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+ float: left; + margin-right: 1em } + +.align-right { clear: right; + float: right; + margin-left: 1em } + +.align-center { margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto } + +div.shrinkwrap { display: table; } + +/* SECTIONS */ + +body { margin: 5% 10% 5% 10% } + +/* compact list items containing just one p */ +li p.pfirst { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } + +.first { margin-top: 0 !important; + text-indent: 0 !important } +.last { margin-bottom: 0 !important } + +span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 } +img.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; max-width: 25% } +span.dropspan { font-variant: small-caps } + +.no-page-break { page-break-before: avoid !important } + +/* PAGINATION */ + +@media screen { + .coverpage, .frontispiece, .titlepage, .verso, .dedication, .plainpage + { margin: 10% 0; } + + div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage + { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } + + .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } +} + +@media print { + div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } + div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } + + .vfill { margin-top: 20% } + h2.title { margin-top: 20% } +} + +</style> +<title>ENGLISH TRAITS</title> +<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> +<meta name="PG.Title" content="English Traits" /> +<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> +<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Ralph Waldo Emerson" /> +<meta name="DC.Created" content="1876" /> +<meta name="PG.Id" content="39862" /> +<meta name="PG.Released" content="2012-05-30" /> +<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> +<meta name="DC.Title" content="English Traits" /> + +<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> +<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> +<meta content="English Traits" name="DCTERMS.title" /> +<meta content="english.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> +<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> +<meta content="2012-05-30T20:55:21.470110+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> +<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> +<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> +<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39862" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> +<meta content="Ralph Waldo Emerson" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> +<meta content="2012-05-30" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> +<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> +<meta content="EpubMaker 0.3.19b4 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> +<style type="text/css"> +.pageno { position: absolute; right: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } +.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.lineno { position: absolute; left: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } +.lineno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.toc-pageref { float: right } +pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39862 ***</div> +<div class="document" id="english-traits"> +<h1 class="document-title level-1 pfirst title">ENGLISH TRAITS</h1> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> +</div> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<div class="align-None center container titlepage white-space-pre-line"> +<p class="pfirst white-space-pre-line x-large">ENGLISH TRAITS.</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<p class="medium pfirst white-space-pre-line">BY</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst white-space-pre-line">RALPH WALDO EMERSON.</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center medium pfirst white-space-pre-line">NEW AND REVISED EDITION.</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst white-space-pre-line">BOSTON:<br /> +JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,<br /> +Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co.<br /> +1876.</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="align-None center container verso white-space-pre-line"> +<p class="center pfirst small white-space-pre-line">COPYRIGHT, 1856 AND 1876,<br /> +BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON.</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst white-space-pre-line">UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., CAMBRIDGE.</p> +</div> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="id1"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title">CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="container contents"> +<ul class="compact simple toc-list"> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-i-first-visit-to-england" id="id54">CHAPTER I.--FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-ii-voyage-to-england" id="id55">CHAPTER II.--VOYAGE TO ENGLAND.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-iii-land" id="id56">CHAPTER III.--LAND.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-iv-race" id="id57">CHAPTER IV.--RACE.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-v-ability" id="id58">CHAPTER V.--ABILITY.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-vi-manners" id="id59">CHAPTER VI.--MANNERS.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-vii-truth" id="id60">CHAPTER VII.--TRUTH.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-viii-character" id="id61">CHAPTER VIII.--CHARACTER.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-ix-cockayne" id="id62">CHAPTER IX.--COCKAYNE.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-x-wealth" id="id63">CHAPTER X.--WEALTH.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xi-aristocracy" id="id64">CHAPTER XI.--ARISTOCRACY.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xii-universities" id="id65">CHAPTER XII.--UNIVERSITIES.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xiii-religion" id="id66">CHAPTER XIII.--RELIGION.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xiv-literature" id="id67">CHAPTER XIV.--LITERATURE.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xv-the-times" id="id68">CHAPTER XV.--THE "TIMES."</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xvi-stonehenge" id="id69">CHAPTER XVI.--STONEHENGE.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xvii-personal" id="id70">CHAPTER XVII.--PERSONAL.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xviii-result" id="id71">CHAPTER XVIII.--RESULT.</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xix-speech-at-manchester" id="id72">CHAPTER XIX.--SPEECH AT MANCHESTER.</a></p> +</li> +</ul> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<div class="center vspace x-large" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst x-large">ENGLISH TRAITS.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<!-- --> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-i-first-visit-to-england"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id54">CHAPTER I.--FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">I have been twice in England. In 1833, on my +return from a short tour in Sicily, Italy, and France, I +crossed from Boulogne, and landed in London at the +Tower stairs. It was a dark Sunday morning; there +were few people in the streets; and I remember the +pleasure of that first walk on English ground, with my +companion, an American artist, from the Tower up +through Cheapside and the Strand, to a house in Russell +Square, whither we had been recommended to good +chambers. For the first time for many months we were +forced to check the saucy habit of travellers' criticism, +as we could no longer speak aloud in the streets without +being understood. The shop-signs spoke our language; +our country names were on the door-plates; and the +public and private buildings wore a more native and +wonted front.</p> +<p class="pnext">Like most young men at that time, I was much +indebted to the men of Edinburgh, and of the Edinburgh +Review,--to Jeffrey, Mackintosh, Hallam, and to Scott, +Playfair, and De Quincey; and my narrow and desultory +reading had inspired the wish to see the faces of +three or four writers,--Coleridge, Wordsworth, +Landor, De Quincey, and the latest and strongest +contributor to the critical journals, Carlyle; and I suppose if +I had sifted the reasons that led me to Europe, when I +was ill and was advised to travel, it was mainly the +attraction of these persons. If Goethe had been still +living, I might have wandered into Germany also. +Besides those I have named (for Scott was dead), there was +not in Britain the man living whom I cared to behold, +unless it were the Duke of Wellington, whom I +afterwards saw at Westminster Abbey, at the funeral of +Wilberforce. The young scholar fancies it happiness +enough to live with people who can give an inside to +the world; without reflecting that they are prisoners, +too, of their own thought, and cannot apply themselves +to yours. The conditions of literary success are almost +destructive of the best social power, as they do not leave +that frolic liberty which only can encounter a companion +on the best terms. It is probable you left some obscure +comrade at a tavern, or in the farms, with right +mother-wit, and equality to life, when you crossed sea and land +to play bo-peep with celebrated scribes. I have, +however, found writers superior to their books, and I cling +to my first belief, that a strong head will dispose fast +enough of these impediments, and give one the satisfaction +of reality, the sense of having been met, and a +larger horizon.</p> +<p class="pnext">On looking over the diary of my journey in 1833, I +find nothing to publish in my memoranda of visits to +places. But I have copied the few notes I made of +visits to persons, as they respect parties quite too good +and too transparent to the whole world to make it +needful to affect any prudery of suppression about a few +hints of those bright personalities.</p> +<p class="pnext">At Florence, chief among artists, I found Horatio +Greenough, the American sculptor. His face was so +handsome, and his person so well formed, that he might +be pardoned, if, as was alleged, the face of his Medora, +and the figure of a colossal Achilles in clay, were +idealizations of his own. Greenough was a superior man, +ardent and eloquent, and all his opinions had elevation +and magnanimity. He believed that the Greeks had +wrought in schools or fraternities,--the genius of the +master imparting his design to his friends, and inflaming +them with it, and when his strength was spent, a new +hand, with equal heat, continued the work; and so by +relays, until it was finished in every part with equal fire. +This was necessary in so refractory a material as stone; +and he thought art would never prosper until we left our +shy jealous ways, and worked in society as they. All his +thoughts breathed the same generosity. He was an +accurate and a deep man. He was a votary of the Greeks, +and impatient of Gothic art. His paper on Architecture, +published in 1843, announced in advance the leading +thoughts of Mr. Ruskin on the <em class="italics">morality</em> in architecture, +notwithstanding the antagonism in their views of the +history of art. I have a private letter from him,--later, +but respecting the same period,--in which he roughly +sketches his own theory. "Here is my theory of +structure: A scientific arrangement of spaces and forms to +functions and to site; an emphasis of features +proportioned to their <em class="italics">gradated</em> importance in function; color +and ornament to be decided and arranged and varied by +strictly organic laws, having a distinct reason for each +decision; the entire and immediate banishment of all +makeshift and make-believe."</p> +<p class="pnext">Greenough brought me, through a common friend, an +invitation from Mr. Landor, who lived at San Domenica +di Fiesole. On the 15th May I dined with Mr. Landor. +I found him noble and courteous, living in a cloud of +pictures at his Villa Gherardesca, a fine house commanding +a beautiful landscape. I had inferred from his books, or +magnified from some anecdotes, an impression of +Achillean wrath,--an untamable petulance. I do not know +whether the imputation were just or not, but certainly on +this May day his courtesy veiled that haughty mind, and +he was the most patient and gentle of hosts. He praised +the beautiful cyclamen which grows all about Florence; +he admired Washington; talked of Wordsworth, Byron, +Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher. To be sure, he is +decided in his opinions, likes to surprise, and is well +content to impress, if possible, his English whim upon the +immutable past. No great man ever had a great son, if +Philip and Alexander be not an exception; and Philip he +calls the greater man. In art, he loves the Greeks, and +in sculpture, them only. He prefers the Venus to +everything else, and, after that, the head of Alexander, in the +gallery here. He prefers John of Bologna to Michel +Angelo; in painting, Raffaelle; and shares the growing +taste for Perugino and the early masters. The Greek +histories he thought the only good; and after them, +Voltaire's. I could not make him praise Mackintosh, nor +my more recent friends; Montaigne very cordially,--and +Charron also, which seemed undiscriminating. He +thought Degerando indebted to "Lucas on Happiness" +and "Lucas on Holiness"! He pestered me with +Southey; but who is Southey?</p> +<p class="pnext">He invited me to breakfast on Friday. On Friday I +did not fail to go, and this time with Greenough. He +entertained us at once with reciting half a dozen +hexameter lines of Julius Cæsar's!--from Donatus, he said. +He glorified Lord Chesterfield more than was necessary, +and undervalued Burke, and undervalued Socrates; +designated as three of the greatest of men, Washington, +Phocion, and Timoleon; much as our pomologists, in +their lists, select the three or the six best pears "for a +small orchard"; and did not even omit to remark the +similar termination of their names. "A great man," he +said, "should make great sacrifices, and kill his hundred +oxen, without knowing whether they would be consumed +by gods and heroes, or whether the flies would eat +them." I had visited Professor Amici, who had shown me his +microscopes, magnifying (it was said) two thousand +diameters; and I spoke of the uses to which they were applied. +Landor despised entomology, yet, in the same breath, +said, "the sublime was in a grain of dust." I suppose I +teased him about recent writers, but he professed never +to have heard of Herschel, <em class="italics">not even by name</em>. One room +was full of pictures, which he likes to show, especially +one piece, standing before which, he said "he would give +fifty guineas to the man that would swear it was a +Pomenichino." I was more curious to see his library, but +Mr. H----, one of the guests, told me that Mr. Landor +gives away his books, and has never more than a dozen +at a time in his house.</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Landor carries to its height the love of freak which +the English delight to indulge, as if to signalize their +commanding freedom. He has a wonderful brain, +despotic, violent, and inexhaustible, meant for a soldier, by +what chance converted to letters, in which there is not a +style nor a tint not known to him, yet with an English +appetite for action and heroes. The thing done avails, +and not what is said about it. An original sentence, +a step forward, is worth more than all the censures. +Landor is strangely undervalued in England; usually +ignored; and sometimes savagely attacked in the Reviews. +The criticism may be right or wrong, and is quickly +forgotten; but year after year the scholar must still +go back to Landor for a multitude of elegant sentences,--for +wisdom, wit, and indignation that are unforgetable.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">From London, on the 5th August, I went to Highgate, +and wrote a note to Mr. Coleridge, requesting leave to +pay my respects to him. It was near noon. Mr. Coleridge +sent a verbal message, that he was in bed, but if +I would call after one o'clock, he would see me. I +returned at one, and he appeared, a short, thick old man, +with bright blue eyes and fine clear complexion, leaning +on his cane. He took snuff freely, which presently soiled +his cravat and neat black suit. He asked whether I knew +Allston, and spoke warmly of his merits and doings when +he knew him in Rome; what a master of the Titianesque +he was, etc., etc. He spoke of Dr. Channing. It was +an unspeakable misfortune that he should have turned +out a Unitarian after all. On this, he burst into a +declamation on the folly and ignorance of Unitarianism,--its +high unreasonableness; and taking up Bishop +Waterland's book, which lay on the table, he read with +vehemence two or three pages written by himself in the +fly-leaves,--passages, too, which, I believe, are printed +in the "Aids to Reflection." When he stopped to take +breath, I interposed, that, "whilst I highly valued all his +explanations, I was bound to tell him that I was born +and bred a Unitarian." "Yes," he said, "I supposed +so"; and continued as before. "It was a wonder, that +after so many ages of unquestioning acquiescence in the +doctrine of St. Paul,--the doctrine of the Trinity, which +was also, according to Philo Judæus, the doctrine of the +Jews before Christ,--this handful of Priestleians should +take on themselves to deny it, etc., etc. He was very +sorry that Dr. Channing,--a man to whom he looked +up,--no, to say that he looked <em class="italics">up</em> to him would be to +speak falsely; but a man whom he looked <em class="italics">at</em> with so +much interest,--should embrace such views. When he +saw Dr. Channing, he had hinted to him that he was +afraid he loved Christianity for what was lovely and +excellent,--he loved the good in it, and not the true; and I +tell you, sir, that I have known ten persons who loved +the good, for one person who loved the true; but it is a +far greater virtue to love the true for itself alone, than to +love the good for itself alone. He (Coleridge) knew all +about Unitarianism perfectly well, because he had once +been a Unitarian, and knew what quackery it was. He +had been called "the rising star of Unitarianism."' He +went on defining, or rather refining: 'The Trinitarian +doctrine was realism; the idea of God was not essential, +but super-essential'; talked of <em class="italics">trinism</em> and <em class="italics">tetrakism</em>, and +much more, of which I only caught this: 'that the will +was that by which a person is a person; because, if one +should push me in the street, and so I should force the +man next me into the kennel, I should at once exclaim, +"I did not do it, sir," meaning it was not my will.' And +this also: 'that if you should insist on your faith here in +England, and I on mine, mine would be the hotter side of +the fagot.'</p> +<p class="pnext">I took advantage of a pause to say, that he had many +readers of all religious opinions in America, and I +proceeded to inquire if the "extract" from the Independent's +pamphlet, in the third volume of the Friend, were +a veritable quotation. He replied that it was really taken +from a pamphlet in his possession, entitled "A Protest +of one of the Independents," or something to that effect. +I told him how excellent I thought it, and how much I +wished to see the entire work. "Yes," he said, "the +man was a chaos of truths, but lacked the knowledge that +God was a god of order. Yet the passage would no +doubt strike you more in the quotation than in the +original, for I have filtered it."</p> +<p class="pnext">When I rose to go, he said, "I do not know whether +you care about poetry, but I will repeat some verses I +lately made on my baptismal anniversary"; and he +recited with strong emphasis, standing, ten or twelve lines, +beginning,--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">Born unto God in Christ--</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">He inquired where I had been travelling; and on learning +that I had been in Malta and Sicily, he compared one +island with the other, 'repeating what he had said to the +Bishop of London when he returned from that country, +that Sicily was an excellent school of political economy; +for, in any town there, it only needed to ask what the +government enacted, and reverse <em class="italics">that</em> to know what +ought to be done; it was the most felicitously opposite +legislation to anything good and wise. There were only +three things which the government had brought into +that garden of delights, namely, itch, pox, and famine; +whereas, in Malta, the force of law and mind was seen, +in making that barren rock of semi-Saracen inhabitants +the seat of population and plenty.' Going out, he +showed me in the next apartment a picture of Allston's, +and told me 'that Montague, a picture-dealer, once came +to see him, and, glancing towards this, said, "Well, you +have got a picture!" thinking it the work of an old +master; afterwards, Montague, still talking with his back to +the canvas, put up his hand and touched it, and exclaimed, +"By Heaven! this picture is not ten years old":--so +delicate and skilful was that man's touch.'</p> +<p class="pnext">I was in his company for about an hour, but find it +impossible to recall the largest part of his discourse, +which was often like so many printed paragraphs in his +book,--perhaps the same,--so readily did he fall into +certain commonplaces. As I might have foreseen, the +visit was rather a spectacle than a conversation, of no use +beyond the satisfaction of my curiosity. He was old and +preoccupied, and could not bend to a new companion and +think with him.</p> +<p class="pnext">From Edinburgh I went to the Highlands. On my +return, I came from Glasgow to Dumfries, and being +intent on delivering a letter which I had brought from +Rome, inquired for Cragenputtock. It was a farm in +Nithsdale, in the parish of Dunscore, sixteen miles +distant. No public coach passed near it, so I took a private +carriage from the inn. I found the house amid desolate +heathery hills, where the lonely scholar nourished his +mighty heart. Carlyle was a man from his youth, an +author who did not need to hide from his readers, and as +absolute a man of the world, unknown and exiled on that +hill-farm, as if holding on his own terms what is best in +London. He was tall and gaunt, with a cliff-like brow, +self-possessed, and holding his extraordinary powers of +conversation in easy command; clinging to his northern +accent with evident relish; full of lively anecdote, and +with a streaming humor, which floated everything he +looked upon. His talk playfully exalting the familiar +objects, put the companion at once into an acquaintance +with his Lars and Lemurs, and it was very pleasant to +learn what was predestined to be a pretty mythology. +Few were the objects and lonely the man, "not a person +to speak to within sixteen miles except the minister of +Dunscore"; so that books inevitably made his topics.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had names of his own for all the matters familiar +to his discourse. "Blackwood's" was the "sand magazine"; +"Fraser's" nearer approach to possibility of life +was the "mud magazine"; a piece of road near by that +marked some failed enterprise was the "grave of the last +sixpence." When too much praise of any genius annoyed +him, he professed hugely to admire the talent shown by +his pig. He had spent much time and contrivance in +confining the poor beast to one enclosure in his pen, but +pig, by great strokes of judgment, had found out how to +let a board down, and had foiled him. For all that, he +still thought man the most plastic little fellow in the +planet, and he liked Nero's death, "<em class="italics">Qualis artifex pereo!</em>" +better than most history. He worships a man that will +manifest any truth to him. At one time he had inquired +and read a good deal about America. Landor's principle +was mere rebellion, and <em class="italics">that</em> he feared was the American +principle. The best thing he knew of that country was, +that in it a man can have meat for his labor. He had +read in Stewart's book, that when he inquired in a New +York hotel for the Boots, he had been shown across the +street and had found Mungo in his own house dining on +roast turkey.</p> +<p class="pnext">We talked of books. Plato he does not read, and he +disparaged Socrates; and, when pressed, persisted in +making Mirabeau a hero. Gibbon he called the splendid +bridge from the old world to the new. His own +reading had been multifarious. Tristram Shandy was one of +his first books after Robinson Crusoe, and Robertson's +America an early favorite. Rousseau's Confessions had +discovered to him that he was not a dunce; and it was +now ten years since he had learned German, by the advice +of a man who told him he would find in that language +what he wanted.</p> +<p class="pnext">He took despairing or satirical views of literature at +this moment; recounted the incredible sums paid in one +year by the great booksellers for puffing. Hence it +comes that no newspaper is trusted now, no books are +bought, and the booksellers are on the eve of bankruptcy.</p> +<p class="pnext">He still returned to English pauperism, the crowded +country, the selfish abdication by public men of all that +public persons should perform. 'Government should +direct poor men what to do. Poor Irish folk come +wandering over these moors. My dame makes it a rule to +give to every son of Adam bread to eat, and supplies his +wants to the next house. But here are thousands of +acres which might give them all meat, and nobody to bid +these poor Irish go to the moor and till it. They burned +the stacks, and so found a way to force the rich people +to attend to them.'</p> +<p class="pnext">We went out to walk over long hills, and looked at +Criffel, then without his cap, and down into Wordsworth's +country. There we sat down, and talked of the +immortality of the soul. It was not Carlyle's fault that +we talked on that topic, for he had the natural disinclination +of every nimble spirit to bruise itself against walls, +and did not like to place himself where no step can be +taken. But he was honest and true, and cognizant of +the subtile links that bind ages together, and saw how +every event affects all the future. 'Christ died on the +tree: that built Dunscore kirk yonder: that brought you +and me together. Time has only a relative existence.'</p> +<p class="pnext">He was already turning his eyes towards London with +a scholar's appreciation. London is the heart of the +world, he said, wonderful only from the mass of human +beings. He liked the huge machine. Each keeps its +own round. The baker's boy brings muffins to the +window at a fixed hour every day, and that is all the +Londoner knows or wishes to know on the subject. But +it turned out good men. He named certain individuals, +especially one man of letters, his friend, the best mind he +knew, whom London had well served.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">On the 23th August, I went to Rydal Mount, to pay +my respects to Mr. Wordsworth. His daughters called +in their father, a plain, elderly, white-haired man, not +prepossessing, and disfigured by green goggles. He sat +down, and talked with great simplicity. He had just +returned from a journey. His health was good, but he had +broken a tooth by a fall, when walking with two lawyers, +and had said, that he was glad it did not happen forty +years ago; whereupon they had praised his philosophy.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had much to say of America, the more that it gave +occasion for his favorite topic,--that society is being +enlightened by a superficial tuition, out of all proportion to +its being restrained by moral culture. Schools do no +good. Tuition is not education. He thinks more of the +education of circumstances than of tuition. 'T is not a +question whether there are offences of which the law takes +cognizance, but whether there are offences of which the +law does not take cognizance. Sin is what he fears, and +how society is to escape without gravest mischiefs from +this source--? He has even said, what seemed a paradox, +that they needed a civil war in America, to teach the +necessity of knitting the social ties stronger. 'There +may be,' he said, 'in America some vulgarity in manner, +but that 's not important. That comes of the +pioneer state of things. But I fear they are too much given +to the making of money; and secondly, to politics; that +they make political distinction the end, and not the +means. And I fear they lack a class of men of leisure,--in +short, of gentlemen,--to give a tone of honor to the +community. I am told that things are boasted of in the +second class of society there, which, in England,--God +knows, are done in England every day,--but would +never be spoken of. In America I wish to know not how +many churches or schools, but what newspapers? My +friend, Colonel Hamilton, at the foot of the hill, who was +a year in America, assures me that the newspapers are +atrocious, and accuse members of Congress of stealing +spoons!' He was against taking off the tax on +newspapers in England, which the reformers represent as a +tax upon knowledge, for this reason, that they would be +inundated with base prints. He said, he talked on political +aspects, for he wished to impress on me and all good +Americans to cultivate the moral, the conservative, etc., +etc., and never to call into action the physical strength of +the people, as had just now been done in England in the +Reform Bill,--a thing prophesied by Delolme. He +alluded once or twice to his conversation with Dr. Channing, +who had recently visited him (laying his hand on a +particular chair in which the Doctor had sat).</p> +<p class="pnext">The conversation turned on books. Lucretius he +esteems a far higher poet than Virgil: not in his system, +which is nothing, but in his power of illustration. Faith +is necessary to explain anything, and to reconcile the +foreknowledge of God with human evil. Of Cousin +(whose lectures we had all been reading in Boston) he +knew only the name.</p> +<p class="pnext">I inquired if he had read Carlyle's critical articles and +translations. He said he thought him sometimes insane. +He proceeded to abuse Goethe's Wilhelm Meister heartily. +It was full of all manner of fornication. It was +like the crossing of flies in the air. He had never gone +further than the first part; so disgusted was he that he +threw the book across the room. I deprecated this +wrath, and said what I could for the better parts of the +book; and he courteously promised to look at it again. +Carlyle, he said, wrote most obscurely. He was clever +and deep, but he defied the sympathies of everybody. +Even Mr. Coleridge wrote more clearly, though he had +always wished Coleridge would write more to be +understood. He led me out into his garden, and showed me +the gravel-walk in which thousands of his lines were +composed. His eyes are much inflamed. This is no +loss, except for reading, because he never writes prose, +and of poetry he carries even hundreds of lines in his +head before writing them. He had just returned from a +visit to Staffa, and within three days had made three +sonnets on Fingal's Cave, and was composing a fourth, +when he was called in to see me. He said, "If you are +interested in my verses, perhaps you will like to hear +these lines." I gladly assented; and he recollected +himself for a few moments, and then stood forth and +repeated, one after the other, the three entire sonnets with +great animation. I fancied the second and third more +beautiful than his poems are wont to be. The third is +addressed to the flowers, which, he said, especially the +ox-eye daisy, are very abundant on the top of the rock. +The second alludes to the name of the cave, which is +"Cave of Music"; the first to the circumstance of its +being visited by the promiscuous company of the steamboat.</p> +<p class="pnext">This recitation was so unlooked for and surprising,--he, +the old Wordsworth, standing apart, and reciting to +me in a garden-walk, like a school-boy declaiming,--that +I at first was near to laugh; but recollecting +myself, that I had come thus far to see a poet, and he was +chanting poems to me, I saw that he was right and I was +wrong, and gladly gave myself up to hear. I told him +how much the few printed extracts had quickened the +desire to possess his unpublished poems. He replied, he +never was in haste to publish; partly, because he +corrected a good deal, and every alteration is ungraciously +received after printing; but what he had written would +be printed, whether he lived or died. I said, "Tintern +Abbey" appeared to be the favorite poem with the +public, but more contemplative readers preferred the first +books of the "Excursion," and the Sonnets. He said, +"Yes, they are better." He preferred such of his poems +as touched the affections, to any others; for whatever is +didactic--what theories of society, and so on--might +perish quickly; but whatever combined a truth with an +affection was [Greek: <em class="italics">chtêma es aei</em>], good to-day and good forever. +He cited the sonnet "On the feelings of a high-minded +Spaniard," which he preferred to any other (I so +understood him), and the "Two Voices"; and quoted, with +evident pleasure, the verses addressed "To the Skylark." +In this connection, he said of the Newtonian theory, that +it might yet be superseded and forgotten; and Dalton's +atomic theory.</p> +<p class="pnext">When I prepared to depart, he said he wished to show +me what a common person in England could do, and he +led me into the enclosure of his clerk, a young man, to +whom he had given this slip of ground, which was laid +out, or its natural capabilities shown, with much taste. +He then said he would show me a better way towards +the inn; and he walked a good part of a mile, talking, +and ever and anon stopping short to impress the word or +the verse, and finally parted from me with great kindness, +and returned across the fields.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wordsworth honored himself by his simple adherence +to truth, and was very willing not to shine; but he +surprised by the hard limits of his thought. To judge from +a single conversation, he made the impression of a +narrow and very English mind; of one who paid for his +rare elevation by general tameness and conformity. Off +his own beat, his opinions were of no value. It is not +very rare to find persons loving sympathy and ease, who +expiate their departure from the common in one +direction, by their conformity in every other.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-ii-voyage-to-england"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id55">CHAPTER II.--VOYAGE TO ENGLAND.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The occasion of my second visit to England was an +invitation from some Mechanics' Institutes in Lancashire +and Yorkshire, which separately are organized much in +the same way as our New England Lyceums, but, in +1847, had been linked into a "Union," which embraced +twenty or thirty towns and cities, and presently extended +into the middle counties, and northward into Scotland. +I was invited, on liberal terms, to read a series of +lectures in them all. The request was urged with every +kind suggestion, and every assurance of aid and comfort, +by friendliest parties in Manchester, who, in the sequel, +amply redeemed their word. The remuneration was +equivalent to the fees at that time paid in this country +for the like services. At all events, it was sufficient to +cover any travelling expenses, and the proposal offered +an excellent opportunity of seeing the interior of England +and Scotland, by means of a home, and a committee of +intelligent friends, awaiting me in every town.</p> +<p class="pnext">I did not go very willingly. I am not a good traveller, +nor have I found that long journeys yield a fair +share of reasonable hours. But the invitation was +repeated and pressed at a moment of more leisure, and +when I was a little spent by some unusual studies. I +wanted a change and a tonic, and England was proposed +to me. Besides, there were, at least, the dread +attraction and salutary influences of the sea. So I took my +berth in the packet-ship Washington Irving, and sailed +from Boston on Tuesday, 5th October, 1847.</p> +<p class="pnext">On Friday, at noon, we had only made one hundred +and thirty-four miles. A nimble Indian would have +swum as far; but the captain affirmed that the ship +would show us in time all her paces, and we crept along +through the floating drift of boards, logs, and chips, +which the rivers of Maine and New Brunswick pour into +the sea after a freshet.</p> +<p class="pnext">At last, on Sunday night, after doing one day's work in +four, the storm came, the winds blew, and we flew before +a northwester, which strained every rope and sail. The +good ship darts through the water all day, all night, like +a fish, quivering with speed, gliding through liquid +leagues, sliding from horizon to horizon. She has passed +Cape Sable; she has reached the Banks; the land-birds +are left; gulls, haglets, ducks, petrels, swim, dive, and +hover around; no fishermen; she has passed the Banks; +left five sail behind her, far on the edge of the west at +sundown, which were far east of us at morn,--though +they say at sea a stern chase is a long race,--and still +we fly for our lives. The shortest sea-line from Boston +to Liverpool is 2,850 miles. This a steamer keeps, and +saves 150 miles. A sailing ship can never go in a shorter +line than 3,000, and usually it is much longer. Our good +master keeps his kites up to the last moment, studding-sails +alow and aloft, and, by incessant straight steering, +never loses a rod of way. Watchfulness is the law of +the ship,--watch on watch, for advantage and for life. +Since the ship was built, it seems, the master never slept +but in his day-clothes whilst on board. "There are +many advantages," says Saadi, "in sea-voyaging, but +security is not one of them." Yet in hurrying over these +abysses, whatever dangers we are running into, we are +certainly running out of the risks of hundreds of miles +every day, which have their own chances of squall, +collision, sea-stroke, piracy, cold, and thunder. Hour for +hour, the risk on a steamboat is greater; but the speed +is safety, or twelve days of danger, instead of twenty-four.</p> +<p class="pnext">Our ship was registered 750 tons, and weighed perhaps, +with all her freight, 1,500 tons. The mainmast, +from the deck to the top-button, measured 115 feet; the +length of the deck, from stem to stern, 155. It is +impossible not to personify a ship; everybody does in +everything they say:--she behaves well; she minds her +rudder; she swims like a duck; she runs her nose into the +water; she looks into a port. Then that wonderful <em class="italics">esprit +du corps</em>, by which we adopt into our self-love everything +we touch, makes us all champions of her sailing-qualities.</p> +<p class="pnext">The conscious ship hears all the praise. In one week +she has made 1,467 miles, and now, at night, seems to +hear the steamer behind her, which left Boston to-day at +two, has mended her speed, and is flying before the gray +south-wind eleven and a half knots the hour. The +sea-fire shines in her wake, and far around wherever a wave +breaks. I read the hour, 9h. 45', on my watch by this +light. Near the equator, you can read small print by +it; and the mate describes the phosphoric insects, when +taken up in a pail, as shaped like a Carolina potato.</p> +<p class="pnext">I find the sea-life an acquired taste, like that for +tomatoes and olives. The confinement, cold, motion, noise, +and odor are not to be dispensed with. The floor of +your room is sloped at an angle of twenty or thirty +degrees, and I waked every morning with the belief that +some one was tipping up my berth. Nobody likes to be +treated ignominiously, upset, shoved against the side of +the house, rolled over, suffocated with bilge, mephitis, +and stewing oil. We get used to these annoyances at +last, but the dread of the sea remains longer. The sea is +masculine, the type of active strength. Look, what eggshells +are drifting all over it, each one, like ours, filled +with men in ecstasies of terror, alternating with cockney +conceit, as the sea is rough or smooth. Is this sad-colored +circle an eternal cemetery? In our graveyards we +scoop a pit, but this aggressive water opens mile-wide +pits and chasms, and makes a mouthful of a fleet. To +the geologist, the sea is the only firmament; the land is +in perpetual flux and change, now blown up like a tumor, +now sunk in a chasm, and the registered observations of +a few hundred years find it in a perpetual tilt, rising and +falling. The sea keeps its old level; and 't is no wonder +that the history of our race is so recent, if the roar of the +ocean is silencing our traditions. A rising of the sea, +such as has been observed, say an inch in a century, from +east to west on the land, will bury all the towns, +monuments, bones, and knowledge of mankind, steadily and +insensibly. If it is capable of these great and secular +mischiefs, it is quite as ready at private and local +damage; and of this no landsman seems so fearful as the +seaman. Such discomfort and such danger as the narratives +of the captain and mate disclose are bad enough as the +costly fee we pay for entrance to Europe; but the +wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor. +And here, on the second day of our voyage, stepped out +a little boy in his shirt-sleeves, who had hid himself, +whilst the ship was in port, in the bread-closet, having +no money, and wishing to go to England. The sailors +have dressed him in Guernsey frock, with a knife in his +belt, and he is climbing nimbly about after them, "likes +the work first-rate, and, if the captain will take him, means +now to come back again in the ship." The mate avers +that this is the history of all sailors; nine out of ten are +runaway boys; and adds, that all of them are sick of the +sea, but stay in it out of pride. Jack has a life of risks, +incessant abuse, and the worst pay. It is a little better +with the mate, and not very much better with the +captain. A hundred dollars a month is reckoned high pay. +If sailors were contented, if they had not resolved again +and again not to go to sea any more, I should respect them.</p> +<p class="pnext">Of course, the inconveniences and terrors of the sea +are not of any account to those whose minds are +preoccupied. The water-laws, arctic frost, the mountain, +the mine, only shatter cockneyism; every noble activity +makes room for itself. A great mind is a good sailor, +as a great heart is. And the sea is not slow in disclosing +inestimable secrets to a good naturalist.</p> +<p class="pnext">'Tis a good rule in every journey to provide some +piece of liberal study to rescue the hours which bad +weather, bad company, and taverns steal from the best +economist. Classics which at home are drowsily read +have a strange charm in a country inn, or in the transom +of a merchant brig. I remember that some of the +happiest and most valuable hours I have owed to books, +passed, many years ago, on shipboard. The worst +impediment I have found at sea is the want of light in the +cabin.</p> +<p class="pnext">We found on board the usual cabin library; Basil +Hall, Dumas, Dickens, Bulwer, Balzac, and Sand were +our sea-gods. Among the passengers, there was some +variety of talent and profession; we exchanged our +experiences, and all learned something. The busiest +talk with leisure and convenience at sea, and sometimes +a memorable fact turns up, which you have long had a +vacant niche for, and seize with the joy of a collector. +But, under the best conditions, a voyage is one of the +severest tests to try a man. A college examination is +nothing to it. Sea-days are long,--these lack-lustre, +joyless days which whistled over us; but they were +few,--only fifteen, as the captain counted, sixteen according +to me. Reckoned from the time when we left soundings, +our speed was such that the captain drew the line of his +course in red ink on his chart, for the encouragement +or envy of future navigators.</p> +<p class="pnext">It has been said that the King of England would +consult his dignity by giving audience to foreign +ambassadors in the cabin of a man-of-war. And I think the +white path of an Atlantic ship the right avenue to the +palace front of this sea-faring people, who for hundreds +of years claimed the strict sovereignty of the sea, and +exacted toll and the striking sail from the ships of all +other peoples. When their privilege was disputed by +the Dutch and other junior marines, on the plea that you +could never anchor on the same wave, or hold property in +what was always flowing, the English did not stick to +claim the channel, or bottom of all the main. "As if," +said they, "we contended for the drops of the sea, and +not for its situation, or the bed of those waters. The sea +is bounded by his Majesty's empire."</p> +<p class="pnext">As we neared the land, its genius was felt. This was +inevitably the British side. In every man's thought +arises now a new system, English sentiments, English +loves and fears, English history and social modes. +Yesterday, every passenger had measured the speed of the +ship by watching the bubbles over the ship's bulwarks. +To-day, instead of bubbles, we measure by Kinsale, Cork, +Waterford, and Ardmore. There lay the green shore of +Ireland, like some coast of plenty. We could see towns, +towers, churches, harvests; but the curse of eight +hundred years we could not discern.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-iii-land"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id56">CHAPTER III.--LAND.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Alfieri thought Italy and England the only countries +worth living in: the former, because there Nature +vindicates her rights, and triumphs over the evils inflicted +by the governments; the latter, because art conquers +nature, and transforms a rude, ungenial land into a +paradise of comfort and plenty. England is a garden. +Under an ash-colored sky, the fields have been combed and +rolled till they appear to have been finished with a pencil +instead of a plough. The solidity of the structures that +compose the towns speaks the industry of ages. Nothing +is left as it was made. Rivers, hills, valleys, the sea +itself, feel the hand of a master. The long habitation of +a powerful and ingenious race has turned every rood of +land to its best use, has found all the capabilities, the +arable soil, the quarriable rock, the highways, the +byways, the fords, the navigable waters; and the new arts +of intercourse meet you everywhere; so that England is +a huge phalanstery, where all that man wants is provided +within the precinct. Cushioned and comforted in every +manner, the traveller rides as on a cannon-ball, high and +low, over rivers and towns, through mountains, in +tunnels of three or four miles, at near twice the speed of our +trains; and reads quietly the <em class="italics">Times</em> newspaper, which, +by its immense correspondence and reporting, seems to +have machinized the rest of the world for his occasion.