readable code by following simple guidelines. But Python also
implements powerful programming paradigms: it can be used as an object-oriented, pro-
cedural, and functional programming language, depending on your needs and use case.
Thus Python combines the simplicity of a scripting language with advanced concepts
that are typically characteristic for compiled languages. Some of these features – which
we will introduce in detail in Chapter 3 – include dynamic typing, built-in object types
and other tools, automatic memory management and garbage collection, as well as the
availability of a plethora of add-on and third-party packages for a wide range of use
cases. Despite its apparent simplicity, these features make Python a very competitive,
powerful, and flexible programming language.

Most importantly, Python is open-source and as such freely available to everyone. We

detail in Section 2.2 how to obtain and install Python on your computer.

Based on various recent reports and statistics, Python is currently the most popular
programming language among researchers and professional software developers for a
wide range of applications and problems. This popularity largely stems from the ease
of learning Python, as well as the availability of a large number of add-on packages
that supplement basic Python and provide easy access to tasks that would otherwise be
cumbersome to implement.
6 About Python

But there is also a downside: Python is an interpreted language, which makes it slower
than compiled languages. However, Python provides some remedies for this issue as we
will see in Chapter 9.

For researchers, Python offers a large range of well-maintained open-source packages,

many of which are related to or at least based on the SciPy ecosystem. SciPy contains
packages for scientific computing, mathematics, and engineering applications. Despite
being the backbone of many Python applications, SciPy is completely open-source and
funded in some part through NumFocus, a nonprofit organization supporting the devel-
opment of scientific Python packages. We will get to know some of the packages that
are part of the SciPy universe in Chapters 4, 5, and 8.

2.1.1 A Brief History of Python

The Python programming language was conceived by Guido van Rossum, a Dutch com-
puter scientist, in the 1980s. He started the implementation in 1989 as a hobby project
over the Christmas holidays. The first release became available in 1991 and Python 1.0
was released in 1994; Python 2.0 became available in 2000. With a growing user base,
the development team also started to grow and gradually all the features that we appre-
ciate about this language were implemented. Python 3.0 was released in 2008, which
broke the backwards compatibility with Python 2.x due to some design decisions. The
existence of two versions of Python that were incompatible with each other generated
some confusion, especially with inexperienced users. However, support for Python 2.x
ended in 2020, leaving Python 3.x as the only supported version of Python. The example
code shown in this book and the accompanying Jupyter Notebooks (see Section 2.4.2)
are based on Python version 3.9.12, but this should not matter as future versions should
be compatible with that one.

Van Rossum is considered the principal author of Python and has played a central role
in its development until 2018. Since 2001, the Python Software Foundation, a nonprofit
organization focusing on the development of the core Python distribution, managing
intellectual rights, and organizing developer conferences, has played an increasingly
important role in the project. Major design decisions within the project are made by a
five-person steering council and documented in Python Enhancement Protocols (PEPs).
PEPs mainly discuss technical proposals and decisions, but we will briefly look at two
PEPs that directly affect users: the Zen of Python (PEP 20, Section 2.1.2) and the Python
Style Guide (PEP 8, Section 3.13).

We would also like to note that in 2012, NumFOCUS was founded as a nonprofit or-
ganization that supports the development of a wide range of scientific Python packages
including, but not limited to, NumPy (see Chapter 4), SciPy (see Chapter 5), Matplotlib
(see Chapter 6), SymPy (see Chapter 7), Pandas (see Chapter 8), Project Jupyter, and
IPython. The support through NumFOCUS for these projects includes funding that is
based on donations to NumFOCUS; for most of these open-source projects, donations
are their only source of funding.
 2.1 What Is Python? 7

One detail we have skipped so far is why Van Rossum named his new programming
language after a snake. Well, he did not. Python is actually named after the BBC comedy
TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus, of which Van Rossum is a huge fan. In case you
were wondering, this is also the reason why the words “spam” and “eggs” are oftentimes
used as metasyntactic variables in Python example code in a reference to their famous
“Spam” sketch from 1970.

2.1.2 The Zen of Python

The Zen of Python is an attempt to summarize Van Rossum’s guiding principles for the
design of Python into 20 aphorisms, only 19 of which have been written down. These
guiding principles are very concise and distill many features of Python into a few words.
The Zen of Python is so important that it is actually published (PEP 20) and its content
is literally built into the Python language and can be accessed as follows:
import this

Beautiful is better than ugly.

Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one −− and preferably only one −− obvious way to
do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea −− let’s do more of those!

Please note that these guidelines focus on the design of the Python programming lan-
guage, not necessarily the design of code written in Python. Nevertheless, you are free to
follow these guidelines when writing your own code to create truly pythonic code. The
term pythonic is often used within the Python community to refer to code that follows
the guiding principles mentioned here.
Visit https://ebookmass.com today to explore
a vast collection of ebooks across various
genres, available in popular formats like
PDF, EPUB, and MOBI, fully compatible with
all devices. Enjoy a seamless reading
experience and effortlessly download high-
quality materials in just a few simple steps.
Plus, don’t miss out on exciting offers that
let you access a wealth of knowledge at the
best prices!
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
wines, wool, and other products are numerous, but unimportant.
The iron ore mines (red and brown hematite) in the Somorrostro range
and district are largely in the hands of English capitalists. These mines,
which began to attract the attention of British iron masters about 1870, occur
chiefly in the mountain limestone, and are worked in open quarries. Short
railways and tramways have been made to San Nicolas on the Nervion; and
a wire tramway has been constructed by the Galdames Mining Company,
who possess a cliff of iron ore about a mile long and 280 feet high. The
tramway carries the ore through a tunnel, 600 feet long, to the quay. The
Landore Siamese Steel Company have important hematite mines connected
with the river by a wire tramway, carrying baskets for loading.

BILBAO—THE ORCONERO IRON ORE COMPANY’S WHARF IN LUCHANA.

Bilbao is largely modern and wholly commercial, and its public buildings
are not notable. But its thoroughfares are full of movement, and the shady
arenal, in the old town—the focus of the life of the whole city—contains the
principal hotels, the chief cafes, and the New Theatre. The land which this
beautiful promenade now occupies was at one time very boggy, and swept
by the tides. Now the two principal avenues are asphalted. The Church of
San Nicolás de Bari, which faces it, is one of the city parish churches. It was
built towards the end of the fifteenth century on the ruins of the sailors’ and
fishermen’s little church. This church has suffered greatly on account of
floods, especially during the year 1553. It was closed in 1740 as ruin
threatened it. When it fell, the present one was begun in 1743. During the
last war it was used as a provisioning station; and, after repairs, was opened
for worship on the 21st of January, 1881.
 In Northern Spain.