</p> +<p class="pnext">The problem of the traveller landing at Liverpool is, +Why England is England. What are the elements of +that power which the English hold over other nations? +If there be one test of national genius universally +accepted, it is success; and if there be one successful +country in the universe for the last millennium, that +country is England.</p> +<p class="pnext">A wise traveller will naturally choose to visit the best +of actual nations; and an American has more reasons +than another to draw him to Britain. In all that is done +or begun by the Americans towards right thinking or +practice, we are met by a civilization already settled and +overpowering. The culture of the day, the thoughts and +aims of men, are English thoughts and aims. A nation +considerable for a thousand years since Egbert, it has, in +the last centuries, obtained the ascendant, and stamped +the knowledge, activity, and power of mankind with its +impress. Those who resist it do not feel it or obey it +less. The Russian in his snows is aiming to be English. +The Turk and Chinese also are making awkward efforts +to be English. The practical common-sense of modern +society, the utilitarian direction which labor, laws, +opinion, religion, take, is the natural genius of the British +mind. The influence of France is a constituent of modern +civility, but not enough opposed to the English for the +most wholesome effect. The American is only the +continuation of the English genius into new conditions, more +or less propitious.</p> +<p class="pnext">See what books fill our libraries. Every book we read, +every biography, play, romance, in whatever form, is still +English history and manners. So that a sensible +Englishman once said to me, "As long as you do not grant us +copyright, we shall have the teaching of you."</p> +<p class="pnext">But we have the same difficulty in making a social or +moral estimate of England, as the sheriff finds in drawing +a jury to try some cause which has agitated the whole +community, and on which everybody finds himself an +interested party. Officers, jurors, judges, have all taken +sides. England has inoculated all nations with her civilization, +intelligence, and tastes; and, to resist the tyranny +and prepossession of the British element, a serious man +must aid himself, by comparing with it the civilizations +of the farthest east and west, the old Greek, the Oriental, +and, much more, the ideal standard, if only by means of +the very impatience which English forms are sure to +awaken in independent minds.</p> +<p class="pnext">Besides, if we will visit London, the present time is +the best time, as some signs portend that it has reached +its highest point. It is observed that the English interest +us a little less within a few years; and hence the +impression that the British power has culminated, is in +solstice, or already declining.</p> +<p class="pnext">As soon as you enter England, which, with Wales, is +no larger than the State of Georgia,<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id3" id="id2"><sup>1</sup></a> this little land +stretches by an illusion to the dimensions of an empire. +The innumerable details, the crowded succession of +towns, cities, cathedrals, castles, and great and decorated +estates, the number and power of the trades and guilds, +the military strength and splendor, the multitudes of rich +and of remarkable people, the servants and equipages,--all +these catching the eye, and never allowing it to pause, +hide all boundaries, by the impression of magnificence +and endless wealth.</p> +<p class="pnext">I reply to all the urgencies that refer me to this and +that object indispensably to be seen,--Yes, to see +England well needs a hundred years; for, what they told me +was the merit of Sir John Soane's Museum, in London,--that +it was well packed and well saved,--is the merit +of England;--it is stuffed full, in all corners and crevices, +with towns, towers, churches, villas, palaces, hospitals, +and charity-houses. In the history of art, it is a long +way from a cromlech to York minster; yet all the +intermediate steps may still be traced in this all-preserving +island.</p> +<p class="pnext">The territory has a singular perfection. The climate +is warmer by many degrees than it is entitled to by +latitude. Neither hot nor cold, there is no hour in the +whole year when one cannot work. Here is no winter, +but such days as we have in Massachusetts in November, +a temperature which makes no exhausting demand on +human strength, but allows the attainment of the largest +stature. Charles the Second said, "It invited men +abroad more days in the year and more hours in the day +than another country." Then England has all the +materials of a working country except wood. The constant +rain--a rain with every tide, in some parts of the +island--keeps its multitude of rivers full, and brings +agricultural production up to the highest point. It has plenty +of water, of stone, of potter's clay, of coal, of salt, and of +iron. The land naturally abounds with game, immense +heaths and downs are paved with quails, grouse, and +woodcock, and the shores are animated by water-birds. +The rivers and the surrounding sea spawn with fish; +there are salmon for the rich, and sprats and herrings for +the poor. In the northern lochs, the herring are in +innumerable shoals; at one season, the country people +say, the lakes contain one part water and two parts fish.</p> +<p class="pnext">The only drawback on this industrial conveniency is +the darkness of its sky. The night and day are too nearly +of a color. It strains the eyes to read and to write. Add +the coal-smoke. In the manufacturing towns, the fine +soot or blacks darken the day, give white sheep the color +of black sheep, discolor the human saliva, contaminate +the air, poison many plants, and corrode the monuments +and buildings.</p> +<p class="pnext">The London fog aggravates the distempers of the sky, +and sometimes justifies the epigram on the climate by an +English wit, "in a fine day, looking up a chimney; in a +foul day, looking down one." A gentleman in Liverpool +told me that he found he could do without a fire in his +parlor about one day in the year. It is however +pretended, that the enormous consumption of coal in the +island is also felt in modifying the general climate.</p> +<p class="pnext">Factitious climate, factitious position. England +resembles a ship in its shape, and, if it were one, its best +admiral could not have worked it, or anchored it in a +more judicious or effective position. Sir John Herschel +said, "London was the centre of the terrene globs." The +shopkeeping nation, to use a shop word, has a <em class="italics">good +stand</em>. The old Venetians pleased themselves with the +flattery, that Venice was in 45°, midway between the +poles and the line; as if that were an imperial centrality. +Long of old, the Greeks fancied Delphi the navel of the +earth, in their favorite mode of fabling the earth to be an +animal. The Jews believed Jerusalem to be the centre. +I have seen a kratometric chart designed to show that +the city of Philadelphia was in the same thermic belt, +and, by inference, in the same belt of empire, as the +cities of Athens, Rome, and London. It was drawn by a +patriotic Philadelphian, and was examined with pleasure, +under his showing, by the inhabitants of Chestnut Street. +But, when carried to Charleston, to New Orleans, and to +Boston, it somehow failed to convince the ingenious +scholars of all those capitals.</p> +<p class="pnext">But England is anchored at the side of Europe, and +right in the heart of the modern world. The sea, which, +according to Virgil's famous line, divided the poor +Britons utterly from the world, proved to be the ring of +marriage with all nations. It is not down in the +books,--it is written only in the geologic strata,--that +fortunate day when a wave of the German Ocean burst the old +isthmus which joined Kent and Cornwall to France, and +gave to this fragment of Europe its impregnable sea-wall, +cutting off an island of eight hundred miles in length, +with an irregular breadth reaching to three hundred +miles; a territory large enough for independence enriched +with every seed of national power, so near, that it +can see the harvests of the continent; and so far, that +who would cross the strait must be an expert mariner, +ready for tempests. As America, Europe, and Asia lie, +these Britons have precisely the best commercial position +in the whole planet, and are sure of a market for all the +goods they can manufacture. And to make these advantages +avail, the river Thames must dig its spacious outlet +to the sea from the heart of the kingdom, giving road and +landing to innumerable ships, and all the conveniency to +trade, that a people so skilful and sufficient in economizing +water-front by docks, warehouses, and lighters +required. When James the First declared his purpose of +punishing London by removing his Court, the Lord +Mayor replied, "that, in removing his royal presence from +his lieges, they hoped he would leave them the Thames."</p> +<p class="pnext">In the variety of surface, Britain is a miniature of +Europe, having plain, forest, marsh, river, sea-shore; +mines in Cornwall; caves in Matlock and Derbyshire; +delicious landscape in Dovedale, delicious sea-view at Tor +Bay, Highlands in Scotland, Snowdon in Wales; and, +in Westmoreland and Cumberland, a pocket Switzerland, +in which the lakes and mountains are on a sufficient scale +to fill the eye and touch the imagination. It is a nation +conveniently small. Fontenelle thought, that nature had +sometimes a little affectation; and there is such an artificial +completeness in this nation of artificers, as if there +were a design from the beginning to elaborate a bigger +Birmingham. Nature held counsel with herself, and said, +'My Romans are gone. To build my new empire, I will +choose a rude race, all masculine, with brutish strength. +I will not grudge a competition of the roughest males. +Let buffalo gore buffalo, and the pasture to the +strongest! For I have work that requires the best will and +sinew. Sharp and temperate northern breezes shall blow, +to keep that will alive and alert. The sea shall disjoin +the people from others, and knit them to a fierce +nationality. It shall give them markets on every side. Long +time I will keep them on their feet, by poverty, border-wars, +sea-faring, sea-risks, and the stimulus of gain. An +island,--but not so large, the people not so many as to +glut the great markets and depress one another, but +proportioned to the size of Europe and the continents.'</p> +<p class="pnext">With its fruits, and wares, and money, must its civil +influence radiate. It is a singular coincidence to this +geographic centrality, the spiritual centrality, which +Emanuel Swedenborg ascribes to the people. "For the +English nation, the best of them are in the centre of all +Christians, because they have interior intellectual light. +This appears conspicuously in the spiritual world. This +light they derive from the liberty of speaking and writing, +and thereby of thinking."</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-iv-race"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id57">CHAPTER IV.--RACE.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">An ingenious anatomist has written a book<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id5" id="id4"><sup>2</sup></a> to prove +that races are imperishable, but nations are pliant political +constructions, easily changed or destroyed. But this +writer did not found his assumed races on any necessary +law, disclosing their ideal or metaphysical necessity; nor +did he, on the other hand, count with precision the +existing races, and settle the true bounds; a point of nicety, +and the popular test of the theory. The individuals at +the extremes of divergence in one race of men are as +unlike as the wolf to the lapdog. Yet each variety shades +down imperceptibly into the next, and you cannot draw +the line where a race begins or ends. Hence every writer +makes a different count. Blumenbach reckons five races; +Humboldt, three; and Mr. Pickering, who lately, in our +Exploring Expedition, thinks he saw all the kinds of men +that can be on the planet, makes eleven.</p> +<p class="pnext">The British Empire is reckoned to contain (in 1848) +222,000,000 souls,--perhaps a fifth of the population +of the globe; and to comprise a territory of 5,000,000 +square miles. So far have British people predominated. +Perhaps forty of these millions are of British stock. Add +the United States of America, which reckon (in the same +year), exclusive of slaves, 20,000,000 of people, on a +territory of 3,000,000 square miles, and in which the +foreign element, however considerable, is rapidly +assimilated, and you have a population of English descent and +language, of 60,000,000, and governing a population of +245,000,000 souls.</p> +<p class="pnext">The British census proper reckons twenty-seven and a +half millions in the home countries. What makes this +census important is the quality of the units that compose +it. They are free forcible men, in a country where life is +safe, and has reached the greatest value. They give the +bias to the current age; and that, not by chance or by +mass, but by their character, and by the number of +individuals among them of personal ability. It has been +denied that the English have genius. Be it as it may, men +of vast intellect have been born on their soil, and they +have made or applied the principal inventions. They +have sound bodies, and supreme endurance in war and in +labor. The spawning force of the race has sufficed to +the colonization of great parts of the world; yet it +remains to be seen whether they can make good the exodus +of millions from Great Britain, amounting, in 1852, to +more than a thousand a day. They have assimilating +force, since they are imitated by their foreign subjects; +and they are still aggressive and propagandist, enlarging +the dominion of their arts and liberty. Their laws are +hospitable, and slavery does not exist under them. What +oppression exists is incidental and temporary; their +success is not sudden or fortunate, but they have maintained +constancy and self-equality for many ages.</p> +<p class="pnext">Is this power due to their race, or to some other cause? +Men hear gladly of the power of blood or race. Everybody +likes to know that his advantages cannot be attributed +to air, soil, sea, or to local wealth, as mines and +quarries, nor to laws and traditions, nor to fortune, but to +superior brain, as it makes the praise more personal to him.</p> +<p class="pnext">We anticipate in the doctrine of race something like +that law of physiology, that, whatever bone, muscle, or +essential organ is found in one healthy individual, the +same part or organ may be found in or near the same +place in its congener; and we look to find in the son +every mental and moral property that existed in the +ancestor. In race, it is not the broad shoulders, or +litheness, or stature that give advantage, but a symmetry that +reaches as far as to the wit. Then the miracle and +renown begin. Then first we care to examine the pedigree, +and copy needfully the training,--what food they ate, +what nursing, school, and exercises they had, which +resulted in this mother-wit, delicacy of thought, and robust +wisdom. How came such men as King Alfred, and +Roger Bacon, William of Wykeham, Walter Raleigh, +Philip Sidney, Isaac Newton, William Shakspeare, George +Chapman, Francis Bacon, George Herbert, Henry Vane, +to exist here? What made these delicate natures? was +it the air? was it the sea? was it the parentage? For +it is certain that these men are samples of their +contemporaries. The hearing ear is always found close to the +speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter +anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by +men around him.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is race, is it not? that puts the hundred millions of +India under the dominion of a remote island in the north +of Europe. Race avails much, if that be true, which is +alleged, that all Celts are Catholics, and all Saxons are +Protestants; that Celts love unity of power, and Saxons +the representative principle. Race is a controlling +influence in the Jew, who, for two millenniums, under +every climate, has preserved the same character and +employments. Race in the negro is of appalling +importance. The French in Canada, cut off from all +intercourse with the parent people, have held their national +traits. I chanced to read Tacitus "on the Manners of +the Germans," not long since, in Missouri, and the +heart of Illinois, and I found abundant points of +resemblance between the Germans of the Hercynian forest, +and our <em class="italics">Hoosiers</em>, <em class="italics">Suckers</em>, and <em class="italics">Badgers</em> of the American +woods.</p> +<p class="pnext">But whilst race works immortally to keep its own, it +is resisted by other forces. Civilization is a re-agent, +and eats away the old traits. The Arabs of to-day are +the Arabs of Pharaoh; but the Briton of to-day is a very +different person from Cassibelaunus or Ossian. Each +religious sect has its physiognomy. The Methodists +have acquired a face; the Quakers, a face; the nuns, a +face. An Englishman will pick out a dissenter by his +manners. Trades and professions carve their own lines +on face and form. Certain circumstances of English +life are not less effective: as, personal liberty; plenty of +food; good ale and mutton; open market, or good wages +for every kind of labor; high bribes to talent and skill; +the island life, or the million opportunities and outlets +for expanding and misplaced talent; readiness of +combination among themselves for politics or for business; +strikes; and sense of superiority founded on habit of +victory in labor and in war; and the appetite for +superiority grows by feeding.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is easy to add to the counteracting forces to race. +Credence is a main element. 'T is said, that the views of +nature held by any people determine all their institutions. +Whatever influences add to mental or moral faculty, take +men out of nationality, as out of other conditions, and +make the national life a culpable compromise.</p> +<p class="pnext">These limitations of the formidable doctrine of race +suggest others which threaten to undermine it, as not +sufficiently based. The fixity or inconvertibleness of +races as we see them, is a weak argument for the +eternity of these frail boundaries, since all our historical +period is a point to the duration in which nature has +wrought. Any the least and solitariest fact in our +natural history, such as the melioration of fruits and of +animal stocks, has the worth of a <em class="italics">power</em> in the opportunity +of geologic periods. Moreover, though we flatter the +self-love of men and nations by the legend of pure races, +all our experience is of the gradation and resolution of +races, and strange resemblances meet us everywhere. It +need not puzzle us that Malay and Papuan, Celt and +Itonian, Saxon and Tartar, should mix, when we see the +rudiments of tiger and baboon in our human form, and +know that the barriers of races are not so firm, but that +some spray sprinkles us from the antediluvian seas.</p> +<p class="pnext">The low organizations are simplest; a mere mouth, +a jelly, or a straight worm. As the scale mounts, the +organizations become complex. We are piqued with +pure descent, but nature loves inoculation. A child +blends in his face the faces of both parents, and some +feature from every ancestor whose face hangs on the +wall. The best nations are those most widely related; +and navigation, as effecting a world-wide mixture, is the +most potent advancer of nations.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English composite character betrays a mixed +origin. Everything English is a fusion of distant and +antagonistic elements. The language is mixed; the names +of men are of different nations,--three languages, three +or four nations;--the currents of thought are counter: +contemplation and practical skill; active intellect and +dead conservatism; world-wide enterprise, and devoted +use and wont; aggressive freedom and hospitable law, +with bitter class legislation; a people scattered by their +wars and affairs over the face of the whole earth, and +homesick to a man; a country of extremes,--dukes and +chartists, Bishops of Durham and naked heathen +colliers;--nothing can be praised in it without damning +exceptions, and nothing denounced without salvos of cordial +praise.</p> +<p class="pnext">Neither do this people appear to be of one stem; but +collectively a better race than any from which they are +derived. Nor is it easy to trace it home to its original +seats. Who can call by right names what races are in +Britain? Who can trace them historically? Who can +discriminate them anatomically, or metaphysically?</p> +<p class="pnext">In the impossibility of arriving at satisfaction on the +historical question of race, and--come of whatever +disputable ancestry--the indisputable Englishman before +me, himself very well marked, and nowhere else to be +found,--I fancied I could leave quite aside the choice of +a tribe as his lineal progenitors. Defoe said in his wrath, +"the Englishman was the mud of all races." I incline +to the belief that, as water, lime, and sand make mortar, +so certain temperaments marry well, and, by well-managed +contrarieties, develop as drastic a character as the +English. On the whole, it is not so much a history of +one or of certain tribes of Saxons, Jutes, or Frisians, +coming from one place, and genetically identical, as it is +an anthology of temperaments out of them all. Certain +temperaments suit the sky and soil of England, say eight +or ten or twenty varieties, as, out of a hundred pear-trees, +eight or ten suit the soil of an orchard, and thrive, +whilst all the unadapted temperaments die out.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English derive their pedigree from such a range +of nationalities, that there needs sea-room and land-room +to unfold the varieties of talent and character. Perhaps +the ocean serves as a galvanic battery to distribute acids +at one pole, and alkalies at the other. So England +tends to accumulate her Liberals in America, and her +conservatives at London. The Scandinavians in her race +still hear in every age the murmurs of their mother, the +ocean; the Briton in the blood hugs the homestead still.</p> +<p class="pnext">Again, as if to intensate the influences that are not of +race, what we think of when we talk of English traits +really narrows itself to a small district. It excludes +Ireland, and Scotland, and Wales, and reduces itself +at last to London, that is, to those who come and +go thither. The portraits that hang on the walls in the +Academy Exhibition at London, the figures in Punch's +drawings of the public men, or of the club-houses, the +prints in the shop-windows, are distinctive English, and +not American, no, nor Scotch, nor Irish: but 't is a very +restricted nationality. As you go north into the +manufacturing and agricultural districts, and to the population +that never travels, as you go into Yorkshire, as you enter +Scotland, the world's Englishman is no longer found. +In Scotland, there is a rapid loss of all grandeur of mien +and manners; a provincial eagerness and acuteness +appear; the poverty of the country makes itself remarked, +and a coarseness of manners; and, among the intellectual, +is the insanity of dialectics. In Ireland, are the +same climate and soil as in England, but less food, no +right relation to the land, political dependence, small +tenantry, and an inferior or misplaced race.</p> +<p class="pnext">These queries concerning ancestry and blood may be +well allowed, for there is no prosperity that seems more +to depend on the kind of man than British prosperity. +Only a hardy and wise people could have made this small +territory great. We say, in a regatta or yacht-race, that +if the boats are anywhere nearly matched, it is the man +that wins. Put the best sailing-master into either boat, +and he will win.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet it is fine for us to speculate in face of unbroken +traditions, though vague, and losing themselves in fable. +The traditions have got footing, and refuse to be +disturbed. The kitchen clock is more convenient than +sidereal time. We must use the popular category, as we +do by the Linnæan classification, for convenience, and not +as exact and final. Otherwise, we are presently +confounded, when the best-settled traits of one race are +claimed by some new ethnologist as precisely +characteristic of the rival tribe.</p> +<p class="pnext">I found plenty of well-marked English types, the +ruddy complexion fair and plump, robust men, with faces +cut like a die, and a strong island speech and accent; +a Norman type, with the complacency that belongs to +that constitution. Others, who might be Americans, for +anything that appeared in their complexion or form: and +their speech was much less marked, and their thought +much less bound. We will call them Saxons. Then +the Roman has implanted his dark complexion in the +trinity or quaternity of bloods.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">1. The sources from which tradition derives their +stock are mainly three. And, first, they are of the +oldest blood of the world,--the Celtic. Some peoples +are deciduous or transitory. Where are the Greeks? where +the Etrurians? where the Romans? But the +Celts or Sidonides are an old family, of whose beginning +there is no memory, and their end is likely to be still +more remote in the future; for they have endurance and +productiveness. They planted Britain, and gave to the +seas and mountains names which are poems, and imitate +the pure voices of nature. They are favorably +remembered in the oldest records of Europe. They had no +violent feudal tenure, but the husbandman owned the +land. They had an alphabet, astronomy, priestly culture, +and a sublime creed. They have a hidden and precarious +genius. They made the best popular literature of the +Middle Ages in the songs of Merlin, and the tender and +delicious mythology of Arthur.</p> +<p class="pnext">2. The English come mainly from the Germans, whom +the Romans found hard to conquer in two hundred and +ten years,--say, impossible to conquer,--when one +remembers the long sequel; a people about whom, in the +old empire, the rumor ran, there was never any that +meddled with them that repented it not.</p> +<p class="pnext">3. Charlemagne, halting one day in a town of +Narbonnese Gaul, looked out of a window, and saw a fleet +of Northmen cruising in the Mediterranean. They even +entered the port of the town where he was, causing no +small alarm and sudden manning and arming of his +galleys. As they put out to sea again, the emperor gazed +long after them, his eyes bathed in tears. "I am +tormented with sorrow," he said, "when I foresee the evils +they will bring on my posterity." There was reason +for these Xerxes' tears. The men who have built a ship +and invented the rig,--cordage, sail, compass, and +pump,--the working in and out of port, have acquired +much more than a ship. Now arm them, and every +shore is at their mercy. For, if they have not numerical +superiority where they anchor, they have only to sail a +mile or two to find it. Bonaparte's art of war, namely, +of concentrating force on the point of attack, must always +be theirs who have the choice of the battle-ground. Of +course they come into the fight from a higher ground of +power than the land-nations; and can engage them on +shore with a victorious advantage in the retreat. As +soon as the shores are sufficiently peopled to make +piracy a losing business, the same skill and courage are +ready for the service of trade.</p> +<p class="pnext">The <em class="italics">Heimskringla</em>,<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id7" id="id6"><sup>3</sup></a> or Sagas of the Kings of Norway, +collected by Snorro Sturleson, is the Iliad and Odyssey +of English history. Its portraits, like Homer's, are +strongly individualized. The Sagas describe a monarchical +republic like Sparta. The government disappears +before the importance of citizens. In Norway, no +Persian masses fight and perish to aggrandize a king, but +the actors are bonders or landholders, every one of +whom is named and personally and patronymically +described, as the king's friend and companion. A sparse +population gives this high worth to every man. Individuals +are often noticed as very handsome persons, which +trait only brings the story nearer to the English race. +Then the solid material interest predominates, so dear to +English understanding, wherein the association is logical, +between merit and land. The heroes of the Sagas are +not the knights of South Europe. No vaporing of +France and Spain has corrupted them. They are +substantial farmers, whom the rough times have forced to +defend their properties. They have weapons which they +use in a determined manner, by no means for chivalry, +but for their acres. They are people considerably +advanced in rural arts, living amphibiously on a rough +coast, and drawing half their food from the sea, and half +from the land. They have herds of cows, and malt, +wheat, bacon, butter, and cheese. They fish in the fiord, +and hunt the deer. A king among these farmers has a +varying power, sometimes not exceeding the authority of +a sheriff. A king was maintained much as, in some of +our country districts, a winter-schoolmaster is quartered, +a week here, a week there, and a fortnight on the next +farm,--on all the farms in rotation. This the king calls +going into guest-quarters; and it was the only way in +which, in a poor country, a poor king, with many retainers, +could be kept alive, when he leaves his own farm to +collect his dues through the kingdom.</p> +<p class="pnext">These Norsemen are excellent persons in the main, +with good sense, steadiness, wise speech, and prompt +action. But they have a singular turn for homicide; +their chief end of man is to murder or to be murdered; +oars, scythes, harpoons, crow-bars, peat-knives, and +hay-forks are tools valued by them all the more for their +charming aptitude for assassinations. A pair of kings, +after dinner, will divert themselves by thrusting each his +sword through the other's body, as did Yngve and Alf. +Another pair ride out on a morning for a frolic, and, +finding no weapon near, will take the bits out of their +horses' mouths, and crush each other's heads with them, +as did Alric and Eric. The sight of a tent-cord or a +cloak-string puts them on hanging somebody, a wife, or +a husband, or, best of all, a king. If a farmer has so +much as a hayfork, he sticks it into a King Dag. King +Ingiald finds it vastly amusing to burn up half a dozen +kings in a hall, after getting them drunk. Never was +poor gentleman so surfeited with life, so furious to be rid +of it, as the Northman. If he cannot pick any other +quarrel, he will get himself comfortably gored by a bull's +horns, like Egil, or slain by a land-slide, like the +agricultural King Onund. Odin died in his bed, in Sweden; +but it was a proverb of ill condition, to die the death of +old age. King Hake of Sweden cuts and slashes in +battle, as long as he can stand, then orders his war-ship, +loaded with his dead men and their weapons, to be taken +out to sea, the tiller shipped, and the sails spread; being +left alone, he sets fire to some tar-wood, and lies down +contented on deck. The wind blew off the land, the ship +flew burning in clear flame, out between the islets into the +ocean, and there was the right end of King Hake.</p> +<p class="pnext">The early Sagas are sanguinary and piratical; the later +are of a noble strain. History rarely yields us better +passages than the conversation between King Sigurd the +Crusader, and King Eystein, his brother, on their respective +merits,--one, the soldier, and the other, a lover of +the arts of peace.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the reader of the Norman history must steel +himself by holding fast the remote compensations which +result from animal vigor. As the old fossil world shows +that the first steps of reducing the chaos were confided +to saurians and other huge and horrible animals, so the +foundations of the new civility were to be laid by the +most savage men.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Normans came out of France into England worse +men than they went into it, one hundred and sixty years +before. They had lost their own language, and learned +the Romance or barbarous Latin of the Gauls; and had +acquired, with the language, all the vices it had names +for. The conquest has obtained, in the chronicles, the +name of the "memory of sorrow." Twenty thousand +thieves landed at Hastings. These founders of the +House of Lords were greedy and ferocious dragoons, +sons of greedy and ferocious pirates. They were all +alike, they took everything they could carry, they burned, +harried, violated, tortured, and killed, until everything +English was brought to the verge of ruin. Such, however, +is the illusion of antiquity and wealth, that decent +and dignified men now existing boast their descent from +these filthy thieves, who showed a far juster conviction +of their own merits, by assuming for their types the +swine, goat, jackal, leopard, wolf, and snake, which they +severally resembled.</p> +<p class="pnext">England yielded to the Danes and Northmen in the +tenth and eleventh centuries, and was the receptacle into +which all the mettle of that strenuous population was +poured. The continued draught of the best men in +Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, to these piratical expeditions, +exhausted those countries, like a tree which bears +much fruit when young, and these have been second-rate +powers ever since. The power of the race migrated, and +left Norway void. King Olaf said: "When King +Harold, my father, went westward to England, the chosen +men in Norway followed him; but Norway was so +emptied then, that such men have not since been to find +in the country, nor especially such a leader as King +Harold was for wisdom and bravery."</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a tardy recoil of these invasions, when, in 1801, +the British government sent Nelson to bombard the +Danish forts in the Sound; and, in 1807, Lord Cathcart, at +Copenhagen, took the entire Danish fleet, as it lay in the +basins, and all the equipments from the Arsenal, and +carried them to England. Konghelle, the town where +the kings of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were wont +to meet, is now rented to a private English gentleman +for a hunting-ground.</p> +<p class="pnext">It took many generations to trim, and comb, and +perfume the first boat-load of Norse pirates into royal +highnesses and most noble Knights of the Garter: but every +sparkle of ornament dates back to the Norse boat. +There will be time enough to mellow this strength into +civility and religion. It is a medical fact, that the +children of the blind see; the children of felons have a +healthy conscience. Many a mean, dastardly boy is, at +the age of puberty, transformed into a serious and +generous youth.</p> +<p class="pnext">The mildness of the following ages has not quite +effaced these traits of Odin; as the rudiment of a +structure matured in the tiger is said to be still found +unabsorbed in the Caucasian man. The nation has a tough, +acrid, animal nature, which centuries of churching and +civilizing have not been able to sweeten. Alfiori said, +"the crimes of Italy were the proof of the superiority of +the stock"; and one may say of England, that this +watch moves on a splinter of adamant. The English +uncultured are a brutal nation. The crimes recorded in +their calendars leave nothing to be desired in the way of +cold malignity. Dear to the English heart is a fair +stand-up fight. The brutality of the manners in the +lower class appears in the boxing, bear-baiting, +cock-fighting, love of executions, and in the readiness for a +set-to in the streets, delightful to the English of all +classes. The costermongers of London streets hold +cowardice in loathing:--"we must work our fists well; we +are all handy with our fists." The public schools are +charged with being bear-gardens of brutal strength, and +are liked by the people for that cause. The fagging is a +trait of the same quality. Medwin, in the Life of Shelley, +relates, that, at a military school, they rolled up a young +man in a snowball, and left him so in his room, while the +other cadets went to church;--and crippled him for life. +They have retained impressment, deck-flogging, +army-flogging, and school-flogging. Such is the ferocity of +the army discipline, that a soldier sentenced to flogging, +sometimes prays that his sentence may be commuted to +death. Flogging, banished from the armies of Western +Europe, remains here by the sanction of the Duke of +Wellington. The right of the husband to sell the wife +has been retained down to our times. The Jews have +been the favorite victims of royal and popular persecution. +Henry III. mortgaged all the Jews in the kingdom +to his brother, the Earl of Cornwall, as security for +money which he borrowed. The torture of criminals, +and the rack for extorting evidence, were slowly disused. +Of the criminal statutes, Sir Samuel Romilly said, "I +have examined the codes of all nations, and ours is the +worst, and worthy of the Anthropophagi." In the last +session (18:18), the House of Commons was listening to +details of flogging and torture practised in the jails.</p> +<p class="pnext">As soon as this land, thus geographically posted, got a +hardy people into it, they could not help becoming the +sailors and factors of the globe. From childhood, they +dabbled in water, they swum like fishes, their playthings +were boats. In the case of the ship-money, the judges +delivered it for law, that "England being an island, the +very midland shires therein are all to be accounted +maritime": and Fuller adds, "the genius even of land-locked +countries driving the natives with a maritime dexterity." As +early as the conquest, it is remarked in explanation +of the wealth of England, that its merchants trade to all +countries.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English, at the present day, have great vigor of +body and endurance. Other countrymen look slight and +undersized beside them, and invalids. They are bigger +men than the Americans. I suppose a hundred English +taken at random out of the street would weigh a fourth +more than so many Americans. Yet, I am told, the +skeleton is not larger. They are round, ruddy, and +handsome; at least, the whole bust is well formed; and +there is a tendency to stout and powerful frames. I +remarked the stoutness, on my first landing at Liverpool; +porter, drayman, coachman, guard,--what substantial, +respectable, grandfatherly figures, with costume and +manners to suit. The American has arrived at the old +mansion-house, and finds himself among uncles, aunts, +and grandsires. The pictures on the chimney-tiles of his +nursery were pictures of these people. Here they are in +the identical costumes and air, which so took him.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is the fault of their forms that they grow stocky, +and the women have that disadvantage,--few tall, +slender figures of flowing shape, but stunted and thickset +persons. The French say, that the Englishwomen have +two left hands. But, in all ages, they are a handsome +race. The bronze monuments of crusaders lying +cross-legged, in the Temple Church at London, and those in +Worcester and in Salisbury Cathedrals, which are seven +hundred years old, are of the same type as the best +youthful heads of men now in England;--please by +beauty of the same character, an expression blending +good-nature, valor, and refinement, and, mainly, by that +uncorrupt youth in the face of manhood, which is daily +seen in the streets of London.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both branches of the Scandinavian race are +distinguished for beauty. The anecdote of the handsome +captives which Saint Gregory found at Rome, A.D. 600, is +matched by the testimony of the Norman chroniclers, five +centuries later, who wondered at the beauty and long +flowing hair of the young English captives. Meantime, +the Heimskringla has frequent occasion to speak of the +personal beauty of its heroes. When it is considered +what humanity, what resources of mental and moral +power, the traits of the blond race betoken,--its +accession to empire marks a new and finer epoch, wherein the +old mineral force shall be subjugated at last by humanity, +and shall plough in its furrow henceforward. It is not +a final race, once a crab always crab, but a race with a +future.</p> +<p class="pnext">On the English face are combined decision and nerve, +with the fair complexion, blue eyes, and open and florid +aspect. Hence the love of truth, hence the sensibility, +the fine perception, and poetic construction. The fair +Saxon man, with open front, and honest meaning, +domestic, affectionate, is not the wood out of which +cannibal, or inquisitor, or assassin is made. But he is +moulded for law, lawful trade, civility, marriage, the +nurture of children, for colleges, churches, charities, and +colonies.</p> +<p class="pnext">They are rather manly than warlike. When the war +is over, the mask falls from the affectionate and domestic +tastes, which make them women in kindness. This +union of qualities is fabled in their national legend of +<em class="italics">Beauty and the Beast</em>, or long before, in the Greek legend +of <em class="italics">Hermaphrodite</em>. The two sexes are co-present in the +English mind. I apply to Britannia, queen of seas and +colonies, the words in which her latest novelist portrays +his heroine: "She is as mild as she is game, and as game +as she is mild." The English delight in the antagonism +which combines in one person the extremes of courage +and tenderness. Nelson, dying at Trafalgar, sends his +love to Lord Collingwood, and, like an innocent +school-boy that goes to bed, says, "Kiss me, Hardy," and +turns to sleep. Lord Collingwood, his comrade, was of +a nature the most affectionate and domestic. Admiral +Rodney's figure approached to delicacy and effeminacy, +and he declared himself very sensible to fear, which he +surmounted only by considerations of honor and public +duty. Clarendon says, the Duke of Buckingham was so +modest and gentle, that some courtiers attempted to +put affronts on him, until they found that this modesty +and effeminacy was only a mask for the most terrible +determination. And Sir Edward Parry said of Sir John +Franklin, that, "if he found Wellington Sound open, +he explored it; for he was a man who never turned +his back on a danger, yet of that tenderness, that he +would not brush away a mosquito." Even for their +highwaymen the same virtue is claimed, and Robin Hood +comes described to us as <em class="italics">mitissimus prædonum</em>, the +gentlest thief. But they know where their war-dogs lie. +Cromwell, Blake, Marlborough, Chatham, Nelson, and +Wellington are not to be trifled with, and the brutal +strength which lies at the bottom of society, the animal +ferocity of the quays and cock-pits, the bullies of the +costermongers of Shoreditch, Seven Dials, and Spitalfields, +they know how to wake up.</p> +<p class="pnext">They have a vigorous health, and last well into middle +and old age. The old men are as red as roses, and still +handsome. A clear skin, a peach-bloom complexion, +and good teeth are found all over the island. They use +a plentiful and nutritious diet. The operative cannot +subsist on water-cresses. Beef, mutton, wheat-bread, and +malt-liquors are universal among the first-class laborers. +Good feeding is a chief point of national pride among +the vulgar, and, in their caricatures, they represent the +Frenchman as a poor, starved body. It is curious that +Tacitus found the English beer already in use among the +Germans: "They make from barley or wheat a drink +corrupted into some resemblance to wine." Lord Chief +Justice Fortescue in Henry VI.'s time, says, "The +inhabitants of England drink no water, unless at certain +times, on a religious score, and by way of penance." The +extremes of poverty and ascetic penance, it would +seem, never reach cold water in England. Wood, the +antiquary, in describing the poverty and maceration of +Father Lacey, an English Jesuit, does not deny him +beer. He says, "his bed was under a thatching, and the +way to it up a ladder; his fare was coarse; his drink, of +a penny a gawn, or gallon."</p> +<p class="pnext">They have more constitutional energy than any other +people. They think, with Henri Quatre, that manly +exercises are the foundation of that elevation of mind +which gives one nature ascendant over another; or, with +the Arabs, that the days spent in the chase are not +counted in the length of life. They box, run, shoot, +ride, row, and sail from pole to pole. They eat and +drink, and live jolly in the open air, putting a bar of +solid sleep between day and day. They walk and ride +as fast as they can, their heads bent forward, as if urged +on some pressing affair. The French say, that Englishmen +in the street always walk straight before them like +mad dogs. Men and women walk with infatuation. As +soon as he can handle a gun, hunting is the fine art of +every Englishman of condition. They are the most +voracious people of prey that ever existed. Every season +turns out the aristocracy into the country, to shoot and +fish. The more vigorous run out of the island to +Europe, to America, to Asia, to Africa, and Australia, to +hunt with fury by gun, by trap, by harpoon, by lasso, +with clog, with horse, with elephant, or with dromedary, +all the game that is in nature. These men have written +the game-books of all countries, as Hawker, Scrope, +Murray, Herbert, Maxwell, Gumming, and a host of +travellers. The people at home are addicted to boxing, +running, leaping, and rowing matches.</p> +<p class="pnext">I suppose, the dogs and horses must be thanked for the +fact, that the men have muscles almost as tough and +supple as their own. If in every efficient man, there is +first a fine animal, in the English race it is of the best +breed, a wealthy, juicy, broad-chested creature, steeped +in ale and good cheer, and a little overloaded by his +flesh. Men of animal nature rely, like animals, on their +instincts. The Englishman associates well with dogs and +horses. His attachment to the horse arises from the +courage and address required to manage it. The horse +finds out who is afraid of it, and does not disguise its +opinion. Their young boiling clerks and lusty collegians +like the company of horses better than the company of +professors. I suppose, the horses are better company +for them. The horse has more uses than Buffon noted. +If you go into the streets, every driver in bus or dray +is a bully, and, if I wanted a good troop of soldiers, I +should recruit among the stables. Add a certain degree +of refinement to the vivacity of these riders, and you +obtain the precise quality which makes the men and +women of polite society formidable.