T HE great bulk of the Spanish people know as little

of Galicia and the neighbouring Principality of the
Asturias as the average Englishman knows of the
Hebrides. Nor can they judge of the inhabitants of these
provinces from the few individual Galicians who
emigrate to Madrid any more than we in England can
form an idea of Italians from the specimens who
perambulate the London streets with a piano organ and
a monkey. The Madrileño comes across a few Galicians
in the capital engaged in menial services, and speaking
a harsh, strange patois, which he finds some difficulty
in understanding; but the Gallegan in exile is a very A GALICIAN.

different person from the man you meet in his own land
of rain and mist, where the scenery is exquisite, the hotels are famously bad,
and devotion is the chief recreation of the community. At home these people
are poor, but hardy; possessing little intelligence, but great capacity for
work; knowing little comfort, but nursing a passionate attachment for the
country of their birth. Many of the young women are remarkably handsome,
but drudgery and hardship early tell their tale, and very few of them retain
their good looks beyond the age of twenty. The country, for the most part, is
poor to barrenness; the peasantry work day and night for mere subsistance;
the cottages, which do duty for bedroom and nursery, stable, kitchen, rabbit
hutch, pigsty and parlour, are damp and dirty, and destitute of beds or
chimneys. The climate is rainy, the surface is mountainous, and the roads are
generally bad. Small wonder is it that muleteers and commercial travellers
constitute the principal visitors to Galicia—for those who have a soul above
scenery, and an ambition beyond fishing, the country is practically without
attraction.
The single province of Oviedo, which constitutes the principality of the
Asturias, harbours a people who have remained unconquered alike by
Roman and Moor. There is protection, if not complete safety, in a country of
mountain and valley, of damp and cold; and the Asturians have ever been
able to spread themselves over the land and farm their straggling holdings in
comparative security. They have cultivated maize for their staple food,
 poached the hills and rivers for
game and fish, cultivated the art
of dancing, and lived in terror of
the evil eye from the most
ancient times; and despite damp,
hard fare, and harder toil, they
have learnt

A GALICIAN. A GALICIAN.

REDONDELA (PROVINCE OF PONTEVEDRA)—GENERAL VIEW.

the secret of longevity and the charm of a gracious civility of manner.

Minerals in abundance are common to both Asturias and Galicia; and while
the former is the richer in coal and iron, the latter has been worked for gold,
silver, and tin from the time of the Roman occupation. It is on their mineral
resources that these provinces will have to depend for their future prosperity.
 After the
cities of the
South—
Barcelona,
Toledo,
Granada, or
even modern
Madrid—the
IN GALICIA. IN GALICIA.
Northern towns
are small,
shabby, and unimportant. Coruña, the chief seaport of Galicia, though
interesting to Englishmen as being the landing place in Spain of John of
Gaunt, and the harbour from which the invincible Armada sailed to conquer
and Romanise Great Britain, is a place of only secondary importance. The
city was founded by the Phœnicians; its name is probably derived from
Columna, the Phœnician Pharos, or lighthouse; and its famous lighthouse,
the Tower of Hercules, has had its counterpart from the earliest days. The
Phœnicians, who made gain rather than discovery the aim of all their
expeditions, were attracted to Galicia and to the province of Orense
particularly by reason of its rich deposits of tin. Coruña in ancient days was
the principal port of the North-west Coast, and the most westerly town in
Europe. It is still the chief military station in Northern Spain, and ranks as a
commercial city of the first importance.

CORUÑA—GENERAL VIEW TAKEN FROM THE OLD TOWN.

The hill-girt city of Santiago, though knowing nothing of commercial

prestige, and having no part in the military system of the country, is to the
traveller of far more interest than the capital of the province. For dead as it
now appears to be, with the hand of death on its crooked, branching streets,
and its crazy, deformed squares, which echo the pilgrims’ footfalls to the
deaf ears of the dead, it was at one time the most celebrated religious centre
in Spain—the goal of fanatics from every corner of Europe, the Mecca of
countless thousands of theologians, and the tomb of one of the personal
companions of Christ. Although the ancient glory of Santiago has departed,
although

PONTEVEDRA—GENERAL VIEW.

its broad-flagged pavements are no longer thronged by the feet of the

devout, and it has been much shorn of its former civil and religious dignities,
the city is still the See of an Archbishop with a cathedral, two allegiate
churches, and fifteen parishes. The cathedral is erected on the site of the
chapel which was erected by Alonso II. to mark the spot where Theodomer,
Bishop of Iria Flavia, is said to have discovered the body of St. James the
Apostle; and the city, which sprang up around the memorial, bears the
Spanish name for St. James the Elder. The original cathedral, which was
finished in 879, consecrated in 899, and destroyed by the Moors in 997, was
replaced by the present edifice in 1078. Whether one believes or not the
tradition of the foundation of the cathedral—which, by the way, is no mere
tradition in the mind of the Galician—one cannot but regard this mighty pile
of stone with awe, and recognise in it the expression of an influence which
was once felt throughout the Christian world. Even to-day it is one of the
most frequented pilgrim-resorts in Europe.
One passes through Pontevedra, a picturesque granite town, with arcaded
streets and ancient houses bearing armorial shields, on the journey to Vigo.
Here, as everywhere on the Galician coast line, the parish priest goes down
to the shore one day in every year and blesses the sea; here also the oysters
are excellent and abundant, and here the watchman’s night chant is heard in
the streets. The call of the sereno, or watchman, who dates from the building
of the ancient walls of Pontevedra, and the chapel of Alonso II. of Santiago,
seems to catch the imagination of the traveller, and hurl him back into the
mediæval ages, when life was a state that men fought to retain, and religion
was a power for which they laid it down. The sereno, with his theatrical
cloak wrapped about him, his axe-headed staff, his lantern, his majestic
stalking walk, and his thrilling chant, “Ave Maria Purissima. Son las diez y
sereno,” seemed to me impressive, unreal, almost fantastic. At ten o’clock he
passed me in the deserted square, at eleven he was offering up his quavering
invocation beneath my window. Galicia has little in common with the towns
of the South—it retires to rest early in order to be up betimes.
At Vigo a small fragment of the ancient sea walls yet remain, but the
ruins that Lord Cobham made of the town in 1719 have been obliterated, and
in place of the fortified port, which Drake visited in 1585 and 1589, we have
a thriving, modernised town. Vigo is an important place of call for
Mediterranean steamers, it is one of the chief centres of the cattle trade
export to London, and the port of the mineral provinces of Pontevedra and
Orense.
The town of Orense, the capital of its province, is reached by the
magnificent old bridge that spans the river Miño. Though now deprived of
three of its arches, which were removed to give the road more width, and
also of the ancient castle which defended the entrance, it continues to attract
the attention of the traveller on account of its elegant and bold construction,
its ample proportions and majestic appearance. Tradition says it is Roman,
but many learned writers find nothing to confirm this assertion. It is quite
likely that a bridge existed there previously; but the present one, it would
appear, was built by order of Bishop Lorenzo during the first half of the
thirteenth century, and has since undergone many alterations, including those
to the largest arch, which is more than forty-three metres in width, and the
reconstruction of which was completed about the middle of the fifteenth
century. In the Roman days Orense was celebrated for its warm baths. These
three springs, which are still in existence, flow copiously from fountains one
above another, but the waters have lost their medicinal virtues—it is

VIGO—VIEW FROM THE CASTLE.

only a supposition that they ever possessed any—and are now used for
domestic purposes. The present cathedral, which is an obvious imitation of
the cathedral at Santiago, was raised in 1220. The cathedral, the warm
springs, and the bridge over the Miño, comprise the three marvels of the city.
 GIJON—THE WHARF.

Equally ancient, but in many ways more interesting, is the capital town of
Lugo. It boasts a cathedral which shares with San Isidoro of León the
immemorial right to have the consecrated Host always exposed; Roman
walls in an excellent state of preservation that entirely surround the city, and
an establishment of baths. The bath-house contains 200 beds; and the
springs, which contain nitre and antimony, are good for cutaneous diseases
and rheumatism. The river Miño, which is the glory not only of Lugo but of
Galicia, rises in the mountains, some nineteen miles from the city.
As the centre of a beautiful and variegated country, which affords good
sport for the angler, and scenery of enchanting loveliness to attract the artist,
Oriedo, the capital of the Astionas, has its charms; but the seaport of Gijon,
with its tobacco manufactory, its railway workshops, its iron foundry, and
glass and pottery works, is a much more thriving and important town. Gijon,
like Santander, is a flourishing port; and both have gained immensely in
importance of late years. While the latter, with its handsome modern houses,
makes a more splendid show, its drainage and sanitary arrangements leave
much to be desired, and the harbour at low water is sometimes most
offensive. Both towns are of Roman origin, but Gijon is the most pleasantly
situated on a projecting headland beneath the shelter of the hill of Santa
Catalina, and the harbour is the safest on the North Coast. It exports apples
and nuts in enormous quantities, coal, and iron, and jet; while its shores are
much frequented by bathers during the summer months.
 SANTANDER—THE PORT.

SANTANDER—GENERAL VIEW.

It is currently believed, and I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the

statement, that if a visitor in any town in England stops the first native he
meets and inquires as to the objects of interest that the place possesses, he
will be referred immediately to the principal hostelry of the town. If you
wander in London, and ask your way about, you will be directed right across
the city by references to public-houses, which are the only landmarks that
the Cockney ever dreams of studying. In Spain, cathedrals are as ubiquitous
as inns are in England. You may be sure of finding comfortable
accommodation for man and beast in most English towns, and in the
Peninsula you can be quite as confident of “bringing up” against a cathedral
—if nothing else. In León, the capital of the province of the same name, and
in Salamanca, the second city in the province, we find the same state of
things existing—the cathedral first and the rest nowhere. Yet these two cities
boast of a noble history of ancient splendour and old-time greatness, and
with this—and their cathedrals—they appear to be content. León, in the time
of Augustus, was the headquarters of the legion that defended the plains
from the Asturian marauders; and when the Romans withdrew, it continued
as an independent city to withstand the continued attacks of the Goths until
586. The city yielded to the Moor, was rescued by Ordoño I., and retaken by
the Arabs with every accompaniment of inhuman atrocity. Its defences were
rebuilt by Alonso V. nearly 400 years later, its houses were repeopled, and it
continued to be the capital of the Kings of León until the court was removed
to Seville by Don Pedro. Its present miserable condition is a lamentable
appendix to such a history. Its streets are mean, its shops are miserable, and
its inns are worse. Nothing is left to it but its cathedral.
This temple is truly an architectural
wonder, combining the delicacy of the
purest Gothic style with a solidity which
has stood for centuries; the manner in
which the problem of
stability was solved
is wonderful, the
immense weights
seeming to have no
solid bases. The
finest and most
beautiful chiselled
work is visible
everywhere, and
careful study is
necessary in order to LEÓN—CLOISTER IN
understand how the CATHEDRAL.
LEÓN—THE CATHEDRAL.
weight and strain of
the arches were made to rest on their
elegant buttresses. The origin of this magnificent temple is not quite clear,
but many archæologists believe that it was founded in the time of King
Ordoño II. It is of irregular form, but the cathedral or nave, transept, and
presbytery are in the form of a perfect Latin cross.
 LEÓN—THE CATHEDRAL CHOIR STALLS.

The windows are of colossal dimensions, and the ratablos and sculptures
are notable. Among its many famous works the cloister must not be
forgotten. It is an example of the transition style from ogive to renaissance,
with large galleries, interesting groups of sculpture, and a beautiful door
leading into the temple.

LEÓN—VIEW TAKEN FROM THE CEMETERY.

Among all the choral stalls treasured in Spanish churches those in the
cathedral at León stand out prominently. Unfortunately, the names of the
master who designed them, and of the artists who assisted him to carry that
marvel of ogive art into effect, are not known; but it must have been
executed during the last thirty years of the fifteenth century, for it is known
that in 1468 the necessary bulls were obtained from his holiness through
Archbishop Antonio de Veneris in order to arrange means for meeting the
cost of the stalls, and in 1481 the work was still proceeding.
 SALAMANCA—GENERAL VIEW.