</p> +<p class="pnext">They come honestly by their horsemanship, with <em class="italics">Hengst</em> +and <em class="italics">Horsa</em> for their Saxon founders. The other branch +of their race had been Tartar nomads. The horse was all +their wealth. The children were fed on mares' milk. +The pastures of Tartary were still remembered by the +tenacious practice of the Norsemen to eat horse-flesh at +religious feasts. In the Danish invasions, the marauders +seized upon horses where they landed, and were at once +converted into a body of expert cavalry.</p> +<p class="pnext">At one time, this skill seems to have declined. Two +centuries ago, the English horse never performed any +eminent service beyond the seas; and the reason +assigned was, that the genius of the English hath always +more inclined them to foot-service, as pure and proper +manhood, without any mixture; whilst, in a victory +on horseback, the credit ought to be divided betwixt +the man and his horse. But in two hundred years, a +change has taken place. Now, they boast that they +understand horses better than any other people in the world, +and that their horses are become their second selves.</p> +<p class="pnext">"William the Conqueror being," says Camden, "better +affected to beasts than to men, imposed heavy fines and +punishments on those that should meddle with his game." The +Saxon Chronicle says, "he loved the tall deer as if +he were their father." And rich Englishmen have +followed his example, according to their ability, ever since, +in encroaching on the tillage and commons with their +game-preserves. It is a proverb in England, that it is +safer to shoot a man than a hare. The severity of the +game-laws certainly indicates an extravagant sympathy of +the nation with horses and hunters. The gentlemen are +always on horseback, and have brought horses to an ideal +perfection,--the English racer is a factitious breed. A +score or two of mounted gentlemen may frequently be +seen running like centaurs down a hill nearly as steep +as the roof of a house. Every inn-room is lined with +pictures of races; telegraphs communicate, every hour, +tidings of the heats from Newmarket and Ascot: and the +House of Commons adjourns over the 'Derby Day.'</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-v-ability"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id58">CHAPTER V.--ABILITY.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The Saxon and the Northman are both Scandinavians. +History does not allow us to fix the limits of the +application of these names with any accuracy; but from the +residence of a portion of these people in France, and from +some effect of that powerful soil on their blood and +manners, the Norman has come popularly to represent in +England the aristocratic, and the Saxon the democratic +principle. And though, I doubt not, the nobles are of +both tribes, and the workers of both, yet we are forced +to use the names a little mythically, one to represent the +worker, and the other the enjoyer.</p> +<p class="pnext">The island was a prize for the best race. Each of the +dominant races tried its fortune in turn. The Phoenician, +the Celt, and the Goth had already got in. The Roman +came, but in the very day when his fortune culminated. +He looked in the eyes of a new people that was to +supplant his own. He disembarked his legions, erected his +camps and towers,--presently he heard bad news from +Italy, and worse and worse, every year: at last, he made +a handsome compliment of roads and walls, and departed. +But the Saxon seriously settled in the land, builded, +tilled, fished, and traded, with German truth and +adhesiveness. The Dane came, and divided with him. Last +of all, the Norman, or French-Dane, arrived, and formally +conquered, harried, and ruled the kingdom. A century +later, it came out, that the Saxon had the most bottom +and longevity, had managed to make the victor speak the +language and accept the law and usage of the victim; +forced the baron to dictate Saxon terms to Norman +kings; and, step by step, got all the essential securities +of civil liberty invented and confirmed. The genius of +the race and the genius of the place conspired to this +effect. The island is lucrative to free labor, but not +worth possession on other terms. The race was so +intellectual, that a feudal or military tenure could not last +longer than the war. The power of the Saxon-Danes, so +thoroughly beaten in the war, that the name of English +and villein were synonymous, yet so vivacious as to extort +charters from the kings, stood on the strong personality +of these people. Sense and economy must rule in a world +which is made of sense and economy, and the banker, +with his seven per cent, drives the earl out of his castle. +A nobility of soldiers cannot keep down a commonalty +of shrewd scientific persons. What signifies a pedigree +of a hundred links, against a cotton-spinner with steam +in his mill; or, against a company of broad-shouldered +Liverpool merchants, for whom Stephenson and Brunel +are contriving locomotives and a tubular bridge?</p> +<p class="pnext">These Saxons are the hands of mankind. They have +the taste for toil, a distaste for pleasure or repose, +and the telescopic appreciation of distant gain. They +are the wealth-makers,--and by dint of mental faculty +which has its own conditions. The Saxon works after +liking, or, only for himself; and to set him at work, and +to begin to draw his monstrous values out of barren +Britain, all dishonor, fret, and barrier must be removed, +and then his energies begin to play.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Scandinavian fancied himself surrounded by Trolls,--a +kind of goblin men, with vast power of work and +skilful production,--divine stevedores, carpenters, +reapers, smiths, and masons, swift to reward every kindness +done them, with gifts of gold and silver. In all English +history, this dream comes to pass. Certain Trolls or +working brains, under the names of Alfred, Bede, Caxton, +Bracton, Camden, Drake, Selden, Dugdale, Newton, +Gibbon, Brindley, Watt, Wedgwood, dwell in the +troll-mounts of Britain, and turn the sweat of their face to +power and renown.</p> +<p class="pnext">If the race is good, so is the place. Nobody landed +on this spell-bound island with impunity. The +enchantments of barren shingle and rough weather transformed +every adventurer into a laborer. Each vagabond that +arrived bent his neck to the yoke of gain, or found the +air too tense for him. The strong survived, the weaker +went to the ground. Even the pleasure-hunters and sots +of England are of a tougher texture. A hard +temperament had been formed by Saxon and Saxon-Dane, and +such of these French or Normans as could reach it, were +naturalized in every sense.</p> +<p class="pnext">All the admirable expedients or means hit upon in +England must be looked at as growths or irresistible +offshoots of the expanding mind of the race. A man of that +brain thinks and acts thus; and his neighbor, being +afflicted with the same kind of brain, though he is rich, +and called a baron, or a duke, thinks the same thing, and +is ready to allow the justice of the thought and act in his +retainer or tenant, though sorely against his baronial or +ducal will.</p> +<p class="pnext">The island was renowned in antiquity for its breed of +mastiffs, so fierce, that when their teeth were set, you +must cut their heads off to part them. The man was +like his dog. The people have that nervous bilious +temperament, which is known by medical men to resist +every means employed to make its possessor subservient +to the will of others. The English game is main force to +main force, the planting of foot to foot, fair play and +open field,--a rough tug without trick or dodging, till +one or both come to pieces. King Ethelwald spoke the +language of his race, when he planted himself at +Wimborne, and said, 'he would do one of two things, or there +live, or there lie.' They hate craft and subtlety. They +neither poison, nor waylay, nor assassinate; and, when +they have pounded each other to a poultice, they will +shake hands and be friends for the remainder of their +lives.</p> +<p class="pnext">You shall trace these Gothic touches at school, at +country fairs, at the hustings, and in parliament. No +artifice, no breach of truth and plain dealing,--not so +much as secret ballot, is suffered in the island. In +parliament, the tactics of the opposition is to resist every +step of the government, by a pitiless attack; and in a +bargain, no prospect of advantage is so dear to the +merchant, as the thought of being tricked is mortifying.</p> +<p class="pnext">Sir Kenelm Digby, a courtier of Charles and James, +who won the sea-fight of Scanderoon, was a model +Englishman in his day. "His person was handsome and +gigantic, he had so graceful elocution and noble address, +that, had he been dropt out of the clouds in any part +of the world, he would have made himself respected: +he was skilled in six tongues, and master of arts and +arms."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id10" id="id8"><sup>4</sup></a> Sir Kenelm wrote a book, "Of Bodies and +of Souls," in which he propounds, that "syllogisms do +breed or rather are all the variety of man's life. They +are the steps by which we walk in all our businesses. +Man, as he is man, doth nothing else but weave such +chains. Whatsoever he doth, swarving from this work, +lie doth as deficient from the nature of man: and, if he +do aught beyond this, by breaking out into divers sorts +of exterior actions, he findeth, nevertheless, in this linked +sequel of simple discourses, the art, the cause, the rule, +the bounds, and the model of it."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id11" id="id9"><sup>5</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">There spoke the genius of the English people. There +is a necessity on them to be logical. They would hardly +greet the good that did not logically fall,--as if it +excluded their own merit, or shook their understandings. +They are jealous of minds that have much facility +of association, from an instinctive fear that the seeing +many relations to their thought might impair this serial +continuity and lucrative concentration. They are +impatient of genius, or of minds addicted to contemplation, +and cannot conceal their contempt for sallies of thought, +however lawful, whose steps they cannot count by their +wonted rule. Neither do they reckon better a syllogism +that ends in syllogism. For they have a supreme eye to +facts, and theirs is a logic that brings salt to soup, +hammer to nail, oar to boat, the logic of cooks, carpenters, +and chemists, following the sequence of nature, and one +on which words make no impression. Their mind is not +dazzled by its own means, but locked and bolted to +results. They love men, who, like Samuel Johnson, a +doctor in the schools, would jump out of his syllogism +the instant his major proposition was in danger, to save +that, at all hazards. Their practical vision is spacious, +and they can hold many threads without entangling +them. All the steps they orderly take; but with the +high logic of never confounding the minor and major +proposition; keeping their eye on their aim, in all the +complicity and delay incident to the several series of +means they employ. There is room in their minds for +this and that,--a science of degrees. In the courts, the +independence of the judges and the loyalty of the suitors +are equally excellent. In Parliament, they have hit on +that capital invention of freedom, a constitutional +opposition. And when courts and Parliament are both deaf, +the plaintiff is not silenced. Calm, patient, his weapon +of defence from year to year is the obstinate reproduction +of the grievance, with calculations and estimates. +But, meantime, he is drawing numbers and money to his +opinion, resolved that if all remedy fails, right of +revolution is at the bottom of his charter-box. They are +bound to see their measure carried, and stick to it +through ages of defeat.</p> +<p class="pnext">Into this English logic, however, an infusion of justice +enters, not so apparent in other races,--a belief in the +existence of two sides, and the resolution to see fair play. +There is on every question an appeal from the assertion +of the parties to the proof of what is asserted. They are +impious in their scepticism of a theory, but kiss the dust +before a fact. Is it a machine, is it a charter, is it a +boxer in the ring, is it a candidate on the hustings,--the +universe of Englishmen will suspend their judgment, +until the trial can be had. They are not to be led by +a phrase, they want a working plan, a working machine, a +working constitution, and will sit out the trial, and abide +by the issue, and reject all preconceived theories. In +politics they put blunt questions, which must be +answered; who is to pay the taxes? what will you do for +trade? what for corn? what for the spinner?</p> +<p class="pnext">This singular fairness and its results strike the French +with surprise. Philip de Commines says: "Now, in my +opinion, among all the sovereignties I know in the world, +that in which the public good is best attended to, and the +least violence exercised on the people, is that of +England." Life is safe, and personal rights; and what is +freedom, without security? whilst, in France, 'fraternity,' +'equality,' and 'indivisible unity' are names for +assassination. Montesquieu said: "England is the +freest country in the world. If a man in England had +as many enemies as hairs on his head, no harm would +happen to him."</p> +<p class="pnext">Their self-respect, their faith in causation, and their +realistic logic or coupling of means to ends, have given +them the leadership of the modern world. Montesquieu +said, "No people have true common-sense but those who +are born in England." This common-sense is a perception +of all the conditions of our earthly existence, of +laws that can be stated, and of laws that cannot be +stated, or that are learned only by practice, in which +allowance for friction is made. They are impious in +their scepticism of theory, and in high departments they +are cramped and sterile. But the unconditional surrender +to facts, and the choice of means to reach their ends, +are as admirable as with ants and bees.</p> +<p class="pnext">The bias of the nation is a passion for utility. They +love the lever, the screw, and pulley, the Flanders +draught-horse, the waterfall, wind-mills, tide-mills; the sea and +the wind to bear their freight-ships. More than the +diamond Koh-i-noor, which glitters among their +crown-jewels, they prize that dull pebble which is wiser than +a man, whose poles turn themselves to the poles of the +world, and whose axis is parallel to the axis of the +world. Now, their toys are steam and galvanism. They +are heavy at the fine arts, but adroit at the coarse; not +good in jewelry or mosaics, but the best iron-masters, +colliers, wool-combers, and tanners in Europe. They +apply themselves to agriculture, to draining, to resisting +encroachments of sea, wind, travelling sands, cold and +wet subsoil; to fishery, to manufacture of indispensable +staples,--salt, plumbago, leather, wool, glass, pottery, +and brick,--to bees and silk-worms; and by their +steady combinations they succeed. A manufacturer sits +down to dinner in a suit of clothes which was wool on +a sheep's back at sunrise. You dine with a gentleman on +venison, pheasant, quail, pigeons, poultry, mushrooms, and +pineapples, all the growth of his estate. They are neat +husbands for ordering all their tools pertaining to house +and field. All are well kept. There is no want and no +waste. They study use and fitness in their building, in +the order of their dwellings, and in their dress. The +Frenchman invented the ruffle, the Englishman added +the shirt. The Englishman wears a sensible coat +buttoned to the chin, of rough but solid and lasting texture. +If he is a lord, he dresses a little worse than a commoner. +They have diffused the taste for plain substantial hats, +shoes, and coats through Europe. They think him the +best dressed man, whose dress is so fit for his use that +you cannot notice or remember to describe it.</p> +<p class="pnext">They secure the essentials in their diet, in their arts +and manufactures. Every article of cutlery shows, in its +shape, thought and long experience of workmen. They +put the expense in the right place, as, in their sea-steamers, +in the solidity of the machinery and the strength of +the boat. The admirable equipment of their arctic ships +carries London to the pole. They build roads, aqueducts, +warm and ventilate houses. And they have impressed +their directness and practical habit on modern civilization.</p> +<p class="pnext">In trade, the Englishman believes that nobody breaks +who ought not to break; and, that, if he do not make +trade everything, it will make him nothing; and acts on +this belief. The spirit of system, attention to details, and +the subordination of details, or, the not driving things too +finely (which is charged on the Germans), constitute that +despatch of business, which makes the mercantile power +of England.</p> +<p class="pnext">In war, the Englishman looks to his means. He is of +the opinion of Civilis, his German ancestor, whom Tacitus +reports as holding "that the gods are on the side of the +strongest";--a sentence which Bonaparte unconsciously +translated, when he said, "that he had noticed, that +Providence always favored the heaviest battalion." Their +military science propounds that if the weight of the advancing +column is greater than that of the resisting, the latter is +destroyed. Therefore Wellington, when he came to the +army in Spain, had every man weighed, first with +accoutrements, and then without; believing that the force of +an army depended on the weight and power of the +individual soldiers, in spite of cannon. Lord Palmerston +told the House of Commons, that more care is taken of +the health and comfort of English troops than of any +other troops in the world; and that hence the English can +put more men into the ranks, on the day of action, on the +field of battle, than any other army. Before the bombardment +of the Danish forts in the Baltic, Nelson spent day +after day, himself in the boats, on the exhausting service +of sounding the channel. Clerk of Eldin's celebrated +manoeuvre of breaking the line of sea-battle, and Nelson's +feat of <em class="italics">doubling</em>, or stationing his ships one on the outer +bow, and another on the outer quarter of each of the +enemy's, were only translations into naval tactics of +Bonaparte's rule of concentration. Lord Collingwood +was accustomed to tell his men, that, if they could fire +three well-directed broadsides in five minutes, no vessel +could resist them; and, from constant practice, they came +to do it in three minutes and a half.</p> +<p class="pnext">But conscious that no race of better men exists, they +rely most on the simplest means; and do not like +ponderous and difficult tactics, but delight to bring the affair +hand to hand, where the victory lies with the strength, +courage, and endurance of the individual combatants. +They adopt every improvement in rig, in motor, in +weapons, but they fundamentally believe that the best +stratagem in naval war is to lay your ship close alongside of +the enemy's ship, and bring all your guns to bear on him, +until you or he go to the bottom. This is the old fashion, +which never goes out of fashion, neither in nor out of +England.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is not usually a point of honor, nor a religious +sentiment, and never any whim that they will shed their +blood for; but usually property, and right measured by +property, that breeds revolution. They have no Indian +taste for a tomahawk-dance, no French taste for a badge +or a proclamation. The Englishman is peaceably +minding his business and earning his day's wages. But if +you offer to lay hand on his day's wages, on his cow, or +his right in common, or his shop, he will fight to the +Judgment. Magna-charta, jury-trial, <em class="italics">habeas-corpus</em>, +star-chamber, ship-money, Popery, Plymouth colony, American +Revolution, are all questions involving a yeoman's right +to his dinner, and, except as touching that, would not +have lashed the British nation to rage and revolt.</p> +<p class="pnext">Whilst they are thus instinct with a spirit of order, +and of calculation, it must be owned they are capable of +larger views; but the indulgence is expensive to them, +costs great crises, or accumulations of mental power. +In common, the horse works best with blinders. +Nothing is more in the line of English thought, than our +unvarnished Connecticut question, "Pray, sir, how do +you get your living when you are at home?" The +questions of freedom, of taxation, of privilege, are money +questions. Heavy fellows, steeped in beer and fleshpots, +they are hard of hearing and dim of sight. Their +drowsy minds need to be flagellated by war and trade and +politics and persecution. They cannot well read a +principle, except by the light of fagots and of burning towns.</p> +<p class="pnext">Tacitus says of the Germans, "powerful only in sudden +efforts, they are impatient of toil and labor." This highly +destined race, if it had not somewhere added the chamber +of patience to its brain, would not have built London. +I know not from which of the tribes and temperaments +that went to the composition of the people this tenacity +was supplied, but they clinch every nail they drive. +They have no running for luck, and no immoderate +speed. They spend largely on their fabric, and await the +slow return. Their leather lies tanning seven years in +the vat. At Rogers's mills, in Sheffield, where I was +shown the process of making a razor and a penknife, I +was told there is no luck in making good steel; that +they make no mistakes, every blade in the hundred and +in the thousand is good. And that is characteristic of +all their work,--no more is attempted than is done.</p> +<p class="pnext">When Thor and his companions arrive at Utgard, he +is told that "nobody is permitted to remain here, unless +he understand some art, and excel in it all other men." The +same question is still put to the posterity of Thor. +A nation of laborers, every man is trained to some one +art or detail, and aims at perfection in that: not content +unless he has something in which he thinks he surpasses +all other men. He would rather not do anything at all, +than not do it well. I suppose no people have such +thoroughness: from the highest to the lowest, every man +meaning to be master of his art.</p> +<p class="pnext">"To show capacity," a Frenchman described as the +end of a speech in debate: "no," said an Englishman, +"but to set your shoulder at the wheel,--to advance the +business." Sir Samuel Romilly refused to speak in +popular assemblies, confining himself to the House of +Commons, where a measure can be carried by a speech. The +business of the House of Commons is conducted by a few +persons, but these are hard-worked. Sir Robert Peel +"knew the Blue Books by heart." His colleagues and +rivals carry Hansard in their heads. The high civil and +legal offices are not beds of ease, but posts which exact +frightful amounts of mental labor. Many of the great +leaders, like Pitt, Canning, Castlereagh, Romilly, are +soon worked to death. They are excellent judges in +England of a good worker, and when they find one, like +Clarendon, Sir Philip Warwick, Sir William Coventry, +Ashley, Burke, Thurlow, Mansfield, Pitt, Eldon, Peel, or +Russell, there is nothing too good or too high for him.</p> +<p class="pnext">They have a wonderful heat in the pursuit of a public +aim. Private persons exhibit, in scientific and antiquarian +researches, the same pertinacity as the nation showed in +the coalitions in which it yoked Europe against the +Empire of Bonaparte, one after the other defeated, and +still renewed, until the sixth hurled him from his seat.</p> +<p class="pnext">Sir John Herschel, in completion of the work of his +father, who had made the catalogue of the stars of the +northern hemisphere, expatriated himself for years at the +Cape of Good Hope, finished his inventory of the southern +heaven, came home, and redacted it in eight years more;--a +work whose value does not begin until thirty years +have elapsed, and thenceforward a record to all ages of +the highest import. The Admiralty sent out the Arctic +expeditions year after year, in search of Sir John +Franklin, until, at last, they have threaded their way through +polar pack and Behring's Straits, and solved the +geographical problem. Lord Elgin, at Athens, saw the +imminent ruin of the Greek remains, set up his scaffoldings, +in spite of epigrams, and, after five years' labor to +collect them, got his marbles on shipboard. The ship +struck a rock, and went to the bottom. He had them +all fished up, by divers, at a vast expense, and brought +to London; not knowing that Haydon, Fuseli, and +Canova, and all good heads in all the world, were to be +his applauders. In the same spirit, were the excavation +and research by Sir Charles Fellowes, for the Xanthian +monument; and of Layard, for his Nineveh sculptures.</p> +<p class="pnext">The nation sits in the immense city they have builded, +a London extended into every man's mind, though he +live in Van Dieman's Land or Capetown. Faithful +performance of what is undertaken to be performed, they +honor in themselves, and exact in others, as certificate of +equality with themselves. The modern world is theirs. +They have made and make it day by day. The commercial +relations of the world are so intimately drawn to +London, that every dollar on earth contributes to the +strength of the English government. And if all the +wealth in the planet should perish by war or deluge, they +know themselves competent to replace it.</p> +<p class="pnext">They have approved their Saxon blood, by their +sea-going qualities; their descent from Odin's smiths, by +their hereditary skill in working in iron; their British +birth, by husbandry and immense wheat harvests; and +justified their occupancy of the centre of habitable land, +by their supreme ability and cosmopolitan spirit. They +have tilled, builded, forged, spun, and woven. They have +made the island a thoroughfare; and London a shop, a +law-court, a record-office, and scientific bureau, inviting +to strangers; a sanctuary to refugees of every political +and religious opinion; and such a city, that almost every +active man, in any nation, finds himself, at one time or +other, forced to visit it.</p> +<p class="pnext">In every path of practical activity, they have gone even +with the best. There is no secret of war, in which they +have not shown mastery. The steam-chamber of Watt, +the locomotive of Stephenson, the cotton-mule of Roberts, +perform the labor of the world. There is no department +of literature, of science, or of useful art, in which they +have not produced a first-rate book. It is England, +whose opinion is waited for on the merit of a new +invention, an improved science. And in the complications of +the trade and politics of their vast empire, they have been +equal to every exigency, with counsel and with conduct. +Is it their luck, or is it in the chambers of their brain,--it +is their commercial advantage, that whatever light +appears in better method or happy invention, breaks out <em class="italics">in +their race</em>. They are a family to which a destiny attaches, +and the Banshee has sworn that a male heir shall never +be wanting. They have a wealth of men to fill important +posts, and the vigilance of party criticism insures the +selection of a competent person.</p> +<p class="pnext">A proof of the energy of the British people is the +highly artificial construction of the whole fabric. The +climate and geography, I said, were factitious, as if +the hands of man had arranged the conditions. The +same character pervades the whole kingdom. Bacon +said, "Rome was a state not subject to paradoxes"; but +England subsists by antagonisms and contradictions. +The foundations of its greatness are the rolling waves; +and, from first to last, it is a museum of anomalies. This +foggy and rainy country furnishes the world with +astronomical observations. Its short rivers do not afford +water-power, but the land shakes under the thunder of +the mills. There is no gold-mine of any importance, but +there is more gold in England than in all other countries. +It is too far north for the culture of the vine, but the +wines of all countries are in its docks. The French +Comte de Lauraguais said, "no fruit ripens in England +but a baked apple"; but oranges and pineapples are as +cheap in London as in the Mediterranean. The +Mark-Lane Express, or the Custom-House Returns bear out +to the letter the vaunt of Pope,--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Let India boast her palms, nor envy we</div> +<div class="line">The weeping amber, nor the spicy tree,</div> +<div class="line">While, by our oaks, those precious loads are borne,</div> +<div class="line">And realms commanded which those trees adorn."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">The native cattle are extinct, but the island is full +of artificial breeds. The agriculturist Bakewell created +sheep and cows and horses to order, and breeds in which +everything was omitted but what is economical. The cow +is sacrificed to her bag, the ox to his surloin. +Stall-feeding makes sperm-mills of the cattle, and converts the +stable to a chemical factory. The rivers, lakes, and ponds, +too much fished, or obstructed by factories, are artificially +filled with the eggs of salmon, turbot, and herring.</p> +<p class="pnext">Chat Moss and the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire +are unhealthy and too barren to pay rent. By +cylindrical tiles, and gutta-percha tubes, five millions of +acres of bad land have been drained and put on equality +with the best, for rape-culture and grass. The climate +too, which was already believed to have become, milder +and drier by the enormous consumption of coal, is so far +reached by this new action, that fogs and storms are said +to disappear. In due course, all England will be drained, +and rise a second time out of the waters. The latest step +was to call in the aid of steam to agriculture. Steam is +almost an Englishman. I do not know but they will +send him to Parliament, next, to make laws. He weaves, +forges, saws, pounds, fans, and now he must pump, grind, +dig, and plough for the farmer. The markets created by +the manufacturing population have erected agriculture +into a great thriving and spending industry. The value +of the houses in Britain is equal to the value of the soil. +Artificial aids of all kinds are cheaper than the natural +resources. No man can afford to walk, when the parliamentary +train carries him for a penny a mile. Gas-burners +are cheaper than daylight in numberless floors in +the cities. All the houses in London buy their water. +The English trade does not exist for the exportation of +native products, but on its manufactures, or the making +well everything which is ill made elsewhere. They make +ponchos for the Mexican, bandannas for the Hindoo, +ginseng for the Chinese, beads for the Indian, laces for the +Flemings, telescopes for astronomers, cannons for kings.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Board of Trade caused the best models of Greece +and Italy to be placed within the reach of every +manufacturing population. They caused to be translated from +foreign languages and illustrated by elaborate drawings, +the most approved works of Munich, Berlin, and Paris. +They have ransacked Italy to find new forms, to add a +grace to the products of their looms, their potteries, and +their foundries.<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id12"><sup>6</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">The nearer we look, the more artificial is their social +system. Their law is a network of fictions. Their +property, a scrip or certificate of right to interest on money +that no man ever saw. Their social classes are made by +statute. Their ratios of power and representation are +historical and legal. The last reform-bill took away +political power from a mound, a ruin, and a stone-wall, whilst +Birmingham and Manchester, whose mills paid for the +wars of Europe, had no representative. Purity in the +elective Parliament is secured by the purchase of +seats.<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id15" id="id14"><sup>7</sup></a> Foreign power is kept by armed colonies; power at home, +by a standing army of police. The pauper lives better +than the free laborer; the thief better than the pauper; +and the transported felon better than the one under +imprisonment. The crimes are factitious, as smuggling, +poaching, non-conformity, heresy, and treason. Better, +they say in England, kill a man than a hare. The +sovereignty of the seas is maintained by the impressment +of seamen. "The impressment of seamen," said Lord +Eldon, "is the life of our navy." Solvency is maintained +by means of a national debt, on the principle, "if you +will not lend me the money, how can I pay you?" For +the administration of justice, Sir Samuel Romilly's +expedient for clearing the arrears of business in Chancery, +was, the chancellor's staying away entirely from his +court. Their system of education is factitious. The +Universities galvanize dead languages into a semblance +of life. Their church is artificial. The manners and +customs of society are artificial;--made-up men with +made-up manners;--and thus the whole is Birminghamized, +and we have a nation whose existence is a work of +art;--a cold, barren, almost arctic isle, being made the +most fruitful, luxurious, and imperial land in the whole +earth.</p> +<p class="pnext">Man in England submits to be a product of political +economy. On a bleak moor, a mill is built, a banking-house +is opened, and men come in, as water in a +sluice-way, and towns and cities rise. Man is made as a +Birmingham button. The rapid doubling of the population +dates from Watt's steam-engine. A landlord, who owns +a province, says, "the tenantry are unprofitable; let me +have sheep." He unroofs the houses, and ships the +population to America. The nation is accustomed to the +instantaneous creation of wealth. It is the maxim of their +economists, "that the greater part in value of the wealth +now existing in England has been produced by human +hands within the last twelve months." Meantime, three or +four days' rain will reduce hundreds to starving in London.</p> +<p class="pnext">One secret of their power is their mutual good +understanding. Not only good minds are born among them, +but all the people have good minds. Every nation has +yielded some good wit, if, as has chanced to many tribes, +only one. But the intellectual organization of the +English admits a communicableness of knowledge and ideas +among them all. An electric touch by any of their +national ideas, melts them into one family, and brings +the hoards of power which their individuality is always +hiving, into use and play for all. Is it the smallness of +the country, or is it the pride and affection of race,--they +have solidarity, or responsibleness, and trust in each +other.</p> +<p class="pnext">Their minds, like wool, admit of a dye which is more +lasting than the cloth. They embrace their cause with +more tenacity than their life. Though not military, yet +every common subject by the poll is fit to make a +soldier of. These private reserved mute family-men can +adopt a public end with all their heat, and this strength +of affection makes the romance of their heroes. The +difference of rank does not divide the national heart. +The Danish poet Oehlenschlager complains, that who +writes in Danish writes to two hundred readers. In +Germany, there is one speech for the learned, and another +for the masses, to that extent, that, it is said, no +sentiment or phrase from the works of any great German +writer is ever heard among the lower classes. But in +England, the language of the noble is the language of +the poor. In Parliament, in pulpits, in theatres, when +the speakers rise to thought and passion, the language +becomes idiomatic; the people in the street best +understand the best words. And their language seems drawn +from the Bible, the common law, and the works of +Shakspeare, Bacon, Milton, Pope, Young, Cowper, Burns, and +Scott. The island has produced two or three of the +greatest men that ever existed, but they were not solitary +in their own time. Men quickly embodied what Newton +found out, in Greenwich observatories, and practical +navigation. The boys knew all that Hutton knew of +strata, or Dalton of atoms, or Harvey of blood-vessels; +and these studies, once dangerous, are in fashion. So +what is invented or known in agriculture, or in trade, or +in war, or in art, or in literature, and antiquities. A +great ability, not amassed on a few giants, but poured +into the general mind, so that each of them could at a +pinch stand in the shoes of the other; and they are more +bound in character than differenced in ability or in rank. +The laborer is a possible lord. The lord is a possible +basket-maker. Every man carries the English system in +his brain, knows what is confided to him, and does +therein the best he can. The chancellor carries England +on his mace, the midshipman at the point of his dirk, the +smith on his hammer, the cook in the bowl of his spoon; +the postilion cracks his whip for England, and the sailor +times his oars to "God save the King!" The very +felons have their pride in each other's English stanchness. +In politics and in war, they hold together as by +hooks of steel. The charm in Nelson's history is, the +unselfish greatness; the assurance of being supported to +the uttermost by those whom he supports to the uttermost. +Whilst they are some ages ahead of the rest of +the world in the art of living; whilst in some directions +they do not represent the modern spirit, but constitute +it,--this vanguard of civility and power they coldly hold, +marching in phalanx, lock-step, foot after foot, file after +file of heroes, ten thousand deep.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-vi-manners"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id59">CHAPTER VI.--MANNERS.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">I find the Englishman to be him of all men who +stands firmest in his shoes. They have in themselves +what they value in their horses, mettle and bottom. On +the day of my arrival at Liverpool, a gentleman, in +describing to me the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, happened +to say, "Lord Clarendon has pluck like a cock, and will +fight till he dies"; and, what I heard first I heard last, +and the one thing the English value, is <em class="italics">pluck</em>. The +word is not beautiful, but on the quality they signify by +it the nation is unanimous. The cabmen have it; the +merchants have it; the bishops have it; the women have +it; the journals have it; the Times newspaper, they say, +is the pluckiest thing in England, and Sidney Smith had +made it a proverb, that little Lord John Russell, the +minister, would take the command of the Channel fleet +to-morrow.</p> +<p class="pnext">They require you to dare to be of your own opinion, +and they hate the practical cowards who cannot in affairs +answer directly yes or no. They dare to displease, nay, +they will let you break all the commandments, if you do +it natively, and with spirit. You must be somebody; +then you may do this or that, as you will.</p> +<p class="pnext">Machinery has been applied to all work, and carried to +such perfection, that little is left for the men but to mind +the engines and feed the furnaces. But the machines +require punctual service, and as they never tire, they +prove too much for their tenders. Mines, forges, mills, +breweries, railroads, steam-pump, steam-plough, drill of +regiments, drill of police, rule of court, and shop-rule, +have operated to give a mechanical regularity to all the +habit and action of men. A terrible machine has +possessed itself of the ground, the air, the men and women, +and hardly even thought is free.</p> +<p class="pnext">The mechanical might and organization require in the +people constitution and answering spirits; and he who +goes among them must have some weight of metal. At +last, you take your hint from the fury of life you find, +and say, one thing is plain, this is no country for +faint-hearted people: don't creep about diffidently; make up +your mind; take your own course, and you shall find +respect and furtherance.</p> +<p class="pnext">It requires, men say, a good constitution to travel in +Spain. I say as much of England, for other cause, +simply on account of the vigor and brawn of the people. +Nothing but the most serious business could give +one any counterweight to these Baresarks, though they +were only to order eggs and muffins for their breakfast. +The Englishman speaks with all his body. His elocution +is stomachic,--as the American's is labial. The +Englishman is very petulant and precise about his +accommodation at inns, and on the roads; a quiddle about his +toast and his chop, and every species of convenience, +and loud and pungent in his expressions of impatience at +any neglect. His vivacity betrays itself, at all points, in +his manners, in his respiration, and the inarticulate noises +he makes in clearing the throat,--all significant of burly +strength. He has stamina; he can take the initiative in +emergencies. He has that <em class="italics">aplomb</em>, which results from a +good adjustment of the moral and physical nature, and +the obedience of all the powers to the will; as if the +axes of his eyes were united to his backbone, and only +moved with the trunk.</p> +<p class="pnext">This vigor appears in the incuriosity, and stony neglect, +each of every other. Each man walks, eats, drinks, +shaves, dresses, gesticulates, and, in every manner, acts, +and suffers without reference to the bystanders, in his own +fashion, only careful not to interfere with them, or annoy +them; not that he is trained to neglect the eyes of his +neighbors,--he is really occupied with his own affair, +and does not think of them. Every man in this polished +country consults only his convenience, as much as a +solitary pioneer in Wisconsin. I know not where any +personal eccentricity is so freely allowed, and no man gives +himself any concern with it. An Englishman walks in +a pouring rain, swinging his closed umbrella like a +walking-stick; wears a wig, or a shawl, or a saddle, or stands +on his head, and no remark is made. And as he has +been doing this for several generations, it is now in the +blood.</p> +<p class="pnext">In short, every one of these islanders is an island +himself, safe, tranquil, incommunicable. In a company of +strangers, you would think him deaf; his eyes never +wander from his table and newspaper. He is never betrayed +into any curiosity or unbecoming emotion. They have +all been trained in one severe school of manners, and +never put off the harness. He does not give his hand. +He does not let you meet his eye. It is almost an +affront to look a man in the face, without being +introduced. In mixed or in select companies they do not +introduce persons; so that a presentation is a +circumstance as valid as a contract. Introductions are +sacraments. He withholds his name. At the hotel, he is +hardly willing to whisper it to the clerk at the +book-office. If he give you his private address on a card, +it is like an avowal of friendship; and his bearing on +being introduced is cold, even though he is seeking +your acquaintance, and is studying how he shall serve +you.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was an odd proof of this impressive energy, that, +in my lectures, I hesitated to read and threw out for its +impertinence many a disparaging phrase, which I had +been accustomed to spin, about poor, thin, unable +mortals; so much had the fine physique and the personal +vigor of this robust race worked on my imagination.</p> +<p class="pnext">I happened to arrive in England at the moment of +a commercial crisis. But it was evident that, let who +will fail, England will not. These people have sat here +a thousand years, and here will continue to sit. They +will not break up, or arrive at any desperate revolution, +like their neighbors; for they have as much energy, as +much continence of character, as they ever had. The +power and possession which surround them are their own +creation, and they exert the same commanding industry +at this moment.</p> +<p class="pnext">They are positive, methodical, cleanly, and formal, +loving routine, and conventional ways; loving truth and +religion, to be sure, but inexorable on points of form. +All the world praises the comfort and private +appointments of an English inn, and of English households. +You are sure of neatness and of personal decorum. A +Frenchman may possibly be clean: an Englishman is +conscientiously clean. A certain order and complete +propriety is found in his dress and in his belongings.</p> +<p class="pnext">Born in a harsh and wet climate, which keeps him in +doors whenever he is at rest, and being of an affectionate +and loyal temper, he dearly loves his house. If he is +rich, he buys a demesne, and builds a hall; if he is in +middle condition, he spares no expense on his house. +Without, it is all planted; within, it is wainscoted, +carved, curtained, hung with pictures, and filled with +good furniture. 'T is a passion which survives all others, +to deck and improve it. Hither he brings all that is rare +and costly, and with the national tendency to sit fast in +the same spot for many generations, it comes to be, in +the course of time, a museum of heirlooms, gifts, and +trophies of the adventures and exploits of the family. +He is very fond of silver plate, and, though he have no +gallery of portraits of his ancestors, he has of their +punch-bowls and porringers. Incredible amounts of +plate are found in good houses, and the poorest have +some spoon or saucepan, gift of a godmother, saved out +of better times.</p> +<p class="pnext">An English family consists of a few persons, who, +from youth to age, are found revolving within a few feet +of each other, as if tied by some invisible ligature, tense +as that cartilage which we have seen attaching the two +Siamese. England produces under favorable conditions +of ease and culture the finest women in the world. +And, as the men are affectionate and true-hearted, the +women inspire and refine them. Nothing can be more +delicate without being fantastical, nothing more firm and +based in nature and sentiment, than the courtship and +mutual carriage of the sexes. The song of 1596 says, +"The wife of every Englishman is counted blest." The +sentiment of Imogen in Cymbeline is copied from +English nature; and not less the Portia of Brutus, the Kate +Percy, and the Desdemona. The romance does not +exceed the height of noble passion in Mrs. Lucy +Hutchinson, or in Lady Russell, or even as one discerns +through the plain prose of Pepys's Diary, the sacred habit +of an English wife. Sir Samuel Romilly could not bear +the death of his wife. Every class has its noble and +tender examples.</p> +<p class="pnext">Domesticity is the taproot which enables the nation to +branch wide and high. The motive and end of their +trade and empire is to guard the independence and +privacy of their homes. Nothing so much marks their +manners as the concentration on their household ties. +This domesticity is carried into court and camp. +Wellington governed India and Spain and his own troops, +and fought battles like a good family-man, paid his debts, +and, though general of an army in Spain, could not stir +abroad for fear of public creditors. This taste for house +and parish merits has of course its doting and foolish +side. Mr. Cobbett attributes the huge popularity of +Perceval, prime minister in 1810, to the fact that he +was wont to go to church every Sunday, with a large +quarto gilt prayer-book under one arm, his wife hanging +on the other, and followed by a long brood of children.</p> +<p class="pnext">They keep their old customs, costumes, and pomps, +their wig and mace, sceptre and crown. The Middle +Ages still lurk in the streets of London. The Knights +of the Bath take oath to defend injured ladies; the +gold-stick-in-waiting survives. They repeated the ceremonies +of the eleventh century in the coronation of the present +Queen. A hereditary tenure is natural to them. Offices, +farms, trades, and traditions descend so. Their leases +run for a hundred and a thousand years. Terms of +service and partnership are lifelong, or are inherited. +"Holdship has been with me," said Lord Eldon, +"eight-and-twenty years, knows all my business and +books." Antiquity of usage is sanction enough. Wordsworth +says of the small freeholders of Westmoreland, "Many +of these humble sons of the hills had a consciousness that +the land which they tilled had for more than five +hundred years been possessed by men of the same name +and blood." The ship-carpenter in the public yards, my +lord's gardener and porter, have been there for more +than a hundred years, grandfather, father, and son.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English power resides also in their dislike of +change. They have difficulty in bringing their reason to +act, and on all occasions use their memory first. As +soon as they have rid themselves of some grievance, and +settled the better practice, they make haste to fix it as +a finality, and never wish to hear of alteration more.</p> +<p class="pnext">Every Englishman is an embryonic chancellor: his +instinct is to search for a precedent. The favorite phrase +of their law is, "a custom whereof the memory of man +runneth not back to the contrary." The barons say, +"Nolumus mutari"; and the cockneys stifle the curiosity +of the foreigner on the reason of any practice, with, +"Lord, sir, it was always so." They hate innovation. +Bacon told them, Time was the right reformer; +Chatham, that "confidence was a plant of slow growth"; +Canning, to "advance with the times"; and Wellington, +that "habit was ten times nature." All their +statesmen learn the irresistibility of the tide of custom, +and have invented many fine phrases to cover this +slowness of perception, and prehensility of tail.</p> +<p class="pnext">A sea-shell should be the crest of England, not only +because it represents a power built on the waves, but +also the hard finish of the men. The Englishman is +finished like a cowry or a murex. After the spire and +the spines are formed, or, with the formation, a juice +exudes, and a hard enamel varnishes every part. The +keeping of the proprieties is as indispensable as clean, +linen. No merit quite countervails the want of this, +whilst this sometimes stands in lieu of all. "'T is in +bad taste," is the most formidable word an Englishman +can pronounce. But this japan costs them dear. +There is a prose in certain Englishmen, which exceeds +in wooden deadness all rivalry with other countrymen. +There is a knell in the conceit and externality of their +voice, which seems to say, <em class="italics">Leave all hope behind</em>. In +this Gibraltar of propriety, mediocrity gets intrenched, +and consolidated, and founded in adamant. An Englishman +of fashion is like one of those souvenirs, bound in +gold vellum, enriched with delicate engravings, on thick +hot-pressed paper, fit for the hands of ladies and princes, +but with nothing in it worth reading or remembering.</p> +<p class="pnext">A severe decorum rules the court and the cottage. +When Thalberg, the pianist, was one evening performing +before the Queen, at Windsor, in a private party, the +Queen accompanied him with her voice. The circumstance +took air, and all England shuddered from sea to +sea. The indecorum was never repeated. Cold, repressive +manners prevail. No enthusiasm is permitted except +at the opera. They avoid everything marked. They +require a tone of voice that excites no attention in the +room. Sir Philip Sidney is one of the patron saints of +England, of whom Wotton said, "His wit was the +measure of congruity."</p> +<p class="pnext">Pretension and vaporing are once for all distasteful. +They keep to the other extreme of low tone in dress and +manners. They avoid pretension and go right to the +heart of the thing. They hate nonsense, sentimentalism, +and highflown expression; they use a studied plainness. +Even Brummell their fop was marked by the severest +simplicity in dress. They value themselves on the +absence of everything theatrical in the public business, and +on conciseness and going to the point, in private affairs.</p> +<p class="pnext">In an aristocratical country, like England, not the +Trial by Jury, but the dinner is the capital institution. +It is the mode of doing honor to a stranger, to invite him +to eat,--and has been for many hundred years. "And +they think," says the Venetian traveller of 1500, "no +greater honor can be conferred or received, than to invite +others to eat with them, or to be invited themselves, and +they would sooner give five or six ducats to provide an +entertainment for a person, than a groat to assist him in +any distress."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id17" id="id16"><sup>8</sup></a> It is reserved to the end of the day, the +family-hour being generally six, in London, and, if any +company is expected, one or two hours later. Every one +dresses for dinner, in his own house, or in another man's. +The guests are expected to arrive within half an hour of +the time fixed by card of invitation, and nothing but death +or mutilation is permitted to detain them. The English +dinner is precisely the model on which our own are +constructed in the Atlantic cities. The company sit one or +two hours, before the ladies leave the table. The +gentlemen remain over their wine an hour longer, and +rejoin the ladies in the drawing-room, and take coffee. +The dress dinner generates a talent of table-talk, which +reaches great perfection: the stories are so good, that +one is sure they must have been often told before, to +have got such happy turns. Hither come all manner of +clever projects, bits of popular science, of practical +invention, of miscellaneous humor; political, literary, and +personal news; railroads, horses, diamonds, agriculture, +horticulture, pisciculture, and wine.</p> +<p class="pnext">English stories, <em class="italics">bon-mots</em>, and the recorded table-talk +of their wits, are as good as the best of the French. In +America, we are apt scholars, but have not yet attained +the same perfection: for the range of nations from which +London draws, and the steep contrasts of condition, create +the picturesque in society, as broken country makes +picturesque landscape, whilst our prevailing equality makes +a prairie tameness: and secondly, because the usage of a +dress-dinner every day at dark has a tendency to hive and +produce to advantage everything good. Much attrition +has worn every sentence into a bullet. Also one meets +now and then with polished men, who know everything, +have tried everything, can do everything, and are quite +superior to letters and science. What could they not, if +only they would?</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-vii-truth"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id60">CHAPTER VII.--TRUTH.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The Teutonic tribes have a national singleness of heart, +which contrasts with the Latin races. The German name +has a proverbial significance of sincerity and honest +meaning. The arts bear testimony to it. The faces of clergy +and laity in old sculptures and illuminated missals are +charged with earnest belief. Add to this hereditary +rectitude, the punctuality and precise dealing which +commerce creates, and you have the English truth and credit. +The government strictly performs its engagements. The +subjects do not understand trifling on its part. When +any breach of promise occurred, in the old days of +prerogative, it was resented by the people as an intolerable +grievance. And, in modern times, any slipperiness in the +government of political faith, or any repudiation or +crookedness in matters of finance, would bring the whole nation +to a committee of inquiry and reform. Private men keep +their promises, never so trivial. Down goes the flying +word on the tablets, and is indelible as Domesday Book.</p> +<p class="pnext">Their practical power rests on their national sincerity. +Veracity derives from instinct, and marks superiority in +organization. Nature has endowed some animals with +cunning, as a compensation for strength withheld; but +it has provoked the malice of all others, as if avengers of +public wrong. In the nobler kinds, where strength could +be afforded, her races are loyal to truth, as truth is the +foundation of the social state. Beasts that make no +truce with man, do not break faith with each other. +'T is said, that the wolf, who makes a <em class="italics">cache</em> of his prey, +and brings his fellows with him to the spot, if, on digging +it is not found, is instantly and unresistingly torn in pieces. +English veracity seems to result on a sounder animal +structure, as if they could afford it. They are blunt in saying +what they think, sparing of promises, and they require +plain dealing of others. We will not have to do with +a man in a mask. Let us know the truth. Draw a +straight line, hit whom and where it will. Alfred, whom +the affection of the nation makes the type of their race, is +called by a writer at the Norman Conquest, the +<em class="italics">truth-speaker; Alueredus veridicus</em>. Geoffrey of Monmouth +says of King Aurelius, uncle of Arthur, that "above all +things he hated a lie." The Northman Guttorm said to +King Olaf, "It is royal work to fulfil royal words." The +mottoes of their families are monitory proverbs, as, +<em class="italics">Fare fac</em>,--Say, do,--of the Fairfaxes; <em class="italics">Say and seal</em>, of +the house of Fiennes; <em class="italics">Vero nil verius</em>, of the De Veres. +To be king of their word, is their pride. When they +unmask cant, they say, "The English of this is," etc.; and +to give the lie is the extreme insult. The phrase of the +lowest of the people is "honor-bright," and their vulgar +praise, "his word is as good as his bond." They hate +shuffling and equivocation, and the cause is damaged in +the public opinion, on which any paltering can be fixed. +Even Lord Chesterfield, with his French breeding, when +he came to define a gentleman, declared that truth made +his distinction; and nothing ever spoken by him would +find so hearty a suffrage from his nation. The Duke of +Wellington, who had the best right to say so, advises the +French General Kellermann, that he may rely on the +parole of an English officer. The English, of all classes, +value themselves on this trait, as distinguishing them +from the French, who, in the popular belief, are more +polite than true. An Englishman understates, avoids the +superlative, checks himself in compliments, alleging, that +in the French language, one cannot speak without lying.</p> +<p class="pnext">They love reality in wealth, power, hospitality, and do +not easily learn to make a show, and take the world as +it goes. They are not fond of ornaments, and if they +wear them, they must be gems. They read gladly in old +Fuller, that a lady, in the reign of Elizabeth, "would +have as patiently digested a lie, as the wearing of false +stones or pendants of counterfeit pearl." They have the +earth-hunger, or preference for property in land, which +is said to mark the Teutonic nations. They build of +stone; public and private buildings are massive and +durable. In comparing their ships' houses, and public +offices with the American, it is commonly said, that they +spend a pound, where we spend a dollar. Plain rich +clothes, plain rich equipage, plain rich finish throughout +their house and belongings, mark the English truth.</p> +<p class="pnext">They confide in each other,--English believes in +English. The French feel the superiority of this probity. +The Englishman is not springing a trap for his +admiration, but is honestly minding his business. The +Frenchman is vain. Madame de Staël says, that the English +irritated Napoleon, mainly, because they have found out +how to unite success with honesty. She was not aware +how wide an application her foreign readers would give +to the remark. Wellington discovered the ruin of +Bonaparte's affairs, by his own probity. He augured ill of the +empire, as soon as he saw that it was mendacious, and +lived by war. If war do not bring in its sequel new +trade, better agriculture and manufactures, but only +games, fireworks, and spectacles,--no prosperity could +support it; much less, a nation decimated for conscripts, +and out of pocket, like France. So he drudged for years +on his military works at Lisbon, and from this base at last +extended his gigantic lines to Waterloo, believing in his +countrymen and their syllogisms above all the rhodomontade +of Europe.</p> +<p class="pnext">At a St. George's festival, in Montreal, where I +happened to be a guest, since my return home, I observed +that the chairman complimented his compatriots, by +saying, "they confided that wherever they met an +Englishman, they found a man who would speak the truth." And +one cannot think this festival fruitless, if, all over +the world, on the 23d of April, wherever two or three +English are found, they meet to encourage each other in +the nationality of veracity.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the power of saying rude truth, sometimes in the +lion's mouth, no men surpass them. On the king's +birthday, when each bishop was expected to offer the king a +purse of gold, Latimer gave Henry VIII. a copy of the +Vulgate, with a mark at the passage, "Whoremongers +and adulterers God will judge"; and they so honor +stoutness in each other, that the king passed it over. +They are tenacious of their belief, and cannot easily +change their opinions to suit the hour. They are like +ships with too much head on to come quickly about, nor +will prosperity or even adversity be allowed to shake +their habitual view of conduct. Whilst I was in +London, M. Guizot arrived there on his escape from Paris, +in February, 1843. Many private friends called on him. +His name was immediately proposed as an honorary +member to the Athenæum. M. Guizot was blackballed. +Certainly, they knew the distinction of his name. But +the Englishman is not fickle. He had really made up his +mind, now for years as he read his newspaper, to hate +and despise M. Guizot; and the altered position of the +man as an illustrious exile, and a guest in the country, +makes no difference to him, as it would instantly, to an +American.</p> +<p class="pnext">They require the same adherence, thorough conviction +and reality in public men. It is the want of character +which makes the low reputation of the Irish members. +"See them," they said, "one hundred and twenty-seven +all voting like sheep, never proposing anything, and all +but four voting the income tax,"--which was an +ill-judged concession of the government, relieving Irish +property from the burdens charged on English.</p> +<p class="pnext">They have a horror of adventurers in or out of Parliament. +The ruling passion of Englishmen, in these days, +is a terror of humbug. In the same proportion, they +value honesty, stoutness, and adherence to your own. +They like a man committed to his objects. They hate +the French, as frivolous; they hate the Irish, as aimless; +they hate the Germans, as professors. In February, +1848, they said, Look, the French king and his party +fell for want of a shot; they had not conscience to shoot, +so entirely was the pith and heart of monarchy eaten out.</p> +<p class="pnext">They attack their own politicians every day, on the +same grounds, as adventurers. They love stoutness in +standing for your right, in declining money or promotion +that costs any concession. The barrister refuses the silk +gown of Queen's Counsel, if his junior have it one day +earlier. Lord Collingwood would not accept his medal +for victory on 14th February, 1797, if he did not receive +one for victory on 1st June, 1794; and the long-withholden +medal was accorded. When Castlereagh dissuaded +Lord Wellington from going to the king's levee, +until the unpopular Cintra business had been explained, +he replied: "You furnish me a reason for going. I will +go to this, or I will never go to a king's levee." The +radical mob at Oxford cried after the tory Lord Eldon, +"There's old Eldon; cheer him; he never ratted." They +have given the parliamentary nickname of <em class="italics">Trimmers</em> +to the time-servers, whom English character does not +love.<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id19" id="id18"><sup>9</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">They are very liable in their politics to extraordinary +delusions, thus, to believe what stands recorded in the +gravest books, that the movement of 10th April, 1848, +was urged or assisted by foreigners: which, to be sure, +is paralleled by the democratic whimsey in this country, +which I have noticed to be shared by men sane on other +points, that the English are at the bottom of the +agitation of slavery, in American politics: and then again to +the French popular legends on the subject of <em class="italics">perfidious +Albion</em>. But suspicion will make fools of nations as of +citizens.</p> +<p class="pnext">A slow temperament makes them less rapid and ready +than other countrymen, and has given occasion to the +observation that English wit comes afterwards,--which +the French denote as <em class="italics">esprit d'escalier</em>. This dulness +makes their attachment to home, and their adherence in +all foreign countries to home habits. The Englishman +who visits Mount Etna will carry his teakettle to the +top. The old Italian author of the "Relation of +England" (in 1500) says: "I have it on the best information, +that, when the war is actually raging most furiously, +they will seek for good eating, and all their other +comforts, without thinking what harm might befall them." Then +their eyes seem to be set at the bottom of a tunnel, +and they affirm the one small fact they know, with the +best faith in the world that nothing else exists. And, +as their own belief in guineas is perfect, they readily, on +all occasions, apply the pecuniary argument as final. +Thus when the Rochester rappings began to be heard of +in England, a man deposited £100 in a sealed box in the +Dublin Bank, and then advertised in the newspapers to +all somnambulists, mesmerizers, and others, that whoever +could tell him the number of his note should have the +money. He let it lie there six months, the newspapers +now and then, at his instance, stimulating the attention +of the adepts; but none could ever tell him; and he +said, "Now let me never be bothered more with this +proven lie." It is told of a good Sir John, that he heard +a case stated by counsel, and made up his mind; then +the counsel for the other side taking their turn to speak, +he found himself so unsettled and perplexed, that he +exclaimed, "So help me God! I will never listen to +evidence again." Any number of delightful examples of +this English stolidity are the anecdotes of Europe. I +knew a very worthy man,--a magistrate, I believe he was, +in the town of Derby,--who went to the opera, to see +Malibrau. In one scene, the heroine was to rush across +a ruined bridge. Mr. B. arose, and mildly yet firmly +called the attention of the audience and the performers +to the fact that, in his judgment, the bridge was unsafe! +This English stolidity contrasts with French wit and +tact. The French, it is commonly said, have greatly +more influence in Europe than the English. What +influence the English have is by brute force of wealth and +power; that of the French by affinity and talent. The +Italian is subtle, the Spaniard treacherous: tortures, it +was said, could never wrest from an Egyptian the confession +of a secret. None of these traits belong to the +Englishman. His choler and conceit force everything +out. Defoe, who knew his countrymen well, says of +them:--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"In close intrigue, their faculty 's but weak,</div> +<div class="line">For generally whate'er they know, they speak,</div> +<div class="line">And often their own counsels undermine</div> +<div class="line">By mere infirmity without design;</div> +<div class="line">From whence, the learned say, it doth proceed,</div> +<div class="line">That English treasons never can succeed;</div> +<div class="line">For they 're so open-hearted, you may know</div> +<div class="line">Their own most secret thoughts, and others' too."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-viii-character"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id61">CHAPTER VIII.--CHARACTER.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The English race are reputed morose. I do not +know that they have sadder brows than their neighbors +of northern climates. They are sad by comparison with +the singing and dancing nations: not sadder, but slow +and staid, as finding their joys at home. They, too, +believe that where there is no enjoyment of life, there +can be no vigor and art in speech or thought; that your +merry heart goes all the way, your sad one tires in a +mile. This trait of gloom has been fixed on them by +French travellers, who, from Froissart, Voltaire, Le Sage, +Mirabeau, down to the lively journalists of the <em class="italics">feuilletous</em>, +have spent their wit on the solemnity of their neighbors. +The French say, gay conversation is unknown in their +island: the Englishman finds no relief from reflection +except in reflection: when he wishes for amusement, he +goes to work: his hilarity is like an attack of fever. +Religion, the theatre, and the reading the books of his +country, all feed and increase his natural melancholy. +The police does not interfere with public diversions. It +thinks itself bound in duty to respect the pleasures and +rare gayety of this inconsolable nation; and their +well-known courage is entirely attributable to their disgust +of life.</p> +<p class="pnext">I suppose their gravity of demeanor and their few +words have obtained this reputation. As compared with +the Americans, I think them cheerful and contented. +Young people, in our country, are much more prone to +melancholy. The English have a mild aspect, and a +ringing, cheerful voice. They are large-natured, and not +so easily amused as the southerners, and are among them +as grown people among children, requiring war, or trade, +or engineering, or science, instead of frivolous games. +They are proud and private, and, even if disposed to +recreation, will avoid an open garden. They sported +sadly; <em class="italics">ils s'amusaient tristement, selon la coutume de leur +pays</em>, said Froissart; and, I suppose, never nation built +their party walls so thick, or their garden fences so high. +Meat and wine produce no effect on them: they are just +as cold, quiet, and composed, at the end, as at the +beginning of dinner.</p> +<p class="pnext">The reputation of taciturnity they have enjoyed for six +or seven hundred years; and a kind of pride in bad +public speaking is noted in the House of Commons, as +if they were willing to show that they did not live by +their tongues, or thought they spoke well enough if they +had the tone of gentlemen. In mixed company, they +shut their mouths. A Yorkshire mill-owner told me, he +had ridden more than once all the way from London to +Leeds, in the first-class carriage, with the same persons, +and no word exchanged. The club-houses were established +to cultivate social habits, and it is rare that more +than two eat together, and oftenest one eats alone. Was +it then a stroke of humor in the serious Swedenborg, or +was it only his pitiless logic, that made him shut up the +English souls in a heaven by themselves?</p> +<p class="pnext">They are contradictorily described as sour, splenetic, +and stubborn,--and as mild, sweet, and sensible. The +truth is, they have great range and variety of character. +Commerce sends abroad multitudes of different classes. +The choleric Welshman, the fervid Scot, the bilious +resident in the East or West Indies, are wide of the perfect +behavior of the educated and dignified man of family. So +is the burly farmer; so is the country 'squire, with his +narrow and violent life. In every inn, is the +Commercial-Room, in which 'travellers,' or bagmen who carry +patterns, and solicit orders, for the manufacturers, are +wont to be entertained. It easily happens that this class +should characterize England to the foreigner, who meets +them on the road, and at every public house, whilst the +gentry avoid the taverns, or seclude themselves whilst +in them.</p> +<p class="pnext">But these classes are the right English stock, and may +fairly show the national qualities, before yet art and +education have dealt with them. They are good lovers, +good haters, slow but obstinate admirers, and, in all +things, very much steeped in their temperament, like +men hardly awaked from deep sleep, which they enjoy. +Their habits and instincts cleave to nature. They are of +the earth, earthy; and of the sea, as the sea-kinds, +attached to it for what it yields them, and not from any +sentiment. They are full of coarse strength, rude +exercise, butcher's meat, and sound sleep; and suspect any +poetic insinuation or any hint for the conduct of life +which reflects on this animal existence, as if somebody +were fumbling at the umbilical cord and might stop their +supplies. They doubt a man's sound judgment, if he +does not eat with appetite, and shake their heads if he is +particularly chaste. Take them as they come, you shall +find in the common people a surly indifference, sometimes +gruffness and ill temper; and, in minds of more power, +magazines of inexhaustible war, challenging</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"The ruggedest hour that time and spite dare bring</div> +<div class="line">To frown upon the enraged Northumberland."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">They are headstrong believers and defenders of their +opinion, and not less resolute in maintaining their whim +and perversity. Hezekiah Woodward wrote a book +against the Lord's Prayer. And one can believe that +Burton the Anatomist of Melancholy, having predicted +from the stars the hour of his death, slipped the knot +himself round his own neck, not to falsify his horoscope.</p> +<p class="pnext">Their looks bespeak an invincible stoutness; they have +extreme difficulty to run away, and will die game. +Wellington said of the young coxcombs of the Life-Guards +delicately brought up, "But the puppies fight well"; +and Nelson said of his sailors, "They really mind shot +no more than peas." Of absolute stoutness no nation +has more or better examples. They are good at storming +redoubts, at boarding frigates, at dying in the last +ditch, or any desperate service which has daylight and +honor in it; but not, I think, at enduring the rack, or any +passive obedience, like jumping off a castle-roof at the +word of a czar. Being both vascular and highly organized, +so as to be very sensible of pain; and intellectual, +so as to see reason and glory in a matter.</p> +<p class="pnext">Of that constitutional force, which yields the supplies +of the day, they have the more than enough, the excess +which creates courage on fortitude, genius in poetry, +invention in mechanics, enterprise in trade, magnificence +in wealth, splendor in ceremonies, petulance and projects +in youth. The young men have a rude health which +runs into peccant humors. They drink brandy like water, +cannot expend their quantities of waste strength on +riding, hunting, swimming, and fencing, and run into +absurd frolics with the gravity of the Eumenides. They +stoutly carry into every nook and corner of the earth their +turbulent sense; leaving no lie uncontradicted, no +pretension unexamined. They chew hasheesh; cut +themselves with poisoned creases; swing their hammock in +the boughs of the Bohon Upas; taste every poison; buy +every secret; at Naples, they put St. Januarius's blood +in an alembic; they saw a hole into the head of the +"winking Virgin," to know why she winks; measure +with an English foot-rule every cell of the Inquisition, +every Turkish caaba, every Holy of holies; translate and +send to Bantley the arcanum bribed and bullied away from +shuddering Bramins; and measure their own strength by +the terror they cause. These travellers are of every class, +the best and the worst; and it may easily happen that +those of rudest behavior are taken notice of and +remembered. The Saxon melancholy in the vulgar rich and +poor appears as gushes of ill-humor, which every check +exasperates into sarcasm and vituperation. There are +multitudes of rude young English who have the self-sufficiency +and bluntness of their nation, and who, with their +disdain of the rest of mankind, and with this indigestion +and choler, have made the English traveller a proverb for +uncomfortable and offensive manners. It was no bad +description of the Briton generically, what was said two +hundred years ago, of one particular Oxford scholar: +"He was a very bold man, uttered anything that came +into his mind, not only among his companions, but in +public coffee-houses, and would often speak his mind of +particular persons then accidentally present, without +examining the company he was in; for which he was +often reprimanded, and several times threatened to be +kicked and beaten."</p> +<p class="pnext">The common Englishman is prone to forget a cardinal +article in the bill of social rights, that every man has a +right to his own ears. No man can claim to usurp more +than a few cubic feet of the audibilities of a public room, +or to put upon the company the loud statements of his +crotchets or personalities.</p> +<p class="pnext">But it is in the deep traits of race that the fortunes +of nations are written, and however derived, whether a +happier tribe or mixture of tribes, the air, or what +circumstance, that mixed for them the golden mean of +temperament,--here exists the best stock in the world, +broad-fronted, broad-bottomed, best for depth, range, +and equability, men of aplomb and reserves, great range +and many moods, strong instincts, yet apt for culture; +war-class as well as clerks; earls and tradesmen; wise +minority, as well as foolish majority; abysmal +temperament, hiding wells of wrath, and glooms on which no +sunshine settles; alternated with a common-sense and +humanity which hold them fast to every piece of cheerful +duty; making this temperament a sea to which all storms +are superficial; a race to which their fortunes flow, as if +they alone had the elastic organization at once fine and +robust enough for dominion; as if the burly, inexpressive, +now mute and contumacious, now fierce and sharp-tongued +dragon, which once made the island light with +his fiery breath, had bequeathed his ferocity to his +conqueror. They hide virtues under vices, or the semblance +of them. It is the misshapen hairy Scandinavian troll +again, who lifts the cart out of the mire, or "threshes +the corn that ten day-laborers could not end," but it is +done in the dark, and with muttered maledictions. He +is a churl with a soft place in his heart, whose speech is +a brash of bitter waters, but who loves to help you at a +pinch. He says no, but serves you, and your thanks +disgust him. Here was lately a cross-grained miser, odd +and ugly, resembling in countenance the portrait of +Punch, with the laugh left out; rich by his own +industry; sulking in a lonely house; who never gave a dinner +to any man, and disdained all courtesies; yet as true a +worshipper of beauty in form and color as ever existed, +and profusely pouring over the cold mind of his countrymen +creations of grace and truth, removing the reproach +of sterility from English art, catching from their savage +climate every fine hint, and importing into their galleries +every tint and trait of sunnier cities and skies; making +an era in painting; and, when he saw that the splendor +of one of his pictures in the Exhibition dimmed his +rival's that hung next it, secretly took a brush and +blackened his own.</p> +<p class="pnext">They do not wear their heart in their sleeve for daws +to peck at. They have that phlegm or staidness, which +it is a compliment to disturb. "Great men," said +Aristotle, "are always of a nature originally melancholy." 'T +is the habit of a mind which attaches to abstractions +with a passion which gives vast results. They dare to +displease, they do not speak to expectation. They like +the sayers of No, better than the sayers of Yes. Each +of them has an opinion which he feels it becomes him to +express all the more that it differs from yours. They are +meditating opposition. This gravity is inseparable from +minds of great resources.</p> +<p class="pnext">There is an English hero superior to the French, the +German, the Italian, or the Greek. When he is brought +to the strife with fate, he sacrifices a richer material +possession, and on more purely metaphysical grounds. He +is there with his own consent, face to face with fortune, +which he defies. On deliberate choice, and from grounds +of character, he has elected his part to live and die for, +and dies with grandeur. This race has added new +elements to humanity, and has a deeper root in the world.</p> +<p class="pnext">They have great range of scale, from ferocity to +exquisite refinement. With larger scale, they have great +retrieving power. After running each tendency to an +extreme, they try another tack with equal heat. More +intellectual than other races, when they live with other +races, they do not take their language, but bestow their +own. They subsidize other nations, and are not +subsidized. They proselyte, and are not proselyted. They +assimilate other races to themselves, and are not +assimilated. The English did not calculate the conquest of +the Indies. It fell to their character. So they +administer in different parts of the world, the codes of every +empire and race: in Canada, old French law; in the +Mauritius, the Code Napoleon; in the West Indies, the +edicts of the Spanish Cortes; in the East Indies, the Laws +of Menu; in the Isle of Man, of the Scandinavian Thing; +at the Cape of Good Hope, of the Old Netherlands; and +in the Ionian Islands, the Pandects of Justinian.</p> +<p class="pnext">They are very conscious of their advantageous position +in history. England is the lawgiver, the patron, the +instructor, the ally. Compare the tone of the French +and of the English press: the first querulous, captious, +sensitive, about English opinion; the English press is +never timorous about French opinion, but arrogant and +contemptuous.</p> +<p class="pnext">They are testy and headstrong through an excess of +will and bias; churlish as men sometimes please to be +who do not forget a debt, who ask no favors, and who +will do what they like with their own. With education +and intercourse these asperities wear off, and leave the +good-will pure. If anatomy is reformed according to +national tendencies, I suppose, the spleen will hereafter +be found in the Englishman, not found in the American, +and differencing the one from the other. I anticipate +another anatomical discovery, that this organ will be +found to be cortical and caducous, that they are +superficially morose, but at last tender-hearted, herein +differing from Rome and the Latin nations. Nothing savage, +nothing mean resides in the English heart. They are +subject to panics of credulity and of rage, but the +temper of the nation, however disturbed, settles itself soon +and easily, as, in this temperate zone, the sky after +whatever storms clears again, and serenity is its normal +condition.</p> +<p class="pnext">A saving stupidity masks and protects their perception +as the curtain of the eagle's eye. Our swifter Americans, +when they first deal with English, pronounce them +stupid; but, later, do them justice as people who wear +well, or hide their strength. To understand the power +of performance that is in their finest wits, in the patient +Newton, or in the versatile transcendent poets, or in the +Dugdales, Gibbons, Hallams, Eldons, and Peels, one +should see how English day-laborers hold out. High +and low, they are of an unctuous texture. There is an +adipocere in their constitution, as if they had oil also for +their mental wheels, and could perform vast amounts of +work without damaging themselves.</p> +<p class="pnext">Even the scale of expense on which people live, and +to which scholars and professional men conform, proves +the tension of their muscle, when vast numbers are +found who can each lift this enormous load. I might +even add, their daily feasts argue a savage vigor of +body.</p> +<p class="pnext">No nation was ever so rich in able men: "Gentlemen," +as Charles I. said of Strafford, "whose abilities +might make a prince rather afraid than ashamed in the +greatest affairs of state": men of such temper, that, +like Baron Vere, "had one seen him returning from a +victory, he would by his silence have suspected that he +had lost the day; and, had he beheld him in a retreat, +he would have collected him a conqueror by the +cheerfulness of his spirit."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id21" id="id20"><sup>10</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">The following passage from the Heimskringla might +almost stand as a portrait of the modern Englishman: +"Haldor was very stout and strong, and remarkably +handsome in appearances. King Harold gave him this +testimony, that he, among all his men, cared least about +doubtful circumstances, whether they betokened danger +or pleasure; for, whatever turned up, he was never in +higher nor in lower spirits, never slept less nor more on +account of them, nor ate nor drank but according to his +custom. Haldor was not a man of many words, but +short in conversation, told his opinion bluntly, and was +obstinate and hard; and this could not please the king, +who had many clever people about him, zealous in his +service. Haldor remained a short time with the king, +and then came to Iceland, where he took up his abode in +Hiardaholt, and dwelt in that farm to a very advanced +age."[#]</p> +<p class="pnext">[#] Heimskringla, Laing's translation, Vol. III. p. 37.</p> +<p class="pnext">The national temper, in the civil history, is not flashy +or whiffling. The slow, deep, English mass smoulders +with fire, which at last sets all its borders in flame. The +wrath of London is not French wrath, but has a long +memory, and, in its hottest heat, a register and rule.</p> +<p class="pnext">Half their strength they put not forth. They are +capable of a sublime resolution, and if hereafter the war +of races, often predicted, and making itself a war of +opinions also (a question of despotism and liberty +coming from Eastern Europe), should menace the English +civilization, these sea-kings may take once again to their +floating castles, and find a new home and a second +millennium of power in their colonies.</p> +<p class="pnext">The stability of England is the security of the modern +world. If the English race were as mutable as the +French, what reliance? But the English stand for +liberty. The conservative, money-loving, lord-loving +English are yet liberty-loving; and so freedom is safe: for +they have more personal force than other people. The +nation always resist the immoral action of their +government. They think humanely on the affairs of France, of +Turkey, of Poland, of Hungary, of Schleswig Holstein, +though overborne by the statecraft of the rulers at last.</p> +<p class="pnext">Does the early history of each tribe show the permanent +bias, which, though not less potent, is masked, as +the tribe spreads its activity into colonies, commerce, +codes, arts, letters? The early history shows it, as the +musician plays the air which he proceeds to conceal in +a tempest of variations. In Alfred, in the Northmen, +one may read the genius of the English society, namely, +that private life is the place of honor. Glory, a career, +and ambition, words familiar to the longitude of Paris, +are seldom heard in English speech. Nelson wrote from +their hearts his homely telegraph, "England expects +every man to do his duty."</p> +<p class="pnext">For actual service, for the dignity of a profession, or +to appease diseased or inflamed talent, the army and navy +may be entered (the worst boys doing well in the navy); +and the civil service, in departments where serious +official work is done; and they hold in esteem the +barrister engaged in the severer studies of the law. But +the calm, sound, and most British Briton shrinks from +public life, as charlatanism, and respects an economy +founded on agriculture, coal-mines, manufactures, or +trade, which secures an independence through the +creation of real values.</p> +<p class="pnext">They wish neither to command or obey, but to be +kings in their own houses. They are intellectual and +deeply enjoy literature; they like well to have the world +served up to them in books, maps, models, and every +mode of exact information, and, though not creators in +the art, they value its refinement. They are ready for +leisure, can direct and fill their own day, nor need so +much as others the constraint of a necessity. But the +history of the nation discloses, at every turn, this +original predilection for private independence, and, however +this inclination may have been disturbed by the bribes +with which their vast colonial power has warped men out +of orbit, the inclination endures, and forms and reforms +the laws, letters, manners, and occupations. They choose +that welfare which is compatible with the commonwealth, +knowing that such alone is stable; as wise merchants +prefer investments in three per cents.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-ix-cockayne"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id62">CHAPTER IX.--COCKAYNE.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The English are a nation of humorists. Individual +right is pushed to the uttermost bound compatible with +public order. Property is so perfect, that it seems the +craft of that race, and not to exist elsewhere. The king +cannot step on an acre which the peasant refuses to sell. +A testator endows a dog or a rookery, and Europe +cannot interfere with his absurdity. Every individual has +his particular way of living, which he pushes to folly, and +the decided sympathy of his compatriots is engaged to +back up Mr. Crump's whim by statutes, and chancellors, +and horse-guards. There is no freak so ridiculous but +some Englishman has attempted to immortalize by money +and law. British citizenship is as omnipotent as Roman +was. Mr. Cockayne is very sensible of this. The pursy +man means by freedom the right to do as he pleases, +and does wrong in order to feel his freedom, and makes +a conscience of persisting in it.</p> +<p class="pnext">He is intensely patriotic, for his country is so small. +His confidence in the power and performance of his +nation makes him provokingly incurious about other +nations. He dislikes foreigners. Swedenborg, who lived +much in England, notes "the similitude of minds among +the English, in consequence of which they contract +familiarity with friends who are of that nation, and seldom +with others; and they regard foreigners, as one looking +through a telescope from the top of a palace regards +those who dwell or wander about out of the city." A +much older traveller, the Venetian who wrote the +"Relation of England,"<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id23" id="id22"><sup>11</sup></a> in 1500, says: "The English are +great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging +to them. They think that there are no other men than +themselves, and no other world but England; and, +whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that he +looks like an Englishman, and it is a great pity he should +not be an Englishman; and whenever they partake of +any delicacy with a foreigner, they ask him whether such +a thing is made in his country." When he adds epithets +of praise, his climax is "so English"; and when he +wishes to pay you the highest compliment, he says, I +should not know you from an Englishman. France is, +by its natural contrast, a kind of blackboard on which +English character draws its own traits in chalk. This +arrogance habitually exhibits itself in allusions to the +French. I suppose that all men of English blood in +America, Europe, or Asia have a secret feeling of joy +that they are not French natives. Mr. Coleridge is said +to have given public thanks to God, at the close of a +lecture, that he had defended him from being able to +utter a single sentence in the French language. I have +found that Englishmen have such a good opinion of +England, that the ordinary phrases, in all good society, +of postponing or disparaging one's own things in talking +with a stranger, are seriously mistaken by them for an +insuppressible homage to the merits of their nation; and +the New-Yorker or Pennsylvanian who modestly laments +the disadvantage of a new country, log-huts, and savages, +is surprised by the instant and unfeigned commiseration +of the whole company, who plainly account all the world +out of England a heap of rubbish.</p> +<p class="pnext">The same insular limitation pinches his foreign +politics. He sticks to his traditions and usages, and, so +help him God! he will force his island by-laws down the +throat of great countries, like India, China, Canada, +Australia, and not only so, but impose Wapping on the +Congress of Vienna, and trample down all nationalities +with his taxed boots. Lord Chatham goes for liberty, +and no taxation without representation;--for that is +British law; but not a hobnail shall they dare make in +America, but buy their nails in England,--for that also +is British law; and the fact that British commerce was +to be re-created by the independence of America, took +them all by surprise.