Salamanca has a great name, a florid Gothic cathedral, and a square of

handsome proportions and pleasant prospects. In other respects, it is quite
without attractions. The streets are badly paved and dull, the climate is
shrewd, and fuel, I was told, is scarce and expensive. Even the cathedral,
though grand, is bare; and when one has visited the cathedral and lingered
awhile in the pleasant garden of the Plaza Mayor—one of the largest and
handsomest squares in Spain—and tested the accommodation of “La
Comercio,” one can find little else to entrance one in the disappointing old
city which was once a world-famed seat of learning. In the fifteenth century,
when its university gave precedence to Oxford alone, it boasted of 10,000
students. In the following century its scholars had declined to one half that
number, and to-day only some few hundred students are on its books. The
sun of Salamanca commenced to set at a period of the world’s history that to
all the rest of Europe was one of awakening and advancement. Decline and
decay are writ large on the face of the city. From a distance its noble
situation and fine buildings, built of beautiful creamy stone, gives the place
an imposing and picturesque appearance. But though the shell of Salamanca
remains, its spirit has departed. The ravages of the Romans, the Goths, the
Moors, the Spaniards, and the ruin which the neighbourly French inflicted
less than a hundred years ago, have left their cruel marks upon its historic
walls. Salamanca is but a broken hulk spent by the storms that, from time to
time, have devastated her. Her narrow, tortuous, ill-paved streets, which skirt
its multitude of grandiose buildings, her squalor and poverty, her inferior art
work, but even more the uncorrupted art of the grand old cathedral, all
remind us of what Salamanca was, and turn our eyes backwards from what it
is.
SALAMANCA—VIEW OF THE COLLEGE FROM THE IRLANDESES.

ZARAGOZA—“INDEPENDENCIA” PROMENADE.
 ZARAGOZA—PILAR CHURCH.

One must approach Zaragoza with one’s mind full of memories of heroes,
queens, poets, and bandits that have been associated with this once mighty
city, and one’s heart filled with sympathy and respect for the old, proud
Aragon that flourished, and was illustrious in history while the Englanders
still decorated themselves with blue paint, and were domiciled in caves. For
Zaragoza is not altogether a gay or an exhilarating city. Many of the streets
have a gloomy aspect, and the old houses are high, dark, and repellant. But
the city is not only important as the seat of a university, an Audiencia, an
archbishop, the captain-general of Aragón, and other officials; it is also the
junction of four railways, and its commercial progress has been steadily
increasing of recent years. For Zaragoza is in reality two cities—the old part
with ancient fortified houses, converted now into stables and wood stores,
and the new part traversed by broad, well-paved, and excellently-lighted
streets, and lined with modern buildings. Until the railway connected the city
with Madrid and Barcelona, Zaragoza was as dead as Salamanca, and as
dilapidated as León. But it has always held the advantage of those places in
having two cathedrals to their one. The principal cathedral, that of La Seo, is
a venerable Gothic pile occupying the site of a Moorish mosque, and its high
arches have echoed many councils, and looked down on the solemn
coronations of the kings of Aragon. More modern is the Cathedral El Pilar,
so called from the identical pillar on which the Virgin descended from
heaven. It was commenced on St. James’s Day, 1686, the work being
designed and carried out by the famous Don Francisco Herrera, the architect.
In the year 1753 King Ferdinand VI. instructed Ventura Rodriguex, the
architect, to design and build a new church, as luxurious as possible, in
which to instal the image without taking it out of its temple. This was done
by erecting a small Corinthian temple under the magnificent cupola, which
was ornamented with the richest marble and jasper that could be procured.
On one of the altars of this temple, which is crowned with a magnificent
silver canopy, reposes the venerated effigy, the jewels on which are of
incalculable value.
 The Stone Monastery at
Nuevalos, on the right bank of
the river from which it takes its
name, is one of the places most
worthy of a visit in the province
of Zaragoza, not only on account
of the building itself, which is of
great historical interest, having
been built in 1195, but for the
delicious picturesqueness of the
place. Surrounded by rocks, AT NUEVALOS.
A FLEMISH DANCE. winding amidst thick woods and
dashing into deep abysses, this
river runs its erratic course, imparting life to a landscape which is, according
to the noted poet, Don Ramon Campoamor, “an improved dream of Virgil.”
Among its many picturesque waterfalls, the one called “La Caprichosa” is
perhaps the most beautiful.
The dress of the Aragonese peasantry is peculiar and picturesque. The
men, as a rule, wear no hats, but have instead a coloured handkerchief
wound round the head, leaving the top bare. Their knee-breeches are slashed
down the sides and tied by strings below the knee. The waistcoats are worn
open. Round the waist they wind a wide sash, in the folds of which pipes,
tobacco, money, and provisions are carried as safely as in a pocket. Their
feet are shod with sandals, and they universally carry a blanket, which is
thrown in a graceful manner over their shoulders.
 Bull-fighting.

A BULL-FIGHT is underlined for an early visit in the note-book of every

visitor to Spain. He goes prepared to be disgusted, and he comes away
to denounce it as a revolting and demoralising exhibition. He even
plumes himself upon his moral and human superiority over the Spaniard,
because the spectacle proves too strong for his untutored stomach. The
inference is as gratuitous as it is illogical. In point of fact, the effect of the
spectacle upon the spectator is not so much a matter of sensibility as custom.
The Spaniard grows up to the sport as our Elizabethan ancestors grew to
bull-baiting—even as the present generation of Englishman grows to
pugilism. To the Spaniard, the cruelty of the craft of tauromachy does not
appeal; the spectacle inflames his blood, and stirs not a chord of compassion
in his nature. Yet he can be intensely sympathetic, gentle, and tender-
hearted; but these softer qualities of character are not touched by the sight of
animal suffering. In the first place, the bull is his enemy by heredited
tendency. He cannot forbear to hurl insulting epithets at him when he
chances to pass him on a journey. He witnesses his end with the thrill of
satisfaction which a soldier feels in the death of a treacherous and
implacable foe. The Englishman cannot share, or even realise this sentiment
—it would be strange if he could. His leading feeling is curiosity, and a
nervous apprehensive tension which only magnifies the horror and repulsion
of the sport. With the Spaniard it is entirely different. Long habit has
familiarised him with the bloody details, and his experienced eyes follow
each trick and turn of the contest with the enthusiasm of an athlete watching
an athletic display. Every detail of skill and dexterity and nerve exhibited by
the fighters, and every clever move made by the bull is greeted with critical
applause. Cruelty there must be, but courage in a high degree is a factor in
the contest—danger gives to the contest a dignity which is absent from
pheasant shooting, and which formed no excuse for the vogue to which bear-
baiting and cock-fighting once attained in this country.
 THE PROCESSION.