</p> +<p class="pnext">In short, I am afraid that English nature is so rank +and aggressive as to be a little incompatible with every +other. The world is not wide enough for two.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, beyond this nationality, it must be admitted, the +island offers a daily worship to the old Norse god Brage, +celebrated among our Scandinavian forefathers, for his +eloquence and majestic air. The English have a steady +courage, that fits them for great attempts and endurance: +they have also a petty courage, through which every man +delights in showing himself for what he is, and in doing +what he can; so that, in all companies, each of them has +too good an opinion of himself to imitate anybody. He +hides no defect of his form, features, dress, connection, +or birthplace, for he thinks every circumstance belonging +to him comes recommended to you. If one of them +have a bald, or a red, or a green head, or bow legs, or a +scar, or mark, or a paunch, or a squeaking or a raven +voice, he has persuaded himself that there is something +modish and becoming in it, and that it sits well on him.</p> +<p class="pnext">But nature makes nothing in vain, and this little +superfluity of self-regard in the English brain is one of +the secrets of their power and history. It sets every +man on being and doing what he really is and can. It +takes away a dodging, skulking, secondary air, and +encourages a frank and manly bearing, so that each man +makes the most of himself, and loses no opportunity for +want of pushing. A man's personal defects will +commonly have with the rest of the world precisely that +importance which they have to himself. If he makes +light of them, so will other men. We all find in these a +convenient meter of character, since a little man would +be ruined by the vexation. I remember a shrewd politician, +in one of our Western cities, told me "that he had +known several successful statesmen made by their +foible." And another, an ex-governor of Illinois, said to +me: "If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner +and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that +he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary +discoveries."</p> +<p class="pnext">There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker +is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor +him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to +it. Their culture generally enables the travelled English +to avoid any ridiculous extremes of this self-pleasing, +and to give it an agreeable air. Then the natural +disposition is fostered by the respect which they find +entertained in the world for English ability. It was said of +Louis XIV., that his gait and air were becoming enough +in so great a monarch, yet would have been ridiculous in +another man; so the prestige of the English name +warrants a certain confident bearing, which a Frenchman or +Belgian could not carry. At all events, they feel +themselves at liberty to assume the most extraordinary tone +on the subject of English merits.</p> +<p class="pnext">An English lady on the Rhine hearing a German +speaking of her party as foreigners, exclaimed, "No, we +are not foreigners; we are English: it is you that are +foreigners." They tell you daily, in London, the story +of the Frenchman and Englishman who quarrelled. +Both were unwilling to fight, but their companions put +them up to it; at last, it was agreed, that they should +fight alone, in the dark, and with pistols: the candles +were put out, and the Englishman, to make sure not to +hit anybody, fired up the chimney, and brought down the +Frenchman. They have no curiosity about foreigners, +and answer any information you may volunteer, with +"Oh! Oh!" until the informant makes up his mind, +that they shall die in their ignorance, for any help he +will offer. There are really no limits to this conceit, +though brighter men among them make painful efforts to +be candid.</p> +<p class="pnext">The habit of brag runs through all classes, from the +<em class="italics">Times</em> newspaper through politicians and poets, through +Wordsworth, Carlyle, Mill, and Sydney Smith, down to +the boys of Eton. In the gravest treatise on political +economy, in a philosophical essay, in books of science, one +is surprised by the most innocent exhibition of unflinching +nationality. In a tract on Corn, a most amiable and +accomplished gentleman writes thus: "Though Britain, +according to Bishop Berkeley's idea, were surrounded by +a wall of brass ten thousand cubits in height, still, she +would as far excel the rest of the globe in riches, as she +now does, both in this secondary quality, and in the +more important ones of freedom, virtue, and science."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id25" id="id24"><sup>12</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">The English dislike the American structure of society, +whilst yet trade, mills, public education, and chartism +are doing what they can to create in England the same +social condition. America is the paradise of the +economists; is the favorable exception invariably quoted to +the rules of ruin; but when he speaks directly of the +Americans, the islander forgets his philosophy, and +remembers his disparaging anecdotes.</p> +<p class="pnext">But this childish patriotism costs something, like all +narrowness. The English sway of their colonies has no +root of kindness. They govern by their arts and ability; +they are more just than kind; and, whenever an abatement +of their power is felt, they have not conciliated the +affection on which to rely.</p> +<p class="pnext">Coarse local distinctions, as those of nation, province, +or town, are useful in the absence of real ones; but we +must not insist on these accidental lines. Individual +traits are always triumphing over national ones. There +is no fence in metaphysics discriminating Greek, or +English, or Spanish science. Æsop and Montaigne, +Cervantes and Saadi, are men of the world; and to wave our +own flag at the dinner-table or in the University, is to +carry the boisterous dulness of a fire-club into a polite +circle. Nature and destiny are always on the watch for +our follies. Nature trips us up when we strut; and +there are curious examples in history on this very point +of national pride.</p> +<p class="pnext">George of Cappadocia, born at Epiphania in Cilicia, +was a low parasite, who got a lucrative contract to +supply the army with bacon. A rogue and informer, he +got rich, and was forced to run from justice. He saved +his money, embraced Arianism, collected a library, and +got promoted by a faction to the episcopal throne of +Alexandria. When Julian came, A.D. 301, George was +dragged to prison; the prison was burst open by the +mob, and George was lynched, as he deserved. And this +precious knave became, in good time, Saint George of +England, patron of chivalry, emblem of victory and +civility, and the pride of the best blood of the modern world.</p> +<p class="pnext">Strange, that the solid truth-speaking Briton should +derive from an impostor. Strange, that the New World +should have no better luck,--that broad America must +wear the name of a thief. Amerigo Vespucci, the +pickle-dealer at Seville, who went out, in 1499, a subaltern +with Hojeda, and whose highest naval rank was boatswain's +mate in an expedition that never sailed, managed +in this lying world to supplant Columbus, and baptize +half the earth with his own dishonest name. Thus +nobody can throw stones. We are equally badly off in our +founders; and the false pickle-dealer is an offset to the +false bacon-seller.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-x-wealth"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id63">CHAPTER X.--WEALTH.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">There is no country in which so absolute a homage +is paid to wealth. In America, there is a touch of shame +when a man exhibits the evidences of large property, as +if, after all, it needed apology. But the Englishman has +pure pride in his wealth, and esteems it a final certificate. +A coarse logic rules throughout all English souls;--if +you have merit, can you not show it by your good +clothes, and coach, and horses? How can a man be a +gentleman without a pipe of wine? Haydon says, +"There is a fierce resolution to make every man live +according to the means he possesses." There is a +mixture of religion in it. They are under the Jewish law, +and read with sonorous emphasis that their days shall be +long in the land, they shall have sous and daughters, +flocks and herds, wine and oil. In exact proportion is +the reproach of poverty. They do not wish to be +represented except by opulent men. An Englishman who has +lost his fortune is said to have died of a broken heart. +The last term of insult is, "a beggar." Nelson said, +"The want of fortune is a crime which I can never get +over." Sydney Smith said, "Poverty is infamous in +England." And one of their recent writers speaks, in +reference to a private and scholastic life, of "the grave +moral deterioration which follows an empty exchequer." You +shall find this sentiment, if not so frankly put, yet +deeply implied, in the novels and romances of the present +century, and not only in these, but in biography, and in +the votes of public assemblies, in the tone of the +preaching, and in the table-talk.</p> +<p class="pnext">I was lately turning over Wood's <em class="italics">Athenæ Oxonienses</em>, +and looking naturally for another standard in a chronicle +of the scholars of Oxford for two hundred years. But +I found the two disgraces in that, as in most English +books, are, first, disloyalty to Church and State, and, +second, to be born poor, or to come to poverty. A +natural fruit of England is the brutal political economy. +Malthus finds no cover laid at nature's table for the +laborer's son. In 1809, the majority in Parliament +expressed itself by the language of Mr. Fuller in the +House of Commons, "If you do not like the country, +damn you, you can leave it." When Sir S. Romilly +proposed his bill forbidding parish officers to bind +children apprentices at a greater distance than forty miles +from their home, Peel opposed, and Mr. Wortley said, +"though, in the higher ranks, to cultivate family +affections was a good thing, 't was not so among the lower +orders. Better take them away from those who might +deprave them. And it was highly injurious to trade to +stop binding to manufacturers, as it must raise the price +of labor, and of manufactured goods."</p> +<p class="pnext">The respect for truth of facts in England is equalled +only by the respect for wealth. It is at once the pride of +art of the Saxon, as he is a wealth-maker, and his passion +for independence. The Englishman believes that every +man must take care of himself, and has himself to thank, +if he do not mend his condition. To pay their debts is +their national point of honor. From the Exchequer and +the East India House to the huckster's shop, everything +prospers, because it is solvent. The British armies are +solvent, and pay for what they take. The British empire +is solvent; for, in spite of the huge national debt, the +valuation mounts. During the war from 1789 to 1815, +whilst they complained that they were taxed within an +inch of their lives, and, by dint of enormous taxes, were +subsidizing all the continent against France, the English +were growing rich every year faster than any people ever +grew before. It is their maxim, that the weight of taxes +must be calculated, not by what is taken, but by what is +left. Solvency is in the ideas and mechanism of an +Englishman. The Crystal Palace is not considered honest +until it pays; no matter how much convenience, beauty, +or <em class="italics">éclat</em>, it must be self-supporting. They are contented +with slower steamers, as long as they know that swifter +boats lose money. They proceed logically by the double +method of labor and thrift. Every household exhibits +an exact economy, and nothing of that uncalculated +headlong expenditure which families use in America. If +they cannot pay, they do not buy; for they have no +presumption of better fortunes next year, as our people +have; and they say without shame, I cannot afford it. +Gentlemen do not hesitate to ride in the second-class +cars, or in the second cabin. An economist, or a man +who can proportion his means and his ambition, or bring +the year round with expenditure which expresses his +character, without embarrassing one day of his future, is +already a master of life, and a freeman. Lord Burleigh +writes to his son, "that one ought never to devote more +than two thirds of his income to the ordinary expenses of +life, since the extraordinary will be certain to absorb the +other third."</p> +<p class="pnext">The ambition to create value evokes every kind of +ability, government becomes a manufacturing corporation, +and every house a mill. The headlong bias to utility +will let no talent lie in a napkin,--if possible, will +teach spiders to weave silk stockings. An Englishman, +while he eats and drinks no more, or not much more than +another man, labors three times as many hours in the +course of a year, as an other European; or, his life as +a workman is three lives. He works fast. Everything +in England is at a quick pace. They have reinforced +their own productivity, by the creation of that marvellous +machinery which differences this age from any other age.</p> +<p class="pnext">'T is a curious chapter in modern history, the growth +of the machine-shop. Six hundred years ago, Roger +Bacon explained the precession of the equinoxes, the +consequent necessity of the reform of the calendar; +measured the length of the year, invented gunpowder; and +announced (as if looking from his lofty cell, over five +centuries, into ours) "that machines can be constructed to +drive ships more rapidly than a whole galley of rowers +could do; nor would they need anything but a pilot +to steer them. Carriages also might be constructed to +move with an incredible speed, without the aid of any +animal. Finally, it would not be impossible to make +machines, which, by means of a suit of wings, should fly +in the air in the manner of birds." But the secret slept +with Bacon. The six hundred years have not yet +fulfilled his words. Two centuries ago, the sawing of +timber was done by hand; the carriage-wheels ran on +wooden axles; the land was tilled by wooden ploughs. +And it was to little purpose that they had pit-coal or that +looms were improved, unless Watt and Stephenson had +taught them to work force-pumps and power-looms by +steam. The great strides were all taken within the +last hundred years. The life of Sir Robert Peel, in +his day the model Englishman, very properly has, for +a frontispiece, a drawing of the spinning-jenny, which +wove the web of his fortunes. Hargreaves invented the +spinning-jenny, and died in a workhouse. Arkwright +improved the invention; and the machine dispensed with +the work of ninety-nine men: that is, one spinner could +do as much work as one hundred had done before. The +loom was improved further. But the men would +sometimes strike for wages, and combine against the masters, +and, about 1829-30, much fear was felt, lest the trade +would be drawn away by these interruptions, and the +emigration of the spinners, to Belgium and the United +States. Iron and steel are very obedient. Whether it +were not possible to make a spinner that would not +rebel, nor mutter, nor scowl, nor strike for wages, nor +emigrate? At the solicitation of the masters, after a +mob and riot at Staley Bridge, Mr. Roberts of Manchester +undertook to create this peaceful fellow, instead of +the quarrelsome fellow God had made. After a few +trials, he succeeded, and, in 1830, procured a patent for +his self-acting mule; a creation, the delight of mill-owners, +and "destined," they said, "to restore order among +the industrious classes"; a machine requiring only a +child's hand to piece the broken yarns. As Arkwright +had destroyed domestic spinning, so Roberts destroyed +the factory spinner. The power of machinery in Great +Britain, in mills, has been computed to be equal to +600,000,000 men, one man being able by the aid of steam +to do the work which required two hundred and fifty men +to accomplish fifty years ago. The production has been +commensurate. England already had this laborious race, +rich soil, water, wood, coal, iron, and favorable climate. +Eight hundred years ago, commerce had made it rich, and +it was recorded, "England is the richest of all the +northern nations." The Norman historians recite, that "in +1067, William carried with him into Normandy, from +England, more gold and silver than had ever before been +seen in Gaul." But when, to this labor and trade and +these native resources was added this goblin of steam, +with his myriad arms, never tired, working night and +day everlastingly, the amassing of property has run out +of all figures. It makes the motor of the last ninety +years. The steam-pipe has added to her population and +wealth the equivalent of four or five Englands. Forty +thousand ships are entered in Lloyd's lists. The yield +of wheat has gone on from 2,000,000 quarters in the +time of the Stuarts, to 13,000,000 in 1854. A thousand +million pounds sterling are said to compose the +floating money of commerce. In 1848, Lord John Russell +stated that the people of this country had laid out +£300,000,000 of capital in railways, in the last four +years. But a better measure than these sounding +figures is the estimate, that there is wealth enough in +England to support the entire population in idleness for +one year.</p> +<p class="pnext">The wise, versatile, all-giving machinery makes chisels, +roads, locomotives, telegraphs. Whitworth divides a bar +to a millionth of an inch. Steam twines huge cannon +into wreaths, as easily as it braids straw, and vies with +the volcanic forces which twisted the strata. It can +clothe shingle mountains with ship-oaks, make sword-blades +that will cut gun-barrels in two. In Egypt, it +can plant forests, and bring rain after three thousand +years. Already it is ruddering the balloon, and the +next war will be fought in the air. But another +machine more potent in England than steam is the Bank.</p> +<p class="pnext">It votes an issue of bills, population is stimulated, and +cities rise; it refuses loans, and emigration empties the +country; trade sinks; revolutions break out; kings are +dethroned. By these new agents our social system is +moulded. By dint of steam and of money, war and +commerce are changed. Nations have lost their old +omnipotence; the patriotic tie does not hold. Nations are +getting obsolete, we go and live where we will. Steam +has enabled men to choose what law they will live under. +Money makes place for them. The telegraph is a +limp-band that will hold the Fenris-wolf of war. For now, +that a telegraph line runs through France and +Europe, from London, every message it transmits makes +stronger by one thread the band which war will have +to cut.</p> +<p class="pnext">The introduction of these elements gives new resources +to existing proprietors. A sporting duke may fancy that +the state depends on the House of Lords, but the +engineer sees, that every stroke of the steam-piston gives +value to the duke's land, fills it with tenants; doubles, +quadruples, centuples the duke's capital, and creates new +measures and new necessities for the culture of his +children. Of course, it draws the nobility into the +competition as stockholders in the mine, the canal, the railway, +in the application of steam to agriculture, and sometimes +into trade. But it also introduces large classes into the +same competition; the old energy of the Norse race arms +itself with these magnificent powers; new men prove an +overmatch for the land-owner, and the mill buys out the +castle. Scandinavian Thor, who once forged his bolts in +icy Hecla, and built galleys by lonely fiords, in England, +has advanced with the times, has shorn his beard, enters +Parliament, sits down at a desk in the India House, and +lends Miollnir to Birmingham for a steam-hammer.</p> +<p class="pnext">The creation of wealth in England in the last ninety +years is a main fact in modern history. The wealth of +London determines prices all over the globe. All things +precious, or useful, or amusing, or intoxicating, are +sucked into this commerce and floated to London. Some +English private fortunes reach, and some exceed, a +million of dollars a year. A hundred thousand palaces +adorn the island. All that can feed the senses and +passions, all that can succor the talent, or arm the hands of +the intelligent middle class who never spare in what they +buy for their own consumption; all that can aid +science, gratify taste, or soothe comfort, is in open market. +Whatever is excellent and beautiful in civil, rural, or +ecclesiastic architecture; in fountain, garden, or grounds; +the English noble crosses sea and land to see and to copy +at home. The taste and science of thirty peaceful +generations; the gardens which Evelyn planted; the temples +and pleasure-houses which Inigo Jones and Christopher +Wren built; the wood that Gibbons carved; the taste +of foreign and domestic artists, Shenstone, Pope, Brown, +Loudon, Paxton, are in the vast auction, and the +hereditary principle heaps on the owner of to-day the benefit +of ages of owners. The present possessors are to the +full as absolute as any of their fathers, in choosing and +procuring what they like. This comfort and splendor, +the breadth of lake and mountain, tillage, pasture, and +park, sumptuous castle and modern villa,--all consist +with perfect order. They have no revolutions; no +horse-guards dictating to the crown; no Parisian <em class="italics">poissardes</em> +and barricades; no mob; but drowsy habitude, daily +dress-dinners, wine, and ale, and beer, and gin, and +sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">With this power of creation, and this passion for +independence, property has reached an ideal perfection. +It is felt and treated as the national life-blood. The +laws are framed to give property the securest possible +basis, and the provisions to lock and transmit it have +exercised the cunningest heads in a profession which +never admits a fool. The rights of property nothing but +felony and treason can override. The house is a castle +which the king cannot enter. The Bank is a strong-box +to which the king has no key. Whatever surly +sweetness possession can give, is tasted in England to the +dregs. Vested rights are awful things, and absolute +possession gives the smallest freeholder identity of +interest with the duke. High stone fences and padlocked +garden gates announce the absolute will of the owner to +be alone. Every whim of exaggerated egotism is put +into stone and iron, into silver and gold, with costly +deliberation and detail.</p> +<p class="pnext">An Englishman hears that the Queen Dowager wishes +to establish some claim to put her park paling a rod +forward into his grounds, so as to get a coachway, and save +her a mile to the avenue. Instantly he transforms his +paling into stone masonry, solid as the walls of Cuma, +and all Europe cannot prevail on him to sell or +compound for an inch of the land. They delight in a freak +as the proof of their sovereign freedom. Sir Edward +Boynton, at Spic Park, at Cadenham, on a precipice of +incomparable prospect, built a house like a long barn, +which had not a window on the prospect side. Strawberry +Hill of Horace Walpole, Fonthill Abbey of +Mr. Beckford, were freaks; and Newstead Abbey became +one in the hands of Lord Byron.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the proudest result of this creation has been the +great and refined forces it has put at the disposal of the +private citizen. In the social world, an Englishman +to-day has the best lot. He is a king in a plain coat. He +goes with the most powerful protection, keeps the best +company, is armed by the best education, is seconded by +wealth; and his English name and accidents are like +a flourish of trumpets announcing him. This, with his +quiet style of manners, gives him the power of a +sovereign, without the inconveniences which belong to that +rank. I much prefer the condition of an English +gentleman of the better class, to that of any potentate in +Europe,--whether for travel, or for opportunity of +society, or for access to means of science or study, or +for mere comfort and easy healthy relation to people at +home.</p> +<p class="pnext">Such, as we have seen, is the wealth of England, a +mighty mass, and made good in whatever details we care +to explore. The cause and spring of it is the wealth +of temperament in the people. The wonder of Britain +is this plenteous nature. Her worthies are ever +surrounded by as good men as themselves; each is a +captain a hundred strong, and that wealth of men is +represented again in the faculty of each individual,--that +he has waste strength, power to spare. The English +are so rich, and seem to have established a taproot +in the bowels of the planet, because they are +constitutionally fertile and creative.</p> +<p class="pnext">But a man must keep an eye on his servants, if he +would not have them rule him. Man is a shrewd inventor, +and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his +own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy +in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in +the work of the world. But it is found that the machine +unmans the user. What he gains in making cloth, he +loses in general power. There should be temperance +in making cloth, as well as in eating. A man should +not be a silkworm; nor a nation a tent of caterpillars. +The robust rural Saxon degenerates in the mills to the +Leicester stockinger, to the imbecile Manchester +spinner,--far on the way to be spiders and needles. The +incessant repetition of the same hand-work dwarfs the man, +robs him of his strength, wit, and versatility, to make a +pin-polisher, a buckle-maker, or any other specialty; and +presently, in a change of industry, whole towns are +sacrificed like ant-hills, when, the fashion of shoestrings +supersedes buckles, when cotton takes the place of linen, +or railways of turnpikes, or when commons are enclosed +by landlords. Then society is admonished of the +mischief of the division of labor, and that the best political +economy is care and culture of men; for, in these crises, +all are ruined except such as are proper individuals, +capable of thought, and of new choice and the application +of their talent to new labor. Then again come in +new calamities. England is aghast at the disclosure of her +fraud in the adulteration of food, of drugs, and of almost +every fabric in her mills and shops; finding that milk will +not nourish, nor sugar sweeten, nor bread satisfy, nor +pepper bite the tongue, nor glue stick. In true England +all is false and forged. This too is the reaction of +machinery, but of the larger machinery of commerce. 'T is +not, I suppose, want of probity, so much as the tyranny +of trade, which necessitates a perpetual competition of +underselling, and that again a perpetual deterioration of +the fabric.</p> +<p class="pnext">The machinery has proved, like the balloon, unmanageable, +and flies away with the aeronaut. Steam from the +first hissed and screamed to warn him; it was dreadful +with its explosion, and crushed the engineer. The +machinist has wrought and watched, engineers and firemen +without number have been sacrificed in learning to tame +and guide the monster. But harder still it has proved +to resist and rule the dragon Money, with his paper +wings. Chancellors and Boards of Trade, Pitt, Peel, +and Robinson, and their Parliaments, and their whole +generation, adopted false principles, and went to their +graves in the belief that they were enriching the country +which they were impoverishing. They congratulated +each other on ruinous expedients. It is rare to find +a merchant who knows why a crisis occurs in trade, why +prices rise or fall, or who knows the mischief of +paper-money. In the culmination of national prosperity, in +the annexation of countries; building of ships, depots, +towns; in the influx of tons of gold and silver; amid the +chuckle of chancellors and financiers, it was found that +bread rose to famine prices, that the yeoman was forced +to sell his cow and pig, his tools, and his acre of land; +and the dreadful barometer of the poor-rates was +touching the point of ruin. The poor-rate was sucking in the +solvent classes, and forcing an exodus of farmers and +mechanics. What befalls from the violence of financial +crises, befalls daily in the violence of artificial legislation.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Such a wealth has England earned, ever new, bounteous, +and augmenting. But the question recurs, does she +take the step beyond, namely, to the wise use, in view +of the supreme wealth of nations? We estimate the +wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their +surplus capital. And, in view of these injuries, some +compensation has been attempted in England. A part +of the money earned returns to the brain to buy schools, +libraries, bishops, astronomers, chemists, and artists with; +and a part to repair the wrongs of this intemperate +weaving, by hospitals, savings-banks, Mechanics' Institutes, +public grounds, and other charities and amenities. But +the antidotes are frightfully inadequate, and the evil +requires a deeper cure, which time and a simpler social +organization must supply. At present, she does not rule +her wealth. She is simply a good England, but no +divinity, or wise and instructed soul. She too is in the +stream of fate, one victim more in a common catastrophe.</p> +<p class="pnext">But being in the fault, she has the misfortune of +greatness to be held as the chief offender. England must +be held responsible for the despotism of expense. Her +prosperity, the splendor which so much manhood and +talent and perseverance has thrown upon vulgar aims, is the +very argument of materialism. Her success strengthens +the hands of base wealth. Who can propose to youth +poverty and wisdom, when mean gain has arrived at the +conquest of letters and arts; when English success has +grown out of the very renunciation of principles, and the +dedication to outsides. A civility of trifles, of money +and expense, an erudition of sensation takes place, and +the putting as many impediments as we can, between the +man and his objects. Hardly the bravest among them +have the manliness to resist it successfully. Hence, it +has come, that not the aims of a manly life, but the +means of meeting a certain ponderous expense, is that +which is to be considered by a youth in England, +emerging from his minority. A large family is reckoned a +misfortune. And it is a consolation in the death of the +young, that a source of expense is closed.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xi-aristocracy"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id64">CHAPTER XI.--ARISTOCRACY.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The feudal character of the English state, now that it +is getting obsolete, glares a little, in contrast with the +democratic tendencies. The inequality of power and +property shocks republican nerves. Palaces, halls, villas, +walled parks, all over England, rival the splendor of +royal seats. Many of the halls, like Haddon, or +Kedleston, are beautiful desolations. The proprietor never saw +them, or never lived in them. Primogeniture built these +sumptuous piles, and, I suppose, it is the sentiment of +every traveller, as it was mine, 'T was well to come ere +these were gone. Primogeniture is a cardinal rule of +English property and institutions. Laws, customs, +manners, the very persons and faces, affirm it.</p> +<p class="pnext">The frame of society is aristocratic, the taste of the +people is loyal. The estates, names, and manners of +the nobles flatter the fancy of the people, and conciliate +the necessary support. In spite of broken faith, stolen +charters, and the devastation of society by the profligacy +of the court, we take sides as we read for the loyal +England and King Charles's "return to his right" with +his Cavaliers,--knowing what a heartless trifler he is, +and what a crew of God-forsaken robbers they are. The +people of England knew as much. But the fair idea of +a settled government connecting itself with heraldic +names, with the written and oral history of Europe, and, +at last, with the Hebrew religion, and the oldest +traditions of the world, was too pleasing a vision to be +shattered by a few offensive realities, and the politics of +shoemakers and costermongers. The hopes of the +commoners take the same direction with the interest of the +patricians. Every man who becomes rich buys land, and +does what he can to fortify the nobility, into which he +hopes to rise. The Anglican clergy are identified with +the aristocracy. Time and law have made the joining +and moulding perfect in every part. The Cathedrals, +the Universities, the national music, the popular +romances, conspire to uphold the heraldry, which the +current politics of the day are sapping. The taste of +the people is conservative. They are proud of the +castles, and of the language and symbol of chivalry. Even +the word "lord" is the luckiest style that is used in +any language to designate a patrician. The superior +education and manners of the nobles recommend them +to the country.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Norwegian pirate got what he could, and held it +for his eldest son. The Norman noble, who was the +Norwegian pirate baptized, did likewise. There was this +advantage of Western over Oriental nobility, that this was +recruited from below. English history is aristocracy +with the doors open. Who has courage and faculty, let +him come in. Of course, the terms of admission to this +club are hard and high. The selfishness of the nobles +comes in aid of the interest of the nation to require signal +merit. Piracy and war gave place to trade, politics, and +letters; the war-lord to the law-lord; the law-lord to the +merchant and the mill-owner; but the privilege was kept, +whilst the means of obtaining it were changed.</p> +<p class="pnext">The foundations of these families lie deep in Norwegian +exploits by sea, and Saxon sturdiness on land. All +nobility in its beginnings was somebody's natural superiority. +The things these English have done were not done +without peril of life, nor without wisdom and conduct; +and the first hands, it may be presumed, were often +challenged to show their right to their honors, or yield them +to better men. "He that will be a head, let him be a +bridge," said the Welsh chief Benegridran, when he +carried all his men over the river on his back. "He shall +have the book," said the mother of Alfred, "who can +read it"; and Alfred won it by that title: and I make +no doubt that feudal tenure was no sinecure, but baron, +knight, and tenant often had their memories refreshed, +in regard to the service by which they held their lands. +The De Veres, Bohuns, Mowbrays, and Plantagenets +were not addicted to contemplation. The Middle Age +adorned itself with proofs of manhood and devotion. Of +Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, the Emperor told +Henry V. that no Christian king had such another knight +for wisdom, nurture, and manhood, and caused him to be +named, "Father of curtesie." "Our success in France," +says the historian, "lived and died with him."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id27" id="id26"><sup>13</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">The war-lord earned his honors, and no donation of +land was large, as long as it brought the duty of protecting +it, hour by hour, against a terrible enemy. In France +and in England, the nobles were, down to a late day, born +and bred to war; and the duel, which in peace still held +them to the risks of war, diminished the envy that, in +trading and studious nations, would else have pried into +their title. They were looked on as men who played high +for a great stake.</p> +<p class="pnext">Great estates are not sinecures, if they are to be kept +great. A creative economy is the fuel of magnificence. +In the same line of Warwick, the successor next but one +to Beauchamp was the stout earl of Henry VI. and +Edward IV. Few esteemed themselves in the mode, +whose heads were not adorned with the black ragged +staff, his badge. At his house in London, six oxen were +daily eaten at a breakfast; and every tavern was full of +his meat; and who had any acquaintance in his family, +should have as much boiled and roast as he could carry +on a long dagger.</p> +<p class="pnext">The new age brings new qualities into request, the +virtues of pirates gave way to those of planters, +merchants, senators, and scholars. Comity, social talent, +and fine manners, no doubt, have had their part also. I +have met somewhere with a historiette, which, whether +more or less true in its particulars, carries a general truth. +"How came the Duke of Bedford by his great landed +estates? His ancestor having travelled on the continent, +a lively, pleasant man, became the companion of a foreign +prince wrecked on the Dorsetshire coast, where +Mr. Russell lived. The prince recommended him to Henry +VIII., who, liking his company, gave him a large share +of the plundered church lands."</p> +<p class="pnext">The pretence is that the noble is of unbroken descent +from the Norman, and has never worked for eight +hundred years. But the fact is otherwise. Where is +Bohun? where is De Vere? The lawyer, the farmer, the +silk-mercer, lies <em class="italics">perdu</em> under the coronet, and winks to the +antiquary to say nothing; especially skilful lawyers, +nobody's sons, who did some piece of work at a nice +moment for government, and were rewarded with ermine.</p> +<p class="pnext">The national tastes of the English do not lead them +to the life of the courtier, but to secure the comfort +and independence of their homes. The aristocracy are +marked by their predilection for country-life. They are +called the county-families. They have often no residence +in London, and only go thither for a short time, during +the season, to see the opera; but they concentrate the love +and labor of many generations on the building, planting, +and decoration of their homesteads. Some of them are +too old and too proud to wear titles, or, as Sheridan said +of Coke, "disdain to hide their head in a coronet"; and +some curious examples are cited to show the stability of +English families. Their proverb is, that, fifty miles from +London, a family will last a hundred years; at a hundred +miles, two hundred years; and so on; but I doubt that +steam, the enemy of time, as well as of space, will +disturb these ancient rules. Sir Henry Wotton says of the +first Duke of Buckingham: "He was born at Brookeby +in Leicestershire, where his ancestors had chiefly +continued about the space of four hundred years, rather +without obscurity, than with any great lustre."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id29" id="id28"><sup>14</sup></a> Wraxall +says, that, in 1781, Lord Surrey, afterwards Duke of +Norfolk, told him, that when the year 1783 should arrive, +he meant to give a grand festival to all the descendants +of the body of Jockey of Norfolk, to mark the day when +the dukedom should have remained three hundred years +in their house, since its creation by Richard III. Pepys +tells us, in writing of an Earl Oxford, in 1666, that the +honor had now remained in that name and blood six +hundred years.</p> +<p class="pnext">This long descent of families and this cleaving through +ages to the same spot of ground captivates the imagination. +It has too a connection with the names of the +towns and districts of the country.</p> +<p class="pnext">The names are excellent,--an atmosphere of legendary +melody spread over the land. Older than all epics +and histories, which clothe a nation, this undershirt sits +close to the body. What history too, and what stores of +primitive and savage observation, it infolds! Cambridge +is the bridge of the Cam; Sheffield, the field of the river +Sheaf; Leicester, the <em class="italics">castra</em> or camp of the Lear or Leir +(now Soar); Rochdale, of the Roch; Exeter or Excester, +the <em class="italics">castra</em> of the Ex; Exmouth, Dartmouth, Sidmouth, +Teignmouth, the mouths of the Ex, Dart, Sid, and Teign +Rivers. Waltham is strong town; Radcliffe is red cliff; +and so on;--a sincerity and use in naming very striking +to an American, whose country is whitewashed all over +by unmeaning names, the cast-off clothes of the country +from which its emigrants came; or, named at a pinch +from a psalm-tune. But the English are those "barbarians" +of Jamblichus, who "are stable in their manners, +and firmly continue to employ the same words, which also +are dear to the gods."</p> +<p class="pnext">'T is an old sneer, that the Irish peerage drew their +names from playbooks. The English lords do not call +their lands after their own names, but call themselves +after their lands; as if the man represented the country +that bred him; and they rightly wear the token of the +glebe that gave them birth; suggesting that the tie is not +cut, but that there in London,--the crags of Argyle, the +kail of Cornwall, the downs of Devon, the iron of Wales, +the clays of Stafford, are neither forgetting nor forgotten, +but know the man who was born by them, and who, like +the long line of his fathers, has carried that crag, that +shore, dale, fen, or woodland in his blood and manners. +It has, too, the advantage of suggesting responsibleness. +A susceptible man could not wear a name which represented +in a strict sense a city or a county of England, +without hearing in it a challenge to duty and honor.</p> +<p class="pnext">The predilection of the patricians for residence in the +country, combined with the degree of liberty possessed +by the peasant, makes the safety of the English hall. +Mirabeau wrote prophetically from England, in 1784: +"If revolution break out in France, I tremble for the +aristocracy: their chaâeaux will be reduced to ashes, and +their blood spilt in torrents. The English tenant would +defend his lord to the last extremity." The English go +to their estates for grandeur. The French live at court, +and exile themselves to their estates for economy. As +they do not mean to live with their tenants, they do not +conciliate them, but wring from them the last sous. +Evelyn writes from Blois, in 1644: "The wolves are +here in such numbers, that they often come and take +children out of the streets; yet will not the Duke, who is +sovereign here, permit them to be destroyed."</p> +<p class="pnext">In evidence of the wealth amassed by ancient families, +the traveller is shown the palaces in Piccadilly, +Burlington House, Devonshire House, Lansdowne House in +Berkshire Square, and, lower down in the city, a few +noble houses which still withstand in all their amplitude +the encroachment of streets. The Duke of Bedford +includes or included a mile square in the heart of London, +where the British Museum, once Montague House, now +stands, and the land occupied by Woburn Square, +Bedford Square, Russell Square. The Marquis of Westminster +built within a few years the series of squares called +Belgravia. Stafford House is the noblest palace in +London. Northumberland House holds its place by Charing +Cross. Chesterfield House remains in Audley Street. +Sion House and Holland House are in the suburbs. But +most of the historical houses are masked or lost in the +modern uses to which trade or charity has converted +them. A multitude of town palaces contain inestimable +galleries of art.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the country, the size of private estates is more +impressive. From Barnard Castle I rode on the highway +twenty-three miles from High Force, a fall of the +Tees, towards Darlington, past Raby Castle, through +the estate of the Duke of Cleveland. The Marquis of +Breadalbane rides out of his house a hundred miles in +a straight line to the sea, on his own property. The +Duke of Sutherland owns the county of Sutherland, +stretching across Scotland from sea to sea. The Duke +of Devonshire, besides his other estates, owns 96,000 +acres in the county of Derby. The Duke of Richmond +has 40,000 acres at Goodwood, and 300,000 at Gordon +Castle. The Duke of Norfolk's park in Sussex is fifteen +miles in circuit. An agriculturist bought lately the +island of Lewes, in Hebrides, containing 500,000 acres. +The possessions of the Earl of Lonsdale gave him eight +seats in Parliament. This is the Heptarchy again; and +before the Reform of 1832, one hundred and fifty-four +persons sent three hundred and seven members to +Parliament. The borough-mongers governed England.</p> +<p class="pnext">These large domains are growing larger. The great +estates are absorbing the small freeholds. In 1786, the +soil of England was owned by 250,000 corporations and +proprietors; and, in 1822, by 32,000. These broad +estates find room in this narrow island. All over +England, scattered at short intervals among ship-yards, mills, +mines, and forges, are the paradises of the nobles, where +the livelong repose and refinement are heightened by the +contrast with the roar of industry and necessity, out of +which you have stepped aside.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">I was surprised to observe the very small attendance +usually in the House of Lords. Out of 573 peers, on +ordinary days, only twenty or thirty. Where are they? I +asked. "At home on their estates, devoured by <em class="italics">ennui</em>, +or in the Alps, or up the Rhine, in the Harz Mountains, +or in Egypt, or in India, on the Ghauts." But, with +such interests at stake, how can these men afford to +neglect them? "O," replied my friend, "why should +they work for themselves, when every man in England +works for them, and will suffer before they come to +harm?" The hardest radical instantly uncovers, and +changes his tone to a lord. It was remarked on the +10th April, 1848 (the day of the Chartist demonstration), +that the upper classes were, for the first time, actively +interesting themselves in their own defence, and men of +rank were sworn special constables, with the rest. +"Besides, why need they sit out the debate? Has not the +Duke of Wellington, at this moment, their proxies,--the +proxies of fifty peers in his pocket, to vote for them, if +there be an emergency?"</p> +<p class="pnext">It is however true, that the existence of the House of +Peers as a branch of the government entitles them to fill +half the Cabinet; and their weight of property and station +gives them a virtual nomination of the other half; whilst +they have their share in the subordinate offices, as a school +of training. This monopoly of political power has given +them their intellectual and social eminence in Europe. +A few law lords and a few political lords take the brunt +of public business. In the army, the nobility fill a large +part of the high commissions, and give to these a tone of +expense and splendor, and also of exclusiveness. They +have borne their full share of duty and danger in this +service; and there are few noble families which have not +paid in some of their members, the debt of life or limb, +in the sacrifices of the Russian war. For the rest, the +nobility have the lead in matters of state, and of expense; +in questions of taste, in social usages, in convivial and +domestic hospitalities. In general, all that is required of +them is to sit securely, to preside at public meetings, to +countenance charities, and to give the example of that +decorum so dear to the British heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">If one asks, in the critical spirit of the day, what +service this class have rendered?