It may be thought that I am trying to champion an institution which is

regarded with aversion by all classes of English people, but such is not my
intention. My object is to look at it from the Spanish point of view, and
endeavour to see if there is not some plausible explanation of its popularity
as a national amusement. But when all is said and done, there still exist two
objections to the sport which cannot be explained away. The first is the
almost inexplicable indifference which a Spanish audience shows for the
torture that is inflicted upon the horses that take part in the corrida: the other
is the attendance of the gentler sex. It must, however, be noted that a large
proportion—certainly the majority of Spanish ladies—are opposed to the
sport, and with the rest it is the manly courage and address of the performers
that fascinates them. But the fact remains that women are seen in large
numbers in the amphitheatre, as 300 years ago good Queen Bess was not
ashamed to be a spectator at many an exhibition of bear-baiting. English
sentiments in matters of sport have undergone a great change since the
Elizabethan era, but Spain is notoriously the most conservative country in
Europe.
However, enough has been said of the theoretical side of bull-fighting; let
us accompany the seething populace to the Plaza de Toros, and witness the
sport for ourselves. The streets of Madrid are crowded with people who are
all moving in the same direction. April to October is the regular bull-fighting
season, but the Spaniard finds the lightest excuse a sufficient one for
indulgence in his favourite pastime during the “close” season. And so,
although it is February when I am in Madrid, I am not to forego an
experience of a promising corrida.
 Although I have seen bull-fights in some of the best rings in Spain,
including those of San Sebastian, Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid, it is
more particularly of my experiences at the latter place that I shall write.
During the fashionable months, a boletin de Sombra, or “ticket for the
shade,” is a luxury to be prized; but in February, in Madrid, we need all the
warmth and glare that the sun can give us. The present Bull Ring, which was
built at a cost of £80,000, and opened in 1874, seats 15,000 persons. It
stands on a gentle elevation in a broad stretch of bare yellow land, where it
raises its brick-coloured walls—the only land-mark in the barren, treeless,
desolate expanse between the city and the solemn distant mountains. Around
the various entrances countless human beings cluster like bees, and the Plaza
is alive with men and horses, mules with tinkling bells, soldiers, police,
picadors, and fruit-sellers. What strikes one most curiously about this
concourse of human beings, both outside the bull-ring and within the huge
amphitheatre, which rises tier above tier from the brown sand till it is almost
lost in the vast expanse of blue above, is its single-mindedness, its patience,
and the entire absence of horseplay. To a Spaniard this is not curious, but to
the English spectator some familiar characteristic of a crowd appears to be
absent.

ENTRANCE OF THE BULL.

Punctuality is not a strong trait in the Spanish character, but punctuality

will be observed to-day. At the hour and the minute appointed, the President
enters his palco, the signal is given, and the proceedings commence. The
procession, headed by two caballeros, habited in black velvet, moves slowly
across the ring to the front of the President’s seat. The two espadas in yellow
and violet, and gold and green costumes respectively, follow the caballeros.
After them come half-a-dozen stoutly-protected picadores, then eight
banderilleros, gay with a profusion of silk sashes, short breeches, and
variously-coloured hose, and the rear is brought up by a posse of attendants,
leading the mules, all bedecked in plumes and rich trappings, which are to
drag off the carcases from the arena. The entrance of the glittering cavalcade
is announced by a trumpet sound, and the President tosses the key of the
toril into the ring.
To the “new chum,” all this preliminary detail, commonplace and
“circusy” as it is, is sufficient to strain the nerves, and expectancy changes to
apprehension. The creak emitted by the opening of the heavy door of the
toril intensifies the feeling. The clutch of curiosity with which the entire
concourse awaits the entrance of the first bull is contagious. Instinctively one
strains forward and catches one’s breath. Toro does not keep us long in
suspense. There is a momentary lull, and then the bull dashes from his dark
cell into the glint of the Spring sunshine. The novelty of the environment
staggers him for a moment. He hesitates in the centre of the ring, and looks
wildly around him. The arena is empty, with the exception of three
picadores, who sit rigidly in a row on their sorry hacks, waiting for the bull
to recognise their presence.
Our first victim is a doughty warrior. He is as ignorant as the blindfold
knackers—that would be dear at a pound a leg—of the fate in store for him.
He may make a brave fight, kill horses, upset men, and leap the barriers with
a heroic rush, but in twenty minutes his corpse will be coupled up to the
mules, and fresh sand will be strewn on the red trail that will mark his last
passage across the arena. The inevitableness of the outcome of the
encounter, so far as the principal actor is concerned, is the least pleasing
feature of the sport. The fox and the stag are
 ANTONI LUIS MAZZANTINI AND U
O CUADRILLA. E
FUENTE R
S. R
I
T
A
.
B
a
n
d
i
l
l
e
r
o
.