--uses appear, or they +would have perished long ago. Some of these are easily +enumerated, others more subtle make a part of unconscious +history. Their institution is one step in the progress +of society. For a race yields a nobility in some form, +however we name the lords, as surely as it yields women.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English nobles are high-spirited, active, educated +men, born to wealth and power, who have run through +every country, and kept in every country the best +company, have seen every secret of art and nature, and, when +men of any ability or ambition, have been consulted in +the conduct of every important action. You cannot wield +great agencies without lending yourself to them, and +when it happens that the spirit of the earl meets his +rank and duties, we have the best examples of behavior. +Power of any kind readily appears in the manners; and +beneficent power, <em class="italics">le talent de bien faire</em>, gives a majesty +which cannot be concealed or resisted.</p> +<p class="pnext">These people seem to gain as much as they lose by +their position. They survey society, as from the top of +St. Paul's, and if they never hear plain truth from men, +they see the best of everything, in every kind, and they +see things so grouped and amassed as to infer easily the +sum and genius, instead of tedious particularities. Their +good behavior deserves all its fame, and they have that +simplicity, and that air of repose, which are the finest +ornament of greatness.</p> +<p class="pnext">The upper classes have only birth, say the people here, +and not thoughts. Yes, but they have manners, and 't is +wonderful, how much talent runs into manners:--nowhere +and never so much as in England. They have the +sense of superiority, the absence of all the ambitious +effort which disgusts in the aspiring classes, a pure tone +of thought and feeling, and the power to command, +among their other luxuries, the presence of the most +accomplished men in their festive meetings.</p> +<p class="pnext">Loyalty is in the English a sub-religion. They wear +the laws as ornaments, and walk by their faith in their +painted May-Fair, as if among the forms of gods. The +economist of 1855 who asks, of what use are the lords? may +learn of Franklin to ask, of what use is a baby? +They have been a social church proper to inspire +sentiments mutually honoring the lover and the loved. +Politeness is the ritual of society, as prayers are of the +church; a school of manners, and a gentle blessing to +the age in which it grew. 'T is a romance adorning +English life with a larger horizon; a midway heaven, +fulfilling to their sense their fairy tales and poetry. This, +just as far as the breeding of the nobleman, really made +him brave, handsome, accomplished, and great-hearted.</p> +<p class="pnext">On general grounds, whatever tends to form manners, +or to finish men, has a great value. Every one who has +tasted the delight of friendship, will respect every social +guard which our manners can establish, tending to secure +from the intrusion of frivolous and distasteful people. +The jealousy of every class to guard itself, is a testimony +to the reality they have found in life. When a man once +knows that he has done justice to himself, let him +dismiss all terrors of aristocracy as superstitions, so far as +he is concerned. He who keeps the door of a mine, +whether of cobalt, or mercury, or nickel, or plumbago, +securely knows that the world cannot do without him. +Everybody who is real is open and ready for that which +is also real.</p> +<p class="pnext">Besides, these are they who make England that strongbox +and museum it is; who gather and protect works of +art, dragged from amidst burning cities and revolutionary +countries, and brought hither out of all the world. I +look with respect at houses six, seven, eight hundred, or, +like Warwick Castle, nine hundred years old. I +pardoned high park fences, when I saw, that, besides does +and pheasants, these have preserved Arundel marbles, +Townley galleries, Howard and Spenserian libraries, +Warwick and Portland vases, Saxon manuscripts, monastic +architectures, millennial trees, and breeds of cattle +elsewhere extinct. In these manors, after the frenzy of +war and destruction subsides a little, the antiquary finds +the frailest Roman jar, or crumbling Egyptian mummy-case, +without so much as a new layer of dust, keeping +the series of history unbroken, and waiting for its +interpreter, who is sure to arrive. These lords are the +treasurers and librarians of mankind, engaged by their pride +and wealth to this function.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet there were other works for British dukes to do. +George Loudon, Quintinye, Evelyn, had taught them to +make gardens. Arthur Young, Bakewell, and Mechi +have made them agricultural. Scotland was a camp +until the day of Culloden. The Dukes of Athol, +Sutherland, Buccleugh, and the Marquis of Breadalbane have +introduced the rape-culture, the sheep-farm, wheat, drainage, +the plantation of forests, the artificial replenishment +of lakes and ponds with fish, the renting of game-preserves. +Against the cry of the old tenantry, and the +sympathetic cry of the English press, they have rooted +out and planted anew, and now six millions of people live, +and live better on the same land that fed three millions.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English barons, in every period, have been brave +and great, after the estimate and opinion of their times. +The grand old halls scattered up and down in England +are dumb vouchers to the state and broad hospitality of +their ancient lords. Shakspeare's portraits of good Duke +Humphrey, of Warwick, of Northumberland, of Talbot, +were drawn in strict consonance with the traditions. A +sketch of the Earl of Shrewsbury, from the pen of Queen +Elizabeth's Archbishop Parker;<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id31" id="id30"><sup>15</sup></a> Lord Herbert of +Cherbury's autobiography; the letters and essays of Sir +Philip Sidney; the anecdotes preserved by the antiquaries +Fuller and Collins; some glimpses at the interiors of +noble houses, which we owe to Pepys and Evelyn; the +details which Ben Jonson's masques (performed at +Kenilworth, Althorpe, Belvoir, and other noble houses) record +or suggest; down to Aubrey's passages of the life of +Hobbes in the house of the Earl of Devon, are favorable +pictures of a romantic style of manners. Penshurst still +shines for us, and its Christmas revels, "where logs not +burn, but men." At Wilton House, the "Arcadia" was +written, amidst conversations with Fulke Greville, Lord +Brooke, a man of no vulgar mind, as his own poems +declare him. I must hold Ludlow Castle an honest house, +for which Milton's "Comus" was written, and the +company nobly bred which performed it with knowledge and +sympathy. In the roll of nobles are found poets, +philosophers, chemists, astronomers, also men of solid virtues +and of lofty sentiments; often they have been the friends +and patrons of genius and learning, and especially of the +fine arts; and at this moment, almost every great house +has its sumptuous picture-gallery.</p> +<p class="pnext">Of course, there is another side to this gorgeous show. +Every victory was the defeat of a party only less worthy. +Castles are proud things, but 't is safest to be outside of +them. War is a foul game, and yet war is not the worst +part of aristocratic history. In later times, when the +baron, educated only for war, with his brains paralyzed +by his stomach, found himself idle at home, he grew fat +and wanton, and a sorry brute. Grammont, Pepys, and +Evelyn show the kennels to which the king and court +went in quest of pleasure. Prostitutes taken from the +theatres were made duchesses, their bastards dukes and +earls. "The young men sat uppermost, the old serious +lords were out of favor." The discourse that the king's +companions had with him was "poor and frothy." No +man who valued his head might do what these pot-companions +familiarly did with the king. In logical sequence +of these dignified revels, Pepys can tell the beggarly shifts +to which the king was reduced, who could not find paper +at his council table, and "no handkerchers" in his +wardrobe, "and but three bands to his neck," and the +linen-draper and the stationer were out of pocket, and refusing +to trust him, and the baker will not bring bread any +longer. Meantime, the English Channel was swept, and +London threatened by the Dutch fleet, manned too by +English sailors, who, having been cheated of their pay for +years by the king, enlisted with the enemy.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Selwyn correspondence in the reign of George +III. discloses a rottenness in the aristocracy, which +threatened to decompose the state. The sycophancy and +sale of votes and honor, for place and title; lewdness, +gaming, smuggling, bribery, and cheating; the sneer at +the childish indiscretion of quarrelling with ten thousand +a year; the want of ideas; the splendor of the titles, and +the apathy of the nation, are instructive, and make the +reader pause and explore the firm bounds which confined +these vices to a handful of rich men. In the reign of the +Fourth George, things do not seem to have mended, and +the rotten debauchee let down from a window by an +inclined plane into his coach to take the air, was a scandal +to Europe which the ill fame of his queen and of his +family did nothing to retrieve.</p> +<p class="pnext">Under the present reign, the perfect decorum of the +Court is thought to have put a check on the gross vices +of the aristocracy; yet gaming, racing, drinking, and +mistresses bring them down, and the democrat can still gather +scandals, if he will. Dismal anecdotes abound, verifying +the gossip of the last generation of dukes served by bailiffs, +with all their plate in pawn; of great lords living by +the showing of their houses; and of an old man wheeled +in his chair from room to room, whilst his chambers are +exhibited to the visitor for money: of ruined dukes and +earls living in exile for debt. The historic names of the +Buckinghams, Beauforts, Marlboroughs, and Hertfords +have gained no new lustre, and now and then darker +scandals break out, ominous as the new chapters added +under the Orleans dynasty to the "<em class="italics">Causes Célèbres</em>" in +France. Even peers, who are men of worth and public +spirit, are overtaken and embarrassed by their vast +expense. The respectable Duke of Devonshire, willing to +be the Mecænas and Lucullus of his island, is reported +to have said that he cannot live at Chatsworth but one +month in the year. Their many houses eat them up. +They cannot sell them, because they are entailed. They +will not let them, for pride's sake, but keep them empty, +aired, and the grounds mown and dressed, at a cost of +four or five thousand pounds a year. The spending is +for a great part in servants, in many houses exceeding a +hundred.</p> +<p class="pnext">Most of them are only chargeable with idleness, which, +because it squanders such vast power of benefit, has the +mischief of crime. "They might be little Providences +on earth," said my friend, "and they are, for the most +part, jockeys and fops." Campbell says: "Acquaintance +with the nobility, I could never keep up. It requires a +life of idleness, dressing, and attendance on their parties." I +suppose, too, that a feeling of self-respect is driving +cultivated men out of this society, as if the noble were +slow to receive the lessons of the times, and had not +learned to disguise his pride of place. A man of wit, +who is also one of the celebrities of wealth and fashion, +confessed to his friend, that he could not enter their +houses without being made to feel that they were great +lords, and he a low plebeian. With the tribe of <em class="italics">artistes</em>, +including the musical tribe, the patrician morgue keeps +no terms, but excludes them. When Julia Grisi and +Mario sang at the houses of the Duke of Wellington and +other grandees, a ribbon was stretched between the +singer and the company.</p> +<p class="pnext">When every noble was a soldier, they were carefully +bred to great personal prowess. The education of a +soldier is a simpler affair than that of an earl in the +nineteenth century. And this was very seriously pursued; +they were expert in every species of equitation, to the +most dangerous practices, and this down to the accession +of William of Orange. But graver men appear to have +trained their sons for civil affairs. Elizabeth extended +her thought to the future; and Sir Philip Sidney in his +letter to his brother, and Milton and Evelyn, gave plain +and hearty counsel. Already, too, the English noble +and squire were preparing for the career of the +country-gentleman, and his peaceable expense. They went from +city to city, learning receipts to make perfumes, sweet +powders, pomanders, antidotes, gathering seeds, gems, +coins, and divers curiosities, preparing for a private life +thereafter, in which they should take pleasure in these +recreations.</p> +<p class="pnext">All advantages given to absolve the young patrician +from intellectual labor are of course mistaken. "In the +university, noblemen are exempted from the public +exercises for the degree, etc., by which they attain a degree +called honorary. At the same time the fees they must +pay for matriculation, and on all other occasions, are +much higher."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id33" id="id32"><sup>16</sup></a> Fuller records "the observation of +foreigners, that Englishmen, by making their children +gentlemen, before they are men, cause they are so seldom +wise men." This cockering justifies Dr. Johnson's bitter +apology for primogeniture, "that it makes but one fool +in a family."</p> +<p class="pnext">The revolution in society has reached this class. The +great powers of industrial art have no exclusion of name +or blood. The tools of our time, namely, steam, ships, +printing, money, and popular education, belong to those +who can handle them; and their effect has been, that +advantages once confined to men of family are now open to +the whole middle class. The road that grandeur levels +for his coach, toil can travel in his cart.</p> +<p class="pnext">This is more manifest every day, but I think it is true +throughout English history. English history, wisely +read, is the vindication of the brain of that people. Here, +at last, were climate and condition friendly to the +working faculty. Who now will work and dare, shall rule. +This is the charter, or the chartism, which fogs, and seas, +and rains proclaimed,--that intellect and personal force +should make the law; that industry and administrative +talent should administer; that work should wear the +crown. I know that not this, but something else is +pretended. The fiction with which the noble and the +bystander equally please themselves is, that the former is of +unbroken descent from the Norman, and so has never +worked for eight hundred years. All the families are +new, but the name is old, and they have made a covenant +with their memories not to disturb it. But the analysis +of the peerage and gentry shows the rapid decay and +extinction of old families, the continual recruiting of these +from new blood. The doors, though ostentatiously +guarded, are really open, and hence the power of the +bribe. All the barriers to rank only whet the thirst, and +enhance the prize. "Now," said Nelson, when clearing +for battle, "a peerage, or Westminster Abbey!" "I have +no illusion left," said Sidney Smith, "but the Archbishop +of Canterbury." "The lawyers," said Burke, "are only +birds of passage in this House of Commons," and then +added, with a new figure, "they have their best bower +anchor in the House of Lords."</p> +<p class="pnext">Another stride that has been taken, appears in the +perishing of heraldry. Whilst the privileges of nobility +are passing to the middle class, the badge is discredited, +and the titles of lordship are getting musty and +cumbersome. I wonder that sensible men have not been already +impatient of them. They belong, with wigs, powder, and +scarlet coats, to an earlier age, and may be advantageously +consigned, with paint and tattoo, to the dignitaries +of Australia and Polynesia.</p> +<p class="pnext">A multitude of English, educated at the universities, +bred into their society with manners, ability, and the +gifts of fortune, are every day confronting the peers on +a footing of equality, and outstripping them, as often, in +the race of honor and influence. That cultivated class is +large and ever enlarging. It is computed that, with titles +and without, there are seventy thousand of these people +coming and going in London, who make up what is +called high society. They cannot shut their eyes to the +fact that an untitled nobility possess all the power +without the inconveniences that belong to rank, and the rich +Englishman goes over the world at the present day, +drawing more than all the advantages which the strongest +of his kings could command.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xii-universities"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id65">CHAPTER XII.--UNIVERSITIES.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Of British universities, Cambridge has the most +illustrious names on its list. At the present day, too, it has +the advantage of Oxford, counting in its <em class="italics">alumni</em> a greater +number of distinguished scholars. I regret that I had +but a single day wherein to see King's College Chapel, +the beautiful lawns and gardens of the colleges, and a few +of its gownsmen.</p> +<p class="pnext">But I availed myself of some repeated invitations to +Oxford, where I had introductions to Dr. Daubeny, +Professor of Botany, and to the Regius Professor of Divinity, +as well as to a valued friend, a Fellow of Oriel, and went +thither on the last day of March, 1848. I was the guest +of my friend in Oriel, was housed close upon that college, +and I lived on college hospitalities.</p> +<p class="pnext">My new friends showed me their cloisters, the Bodleian +Library, the Randolph Gallery, Merton Hall, and the +rest. I saw several faithful, high-minded young men, +some of them in the mood of making sacrifices for peace +of mind,--a topic, of course, on which I had no +counsel to offer. Their affectionate and gregarious ways +reminded me at once of the habits of <em class="italics">our</em> Cambridge men, +though I imputed to these English an advantage in their +secure and polished manners. The halls are rich with +oaken wainscoting and ceiling. The pictures of the +founders hang from the walls; the tables glitter with +plate. A youth came forward to the upper table, and +pronounced the ancient form of grace before meals, +which, I suppose, has been in use here for ages, +<em class="italics">Benedictus benedicat; benedicitur, benedicatur</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a curious proof of the English use and wont, or +of their good-nature, that these young men are locked up +every night at nine o'clock, and the porter at each hall is +required to give the name of any belated student who is +admitted after that hour. Still more descriptive is the +fact, that out of twelve hundred young men, comprising +the most spirited of the aristocracy, a duel has never +occurred.</p> +<p class="pnext">Oxford is old, even in England, and conservative. Its +foundations date from Alfred, and even from Arthur, if, +as is alleged, the Pheryllt of the Druids had a seminary +here. In the reign of Edward I., it is pretended, here +were thirty thousand students; and nineteen most noble +foundations were then established. Chaucer found it as +firm as if it had always stood; and it is in British story, +rich with great names, the school of the island, and the +link of England to the learned of Europe. Hither came +Erasmus, with delight, in 1497. Albericus Gentilis, in +1580, was relieved and maintained by the university. +Albert Alaskie, a noble Polonian, Prince of Sirad, who +visited England to admire the wisdom of Queen Elizabeth, +was entertained with stage-plays in the Refectory +of Christ-church, in 1583. Isaac Casaubon, coming from +Henri Quatre of France, by invitation of James I., was +admitted to Christ's College, in July, 1613. I saw the +Ashmolean Museum, whither Elias Ashmole, in 1682, +sent twelve cart-loads of rarities. Here indeed was the +Olympia of all Antony Wood's and Aubrey's games and +heroes, and every inch of ground has its lustre. For +Wood's <em class="italics">Athenæ Oxonienses</em>, or calendar of the writers +of Oxford for two hundred years, is a lively record of +English manners and merits, and as much a national +monument as Purchas's Pilgrims or Hansard's Register. +On every side, Oxford is redolent of age and authority. +Its gates shut of themselves against modern innovation. +It is still governed by the statutes of Archbishop Laud. +The books in Merton Library are still chained to the +wall. Here, on August 27, 1660, John Milton's <em class="italics">Pro +Populo Anglicano Defensio</em> and <em class="italics">Iconoclastes</em> were +committed to the flames. I saw the school-court or quadrangle, +where, in 1683, the Convocation caused the Leviathan +of Thomas Hobbes to be publicly burnt. I do not know +whether this learned body have yet heard of the Declaration +of American Independence, or whether the Ptolemaic +astronomy does not still hold its ground against the +novelties of Copernicus.</p> +<p class="pnext">As many sons, almost so many benefactors. It is +usual for a nobleman, or indeed for almost every wealthy +student, on quitting college, to leave behind him some +article of plate; and gifts of all values, from a hall, or a +fellowship, or a library, down to a picture or a spoon, are +continually accruing, in the course of a century. My +friend Doctor J. gave me the following anecdote. In +Sir Thomas Lawrence's collection at London were the +cartoons of Raphael and Michel Angelo. This inestimable +prize was offered to Oxford University for seven +thousand pounds. The offer was accepted, and the +committee charged with the affair had collected three +thousand pounds, when among other friends they called on +Lord Eldon. Instead of a hundred pounds, he surprised +them by putting down his name for three thousand +pounds. They told him, they should now very easily +raise the remainder. "No," he said, "your men have +probably already contributed all they can spare; I can +as well give the rest": and he withdrew his check for +three thousand, and wrote four thousand pounds. I saw +the whole collection in April, 1848.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the Bodleian Library, Dr. Bandinel showed me the +manuscript Plato, of the date of A.D. 896, brought by +Dr. Clarke from Egypt; a manuscript Virgil, of the same +century; the first Bible printed at Mentz (I believe in +1450); and a duplicate of the same, which had been +deficient in about twenty leaves at the end. But, one day, +being in Venice, he bought a room full of books and +manuscripts--every scrap and fragment--for four +thousand louis d'ors, and had the doors locked and +sealed by the consul. On proceeding, afterwards, to +examine his purchase, he found the twenty deficient +pages of his Mentz Bible, in perfect order; brought +them to Oxford, with the rest of his purchase, and +placed them in the volume; but has too much awe for +the Providence that appears in bibliography also, to +suffer the reunited parts to be rebound. The oldest +building here is two hundred years younger than the frail +manuscript brought by Dr. Clarke from Egypt. No +candle or fire is ever lighted in the Bodleian. Its +catalogue is the standard catalogue on the desk of every +library in Oxford. In each several college, they +underscore in red ink on this catalogue the titles of books +contained in the library of that college,--the theory +being that the Bodleian has all books. This rich library +spent during the last year (1847) for the purchase of +books £1,668.</p> +<p class="pnext">The logical English train a scholar as they train an +engineer. Oxford is a Greek factory, as Wilton mills +weave carpet, and Sheffield grinds steel. They know the +use of a tutor, as they know the use of a horse; and they +draw the greatest amount of benefit out of both. The +reading-men are kept by hard walking, hard riding, and +measured eating and drinking, at the top of their +condition, and two days before the examination, do no work, +but lounge, ride, or run, to be fresh on the college +doomsday. Seven years' residence is the theoretic +period for a master's degree. In point of fact, it has +long been three years' residence, and four years more +of standing. This "three years" is about twenty-one +months in all.<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id35" id="id34"><sup>17</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">"The whole expense," says Professor Sewel, "of +ordinary college tuition at Oxford, is about sixteen guineas +a year." But this plausible statement may deceive a +reader unacquainted with the fact, that the principal +teaching relied on is private tuition. And the expenses +of private tuition are reckoned at from £50 to £70 a +year, or $1,000 for the whole course of three years and +a half. At Cambridge $750 a year is economical, and +$1,500 not extravagant.<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id37" id="id36"><sup>18</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">The number of students and of residents, the dignity +of the authorities, the value of the foundations, the +history and the architecture, the known sympathy of entire +Britain in what is done there, justify a dedication to +study in the undergraduate, such as cannot easily be in +America, where his college is half suspected by the +Freshman to be insignificant in the scale beside trade +and politics. Oxford is a little aristocracy in itself, +numerous and dignified enough to rank with other estates +in the realm; and where fame and secular promotion are +to be had for study, and in a direction which has the +unanimous respect of all cultivated nations.</p> +<p class="pnext">This aristocracy, of course, repairs its own losses; fills +places, as they fall vacant, from the body of students. +The number of fellowships at Oxford is 540, averaging +£200 a year, with lodging and diet at the college. If a +young American, loving learning, and hindered by +poverty, were offered a home, a table, the walks, and the +library, in one of these academical palaces, and a thousand +dollars a year as long as he chose to remain a bachelor, +he would dance for joy. Yet these young men thus +happily placed, and paid to read, are impatient of their few +checks, and many of them preparing to resign their fellowships. +They shuddered at the prospect of dying a Fellow, +and they pointed out to me a paralytic old man, who was +assisted into the hall. As the number of undergraduates +at Oxford is only about 1,200 or 1,300, and many of these +are never competitors, the chance of a fellowship is very +great. The income of the nineteen colleges is +conjectured at £150,000 a year.</p> +<p class="pnext">The effect of this drill is the radical knowledge of +Greek and Latin, and of mathematics, and the solidity +and taste of English criticism. Whatever luck there may +be in this or that award, an Eton captain can write Latin +longs and shorts, can turn the Court-Guide into +hexameters, and it is certain that a Senior Classic can quote +correctly from the <em class="italics">Corpus Poetarum</em>, and is critically +learned in all the humanities. Greek erudition exists on +the Isis and Cam, whether the Maud man or the Brazen +Nose man be properly ranked or not; the atmosphere is +loaded with Greek learning; the whole river has reached +a certain height, and kills all that growth of weeds, which +this Castalian water kills. The English nature takes +culture kindly. So Milton thought. It refines the +Norseman. Access to the Greek mind lifts his standard of +taste. He has enough to think of, and, unless of an +impulsive nature, is indisposed from writing or speaking, +by the fulness of his mind, and the new severity of his +taste. The great silent crowd of thorough-bred Grecians +always known to be around him, the English writer +cannot ignore. They prune his orations, and point his +pen. Hence, the style and tone of English journalism. +The men have learned accuracy and comprehension, +logic, and pace, or speed of working. They have +bottom, endurance, wind. When born with good constitutions, +they make those eupeptic studying-mills, the cast-iron +men, the <em class="italics">dura ilia</em>, whose powers of performance +compare with ours, as the steam-hammer with the +music-box;--Cokes, Mansfields, Seldens, and Bentleys, and +when it happens that a superior brain puts a rider on +this admirable horse, we obtain those masters of the +world who combine the highest energy in affairs, with +a supreme culture.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is contended by those who have been bred at Eton, +Harrow, Rugby, and Westminster, that the public +sentiment within each of those schools is high-toned and +manly; that, in their playgrounds, courage is universally +admired, meanness despised, manly feelings and +generous conduct are encouraged; that an unwritten code of +honor deals to the spoiled child of rank and to the child +of upstart wealth an even-handed justice, purges their +nonsense out of both, and does all that can be done to +make them gentlemen.</p> +<p class="pnext">Again, at the universities, it is urged, that all goes to +form what England values as the flower of its national +life,--a well-educated gentleman. The German Huber, +in describing to his countrymen the attributes of an +English gentleman, frankly admits, that "in Germany, +we have nothing of the kind. A gentleman must possess +a political character, an independent and public position, +or, at least, the right of assuming it. He must have +average opulence, either of his own, or in his family. +He should also have bodily activity and strength, +unattainable by our sedentary life in public offices. The race +of English gentlemen presents an appearance of manly +vigor and form, not elsewhere to be found among an equal +number of persons. No other nation produces the stock. +And in England, it has deteriorated. The university is +a decided presumption in any man's favor. And so +eminent are the members that a glance at the calendars will +show that in all the world one cannot be in better +company than on the books of one of the larger Oxford or +Cambridge colleges."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id39" id="id38"><sup>19</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">These seminaries are finishing schools for the upper +classes, and not for the poor. The useful is exploded. +The definition of a public school is "a school which +excludes all that could fit a man for standing behind a +counter."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id41" id="id40"><sup>20</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">No doubt, the foundations have been perverted. +Oxford, which equals in wealth several of the smaller +European states, shuts up the lectureships which were made +"public for all men thereunto to have concourse"; +misspends the revenues bestowed for such youths "as should +be most meet for towardness, poverty, and painfulness"; +there is gross favoritism; many chairs and many fellowships +are made beds of ease; and 'tis likely that the +university will know how to resist and make inoperative +the terrors of parliamentary inquiry; no doubt, their +learning is grown obsolete; but Oxford also has its +merits, and I found here also proof of the national fidelity +and thoroughness. Such knowledge as they prize they +possess and impart. Whether in course or by indirection, +whether by a cramming tutor or by examiners with +prizes and foundation scholarships, education according to +the English notion of it is acquired. I looked over the +Examination Papers of the year 1848, for the various +scholarships and fellowships, the Lusby, the Hertford, +the Dean-Ireland, and the University (copies of which +were kindly given me by a Greek professor), containing +the tasks which many competitors had victoriously +performed, and I believed they would prove too severe tests +for the candidates for a Bachelor's degree in Yale or +Harvard. And, in general, here was proof of a more +searching study in the appointed directions, and the +knowledge pretended to be conveyed was conveyed. +Oxford sends out yearly twenty or thirty very able +men, and three or four hundred well-educated men.</p> +<p class="pnext">The diet and rough exercise secure a certain amount +of old Norse power. A fop will fight, and, in exigent +circumstances, will play the manly part. In seeing these +youths, I believed I saw already an advantage in vigor +and color and general habit, over their contemporaries in +the American colleges. No doubt much of the power +and brilliancy of the reading-men is merely constitutional +or hygienic. With a hardier habit and resolute gymnastics, +with five miles more walking, or five ounces less +eating, or with a saddle and gallop of twenty miles a day, +with skating and rowing matches, the American would +arrive at as robust exegesis, and cheery and hilarious +tone. I should readily concede these advantages, which +it would be easy to acquire, if I did not find also that +they read better than we, and write better.</p> +<p class="pnext">English wealth falling on their school and university +training, makes a systematic reading of the best authors, +and to the end of a knowledge how the things whereof +they treat really stand: whilst pamphleteer or journalist +reading for an argument for a party, or reading to write, +or, at all events, for some by end imposed on them, must +read meanly and fragmentarily. Charles I. said, that he +understood English law as well as a gentleman ought to +understand it.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then they have access to books; the rich libraries +collected at every one of many thousands of houses, give +an advantage not to be attained by a youth in this +country, when one thinks how much more and better may be +learned by a scholar, who, immediately on hearing of +a book, can consult it, than by one who is on the quest +for years, and reads inferior books, because he cannot +find the best.</p> +<p class="pnext">Again, the great number of cultivated men keep each +other up to a high standard. The habit of meeting +well-read and knowing men teaches the art of omission and +selection.</p> +<p class="pnext">Universities are, of course, hostile to geniuses, which +seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the +routine: as churches and monasteries persecute youthful +saints. Yet we all send our sons to college, and, though +he be a genius, he must take his chance. The university +must be retrospective. The gale that gives direction to +the vanes on all its towers blows out of antiquity. +Oxford is a library, and the professors must be librarians. +And I should as soon think of quarrelling with the +janitor for not magnifying his office by hostile sallies into +the street, like the Governor of Kertch or Kinburn, as +of quarrelling with the professors for not admiring the +young neologists who pluck the beards of Euclid and +Aristotle, or for not attempting themselves to fill their +vacant shelves as original writers.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is easy to carp at colleges, and the college, if we +will wait for it, will have its own turn. Genius exists +there also, but will not answer a call of a committee of +the House of Commons. It is rare, precarious, eccentric, +and darkling. England is the land of mixture and +surprise, and when you have settled it that the +universities are moribund, out comes a poetic influence from +the heart of Oxford, to mould the opinions of cities, to +build their houses as simply as birds their nests, to give +veracity to art, and charm mankind, as an appeal to +moral order always must. But besides this restorative +genius, the best poetry of England of this age, in the +old forms, comes from two graduates of Cambridge.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xiii-religion"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id66">CHAPTER XIII.--RELIGION.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">No people, at the present day, can be explained by +their national religion. They do not feel responsible for +it; it lies far outside of them. Their loyalty to truth +and their labor and expenditure rest on real foundations, +and not on a national church. And English life, it is +evident, does not grow out of the Athanasian creed, or +the Articles, or the Eucharist. It is with religion as +with marriage. A youth marries in haste; afterwards, +when his mind is opened to the reason of the conduct of +life, he is asked, what he thinks of the institution of +marriage, and of the right relations of the sexes. 'I should +have much to say,' he might reply, 'if the question were +open, but I have a wife and children, and all question is +closed for me.' In the barbarous days of a nation, some +cultus is formed or imported; altars are built, tithes are +paid, priests ordained. The education and expenditure +of the country take that direction, and when wealth, +refinement, great men, and ties to the world supervene, its +prudent men say, why fight against Fate, or lift these +absurdities which are now mountainous? Better find +some niche or crevice in this mountain of stone which +religious ages have quarried and carved, wherein to +bestow yourself, than attempt anything ridiculously and +dangerously above your strength, like removing it.</p> +<p class="pnext">In seeing old castles and cathedrals, I sometimes say, +as to-day, in front of Dundee Church tower, which is +eight hundred years old, 'this was built by another and +a better race than any that now look on it.' And, plainly, +there has been great power of sentiment at work in this +island, of which these buildings are the proofs: as +volcanic basalts show the work of fire which has been +extinguished for ages. England felt the full heat of the +Christianity which fermented Europe, and drew, like the +chemistry of fire, a firm line between barbarism and +culture. The power of the religious sentiment put an end +to human sacrifices, checked appetite, inspired the +crusades, inspired resistance to tyrants, inspired self-respect, +set bounds to serfdom and slavery, founded liberty, +created the religious architecture,--York, Newstead, +Westminster, Fountains Abbey, Ripon, Beverley, and +Dundee,--works to which the key is lost, with the +sentiment which created them; inspired the English Bible, +the liturgy, the monkish histories, the chronicle of +Richard of Devizes. The priest translated the Vulgate, and +translated the sanctities of old hagiology into English +virtues on English ground. It was a certain affirmative +or aggressive state of the Caucasian races. Man awoke +refreshed by the sleep of ages. The violence of the +Northern savages exasperated Christianity into power. +It lived by the love of the people. Bishop Wilfrid +manumitted two hundred and fifty serfs, whom he found +attached to the soil. The clergy obtained respite from +labor for the boor on the Sabbath, and on church +festivals. "The lord who compelled his boor to labor +between sunset on Saturday and sunset on Sunday, forfeited +him altogether." The priest came out of the people, and +sympathized with his class. The church was the mediator, +check, and democratic principle in Europe. Latimer, +Wicliffe, Arundel, Cobham, Antony Parsons, Sir Harry +Vane, George Fox, Penn, Bunyan, are the democrats, as +well as the saints of their times. The Catholic Church, +thrown on this toiling, serious people, has made in +fourteen centuries a massive system, close fitted to the +manners and genius of the country, at once domestical and +stately. In the long time, it has blended with +everything in heaven above and the earth beneath. It moves +through a zodiac of feasts and fasts, names every day of +the year, every town and market and headland and +monument, and has coupled itself with the almanac, that no +court can be held, no field ploughed, no horse shod, +without some leave from the church. All maxims of +prudence or shop or farm are fixed and dated by the church. +Hence, its strength in the agricultural districts. The +distribution of land into parishes enforces a church +sanction to every civil privilege; and the gradation of the +clergy,--prelates for the rich, and curates for the +poor,--with the fact that a classical education has been +secured to the clergyman, makes them "the link which +unites the sequestered peasantry with the intellectual +advancement of the age."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id43" id="id42"><sup>21</sup></a></p> +<p class="pnext">The English Church has many certificates to show, of +humble effective service in humanizing the people, in +cheering and refining men, feeding, healing, and +educating. It has the seal of martyrs and confessors; the +noblest books; a sublime architecture; a ritual marked +by the same secular merits, nothing cheap or purchasable.</p> +<p class="pnext">From this slow-grown church important reactions +proceed; much for culture, much for giving a direction to +the nation's affection and will to-day. The carved and +pictured chapel--its entire surface animated with image +and emblem--made the parish-church a sort of book +and Bible to the people's eye.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, when the Saxon instinct had secured a service +in the vernacular tongue, it was the tutor and university +of the people. In York minster, on the day of the +enthronization of the new archbishop, I heard the +service of evening prayer read and chanted in the choir. +It was strange to hear the pretty pastoral of the betrothal +of Rebecca and Isaac, in the morning of the world, read +with circumstantiality in York minster, on the 13th +January, 1848, to the decorous English audience, just fresh +from the Times newspaper and their wine; and listening +with all the devotion of national pride. That was +binding old and new to some purpose. The reverence for +the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has +the history of the world, been preserved, and is +preserved. Here in England every day a chapter of +Genesis, and a leader in the Times.</p> +<p class="pnext">Another part of the same service on this occasion was +not insignificant. Handel's coronation anthem, <em class="italics">God save +the King</em>, was played by Dr. Camidge on the organ, with +sublime effect. The minster and the music were made +for each other. It was a hint of the part the church +plays as a political engine. From his infancy, every +Englishman is accustomed to hear daily prayers for the +queen, for the royal family, and the Parliament, by name; +and this lifelong consecration of these personages cannot +be without influence on his opinions.</p> +<p class="pnext">The universities, also, are parcel of the ecclesiastical +system, and their first design is to form the clergy. Thus +the clergy for a thousand years have been the scholars of +the nation.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The national temperament deeply enjoys the unbroken +order and tradition of its church; the liturgy, ceremony, +architecture; the sober grace, the good company, the +connection with the throne, and with history, which +adorn it. And whilst it endears itself thus to men of +more taste than activity, the stability of the English +nation is passionately enlisted to its support, from its +inextricable connection with the cause of public order, +with politics, and with the funds.</p> +<p class="pnext">Good churches are not built by bad men; at least +there must be probity and enthusiasm somewhere in +society. These minsters were neither built nor filled by +atheists. No church has had more learned, industrious, +or devoted men; plenty of "clerks and bishops, who, +out of their gowns, would turn their backs on no man."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id45" id="id44"><sup>22</sup></a> +Their architecture still glows with faith in immortality. +Heats and genial periods arrive in history, or, shall we +say, plenitudes of Divine Presence, by which high tides +are caused in the human spirit, and great virtues and +talents appear, as in the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and +again in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when +the nation was full of genius and piety.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the age of the Wicliffes, Cobhams, Arundels, +Beckets; of the Latimers, Mores, Cranmers; of the Taylors, +Leightons, Herberts; of the Sherlocks, and Butlers, is +gone. Silent revolutions in opinion have made it +impossible that men like these should return or find a place in +their once sacred stalls. The spirit that dwelt in this +church has glided away to animate other activities; and +they who come to the old shrines find apes and players +rustling the old garments.</p> +<p class="pnext">The religion of England is part of good breeding. +When you see on the Continent the well-dressed Englishman +come into his ambassador's chapel, and put his face +for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed hat, one cannot +help feeling how much national pride prays with him, +and the religion of a gentleman. So far is he from +attaching any meaning to the words, that he believes +himself to have done almost the generous thing, and that +it is very condescending in him to pray to God. A great +duke said on the occasion of a victory, in the House of +Lords, that he thought the Almighty God had not been +well used by them, and that it would become their +magnanimity, after so great successes, to take order that a +proper acknowledgment be made. It is the church of +the gentry; but it is not the church of the poor. The +operatives do not own it, and gentlemen lately testified +in the House of Commons that in their lives they never +saw a poor man in a ragged coat inside a church.</p> +<p class="pnext">The torpidity on the side of religion of the vigorous +English understanding shows how much wit and folly +can agree in one brain. Their religion is a quotation; +their church is a doll; and any examination is interdicted +with screams of terror. In good company, you expect +them to laugh at the fanaticism of the vulgar; but they +do not; they are the vulgar.