given a gambling chance, the grouse is not without hope, and the gladiator of
the cock-pit may live to fight another day, but the bull is a doomed animal.
Happily he is not capable of calculating the uselessness of his efforts. The
horses stand but little better chance, and the picadores, despite their iron and
leather greaves and spears, are paid to take risks.
The art of the picador is displayed in the skill with which he avoids the
charge of the bull, and turns him on to the next picador, who, in turn, will
pass him on to the third. In this instance the manœuvre does not come off.
The bull’s rush is met by the first picador with the point, but the horse he
strides is too ancient to obey with sufficient celerity the rider’s injunction to
swerve, and horse and man are rolled over with the force of the impact. The
wretched equine is lacerated on his opposing flank, but the spearman appears
to be uninjured, and before the bull has completed his circuit of the ring, the
horse is on his feet again, and the picador is waiting for the next attack. The
toreros, with their red capa, are immediately on the spot to draw the bull
from his victim, but the bull is too eager to waste time on a fallen foe. The
second and third horseman avoid his rush; and the bull, smarting from spear
thrusts, and confused by the cheers, is inclined, in racing parlance, to “turn it
up.” The first horse who crosses the line of sight is caught on the brute’s
horns, and is so deeply impaled that the bull has to swerve at right angles to
rid himself of his enemy. The second horse is impaled before the combatant
can plant his spear in the bull’s neck. Steed and rider are lurched in the air,
and fall heavily to the ground, and the momentary victor lowers his head
again to the prostrate man, and rolls him over and over. Toreros hasten to the
spot to get him away, the people rise in their places, ladies lift their fans and
avert their faces, while the air is filled with the usual murmur of lamentation
which accompanies an accident. Both the other picadores are unhorsed
before the President gives the signal for them to retire. Act one of this most
realistic of sporting melodramas is over.
The banderilleros now come forward. They are costumed like Figaro, in
the opera of “Il Barbiere de Sevilla,” and their hair is tied into a knot behind.
To the English spectator, this part of the performance is the most fascinating
and least abhorrent of the entire piece. The banderillero inflicts no more pain
on the bull than the humane angler deals out to the wily trout, and the agility
and daring with which he addresses himself to his task is superb. His aim is
to plant small barbed darts, or banderillas, on each side of the neck of the
bull. The chulos, or apprentices, here open the ball by tantalising the animal,
and working him up to a proper pitch of fury. Then the banderilleros circle
round him, and one, standing full in his line of flight, “defies” him with the
arms raised high over his head. If the bull stops, as he is doing now, the man
walks composedly towards him. Then the bull lowers his head and makes his
rush, and the athlete, swerving nimbly to one side, pins in his banderillas
simultaneously. Again and again the maddened animal, frantic more from
impotence than pain, makes his rushes from one tormentor to another. At
each rush he receives further instalments of his hated decorations. Then one
man bungles. He loses his nerve, or, failing to time the animal’s charge,
shirks the onslaught. A howl of execration greets the exhibition, and the
unfortunate baiter is tempted to more rash efforts. He seats himself in a
chair, and waits with suicidal calmness the rush of the bull. Just as the
animal’s horns are thrust beneath him he jumps lightly up, manipulating his
darts with miraculous precision, while the chair is tossed high in the air.
Thunders of applause greet this venturesome feat, and the other
banderilleros, warmed to their work by the plaudits of the public, vie with
one another in deeds of coolness and “derring do.” One waits, alert but
motionless, for the attacks of the charging bull, and as the galloping brute
lowers his head to toss him, places his foot between the terrible horns, and is
lifted clear over his onrushing enemy. Another, seizing hold of the lashing
tail, swings himself along the bull’s side, and plants himself for one thrilling
moment right between the horns.

THE PICADOR.

I once saw a banderillero, in response to the jeers of the crowd, take the
darts, which are about two feet long, break them across his knee, and plant
the stumpy weapons, with unerring precision, on each side of the neck of the
bull.
These feats appear to be fraught with infinite danger, and the agility with
which the performers acquit themselves cannot be witnessed without a
tremour of amazement and admiration. Several times the venturesome
chulos escape death as by a miracle: they sometimes seem so close to their
end when they vault over the barriers to avoid the pursuing bull, that they
appear to be helped over the fence by the bull’s horns. One bull exhibits at
this stage of the proceedings an emphatic disinclination to continue the fight.
He paws the ground when the darts are driven home, but makes no show of
retaliation, and the hoots and opprobrious epithets that are hurled at him by
the populace fail to inspire him to renewed efforts. Then the banderillas de
fuego are called for. These are arrows, provided with fire crackers, which
explode the moment they are affixed in the neck. In a moment the spectacle,
which had worked me up to a high pitch of excitement, becomes intensely
distasteful. The tortured animal, driven mad with fright and pain, bounds
across the ring in a series of leaps like a kid. The people scream with delight,
and I mentally wonder what kind of “steadier” the Spaniard resorts to when
his stomachic nerve is affected by a detail of the exhibition. The firework
display had not lasted long when the last trumpet sounded, and the espada
walks forward to a storm of rapturous applause.
The finale of the spectacle is approaching. The executioner comes alone:
the bull, who has hitherto been tormented by a crowd of enemies, is now
able to concentrate his whole attention on one object. Toro has become
exhausted with his previous exertions, and he moves without his old dash.
The espada studies his foe carefully, to judge the temper of the animal with
which he has to deal. With his left hand he waves the muleta—the red cloak
—to lure the beast into a few characteristic rushes and disclose his
disposition. If he is a dull, heavy bull, he will be despatched with the
beautiful half-volley; but if he proves himself a sly, dangerous customer, that
is cunning enough to run at the man, instead of at the muleta, a less
picturesque, but safer thrust must be employed. But our bull is neither sly
nor leaden. He has recovered from his fright, and is quick to seize his
opportunity to make a final effort before the stinging banderilleros return to
distract him. Once or twice he thrusts his horns into the unresisting cloak,
then gathers himself together for a final rush. The swordsman raises the
point of his glimmering Toledo blade; while every nerve of his sinuous,
graceful body quivers with the absolute constraint and concentrated effort
that hold him. The duellists are both of the same mind. The espada has
summed up his antagonist—he is levantados, the bold bull, a fit subject for
la suerte de frente. The bull’s next rush is his last. The fencer receives the
charge on his sword, which enters just between the left shoulder and the
blade. The bull staggers, lurches heavily on to his knees, and rolls over, at
the feet of his conqueror, vomiting blood.
The assembled multitude rend the air with their cheers, the men yell
applause, and every face is distorted with excitement and enthusiasm. The
only indifferent person in the building is the espada. With a graceful and
unassertive turn of his wrist, he waves the sword over his fallen foe, wipes
the hot blood from the blade, and turning on his heel, approaches the
President’s box, and bows with admirable sang-froid. The team of jingling
mules enter, and the dead bull is carried off at a rapid gallop. The espada
walks composedly away, without another glance at the result of his
handiwork.
The superb imperturbability of these espadas always fills me with
admiration. They accept the plaudits of the spectators with the same
unconcern with which they hear the execrations that fill the air if they do not
at the first attempt inflict the coup de grace. During the first corrida I
attended, an espada failed to aim at the precise spot, and the bull tore up the
sand in agony. The populace insulted the swordsman with jeers and
howlings, but he remained perfectly cool and collected, and nerved himself
with as much composure to his second and successful thrust as if he had
been practising with a sack of potatoes in an empty arena. When I had been
witness to the death of two bulls, I remarked to my Spanish friend that I had
seen as much as I desired, and was quite ready to quit the spot. But my
companion was a friend of long standing: he could be firm without seeming
discourteous. “No! no!” he said, “you kept me in the theatre last night until
‘Don Juan’ was played to the bitter end: you shall remain to-day to reward
me for my exemplary patience and respect for your wishes.” I saw five other
bulls done to death during the afternoon.

AT CLOSE QUARTERS.

Although not to be compared with an ordinary corrida as a display of

skill, and capacity, and artistic finish, a Royal bull-fight, such as Madrid saw
on the occasion of the coronation of King Alfonso XIII., is more interesting
as being a revival of the sport as it was originally practised. Bull-fighting to-
day is a purely professional business, but in the knightly days of ancient
Spain it was employed as a means to teach the chivalrous youth the use of
arms. In those days, mounted caballeros encountered the bulls in the ring
with lances alone—a more dangerous pastime than is bull-fighting in its
modern sufficiently hazardous form. Then the combatants were mounted on
good horses, and their business was to save them and turn the bull, to kill the
bull if possible, but, at the risk of their own lives, to protect their steeds from
injury. It is recorded that in one Fiesta de Toros at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, no less than ten young knights lost their lives. The corrida,
Real con Caballeros en plaza—a Royal bull-fight with gentlemen in the
arena—on the olden lines, that was held on May 21st, 1902, in Madrid, was
fought by young officers and scions of noble families, who were attired in
the gorgeous costumes of Spanish knights of the reign of Philip IV., and
attended by their pages and grooms wearing the dress of the same period,
and displaying the colours of the noble house which they served. On that
occasion, the Paseo de las Cuadrillas, or preliminary procession of the bull-
fighters across the arena to the strains of military music, was a most
imposing sight. The Padrinos, the grandees who acted as supporters or
godfathers of the knights, accompanied the fighters, followed by their
mediævally-clad retinues, to the foot of the Royal box, and presented them
to the King. The spectacle was strikingly brilliant, but the display was not to
be compared with a professional bout. The horses of the cavaliers had
evidently not been sufficiently trained for their work, and the best riding in
the world could not bring them off scathless. Let me condense an account of
the scene to convey an impression of what the present-day bull-fight has
been derived from.
When the procession had withdrawn, leaving only the chulos and the
gallant caballeros in the arena, the door of the toril swung on its heavy
hinges, and a splendid specimen of a bull, dungeoned for several hours
previously in utter darkness, darted into the light of day, tearing up the
ground with its hoofs, and ploughing the air with its horns. Suddenly, a
horseman and his prancing steed vaulted into the centre of the ring—the
charger, with flowing mane, full-veined ears and shapely head slanted
forward—to meet the onrush of the goaded bull. The second picador seeing
the bull worried and dazed by the tantalising assistants, scudded past on a
swift, white racer, sitting gracefully in his saddle, and then turning deftly as
he passed the great brute, plunged his lance into his neck, and whirled aside
to avoid possible pursuit. But by sheer accident, the bleeding steer dashed
off in the same direction, caught the horse in the hindquarters, raising it on
its forelegs and endangering the equilibrium of the rider.
Before the scampering bull had time to recover from the compact, the
second caballero, dashing up, had planted his lance deep into its neck. The
white horse, stung with pain, made a wild rush, but was brought to hand by
splendid horsemanship, and his rider urged him along, to inflict another
wound in the animal’s head. Then two toreros advanced, beguiling and
wearying the bull. By the time the bull had received the fifth lance in his
neck, and the white steed had been twice wounded, the edge was taken off
the keen thirst for violent emotions, and another torero unfolded his red
capa, waved it to and fro until the bull swooped down upon him, and a
moment later he was sprawling in the sand seemingly gored by the infuriated
animal. The next minute the wounded steer tottered, dropped on its forelegs,
and turned over on the sand, and a knife put a speedy end to its sufferings.
The second bull, a black massive creature, appeared listless and faint, and
made little effort to defend itself. It made one successful attack on the white
charger; and, then, at the signal from the King, an amateur espada stepped
forward. The attempt was a miserable failure. The young swordsman
dedicated, in a few well-chosen words, the death of the bull to his sovereign,
and after a dozen passes with the red capa, plunged the gleaming blade of
Toledo steel into the animal’s neck, but so ineffectually that a storm of hisses
resounded through the ring. The second attempt was still more awkward, the
sword entering but a few inches. The sword was pulled out, and another
effort, made amid groans and hisses, proved equally unsuccessful.

A TURN WITH HIS BACK TO THE BULL.

Although the madness had died out of the expiring brute’s eyes, and his
forelegs were bending under him, the inexperienced torero seemed unable to
put him out of pain. However, he grasped the short, sharp knife, and
unsteadily taking aim, plunged it into the neck. Another failure. Yells,
groans, shrieks, whistling, and hissing marked the anger of the crowd. The
espada may be a paid professional, or the greatest noble in Spain, but in the
ring he is judged by the rules of the ring, and his bungling is recognised with
the most poignant scorn to which failure could be subjected. He again
grasped the sword; and, spurred by the vitriolic exclamations of the public,
sheathed it in the bull’s neck. The animal stood still and tottered, his forelegs
bent, his head sank upon the moist, red sand, his hind feet quivered, and a
flourish of trumpets announced that life was extinct.
It is curious to find, in talking with learned enthusiasts on the relative
merits of the bull-fighters, what diversity of opinion exists; but all parties are
agreed upon the unrivalled skill and daring of the mighty Frascuelo. In his
day, for death’s whistle summoned him from the arena in the height of his
fame, Frascuelo was regarded as the greatest matador that Spain had ever
seen; and Spaniards, in debating the subject of the bull-ring, never indulge
the hope that his equal will ever arise to shed a new glory on the National
sport. Frascuelo is dead, and his famous rival, Guerra, or Guerrita—to give
him his professional name—has long since cut off his coleta, and lives in
well-earned retirement at Córdova. But the school of fighters, who claim
Frascuelo as their master—the fearless, dare-devil toreros, who scorn to
concede a yard of ground to the bull, and do all their fighting at close
quarters—is widely popular; and if their terribly dangerous methods are
attended by frequent casualties, the intoxicating applause that rewards the
accomplishment of a brilliant coup is, apparently, ample compensation for
the risks that it entails. But the wildest appreciation of a successful feat does
not exempt the most popular performer from the furious condemnation of
the multitude when his scheme miscarries. The allowances made by a
Spanish audience at the ring-side are of the most grudging nature. I once
travelled from Barcelona to Madrid in the company of Bombita-Chico—the
boy Bombita—who, although he was barely recovered from an unfortunate
encounter with a tricky bull eight days before, was on his way to take part in
a grand corrida that was to be held in the capital. He was—as his name
denotes—no more than a lad, with large, strong hands that sparkled with
jewels, while a formidable anchor about five inches long, set with
magnificent diamonds, dangled from his watch-chain. I saw him again in the
arena a few days later. He seemed nervous, and was, it appeared to me, a
little perturbed by the demonstration that welcomed his reappearance in the
ring after his accident. Ill fortune allotted him a troublesome animal, and his
kill, while creditable enough to untutored eyes, lacked the grace and finish
that the critical spectator requires. Bombita was their own Boy of Madrid,
and because of his recent misfortune they forgave him, but they did not
cheer him; and the lad walked out of the arena amid a silence that could be
felt.