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English, in common perhaps with Christendom in +the nineteenth century, do not respect power, but only +performance; value ideas only for an economic result. +Wellington esteems a saint only as far as he can be an +army chaplain: "Mr. Briscoll, by his admirable conduct +and good sense, got the better of Methodism, which had +appeared among the soldiers, and once among the +officers." They value a philosopher as they value an +apothecary who brings bark or a drench; and inspiration is only +some blowpipe, or a finer mechanical aid.</p> +<p class="pnext">I suspect that there is in an Englishman's brain a valve +that can be closed at pleasure, as an engineer shuts off +steam. The most sensible and well-informed men possess +the power of thinking just so far as the bishop in +religious matters, and as the chancellor of the exchequer in +politics. They talk with courage and logic, and show +you magnificent results; but the same men who have +brought free-trade or geology to their present standing, +look grave and lofty, and shut down their valve, as soon +as the conversation approaches the English Church. +After that, you talk with a box-turtle.</p> +<p class="pnext">The action of the university, both in what is taught, and +in the spirit of the place, is directed more on producing +an English gentleman, than a saint or a psychologist. It +ripens a bishop, and extrudes a philosopher. I do not +know that there is more cabalism in the Anglican, than +in other churches, but the Anglican clergy are identified +with the aristocracy. They say, here, that, if you talk +with a clergyman, you are sure to find him well bred, +informed, and candid, he entertains your thought or +your project with sympathy and praise. But if a second +clergyman come in, the sympathy is at an end: two +together are inaccessible to your thought, and, whenever it +comes to action, the clergyman invariably sides with his +church.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Anglican church is marked by the grace and good +sense of its forms, by the manly grace of its clergy. The +gospel it preaches is, 'By taste are ye saved.' It keeps +the old structures in repair, spends a world of money in +music and building; and in buying Pugin, and architectural +literature. It has a general good name for amenity +and mildness. It is not in ordinary a persecuting church; +it is not inquisitorial, not even inquisitive, is perfectly +well bred, and can shut its eyes on all proper occasions. +If you let it alone, it will let you alone. But its instinct +is hostile to all change in politics, literature, or social +arts. The church has not been the founder of the +London University, of the Mechanics' Institutes, of the Free +School, or whatever aims at diffusion of knowledge. The +Platonists of Oxford are as bitter against this heresy, as +Thomas Taylor.</p> +<p class="pnext">The doctrine of the Old Testament is the religion of +England. The first leaf of the New Testament it does +not open. It believes in a Providence which does not +treat with levity a pound sterling. They are neither +transcendentalists nor Christians. They put up no +Socratic prayer, much less any saintly prayer for the queen's +mind; ask neither for light nor right, but say bluntly, +"Grant her in health and wealth long to live." And +one traces this Jewish prayer in all English private +history, from the prayers of King Richard, in Richard of +Devizes' Chronicle, to those in the diaries of Sir Samuel +Romilly, and of Haydon the painter. "Abroad with my +wife," writes Pepys piously, "the first time that ever I +rode in my own coach; which do make my heart rejoice +and praise God, and pray him to bless it to me, and +continue it." The bill for the naturalization of the Jews (in +1753) was resisted by petitions from all parts of the +kingdom, and by petition from the city of London, reprobating +this bill, as "tending extremely to the dishonor of +the Christian religion, and extremely injurious to the +interests and commerce of the kingdom in general, and of +the city of London in particular."</p> +<p class="pnext">But they have not been able to congeal humanity by +act of Parliament. "The heavens journey still and +sojourn not," and arts, wars, discoveries, and opinion go +onward at their own pace. The new age has new +desires, new enemies, new trades, new charities, and reads +the Scriptures with new eyes. The chatter of French +politics, the steam-whistle, the hum of the mill, and the +noise of embarking emigrants, had quite put most of +the old legends out of mind; so that when you came to +read the liturgy to a modern congregation, it was almost +absurd in its unfitness, and suggested a masquerade of +old costumes.</p> +<p class="pnext">No chemist has prospered in the attempt to crystallize +a religion. It is endogenous, like the skin, and other +vital organs. A new statement every day. The prophet +and apostle knew this, and the non-conformist confutes +the conformists, by quoting the texts they must allow. +It is the condition of a religion, to require religion for +its expositor. Prophet and apostle can only be rightly +understood by prophet and apostle. The statesman +knows that the religious element will not fail, any more +than the supply of fibrine and chyle; but it is in its +nature constructive, and will organize such a church as +it wants. The wise legislator will spend on temples, +schools, libraries, colleges, but will shun the enriching of +priests. If, in any manner, he can leave the election and +paying of the priest to the people, he will do well. Like +the Quakers, he may resist the separation of a class of +priests, and create opportunity and expectation in the +society, to run to meet natural endowment, in this kind. +But, when wealth accrues to a chaplaincy, a bishopric, or +rectorship, it requires moneyed men for its stewards, who +will give it another direction than to the mystics of their +day. Of course, money will do after its kind, and will +steadily work to unspiritualize and unchurch the people +to whom it was bequeathed. The class certain to be +excluded from all preferment are the religious,--and +driven to other churches;--which is nature's <em class="italics">vis medicatrix</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">The curates are ill paid, and the prelates are overpaid. +This abuse draws into the church the children of the +nobility, and other unfit persons, who have a taste for +expense. Thus a bishop is only a surpliced merchant. +Through his lawn, I can see the bright buttons of the +shopman's coat glitter. A wealth like that of Durham +makes almost a premium on felony. Brougham, in a +speech in the House of Commons on the Irish elective +franchise, said, "How will the reverend bishops of the +other house be able to express their due abhorrence of +the crime of perjury, who solemnly declare in the +presence of God, that when they are called upon to accept a +living, perhaps of £4,000 a year, at that very instant, they +are moved by the Holy Ghost to accept the office and +administration thereof, and for no other reason +whatever?" The modes of initiation are more damaging +than custom-house oaths. The bishop is elected by the +Dean and Prebends of the cathedral. The Queen sends +these gentlemen a <em class="italics">congé d'élire</em>, or leave to elect; but +also sends them the name of the person whom they are +to elect. They go into the cathedral, chant and pray, +and beseech the Holy Ghost to assist them in their +choice; and, after these invocations, invariably find that +the dictates of the Holy Ghost agree with the +recommendations of the Queen.</p> +<p class="pnext">But you must pay for conformity. All goes well as +long as you run with conformists. But you, who are an +honest man in other particulars, know, that there is alive +somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point +also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the +day when you meet him, you sink into the class of +counterfeits. Besides, this succumbing has grave penalties. +If you take in a lie, you must take in all that belongs to +it. England accepts this ornamented national church, +and it glazes the eyes, bloats the flesh, gives the voice a +stertorous clang, and clouds the understanding of the +receivers.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English Church, undermined by German criticism, +had nothing left but tradition, and was led logically back +to Romanism. But that was an element which only hot +heads could breathe: in view of the educated class, +generally, it was not a fact to front the sun; and the +alienation of such men from the church became complete.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nature, to be sure, had her remedy. Religious +persons are driven out of the Established Church into sects, +which instantly rise to credit, and hold the Establishment +in check. Nature has sharper remedies, also. The +English, abhorring change in all things, abhorring it most in +matters of religion, cling to the last rag of form, and are +dreadfully given to cant. The English (and I wish it +were confined to them, but 't is a taint in the +Anglo-Saxon blood in both hemispheres), the English and the +Americans cant beyond all other nations. The French +relinquish all that industry to them. What is so odious +as the polite bows to God, in our books and newspapers? +The popular press is flagitious in the exact measure of its +sanctimony, and the religion of the day is a theatrical +Sinai, where the thunders are supplied by the property-man. +The fanaticism and hypocrisy create satire. Punch +finds an inexhaustible material. Dickens writes novels +on Exeter Hall humanity. Thackeray exposes the +heartless high life. Nature revenges herself more summarily +by the heathenism of the lower classes. Lord Shaftesbury +calls the poor thieves together, and reads sermons +to them, and they call it 'gas.' George Borrow +summons the Gypsies to hear his discourse on the Hebrews +in Egypt, and reads to them the Apostles' creed in +Romany. "When I had concluded," he says, "I looked +around me. The features of the assembly were twisted, +and the eyes of all turned upon me with a frightful +squint: not an individual present but squinted; the +genteel Pepa, the good-humored Chicharona, the Cosdami, +all squinted: the Gypsy jockey squinted worst of all."</p> +<p class="pnext">The church at this moment is much to be pitied. She +has nothing left but possession. If a bishop meets an +intelligent gentleman, and reads fatal interrogations in +his eyes, he has no resource but to take wine with him. +False position introduces cant, perjury, simony, and ever +a lower class of mind and character into the clergy; and, +when the hierarchy is afraid of science and education, +afraid of piety, afraid of tradition, and afraid of theology, +there is nothing left but to quit a church which is no +longer one.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the religion of England,--is it the Established +Church? no; is it the sects? no; they are only +perpetuations of some private man's dissent, and are to the +Established Church as cabs are to a coach, cheaper and +more convenient, but really the same thing. Where +dwells the religion? Tell me first where dwells +electricity, or motion, or thought, or gesture. They do not +dwell or stay at all. Electricity cannot be made fast, +mortared up and ended, like London Monument, or the +Tower, so that you shall know where to find it, and keep +it fixed, as the English do with their things, forevermore; +it is passing, glancing, gesticular; it is a traveller, a +newness, a surprise, a secret, which perplexes them, and +puts them out. Yet, if religion be the doing of all good, +and for its sake the suffering of all evil, <em class="italics">souffrir de tout le +monde et ne faire souffrir personne</em>, that divine secret has +existed in England from the days of Alfred to those of +Romilly, of Clarkson, and of Florence Nightingale, and in +thousands who have no fame.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xiv-literature"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id67">CHAPTER XIV.--LITERATURE.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">A strong common-sense, which it is not easy to unseat +or disturb, marks the English mind for a thousand years; +a rude strength newly applied to thought, as of sailors +and soldiers who had lately learned to read. They have +no fancy, and never are surprised into a covert or witty +word, such as pleased the Athenians and Italians, and +was convertible into a fable not long after; but they +delight in strong earthy expression, not mistakable, coarsely +true to the human body, and, though spoken among +princes, equally fit and welcome to the mob. This +homeliness, veracity, and plain style appear in the earliest +extant works, and in the latest. It imports into songs +and ballads the smell of the earth, the breath of cattle, +and, like a Dutch painter, seeks a household charm, +though by pails and pans. They ask their constitutional +utility in verse. The kail and herrings are never out of +sight. The poet nimbly recovers himself from every +sally of the imagination. The English muse loves the +farm-yard, the lane and market. She says, with De +Staël, "I tramp in the mire with wooden shoes, +whenever they would force me into the clouds." For, the +Englishman has accurate perceptions; takes hold of +things by the right end, and there is no slipperiness in +his grasp. He loves the axe, the spade, the oar, the +gun, the steam-pipe: he has built the engine he uses. +He is materialist, economical, mercantile. He must be +treated with sincerity and reality, with muffins and not +the promise of muffins; and prefers his hot chop, with +perfect security and convenience in the eating of it, to +the chances of the amplest and Frenchiest bill of fare, +engraved on embossed paper. When he is intellectual, +and a poet or a philosopher, he carries the same hard +truth and the same keen machinery into the mental +sphere. His mind must stand on a fact. He will not +be baffled, or catch at clouds, but the mind must have +a symbol palpable and resisting. What he relishes in +Dante, is the vice-like tenacity with which he holds a +mental image before the eyes, as if it were a scutcheon +painted on a shield. Byron "liked something craggy +to break his mind upon." A taste for plain strong +speech, what is called a biblical style, marks the English. +It is in Alfred, and the Saxon Chronicle, and in the +Sagas of the Northmen. Latimer was homely. Hobbes +was perfect in the "noble vulgar speech." Donne, +Bunyan, Milton, Taylor, Evelyn, Pepys, Hooker, Cotton, +and the translators, wrote it. How realistic or materialistic +in treatment of his subject is Swift. He describes +his fictitious persons as if for the police. Defoe has no +insecurity or choice, Hudibras has the same hard +mentality,--keeping the truth at once to the senses, and to +the intellect.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is not less seen in poetry. Chaucer's hard painting +of his Canterbury pilgrims satisfies the senses. +Shakspeare, Spenser, and Milton, in their loftiest ascents, +have this national grip and exactitude of mind. This +mental materialism makes the value of English +transcendental genius; in these writers, and in Herbert, Henry +More, Donne, and Sir Thomas Browne. The Saxon +materialism and narrowness, exalted into the sphere of +intellect, makes the very genius of Shakspeare and +Milton. When it reaches the pure element, it treads the +clouds as securely as the adamant. Even in its elevations, +materialistic, its poetry is common-sense inspired; +or iron raised to white heat.</p> +<p class="pnext">The marriage of the two qualities is in their speech. +It is a tacit rule of the language to make the frame or +skeleton of Saxon words, and, when elevation or +ornament is sought, to interweave Roman; but sparingly; +nor is a sentence made of Roman words alone, without +loss of strength. The children and laborers use the Saxon +unmixed. The Latin unmixed is abandoned to the +colleges and Parliament. Mixture is a secret of the +English island; and, in their dialect, the male principle is +the Saxon; the female, the Latin; and they are +combined in every discourse. A good writer, if he has +indulged in a Roman roundness, makes haste to chasten and +nerve his period by English monosyllables.</p> +<p class="pnext">When the Gothic nations came into Europe, they +found it lighted with the sun and moon of Hebrew and +of Greek genius. The tablets of their brain, long kept +in the dark, were finely sensible to the double glory. To +the images from this twin source (of Christianity and art), +the mind became fruitful as by the incubation of the Holy +Ghost. The English mind flowered in every faculty. +The common-sense was surprised and inspired. For two +centuries, England was philosophic, religious, poetic. +The mental furniture seemed of larger scale; the memory +capacious like the storehouse of the rains. The ardor and +endurance of study; the boldness and facility of their +mental construction; their fancy, and imagination, and +easy spanning of vast distances of thought; the +enterprise or accosting of new subjects; and, generally, the +easy exertion of power, astonish, like the legendary feats +of Guy of Warwick. The union of Saxon precision and +Oriental soaring, of which Shakspeare is the perfect +example, is shared in less degree by the writers of two +centuries. I find not only the great masters out of all +rivalry and reach, but the whole writing of the time +charged with a masculine force and freedom.</p> +<p class="pnext">There is a hygienic simpleness, rough vigor, and +closeness to the matter in hand, even in the second and third +class of writers; and, I think, in the common style of +the people, as one finds it in the citation of wills, letters, +and public documents, in proverbs, and forms of speech. +The more hearty and sturdy expression may indicate +that the savageness of the Norseman was not all gone. +Their dynamic brains hurled off their words, as the revolving +stone hurls off scraps of grit. I could cite from the +seventeenth century sentences and phrases of edge not to +be matched in the nineteenth. Their poets by simple +force of mind equalized themselves with the accumulated +science of ours. The country gentlemen had a posset or +drink they called October; and the poets, as if by this +hint, knew how to distil the whole season into their +autumnal verses: and, as nature, to pique the more, +sometimes works up deformities into beauty, in some rare +Aspasia, or Cleopatra; and, as the Greek art wrought +many a vase or column, in which too long, or too lithe, +or nodes, or pits and flaws, are made a beauty of; so +these were so quick and vital, that they could charm and +enrich by mean and vulgar objects.</p> +<p class="pnext">A man must think that age well taught and thoughtful, +by which masques and poems, like those of Ben +Jonson, full of heroic sentiment in a manly style, were +received with favor. The unique fact in literary history, +the unsurprised reception of Shakspeare,--the reception +proved by his making his fortune; and the apathy +proved by the absence of all contemporary panegyric,--seems +to demonstrate an elevation in the mind of the +people. Judge of the splendor of a nation, by the +insignificance of great individuals in it. The manner in which +they learned Greek and Latin, before our modern +facilities were yet ready, without dictionaries, grammars, or +indexes, by lectures of a professor, followed by their own +searchings,--required a more robust memory, and +cooperation of all the faculties; and their scholars, +Camden, Usher, Selden, Mede, Gataker, Hooker, Taylor, +Burton, Bentley, Brian Walton, acquired the solidity +and method of engineers.</p> +<p class="pnext">The influence of Plato tinges the British genius. +Their minds loved analogy; were cognizant of resemblances, +and climbers on the staircase of unity. 'T is a +very old strife between those who elect to see identity, +and those who elect to see discrepancies; and it renews +itself in Britain. The poets, of course, are of one part; +the men of the world, of the other. But Britain had +many disciples of Plato,--More, Hooker, Bacon, Sidney, +Lord Brooke, Herbert, Browne, Donne, Spenser, +Chapman, Milton, Crashaw, Norris, Cudworth, Berkeley, +Jeremy Taylor.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lord Bacon has the English duality. His centuries +of observations, on useful science, and his experiments, +I suppose, were worth nothing. One hint of Franklin, +or Watt, or Dalton, or Davy, or any one who had a +talent for experiment, was worth all his lifetime of +exquisite trifles. But he drinks of a diviner stream, and +marks the influx of idealism into England. Where that +goes, is poetry, health, and progress. The rules of its +genesis or its diffusion are not known. That knowledge, +if we had it, would supersede all we call science of the +mind. It seems an affair of race, or of +meta-chemistry;--the vital point being,--how far the sense of +unity, or instinct of seeking resemblances predominated. +For, wherever the mind takes a step, it is, to put itself at +one with a larger class, discerned beyond the lesser class +with which it has been conversant. Hence, all poetry, +and all affirmative action comes.</p> +<p class="pnext">Bacon, in the structure of his mind, held of the analogists, +of the idealists, or (as we popularly say, naming +from the best example) Platonists. Whoever discredits +analogy, and requires heaps of facts, before any theories +can be attempted, has no poetic power, and nothing +original or beautiful will be produced by him. Locke +is as surely the influx of decomposition and of prose, as +Bacon and the Platonists, of growth. The Platonic is +the poetic tendency; the so-called scientific is the +negative and poisonous. 'T is quite certain, that Spenser, +Burns, Byron, and Wordsworth will be Platonists; and +that the dull men will be Lockists. Then politics and +commerce will absorb from the educated class men of +talents without genius, precisely because such have no +resistance.</p> +<p class="pnext">Bacon, capable of ideas, yet devoted to ends, required +in his map of the mind, first of all, universality, or <em class="italics">prima +philosophia</em>, the receptacle for all such profitable +observations and axioms as fall not within the compass of any +of the special parts of philosophy, but are more common, +and of a higher stage. He held this element essential: +it is never out of mind: he never spares rebukes for +such as neglect it; believing that no perfect discovery +can be made in a flat or level, but you must ascend to a +higher science. "If any man thinketh philosophy and +universality to be idle studies, he does not consider that +all professions are from thence served and supplied; and +this I take to be a great cause that has hindered the +progression of learning, because these fundamental +knowledges have been studied but in passage." He explained +himself by giving various quaint examples of the +summary or common laws, of which each science has its own +illustration. He complains, that "he finds this part of +learning very deficient, the profounder sort of wits +drawing a bucket now and then for their own use, but the +spring-head unvisited. This was the <em class="italics">dry light</em> which did +scorch and offend most men's watery natures." Plato had +signified the same sense, when he said: "All the great +arts require a subtle and speculative research into the +law of nature, since loftiness of thought and perfect +mastery over every subject seem to be derived from +some such source as this. This Pericles had, in +addition to a great natural genius. For, meeting with +Anaxagoras, who was a person of this kind, he attached +himself to him, and nourished himself with sublime +speculations on the absolute intelligence; and imported thence +into the oratorical art whatever could be useful to it."</p> +<p class="pnext">A few generalizations always circulate in the world, +whose authors we do not rightly know, which astonish, +and appear to be avenues to vast kingdoms of thought, +and these are in the world <em class="italics">constants</em>, like the Copernican +and Newtonian theories in physics. In England, these +may be traced usually to Shakspeare, Bacon, Milton, or +Hooker, even to Van Helmont and Behmen, and do all +have a kind of filial retrospect to Plato and the Greeks. +Of this kind is Lord Bacon's sentence, that "Nature is +commanded by obeying her"; his doctrine of poetry, +which "accommodates the shows of things to the desires +of the mind"; or the Zoroastrian definition of poetry, +mystical, yet exact, "apparent pictures of unapparent +natures"; Spenser's creed, that "soul is form, and doth +the body make"; the theory of Berkeley, that we have +no certain assurance of the existence of matter; Doctor +Samuel Clarke's argument for theism from the nature of +space and time; Harrington's political rule, that power +must rest on land,--a rule which requires to be liberally +interpreted; the theory of Swedenborg, so cosmically +applied by him, that the man makes his heaven and hell; +Hegel's study of civil history, as the conflict of ideas and +the victory of the deeper thought; the identity-philosophy +of Schelling, couched in the statement that "all +difference is quantitative." So the very announcement of the +theory of gravitation, of Kepler's three harmonic laws, +and even of Dalton's doctrine of definite proportions, +finds a sudden response in the mind, which remains a +superior evidence to empirical demonstrations. I cite +these generalizations, some of which are more recent, +merely to indicate a class. Not these particulars, but +the mental plane or the atmosphere from which they +emanate, was the home and element of the writers and +readers in what we loosely call the Elizabethan age (say +in literary history, the period from 1575 to 1625), yet +a period almost short enough to justify Ben Jonson's +remark on Lord Bacon: "About his time, and within +his view, were born all the wits that could honor a +nation, or help study."</p> +<p class="pnext">Such richness of genius had not existed more than once +before. These heights could not be maintained. As we +find stumps of vast trees in our exhausted soils, and have +received traditions of their ancient fertility to tillage, so +history reckons epochs in which the intellect of famed +races became effete. So it fared with English genius. +These heights were followed by a meanness, and a +descent of the mind into lower levels; the loss of wings; +no high speculation. Locke, to whom the meaning of +ideas was unknown, became the type of philosophy, and +his "understanding" the measure, in all nations, of the +English intellect. His countrymen forsook the lofty +sides of Parnassus, on which they had once walked with +echoing steps, and disused the studies once so beloved; +the powers of thought fell into neglect. The later +English want the faculty of Plato and Aristotle, of grouping +men in natural classes by an insight of general laws, so +deep, that the rule is deduced with equal precision from +few subjects or from one, as from multitudes of lives. +Shakspeare is supreme in that, as in all the great mental +energies. The German's generalize: the English cannot +interpret the German mind. German science +comprehends the English. The absence of the faculty in +England is shown by the timidity which accumulates +mountains of facts, as a bad general wants myriads of +men and miles of redoubts, to compensate the +inspirations of courage and conduct.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English shrink from a generalization. "They do +not look abroad into universality, or they draw only a +bucketful at the fountain of the First Philosophy for +their occasion, and do not go to the spring-head." Bacon, +who said this, is almost unique among his +countrymen in that faculty, at least among the prose-writers. +Milton, who was the stair or high table-land to let down +the English genius from the summits of Shakspeare, used +this privilege sometimes in poetry, more rarely in prose. +For a long interval afterwards, it is not found. Burke +was addicted to generalizing, but his was a shorter line; +as his thoughts have less depth, they have less compass. +Hume's abstractions are not deep or wise. He owes his +fame to one keen observation, that no copula had been +detected between any cause and effect, either in physics +or in thought; that the term cause and effect was loosely +or gratuitously applied to what we know only as consecutive, +not at all as causal. Dr. Johnson's written abstractions +have little value: the tone of feeling in them makes +their chief worth.</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Hallam, a learned and elegant scholar, has written +the history of European literature for three centuries,--a +performance of great ambition, inasmuch as a judgment +was to be attempted on every book. But his eye does +not reach to the ideal standards; the verdicts are all +dated from London: all new thought must be cast into +the old moulds. The expansive element which creates +literature is steadily denied. Plato is resisted, and his +school. Hallam is uniformly polite, but with deficient +sympathy; writes with resolute generosity, but is +unconscious of the deep worth which lies in the mystics, and +which often outvalues as a seed of power and a source of +revolution all the correct writers and shining reputations +of their day. He passes in silence, or dismisses with a +kind of contempt, the profounder masters: a lover of +ideas is not only uncongenial, but unintelligible. Hallam +inspires respect by his knowledge and fidelity, by his +manifest love of good books, and he lifts himself to own +better than almost any the greatness of Shakspeare, and +better than Johnson he appreciates Milton. But in +Hallam, or in the firmer intellectual nerve of Mackintosh, one +still finds the same type of English genius. It is wise +and rich, but it lives on its capital. It is retrospective. +How can it discern and hail the new forms that are +looming up on the horizon,--new and gigantic thoughts +which cannot dress themselves out of any old wardrobe +of the past?</p> +<p class="pnext">The essays, the fiction, and the poetry of the day have +the like municipal limits. Dickens, with preternatural +apprehension of the language of manners, and the varieties +of street life, with pathos and laughter, with patriotic +and still enlarging generosity, writes London tracts. He +is a painter of English details, like Hogarth; local and +temporary in his tints and style, and local in his aims. +Bulwer, an industrious writer, with occasional ability, is +distinguished for his reverence of intellect as a temporality, +and appeals to the worldly ambition of the student. +His romances tend to fan these low flames. Their +novelists despair of the heart. Thackeray finds that God has +made no allowance for the poor thing in his universe;--more +'s the pity, he thinks;--but 't is not for us to be +wiser: we must renounce ideals, and accept London.</p> +<p class="pnext">The brilliant Macaulay, who expresses the tone of the +English governing classes of the day, explicitly teaches, +that good means good to eat, good to wear, material +commodity; that the glory of modern philosophy is its +direction on "fruit"; to yield economical inventions; +and that its merit is to avoid ideas, and avoid morals. +He thinks it the distinctive merit of the Baconian +philosophy, in its triumph over the old Platonic, its +disentangling the intellect from theories of the all-Fair and +all-Good, and pinning it down to the making a better +sick-chair and a better wine-whey for an invalid;--this +not ironically, but in good faith;--that, "solid advantage," +as he calls it, meaning always sensual benefit, is +the only good. The eminent benefit of astronomy is the +better navigation it creates to enable the fruit-ships to +bring home their lemons and wine to the London grocer. +It was a curious result, in which the civility and religion +of England for a thousand years ends in denying morals, +and reducing the intellect to a saucepan. The critic +hides his scepticism under the English cant of practical. +To convince the reason, to touch the conscience, is +romantic pretension. The fine arts fall to the ground. +Beauty, except as luxurious commodity, does not exist. +It is very certain, I may say in passing, that if Lord +Bacon had been only the sensualist his critic pretends, +he would never have acquired the fame which now +entitles him to this patronage. It is because he had +imagination, the leisures of the spirit, and basked in an +element of contemplation out of all modern English +atmospheric gauges, that he is impressive to the +imaginations of men, and has become a potentate not to be +ignored. Sir David Brewster sees the high place of +Bacon, without finding Newton indebted to him, and +thinks it a mistake. Bacon occupies it by specific +gravity or levity, not by any feat he did, or by any tutoring +more or less of Newton, etc., but an effect of the same +cause which showed itself more pronounced afterwards +in Hooke, Boyle, and Halley.</p> +<p class="pnext">Coleridge, a catholic mind, with a hunger for ideas, +with eyes looking before and after to the highest bards +and sages, and who wrote and spoke the only high +criticism in his time, is one of those who save England +from the reproach of no longer possessing the capacity +to appreciate what rarest wit the island has yielded. +Yet the misfortune of his life, his vast attempts but most +inadequate performings, failing to accomplish any one +masterpiece, seems to mark the closing of an era. Even +in him, the traditional Englishman was too strong for +the philosopher, and he fell into <em class="italics">accommodations</em>: and, +as Burke had striven to idealize the English State, so +Coleridge 'narrowed his mind' in the attempt to reconcile +the Gothic rule and dogma of the Anglican Church, +with eternal ideas. But for Coleridge, and a lurking +taciturn minority, uttering itself in occasional criticism, +oftener in private discourse, one would say, that in +Germany and in America is the best mind in England +rightly respected. It is the surest sign of national decay, +when the Bramins can no longer read or understand the +Braminical philosophy.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the decomposition and asphyxia that followed all +this materialism, Carlyle was driven by his disgust at the +pettiness and the cant, into the preaching of Fate. In +comparison with all this rottenness, any check, any +cleansing, though by fire, seemed desirable and beautiful. +He saw little difference in the gladiators, or the "causes" +for which they combated; the one comfort was, that they +were all going speedily into the abyss together. And +his imagination, finding no nutriment in any creation, +avenged itself by celebrating the majestic beauty of the +laws of decay. The necessities of mental structure force +all minds into a few categories, and where impatience of +the tricks of men makes Nemesis amiable, and builds +altars to the negative Deity, the inevitable recoil is to +heroism or the gallantry of the private heart, which +decks its immolation with glory, in the unequal combat +of will against fate.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wilkinson, the editor of Swedenborg, the annotator of +Fourier, and the champion of Halmeman, has brought +to metaphysics and to physiology a native vigor, with a +catholic perception of relations, equal to the highest +attempts, and a rhetoric like the armory of the invincible +knights of old. There is in the action of his mind a long +Atlantic roll not known except in deepest waters, and +only lacking what ought to accompany such powers, a +manifest centrality. If his mind does not rest in immovable +biases, perhaps the orbit is larger, and the return is +not yet: but a master should inspire a confidence that +he will adhere to his convictions, and give his present +studies always the same high place.</p> +<p class="pnext">It would be easy to add exceptions to the limitary tone +of English thought, and much more easy to adduce +examples of excellence in particular veins; and if, going +out of the region of dogma, we pass into that of general +culture, there is no end to the graces and amenities, wit, +sensibility, and erudition, of the learned class. But the +artificial succor which marks all English performance, +appears in letters also: much of their æsthetic production +is antiquarian and manufactured, and literary +reputations have been achieved by forcible men, whose +relation to literature was purely accidental, but who +were driven by tastes and modes they found in vogue +into their several careers. So, at this moment, every +ambitious young man studies geology; so members of +Parliament are made, and churchmen.</p> +<p class="pnext">The bias of Englishmen to practical skill has reacted +on the national mind. They are incapable of an inutility, +and respect the five mechanic powers even in their song. +The voice of their modern muse has a slight hint of the +steam-whistle, and the poem is created as an ornament +and finish of their monarchy, and by no means as the +bird of a new morning which forgets the past world in +the full enjoyment of that which is forming. They are +with difficulty ideal; they are the most conditioned men, +as if, having the best conditions, they could not bring +themselves to forfeit them. Every one of them is a +thousand years old, and lives by his memory; and when +you say this, they accept it as praise.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nothing comes to the book-shops but politics, travels, +statistics, tabulation, and engineering, and even what is +called philosophy and letters is mechanical in its +structure, as if inspiration had ceased, as if no vast hope, no +religion, no song of joy, no wisdom, no analogy, existed +any more. The tone of colleges and of scholars and of +literary society has this mortal air. I seem to walk on +a marble floor, where nothing will grow. They exert +every variety of talent on a lower ground, and may be +said to live and act in a sub-mind. They have lost all +commanding views in literature, philosophy, and science. +A good Englishman shuts himself out of three fourths +of his mind, and confines himself to one fourth. He has +learning, good sense, power of labor, and logic: but a +faith in the laws of the mind like that of Archimedes; a +belief like that of Euler and Kepler, that experience must +follow and not lead the laws of the mind; a devotion to +the theory of politics, like that of Hooker, and Milton, +and Harrington, the modern English mind repudiates.</p> +<p class="pnext">I fear the same fault lies in their science, since they +have known how to make it repulsive, and bereave nature +of its charm;--though perhaps the complaint flies wider, +and the vice attaches to many more than to British +physicists. The eye of the naturalist must have a scope like +nature itself, a susceptibility to all impressions, alive to +the heart as well as to the logic of creation. But +English science puts humanity to the door. It wants the +connection which is the test of genius. The science is +false by not being poetic. It isolates the reptile or +mollusk it assumes to explain; whilst reptile or mollusk only +exists in system, in relation. The poet only sees it as an +inevitable step in the path of the Creator. But, in +England, one hermit finds this fact, and another finds that, +and lives and dies ignorant of its value. There are great +exceptions, of John Hunter, a man of ideas; perhaps of +Robert Brown, the botanist; and of Richard Owen, who +has imported into Britain the German homologies, and +enriched science with contributions of his own, adding +sometimes the divination of the old masters to the +unbroken power of labor in the English mind. But for the +most part, the natural science in England is out of its +loyal alliance with morals, and is as void of imagination +and free play of thought, as conveyancing. It stands in +strong contrast with the genius of the Germans, those +semi-Greeks, who love analogy, and, by means of their +height of view, preserve their enthusiasm, and think for +Europe.</p> +<p class="pnext">No hope, no sublime augury, cheers the student, no +secure striding from experiment onward to a foreseen law, +but only a casual dipping here and there, like diggers in +California "prospecting for a placer" that will pay. A +horizon of brass of the diameter of his umbrella shuts +down around his senses. Squalid contentment with +conventions, satire at the names of philosophy and religion, +parochial and shop-till politics, and idolatry of usage, +betray the ebb of life and spirit. As they trample on +nationalities to reproduce London and Londoners in +Europe and Asia, so they fear the hostility of ideas, of +poetry, of religion,--ghosts which they cannot lay; and, +having attempted to domesticate and dress the Blessed +Soul itself in English broadcloth and gaiters, they are +tormented with fear that herein lurks a force that will +sweep their system away. The artists say, "Nature puts +us out"; the scholars have become un-ideal. They parry +earnest speech with banter and levity; they laugh you +down, or they change the subject. "The fact is," say +they over their wine, "all that about liberty, and so forth, +is gone by; it won't do any longer." The practical and +comfortable oppress them with inexorable claims, and the +smallest fraction of power remains for heroism and poetry. +No poet dares murmur of beauty out of the precinct of +his rhymes. No priest dares hint at a Providence which +does not respect English utility. The island is a roaring +volcano of fate, of material values, of tariffs, and laws of +repression, glutted markets and low prices.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the absence of the highest aims, of the pure love of +knowledge, and the surrender to nature, there is the +suppression of the imagination, the priapism of the +senses and the understanding; we have the factitious +instead of the natural; tasteless expense, arts of comfort, +and the rewarding as an illustrious inventor whosoever +will contrive one impediment more to interpose between +the man and his objects.</p> +<p class="pnext">Thus poetry is degraded, and made ornamental. Pope +and his school wrote poetry fit to put round frosted +cake. What did Walter Scott write without stint? a +rhymed traveller's guide to Scotland. And the libraries +of verses they print have this Birmingham character. +How many volumes of well-bred metre we must jingle +through, before we can be filled, taught, renewed! We +want the miraculous; the beauty which we can manufacture +at no mill,--can give no account of; the beauty of +which Chaucer and Chapman had the secret. The poetry +of course is low and prosaic; only now and then, as in +Wordsworth, conscientious; or in Byron, passional; or +in Tennyson, factitious. But if I should count the poets +who have contributed to the Bible of existing England +sentences of guidance and consolation which are still +glowing and effective,--how few! Shall I find my +heavenly bread in the reigning poets? Where is great +design in modern English poetry? The English have +lost sight of the fact that poetry exists to speak the +spiritual law, and that no wealth of description or of +fancy is yet essentially new, and out of the limits of +prose, until this condition is reached. Therefore the +grave old poets, like the Greek artists, heeded their +designs, and less considered the finish. It was their +office to lead to the divine sources, out of which all this, +and much more, readily springs; and, if this religion is +in the poetry, it raises us to some purpose, and we can +well afford some staidness; or hardness, or want of +popular tune in the verses.</p> +<p class="pnext">The exceptional fact of the period is the genius of +Wordsworth. He had no master but nature and +solitude. "He wrote a poem," says Landor, "without the +aid of war." His verse is the voice of sanity in a +worldly and ambitious age. One regrets that his +temperament was not more liquid and musical. He has +written longer than he was inspired. But for the rest, +he has no competitor.</p> +<p class="pnext">Tennyson is endowed precisely in points where Wordsworth +wanted. There is no finer ear than Tennyson's, +nor more command of the keys of language. Color, like +the dawn, flows over the horizon from his pencil, in +waves so rich that we do not miss the central form. +Through all his refinements, too, he has reached the +public,--a certificate of good sense and general power, +since he who aspires to be the English poet must be as +large as London, not in the same kind as London, but in +his own kind. But he wants a subject, and climbs no +mount of vision to bring its secrets to the people. He +contents himself with describing the Englishman as he is, +and proposes no better. There are all degrees in poetry, +and we must be thankful for every beautiful talent. But +it is only a first success, when the ear is gained. The +best office of the best poets has been to show how low +and uninspired was their general style, and that only +once or twice they have struck the high chord.</p> +<p class="pnext">That expansiveness which is the essence of the poetic +element, they have not. It was no Oxonian, but Hafiz, +who said: "Let us be crowned with roses, let us drink +wine, and break up the tiresome old roof of heaven into +new forms." A stanza of the song of nature the +Oxonian has no ear for, and he does not value the salient +and curative influence of intellectual action, studious of +truth, without a by-end.</p> +<p class="pnext">By the law of contraries, I look for an irresistible taste +for Orientalism in Britain. For a self-conceited modish +life, made up of trifles, clinging to a corporeal civilization, +hating ideas, there is no remedy like the Oriental +largeness. That astonishes and disconcerts English +decorum. For once there is thunder it never heard, +light it never saw, and power which trifles with time +and space. I am not surprised, then, to find an +Englishman like Warren Hastings, who had been struck with +the grand style of thinking in the Indian writings, +deprecating the prejudices of his countrymen, while +offering them a translation of the Bhagvat. "Might I," he +says, "an unlettered man, venture to prescribe bounds +to the latitude of criticism, I should exclude, in +estimating the merit of such a production, all rules drawn from +the ancient or modern literature of Europe, all references +to such sentiments or manners as are become the +standards of propriety for opinion and action in our own +modes, and, equally, all appeals to our revealed tenets, +of religion and moral duty." [#] He goes on to bespeak +indulgence to "ornaments of fancy unsuited to our taste, +and passages elevated to a tract of sublimity into which +our habits of judgment will find it difficult to pursue them."</p> +<p class="pnext">[#] Preface to Wilkins's Translation of the Bhagvat Geeta.