FIXING THE BANDERILLAS.

Mazantini, now grown old and heavy, was in his day an undoubtedly fine
matador. There are some that still regard him as the head of his profession.
But the majority, remembering what he was, regret that he has not gone into
honourable retirement. But Mazantini cannot tear himself away from the
fascination of the arena, although his appearances grow less frequent every
year. Conejito, who was wounded in Barcelona in the spring of 1903, is
generally regarded as the most accomplished matador now before the public;
but Fuentes is, par excellence, the best all-round man. For, with the
exception of the picador business, Fuentes plays every part in the piece.
Other espadas have their assistants, who play the bull with their capas, and
stand by while the banderilleros ply their infuriating darts. It is only when
the bull has been prepared for the slaughter by the other performers that the
matador comes forward to put the finishing touch to the grim tragedy.
Fuentes, on the other hand, on special occasions—of which the corrida
which I attended in Madrid was one—keeps his assistants entirely in the
background; he takes the stage when the picadores leave it, and keeps it to
the end. So close does he keep to the bull, that during the corrida in Madrid,
of which I am writing, he seldom allowed the animal to be a dart’s length
away from him. On one occasion his capa got caught so tightly on the bull’s
horns that he tore it in jerking it away; and at another time the bull stopped
dead, with his forefeet on the hated sash. As a banderillero, Fuentes is
without equal in Spain. He frequently works with darts that have previously
been broken short, and he uses them sparingly. Yet the encounter between
the banderillero and the bull when Fuentes is on the scene is the most
thrilling part of the whole performance. It is a contest between human
intellect and brute intelligence—a duel between mind and matter. Fuentes
does not avoid the bull, but by exerting some magnetic power he repulses the
animal and compels it to halt. When the bull charges, in response to his
“defiance,” he waits with the banderillas suspended above his head until the
animal is within a few yards of him. Then he deliberately, but without haste,
lowers one arm until the arrow is on a level with the brute’s eyes. The bull
wavers in his onslaught, slows up, and stops dead within a foot or two of the
point. Sometimes Fuentes walks backwards, while the bull glares at him
with stupefied impotence, until he escapes the eyes that

THE MATADOR.

hold him, and gallops away. Again and again the banderillero taunts his
enemy to attack him, only to arrest his charge and force him to turn from his
deadly purpose by the irresistible power of his superior mentality. The crowd
follows this superb exhibition with breathless interest, and in a silence that is
more eloquent of admiration than the wildest cheers would be. But the end is
nearly reached. Fuentes grasps his stumpy darts and advances against his
bewildered antagonist, who waits his approach with sulky indifference. The
man’s arms are flung up with a gesture of exasperating defiance, and when
the bull makes his final rush, his opponent, instead of stopping him, steps
lithely on one side, and the brute thunders past him with the two galling
arrows firmly implanted in his huge neck. Fuentes has already moved to the
side of the ring. The bull turns and charges back at him. The banderillero
glides gracefully over the sand, but his pace is not equal to that of his
infuriated pursuer. The distance between them decreases rapidly; in half-a-
dozen yards he will be upon him. Fuentes glances over his shoulder and,
without changing his pace, doffs his cap and flings it in the bull’s face. This
stratagem only arrests the rush of the brute for a moment, but it gives the
man time to reach the barrier, where he receives his muleta and sword from
an attendant and returns to complete his task.
All the kings of the bull-ring have their own particular feats or strokes,
which the Spaniards appreciate as Englishmen revel in Ranjitsinhji’s
acrobatic hitting, or Morny Cannon’s inimitable “finishes.” Bombita-Chico’s
speciality in playing his bull is to kneel in the arena and allow the animal to
charge through the capa which is held within three feet of the ground. The
nerve required for this feat fires the audience with enthusiastic approval. The
tale is told of a torero, whose name I have forgotten, who gained distinction
by his exceptional skill in facing the bull with the long vaulting pole, known
as the salto de la garrocha. With this instrument he would goad the bull on
to the attack. When the brute was in full gallop he would, timing his
movements to the instant, run a few yards to meet him, and swing himself
high into the air at the end of his pole. The oncoming bull would charge the
pole, the grounded end would be tossed upwards, and the torero would drop
lightly to the ground and make good his escape. On one occasion the man
performed his risky “turn” at a moment when the attention of a royal lady
was attracted from the arena, and she sent an attendant to the expert to
command him to repeat it. In vain the poor fellow protested that it was
impossible for him to accomplish the same feat again with the same bull.
The lady’s desire had been expressed. “But it is more than my life is worth,”
argued the athlete. “It is the lady’s wish,” responded the attendant. The
torero bowed, and “I dedicate my life to Her Royal Highness,” he said. The
attempt fell out as he foretold. The bull charged and stopped dead. The man
vaulted aloft, his body described a half circle, and fell—on the horns of the
bull. He was dead before the attendants could entice the animal from his
victim.
 THE FINAL STROKE.

Lagartijo, Lagartijillo, Mazantini, and Montes all have their

distinguishing methods of attacking and despatching the bull, but none of
these are capable of the feat by which Guerrita was wont to throw the bull-
ring into transports of deafening enthusiasm. In the ordinary way, the espada
having taken the measure of his adversary, receives him standing sideways,
and having thrust his sword at arm’s length between the left shoulder and the
blade, leaps aside as the bull blunders forward on to his knees and falls to the
earth. But Guerrita advanced his left arm across his body and waved his
muleta under his right uplifted arm. When the bull lowered his head at the
charge he passed the sword over the animal’s horns and plunged the blade
into the vital spot behind the shoulder. In other words, he stopped the brute
and killed him while his head was under his arm; and so closely were the
duellists locked in that last embrace, that Guerrita’s side was frequently
scratched by the bull’s horns. One may lecture, write, and preach against the
barbarity of bull-fighting; but so long as Spain can breed men of such
amazing nerve, and skill, and dexterity that they can successfully defy death
and mutilation to provide their countrymen with such lurid sport, so long
will bull-fighting continue to flourish in Spain.
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookmasss.com