</p> +<p class="pnext">Meantime, I know that a retrieving power lies in the +English race, which seems to make any recoil possible; +in other words, there is at all times a minority of +profound minds existing in the nation, capable of appreciating +every soaring of intellect and every hint of tendency. +While the constructive talent seems dwarfed and superficial, +the criticism is often in the noblest tone, and suggests +the presence of the invisible gods. I can well +believe what I have often heard, that there are two +nations in England; but it is not the Poor and the Rich; +nor is it the Normans and Saxons; nor the Celt and the +Goth. These are each always becoming the other; for +Robert Owen does not exaggerate the power of circumstance. +But the two complexions, or two styles of mind,--the +perceptive class, and the practical finality class,--are +ever in counterpoise, interacting mutually; one, in +hopeless minorities; the other, in huge masses; one +studious, contemplative, experimenting; the other, the +ungrateful pupil, scornful of the source, whilst availing itself +of the knowledge for gain; these two nations, of genius +and of animal force, though the first consist of only a +dozen souls, and the second of twenty millions, forever +by their discord and their accord yield the power of the +English State.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xv-the-times"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id68">CHAPTER XV.--THE "TIMES."</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The power of the newspaper is familiar in America, +and in accordance with our political system. In +England, it stands in antagonism with the feudal institutions, +and it is all the more beneficent succor against the +secretive tendencies of a monarchy. The celebrated Lord +Somers "knew of no good law proposed and passed in +his time, to which the public papers had not directed his +attention." There is no corner and no night. A +relentless inquisition drags every secret to the day, turns the +glare of this solar microscope on every malfaisance, so +as to make the public a more terrible spy than any +foreigner; and no weakness can be taken advantage of by +an enemy, since the whole people are already forewarned. +Thus England rids herself of those incrustations which +have been the ruin of old states. Of course, this +inspection is feared. No antique privilege, no comfortable +monopoly, but sees surely that its days are counted; the +people are familiarized with the reason of reform, and, +one by one, take away every argument of the obstructives. +"So your Grace likes the comfort of reading the +newspapers," said Lord Mansfield to the Duke of +Northumberland; "mark my words; you and I shall not live to +see it, but this young gentleman (Lord Eldon) may, or +it may be a little later; but a little sooner or later, these +newspapers will most assuredly write the dukes of +Northumberland out of their titles and possessions, and the +country out of its king." The tendency in England +towards social and political institutions like those of +America, is inevitable, and the ability of its journals is +the driving force.</p> +<p class="pnext">England is full of manly, clever, well-bred men who +possess the talent of writing off-hand pungent +paragraphs, expressing with clearness and courage their +opinion on any person or performance. Valuable or not, it +is a skill that is rarely found, out of the English journals. +The English do this, as they write poetry, as they ride +and box, by being educated to it. Hundreds of clever +Praeds, and Freres, and Froudes, and Hoods, and Hooks, +and Maginns, and Mills, and Macaulays, make poems, or +short essays for a journal, as they make speeches in +Parliament and on the hustings, or, as they shoot and ride. +It is a quite accidental and arbitrary direction of their +general ability. Rude health and spirits, an Oxford +education, and the habits of society are implied, but not a +ray of genius. It comes of the crowded state of the +professions, the violent interest which all men take in +politics, the facility of experimenting in the journals, and +high pay.</p> +<p class="pnext">The most conspicuous result of this talent is the +"Times" newspaper. No power in England is more +felt, more feared, or more obeyed. What you read in +the morning in that journal, you shall hear in the +evening in all society. It has ears everywhere, and its +information is earliest, completest, and surest. It has risen, +year by year, and victory by victory, to its present +authority. I asked one of its old contributors, whether it +had once been abler than it is now. "Never," he said; +"these are its palmiest days." It has shown those +qualities which are dear to Englishmen, unflinching +adherence to its objects, prodigal intellectual ability, and a +towering assurance, backed by the perfect organization +in its printing-house, and its world-wide network of +correspondence and reports. It has its own history +and famous trophies. In 1820, it adopted the cause of +Queen Caroline, and carried it against the king. It +adopted a poor-law system, and almost alone lifted it +through. When Lord Brougham was in power, it +decided against him, and pulled him down. It declared +war against Ireland, and conquered it. It adopted the +League against the Corn Laws, and, when Cobden had +begun to despair, it announced his triumph. It +denounced and discredited the French Republic of 1848, +and checked every sympathy with it in England, until +it had enrolled 200,000 special constables to watch the +Chartists, and make them ridiculous on the 10th April. +It first denounced and then adopted the new French +Empire, and urged the French Alliance and its results. +It has entered into each municipal, literary, and social +question, almost with a controlling voice. It has done +bold and seasonable service in exposing frauds which +threatened the commercial community. Meantime, it +attacks its rivals by perfecting its printing machinery, +and will drive them out of circulation; for the only limit +to the circulation of the "Times" is the impossibility of +printing copies fast enough; since a daily paper can only +be new and seasonable for a few hours. It will kill all +but that paper which is diametrically in opposition; since +many papers, first and last, have lived by their attacks on +the leading journal.</p> +<p class="pnext">The late Mr. Walter was printer of the "Times," and +had gradually arranged the whole <em class="italics">materiel</em> of it in +perfect system. It is told, that when he demanded a small +share in the proprietary, and was refused, he said, "As +you please, gentlemen; and you may take away the +'Times' from this office when you will; I shall publish +the 'New Times' next Monday morning." The proprietors, +who had already complained that his charges for +printing were excessive, found that they were in his +power, and gave him whatever he wished.</p> +<p class="pnext">I went one day with a good friend to the "Times": +office, which was entered through a pretty garden-yard, +in Printing-House Square. We walked with some +circumspection, as if we were entering a powder-mill; but +the door was opened by a mild old woman, and, by dint +of some transmission of cards, we were at last conducted +into the parlor of Mr. Morris, a very gentle person, +with no hostile appearances. The statistics are now +quite out of date, but I remember he told us that the +daily printing was then 35,000 copies; that on the 1st +March, 1848, the greatest number ever printed,--54,000 +were issued; that, since February, the daily circulation +had increased by 8,000 copies. The old press they +were then using printed five or six thousand sheets per +hour; the new machine, for which they were then +building an engine, would print twelve thousand per hour. +Our entertainer confided us to a courteous assistant to +show us the establishment, in which, I think, they +employed a hundred and twenty men. I remember, I saw +the reporters' room, in which they redact their hasty +stenographs, but the editor's room, and who is in it, I +did not see, though I shared the curiosity of mankind +respecting it.</p> +<p class="pnext">The staff of the "Times" has always been made up +of able men. Old Walter, Sterling, Bacon, Barnes, +Alsiger, Horace Twiss, Jones Loyd, John Oxenford, +Mr. Mosely, Mr. Bailey, have contributed to its renown in +their special departments. But it has never wanted the +first pens for occasional assistance. Its private information +is inexplicable, and recalls the stories of Fouché's +police, whose omniscience made it believed that the +Empress Josephine must be in his pay. It has mercantile +and political correspondents in every foreign city; and its +expresses outrun the despatches of the government. One +hears anecdotes of the rise of its servants, as of the +functionaries of the India House. I was told of the dexterity +of one of its reporters, who, finding himself, on one +occasion, where the magistrates had strictly forbidden +reporters, put his hands into his coat-pocket, and with pencil +in one hand, and tablet in the other, did his work.</p> +<p class="pnext">The influence of this journal is a recognized power in +Europe, and, of course, none is more conscious of it +than its conductors. The tone of its articles has often +been the occasion of comment from the official organs of +the continental courts, and sometimes the ground of +diplomatic complaint. What would the "Times" say? is +a terror in Paris, in Berlin, in Vienna, in Copenhagen, +and in Nepaul. Its consummate discretion and success +exhibit the English skill of combination. The daily +paper is the work of many hands, chiefly, it is said, of +young men recently from the University, and perhaps +reading law in chambers in London. Hence the +academic elegance, and classic allusion, which adorn its +columns. Hence, too, the heat and gallantry of its onset. +But the steadiness of the aim suggests the belief that +this fire is directed and fed by older engineers; as if +persons of exact information, and with settled views of +policy, supplied the writers with the basis of fact, and +the object to be attained, and availed themselves of +their younger energy and eloquence to plead the cause. +Both the council and the executive departments gain by +this division. Of two men of equal ability, the one who +does not write, but keeps his eye on the course of public +affairs, will have the higher judicial wisdom. But the +parts are kept in concert; all the articles appear to +proceed from a single will. The "Times" never disapproves +of what itself has said, or cripples itself by apology for +the absence of the editor, or the indiscretion of him who +held the pen. It speaks out bluff and bold, and sticks +to what it says. It draws from any number of learned +and skilful contributors; but a more learned and skilful +person supervises, corrects, and co-ordinates. Of this +closet, the secret does not transpire. No writer is +suffered to claim the authorship of any paper; everything +good, from whatever quarter, comes out editorially; and +thus, by making the paper everything, and those who write +it nothing, the character and the awe of the journal gain.</p> +<p class="pnext">The English like it for its complete information. A +statement of fact in the "Times" is as reliable as a citation +from Hansard. Then, they like its independence; they +do not know, when they take it up, what their paper is +going to say; but, above all, for the nationality and +confidence of its tone. It thinks for them all; it is their +understanding and day's ideal daguerreotyped. When I +see them reading its columns, they seem to me becoming +every moment more British. It has the national courage, +not rash and petulant, but considerate and determined. +No dignity or wealth is a shield from its assault. It +attacks a duke as readily as a policeman, and with the +most provoking airs of condescension. It makes rude +work with the Board of Admiralty. The Bench of +Bishops is still less safe. One bishop fares badly for his +rapacity, and another for his bigotry, and a third for his +courtliness. It addresses occasionally a hint to majesty +itself, and sometimes a hint which is taken. There is an +air of freedom even in their advertising columns, which +speaks well for England to a foreigner. On the days +when I arrived in London in 1847, I read among the +daily announcements, one offering a reward of fifty +pounds to any person who would put a nobleman, +described by name and title, late a member of Parliament, +into any county jail in England, he having been +convicted of obtaining money under false pretences.</p> +<p class="pnext">Was never such arrogancy as the tone of this paper. +Every slip of an Oxonian or Cantabrigian who writes his +first leader assumes that we subdued the earth before we +sat down to write this particular "Times." One would +think the world was on its knees to the "Times" Office, +for its daily breakfast. But this arrogance is calculated. +Who would care for it, if it "surmised," or "dared to +confess," or "ventured to predict," etc.? No; <em class="italics">it is so</em>, +and so it shall be.</p> +<p class="pnext">The morality and patriotism of the "Times" claims +only to be representative, and by no means ideal. It +gives the argument, not of the majority, but of the +commanding class. Its editors know better than to defend +Russia, or Austria, or English vested rights, on abstract +grounds. But they give a voice to the class who, at the +moment, take the lead; and they have an instinct for +finding where the power now lies, which is eternally +shifting its banks. Sympathizing with, and speaking for +the class that rules the hour, yet, being apprised of every +ground-swell, every Chartist resolution, every Church +squabble, every strike in the mills, they detect the first +tremblings of change. They watch the hard and bitter +struggles of the authors of each liberal movement, year +by year,--watching them only to taunt and obstruct +them,--until, at last, when they see that these have +established their fact, that power is on the point of +passing to them, they strike in, with the voice of a monarch, +astonish those whom they succor, as much as those whom +they desert, and make victory sure. Of course, the +aspirants see that the "Times" is one of the goods of +fortune, not to be won but by winning their cause.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Punch" is equally an expression of English good +sense, as the "London Times." It is the comic version +of the same sense. Many of its caricatures are equal to +the best pamphlets, and will convey to the eye in an +instant the popular view which was taken of each turn of +public affairs. Its sketches are usually made by +masterly hands, and sometimes with genius; the delight of +every class, because uniformly guided by that taste +which is tyrannical in England. It is a new trait of the +nineteenth century, that the wit and humor of England, +as in Punch, so in the humorists, Jerrold, Dickens, +Thackeray, Hood, have taken the direction of humanity +and freedom.</p> +<p class="pnext">The "Times," like every important institution, shows +the way to a better. It is a living index of the colossal +British power. Its existence honors the people who +dare to print all they know, dare to know all the facts, +and do not wish to be flattered by hiding the extent of +the public disaster. There is always safety in valor. I +wish I could add, that this journal aspired to deserve the +power it wields, by guidance of the public sentiment to +the right. It is usually pretended, in Parliament and +elsewhere, that the English press has a high tone,--which +it has not. It has an imperial tone, as of a +powerful and independent nation. But as with other +empires, its tone is prone to be official, and even officinal. +The "Times" shares all the limitations of the governing +classes, and wishes never to be in a minority. If only it +dared to cleave to the right, to show the right to be the +only expedient, and feed its batteries from the central +heart of humanity, it might not have so many men of +rank among its contributors, but genius would be its +cordial and invincible ally; it might now and then bear the +brunt of formidable combinations, but no journal is ruined +by wise courage. It would be the natural leader of +British reform; its proud function, that of being the voice of +Europe, the defender of the exile and patriot against +despots, would be more effectually discharged; it would +have the authority which is claimed for that dream of +good men not yet come to pass, an International +Congress; and the least of its victories would be to give to +England a new millennium of beneficent power.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xvi-stonehenge"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id69">CHAPTER XVI.--STONEHENGE.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">It had been agreed between my friend Mr. C. and +me, that before I left England we should make an +excursion together to Stonehenge, which neither of us had +seen; and the project pleased my fancy with the double +attraction of the monument and the companion. It +seemed a bringing together of extreme points, to visit +the oldest religious monument in Britain in company +with her latest thinker, and one whose influence may be +traced in every contemporary book. I was glad to sum +up a little my experiences, and to exchange a few +reasonable words on the aspects of England, with a man on +whose genius I set a very high value, and who had as +much penetration, and as severe a theory of duty as any +person in it. On Friday, 7th July, we took the +South-western Railway through Hampshire to Salisbury, where +we found a carriage to convey us to Amesbury. The +fine weather and my friend's local knowledge of +Hampshire, in which he is wont to spend a part of every +summer, made the way short. There was much to say, +too, of the travelling Americans, and their usual objects +in London. I thought it natural that they should give +some time to works of art collected here, which they +cannot find at home, and a little to scientific clubs and +museums, which, at this moment, make London very +attractive. But my philosopher was not contented. +Art and 'high art' is a favorite target for his wit. +"Yes, <em class="italics">Kunst</em> is a great delusion, and Goethe and Schiller +wasted a great deal of good time on it":--and he thinks +he discovers that old Goethe found this out, and, in his +later writings, changed his tone. As soon as men begin +to talk of art, architecture, and antiquities, nothing good +comes of it. He wishes to go through the British +Museum in silence, and thinks a sincere man will see +something, and say nothing. In these days, he thought, it +would become an architect to consult only the grim +necessity, and say, 'I can build you a coffin for such dead +persons as you are, and for such dead purposes as you +have, but you shall have no ornament.' For the science, +he had, if possible, even less tolerance, and compared +the savans of Somerset House to the boy who asked +Confucius "how many stars in the sky?" Confucius +replied, "he minded things near him"; then said the +boy, "how many hairs are there in your eyebrows?" Confucius +said, "he didn't know and didn't care."</p> +<p class="pnext">Still speaking of the Americans, C. complained that +they dislike the coldness and exclusiveness of the +English, and run away to France, and go with their +countrymen, and are amused, instead of manfully staying in +London, and confronting Englishmen, and acquiring +their culture, who really have much to teach them.</p> +<p class="pnext">I told C. that I was easily dazzled, and was +accustomed to concede readily all that an Englishman would +ask; I saw everywhere in the country proofs of sense +and spirit, and success of every sort: I like the people: +they are as good as they are handsome; they have +everything, and can do everything: but meantime, I surely +know, that, as soon as I return to Massachusetts, I shall +lapse at once into the feeling, which the geography of +America inevitably inspires, that we play the game with +immense advantage; that there and not here is the seat +and centre of the British race; and that no skill or +activity can long compete with the prodigious natural +advantages of that country, in the hands of the same race; and +that England, an old and exhausted island, must one day +be contented, like other parents, to be strong only in her +children. But this was a proposition which no +Englishman of whatever condition can easily entertain.</p> +<p class="pnext">We left the train at Salisbury, and took a carriage +to Amesbury, passing by Old Sarum, a bare, treeless hill, +once containing the town which sent two members to +Parliament,--now, not a hut,--and, arriving at +Amesbury, stopped at the George Inn. After dinner, we +walked to Salisbury Plain. On the broad downs, under +the gray sky, not a house was visible, nothing but +Stonehenge, which looked like a group of brown dwarfs +in the wide expanse,--Stonehenge and the barrows, +which rose like green bosses about the plain, and a few +hay-ricks. On the top of a mountain, the old temple +would not be more impressive. Far and wide a few +shepherds with their flocks sprinkled the plain, and a +bagman drove along the road. It looked as if the wide +margin given in this crowded isle to this primeval temple +were accorded by the veneration of the British race to +the old egg out of which all their ecclesiastical structures +and history had proceeded. Stonehenge is a circular +colonnade with a diameter of a hundred feet, and +enclosing a second and a third colonnade within. We walked +round the stones, and clambered over them, to wont +ourselves with their strange aspect and groupings, and +found a nook sheltered from the wind among them, +where C. lighted his cigar. It was pleasant to see, that +just this simplest of all simple structures--two upright +stones and a lintel laid across--had long outstood all later +churches, and all history, and were like what is most +permanent on the face of the planet: these, and the +barrows,--mere mounds (of which there are a hundred and +sixty within a circle of three miles about Stonehenge), +like the same mound on the plain of Troy, which still +makes good to the passing mariner on Hellespont, the +vaunt of Homer and the fame of Achilles. Within the +enclosure grow buttercups, nettles, and, all around, wild +thyme, daisy, meadow-sweet, golden-rod, thistle, and the +carpeting grass. Over us, larks were soaring and +singing,--as my friend said: "the larks which were hatched +last year, and the wind which was hatched many +thousand years ago." We counted and measured by paces +the biggest stones, and soon knew as much as any man +can suddenly know of the inscrutable temple. There are +ninety-four stones, and there were once probably one +hundred and sixty. The temple is circular, and +uncovered, and the situation fixed astronomically;--the grand +entrances here, and at Abury, being placed exactly +north-east, "as all the gates of the old cavern temples are." How +came the stones here? for these <em class="italics">sarsens</em> or Druidical +sandstones are not found in this neighborhood. The +<em class="italics">sacrificial stone</em>, as it is called, is the only one in all these +blocks, that can resist the action of fire, and as I read in +the books, must have been brought one hundred and fifty +miles.</p> +<p class="pnext">On almost every stone we found the marks of the +mineralogist's hammer and chisel. The nineteen smaller +stones of the inner circle are of granite. I, who had +just come from Professor Sedgwick's Cambridge Museum +of megatheria and mastodons, was ready to maintain +that some cleverer elephants or mylodonta had borne off +and laid these rocks one on another. Only the good +beasts must have known how to cut a well-wrought tenon +and mortise, and to smooth the surface of some of the +stones. The chief mystery is, that any mystery should +have been allowed to settle on so remarkable a +monument, in a country on which all the muses have kept +their eyes now for eighteen hundred years. We are not +yet too late to learn much more than is known of this +structure. Some diligent Fellowes or Layard will arrive, +stone by stone, at the whole history, by that exhaustive +British sense and perseverance, so whimsical in its choice +of objects, which leaves its own Stonehenge or Choir +Gaur to the rabbits, whilst it opens pyramids, and +uncovers Nineveh. Stonehenge, in virtue of the simplicity of +its plan, and its good preservation, is as if new and +recent; and, a thousand years hence, men will thank +this age for the accurate history it will yet eliminate. +We walked in and out, and took again and again a fresh +look at the uncanny stones. The old sphinx put our +petty differences of nationality out of sight. To these +conscious stones we two pilgrims were alike known and +near. We could equally well revere their old British +meaning. My philosopher was subdued and gentle. In +this quiet house of destiny, he happened to say, "I +plant cypresses wherever I go, and if I am in search of +pain, I cannot go wrong." The spot, the gray blocks, +and their rude order, which refuses to be disposed of, +suggested to him the flight of ages, and the succession +of religious. The old times of England impress C. much; +he reads little, he says, in these last years, but +"<em class="italics">Acta Sanctorum</em>," the fifty-three volumes of which are +in the "London Library." He finds all English history +therein. He can see, as he reads, the old saint of Iona +sitting there, and writing, a man to men. The <em class="italics">Acta +Sanctorum</em> show plainly that the men of those times +believed in God, and in the immortality of the soul, as +their abbeys and cathedrals testify: now, even the +puritanism is all gone. London is pagan. He fancied that +greater men had lived in England than any of her +writers; and, in fact, about the time when those writers +appeared, the last of these were already gone.</p> +<p class="pnext">We left the mound in the twilight, with the design to +return the next morning, and coming back two miles to +our inn, we were met by little showers, and late as it +was, men and women were out attempting to protect +their spread windrows. The grass grows rank and dark +in the showery England. At the inn, there was only +milk for one cup of tea. When we called for more, the +girl brought us three drops. My friend was annoyed +who stood for the credit of an English inn, and still +more, the next morning, by the dog-cart, sole procurable +vehicle, in which we were to be sent to Wilton. I +engaged the local antiquary, Mr. Brown, to go with us to +Stonehenge, on our way, and show us what he knew of +the "astronomical" and "sacrificial" stones. I stood +on the last, and he pointed to the upright, or rather, +inclined stone, called the "astronomical," and bade me +notice that its top ranged with the sky-line. "Yes." Very +well. Now, at the summer solstice, the sun rises +exactly over the top of that stone, and, at the Druidical +temple at Abury, there is also an astronomical stone, in +the same relative positions.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the silence of tradition, this one relation to science +becomes an important clew; but we were content to +leave the problem, with the rocks. Was this the +"Giants' Dance" which Merlin brought from Killaraus, +in Ireland, to be Uther Pendragon's monument to the +British nobles whom Hengist slaughtered here, as +Geoffrey of Monmouth relates? or was it a Roman work, as +Inigo Jones explained to King James; or identical in +design and style with the East Indian temples of the +sun; as Davies in the Celtic Researches maintains? Of +all the writers, Stukeley is the best. The heroic +antiquary, charmed with the geometric perfections of his +ruin, connects it with the oldest monuments and religion +of the world, and, with the courage of his tribe, does not +stick to say, "the Deity who made the world by the +scheme of Stonehenge." He finds that the <em class="italics">cursus</em><a class="footnote-reference" href="#id47" id="id46"><sup>23</sup></a> on +Salisbury Plain stretches across the downs, like a line of +latitude upon the globe, and the meridian line of +Stonehenge passes exactly through the middle of this <em class="italics">cursus</em>. +But here is the high point of the theory: the Druids had +the magnet; laid their courses by it; their cardinal points +in Stonehenge, Ambresbury, and elsewhere, which vary +a little from true east and west, followed the variations +of the compass. The Druids were Phoenicians. The +name of the magnet is <em class="italics">lapis Heracleus</em>, and Hercules was +the god of the Phoenicians. Hercules, in the legend, +drew his bow at the sun, and the sun-god gave him a +golden cup, with which he sailed over the ocean. What +was this, but a compass-box? This cup or little boat, +in which the magnet was made to float on water, and so +show the north, was probably its first form, before it was +suspended on a pin. But science was an <em class="italics">arcanum</em>, and, +as Britain was a Phoenician secret, so they kept their +compass a secret, and it was lost with the Tyrian +commerce. The golden fleece, again, of Jason, was the +compass,--a bit of loadstone, easily supposed to be the +only one in the world, and therefore naturally awakening +the cupidity and ambition of the young heroes of a +maritime nation to join in an expedition to obtain possession +of this wise stone. Hence the fable that the ship Argo +was loquacious and oracular. There is also some curious +coincidence in the names. Apollodorus makes <em class="italics">Magnes</em> +the son of <em class="italics">Æolus</em>, who married <em class="italics">Nais</em>. On hints like +these, Stukeley builds again the grand colonnade into +historic harmony, and computing backward by the known +variations of the compass, bravely assigns the year 406 +before Christ for the date of the temple.</p> +<p class="pnext">For the difficulty of handling and carrying stones of +this size, the like is done in all cities, every day, with no +other aid than horse-power. I chanced to see a year ago +men at work on the substructure of a house in Bowdoin +Square, in Boston, swinging a block of granite of the +size of the largest of the Stonehenge columns with an +ordinary derrick. The men were common masons, with +paddies to help, nor did they think they were doing +anything remarkable. I suppose there were as good men a +thousand years ago. And we wonder how Stonehenge +was built and forgotten. After spending half an hour +on the spot, we set forth in our dog-cart over the downs +for Wilton, C. not suppressing some threats and evil +omens on the proprietors, for keeping these broad plains +a wretched sheep-walk when so many thousands of +Englishmen were hungry and wanted labor. But I heard +afterwards that it is not an economy to cultivate this +land, which only yields one crop on being broken up, +and is then spoiled.</p> +<p class="pnext">We came to Wilton and to Wilton Hall,--the renowned +seat of the Earls of Pembroke, a house known +to Shakspeare and Massinger, the frequent home of Sir +Philip Sidney, where he wrote the Arcadia; where he +conversed with Lord Brooke, a man of deep thought, +and a poet, who caused to be engraved on his tombstone, +"Here lies Fulke Greville Lord Brooke, the friend of +Sir Philip Sidney." It is now the property of the Earl +of Pembroke, and the residence of his brother, Sidney +Herbert, Esq., and is esteemed a noble specimen of the +English manor-hall. My friend had a letter from +Mr. Herbert to his housekeeper, and the house was shown. +The state drawing-room is a double cube, thirty feet +high, by thirty wide, by sixty feet long: the adjoining +room is a single cube, of thirty feet every way. Although +these apartments and the long library were full of good +family portraits, Vandykes and other; and though there +were some good pictures, and a quadrangle cloister full +of antique and modern statuary,--to which C., catalogue +in hand, did all too much justice,--yet the eye was still +drawn to the windows, to a magnificent lawn, on which +grew the finest cedars in England. I had not seen more +charming grounds. We went out, and walked over the +estate. We crossed a bridge built by Inigo Jones over a +stream, of which the gardener did not know the name, +(<em class="italics">Qu.</em> Alph?) watched the deer; climbed to the lonely +sculptured summer-house, on a hill backed by a wood; +came down into the Italian garden, and into a French +pavilion, garnished with French busts; and so, again to +the house, where we found a table laid for us with bread, +meats, peaches, grapes, and wine.</p> +<p class="pnext">On leaving Wilton House, we took the coach for +Salisbury. The Cathedral which was finished six +hundred years ago has even a spruce and modern air, and its +spire is the highest in England. I know not why, but I +had been more struck with one of no fame at Coventry, +which rises three hundred feet from the ground, with the +lightness of a mullein-plant, and not at all implicated +with the church. Salisbury is now esteemed the +culmination of the Gothic art in England, as the buttresses +are fully unmasked, and honestly detailed from the sides +of the pile. The interior of the Cathedral is obstructed +by the organ in the middle, acting like a screen. I know +not why in real architecture the hunger of the eye for +length of line is so rarely gratified. The rule of art is +that a colonnade is more beautiful the longer it is, and +that <em class="italics">ad infinitum</em>. And the nave of a church is seldom +so long that it need be divided by a screen.</p> +<p class="pnext">We loitered in the church, outside the choir, whilst +service was said. Whilst we listened to the organ, my +friend remarked, the music is good and yet not quite +religious, but somewhat as if a monk were panting to +some fine Queen of Heaven. C. was unwilling, and we +did not ask to have the choir shown us, but returned to +our inn, after seeing another old church of the place. +We passed in the train Clarendon Park, but could see +little but the edge of a wood, though C. had wished to +pay closer attention to the birthplace of the Decrees of +Clarendon. At Bishopstoke we stopped, and found +Mr. H., who received us in his carriage, and took us to his +house at Bishops Waltham.</p> +<p class="pnext">On Sunday, we had much discourse on a very rainy +day. My friends ask, whether there were any +Americans?--any with an American idea,--any theory of the +right future of that country? Thus challenged, I +bethought myself neither of caucuses nor congress, neither +of presidents nor of cabinet-ministers, nor of such as +would make of America another Europe. I thought only +of the simplest and purest minds; I said, 'Certainly yes; +but those who hold it are fanatics of a dream which I +should hardly care to relate to your English ears, to +which it might be only ridiculous,--and yet it is the +only true.' So I opened the dogma of no government +and non-resistance, and anticipated the objections and +the fun, and procured a kind of hearing for it. I said, it +is true that I have never seen in any country a man of +sufficient valor to stand for this truth, and yet it is plain +to me that no less valor than this can command my +respect. I can easily see the bankruptcy of the vulgar +musket-worship,--though great men be musket-worshippers; +and 't is certain, as God liveth, the gun that +does not need another gun, the law of love and justice +alone, can effect a clean revolution. I fancied that one +or two of my anecdotes made some impression on C., +and I insisted that the manifest absurdity of the view to +English feasibility could make no difference to a +gentleman; that as to our secure tenure of our mutton-chop +and spinage in London or in Boston, the soul might +quote Talleyrand, "<em class="italics">Monsieur, je n'en vois pas la +nécessité</em>."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id49" id="id48"><sup>24</sup></a> As I had thus taken in the conversation the +saint's part, when dinner was announced, C. refused to +go out before me,--"he was altogether too wicked." I +planted my back against the wall, and our host wittily +rescued us from the dilemma, by saying, he was the +wickedest, and would walk out first, then C. followed, +and I went last.</p> +<p class="pnext">On the way to Winchester, whither our host +accompanied us in the afternoon, my friends asked many +questions respecting American landscape, forests, houses,--my +house, for example. It is not easy to answer these +queries well. There I thought, in America, lies nature +sleeping, overgrowing, almost conscious, too much by +half for man in the picture, and so giving a certain +tristesse, like the rank vegetation of swamps and forests +seen at night, steeped in dews and rains, which it loves; +and on it man seems not able to make much impression. +There, in that great sloven continent, in high Alleghany +pastures, in the sea-wide, sky-skirted prairie, still sleeps +and murmurs and hides the great mother, long since +driven away from the trim hedge-rows and over-cultivated +garden of England. And, in England, I am quite +too sensible of this. Every one is on his good behavior, +and must be dressed for dinner at six. So I put off my +friends with very inadequate details, as best I could.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just before entering Winchester, we stopped at the +Church of Saint Cross, and, after looking through the +quaint antiquity, we demanded a piece of bread and a +draught of beer, which the founder, Henry de Blois, in +1136, commanded should be given to every one who +should ask it at the gate. We had both, from the old +couple who take care of the church. Some twenty +people, every day, they said, make the same demand. This +hospitality of seven hundred years' standing did not +hinder C. from pronouncing a malediction on the priest who +receives £2,000 a year, that were meant for the poor, +and spends a pittance on this small-beer and crumbs.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the Cathedral, I was gratified, at least by the +ample dimensions. The length of line exceeds that of +any other English church; being 556 feet by 250 in +breadth of transept. I think I prefer this church to all +I have seen, except Westminster and York. Here was +Canute buried, and here Alfred the Great was crowned +and buried, and here the Saxon kings: and, later, in +his own church, William of Wykeham. It is very old: +part of the crypt into which we went down and saw the +Saxon and Norman arches of the old church on which +the present stands, was built fourteen or fifteen hundred +years ago. Sharon Turner says: "Alfred was buried at +Winchester, in the Abbey he had founded there, but his +remains were removed by Henry I. to the new Abbey in +the meadows at Hyde, on the northern quarter of the +city, and laid under the high altar. The building was +destroyed at the Reformation, and what is left of Alfred's +body now lies covered by modern buildings, or buried in +the ruins of the old."<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id51" id="id50"><sup>25</sup></a> William of Wykeham's shrine +tomb was unlocked for us, and C. took hold of the +recumbent statue's marble hands, and patted them +affectionately, for he rightly values the brave man who built +Windsor, and this Cathedral, and the School here, and +New College at Oxford. But it was growing late in the +afternoon. Slowly we left the old house, and parting +with our host, we took the train for London.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xvii-personal"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id70">CHAPTER XVII.--PERSONAL.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">In these comments on an old journey now revised +after seven busy years have much changed men and +things in England, I have abstained from reference to +persons, except in the last chapter, and in one or two cases +where the fame of the parties seemed to have given the +public a property in all that concerned them. I must +further allow myself a few notices, if only as an +acknowledgment of debts that cannot be paid. My journeys +were cheered by so much kindness from new friends, +that my impression of the island is bright with agreeable +memories both of public societies and of households; +and, what is nowhere better found than in England, a +cultivated person fitly surrounded by a happy home, +"with honor, love, obedience, troops of friends," is of +all institutions the best. At the landing in Liverpool, I +found my Manchester correspondent awaiting me, a +gentleman whose kind reception was followed by a train of +friendly and effective attentions which never rested whilst +I remained in the country. A man of sense and of letters, +the editor of a powerful local journal, he added to solid +virtues an infinite sweetness and <em class="italics">bonhommie</em>. There +seemed a pool of honey about his heart which lubricated +all his speech and action with fine jets of mead. An +equal good-fortune attended many later accidents of my +journey, until the sincerity of English kindness ceased to +surprise. My visit fell in the fortunate days when +Mr. Bancroft was the American Minister in London, and at +his house, or through his good offices, I had easy access +to excellent persons and to privileged places. At the +house of Mr. Carlyle, I met persons eminent in society +and in letters. The privileges of the Athenæum and of +the Reform Clubs were hospitably opened to me, and I +found much advantage in the circles of the "Geologic," +the "Antiquarian," and the "Royal Societies." Every +day in London gave me new opportunities of meeting +men and women who give splendor to society. I saw +Rogers, Hallam, Macaulay, Milnes, Milman, Barry +Cornwall, Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, Leigh Hunt, +D'Israeli, Helps, Wilkinson, Bailey, Kenyon, and +Forster: the younger poets, Clough, Arnold, and Patmore; +and, among the men of science, Robert Brown, Owen, +Sedgwick, Faraday, Buckland, Lyell, De la Beche, +Hooker, Carpenter, Babbage, and Edward Forbes. It +was my privilege also to converse with Miss Baillie, with +Lady Morgan, with Mrs. Jameson, and Mrs. Somerville. +A finer hospitality made many private houses not less +known and dear. It is not in distinguished circles that +wisdom and elevated characters are usually found, or, if +found, not confined thereto; and my recollections of the +best hours go back to private conversations in different +parts of the kingdom, with persons little known. Nor +am I insensible to the courtesy which frankly opened to +me some noble mansions, if I do not adorn my page with +their names. Among the privileges of London, I recall +with pleasure two or three signal days, one at Kew, +where Sir William Hooker showed me all the riches of +the vast botanic garden; one at the Museum, where Sir +Charles Fellowes explained in detail the history of his +Ionic trophy-monument; and still another, on which +Mr. Owen accompanied my countryman Mr. H. and myself +through the Hunterian Museum.</p> +<p class="pnext">The like frank hospitality, bent on real service, I found +among the great and the humble, wherever I went; in +Birmingham, in Oxford, in Leicester, in Nottingham, in +Sheffield, in Manchester, in Liverpool. At Edinburgh, +through the kindness of Dr. Samuel Brown, I made the +acquaintance of De Quincey, of Lord Jeffrey, of Wilson, +of Mrs. Crowe, of the Messrs. Chambers, and of a man of +high character and genius, the short-lived painter David +Scott.</p> +<p class="pnext">At Ambleside, in March, 1848, I was for a couple of +days the guest of Miss Martineau, then newly returned +from her Egyptian tour. On Sunday afternoon, I +accompanied her to Rydal Mount. And as I have recorded a +visit to Wordsworth, many years before, I must not +forget this second interview. We found Mr. Wordsworth +asleep on the sofa. He was at first silent and indisposed, +as an old man, suddenly waked, before he had ended his +nap; but soon became full of talk on the French news. +He was nationally bitter on the French: bitter on +Scotchmen, too. No Scotchman, he said, can write English. +He detailed the two models, on one or the other of which +all the sentences of the historian Robertson are framed. +Nor could Jeffrey, nor the Edinburgh Reviewers write +English, nor can .... who is a pest to the English +tongue. Incidentally he added, Gibbon cannot write +English. The <em class="italics">Edinburgh Review</em> wrote what would tell +and what would sell. It had however changed the tone +of its literary criticism from the time when a certain letter +was written to the editor by Coleridge. Mrs. W. had the +Editor's answer in her possession. Tennyson he thinks +a right poetic genius, though with some affectation. He +had thought an elder brother of Tennyson at first the +better poet, but must now reckon Alfred the true one..... +In speaking of I know not what style, he said, +"To be sure it was the manner, but then you know the +matter always comes out of the manner." .... He +thought Rio Janeiro the best place in the world for a +great capital city..... We talked of English national +character. I told him it was not creditable that no one +in all the country knew anything of Thomas Taylor, the +Platonist, whilst in every American library his translations +are found. I said, if Plato's Republic were published in +England as a new book to-day, do you think it would find +any readers?--he confessed, it would not: "And yet," +he added after a pause, with that complacency which +never deserts a true-born Englishman,--"and yet we +have embodied it all."</p> +<p class="pnext">His opinions of French, English, Irish, and Scotch +seemed rashly formulized from little anecdotes of what +had befallen himself and members of his family, in a +diligence or stage-coach. His face sometimes lighted up, +but his conversation was not marked by special force or +elevation. Yet perhaps it is a high compliment to the +cultivation of the English generally, when we find such +a man not distinguished. He had a healthy look, with a +weather-beaten face, his face corrugated, especially the +large nose.</p> +<p class="pnext">Miss Martineau, who lived near him, praised him to +me, not for his poetry, but for thrift and economy; for +having afforded to his country neighbors an example of a +modest household, where comfort and culture were +secured without any display. She said, that, in his early +housekeeping at the cottage where he first lived, he was +accustomed to offer his friends bread and plainest fare: +if they wanted anything more, they must pay him for +their board. It was the rule of the house. I replied, +that it evinced English pluck more than any anecdote I +knew. A gentleman in the neighborhood told the story +of Walter Scott's once staying a week with Wordsworth, +and slipping out every day under pretence of a walk, to +the Swan Inn, for a cold cut and porter; and one day +passing with Wordsworth the inn, he was betrayed by +the landlord's asking him if he had come for his porter. +Of course, this trait would have another look in London, +and there you will hear from different literary men, that +Wordsworth had no personal friend, that he was not +amiable, that he was parsimonious, etc. Landor, always +generous, says that he never praised anybody. A gentleman +in London showed me a watch that once belonged +to Milton, whose initials are engraved on its face. He +said, he once showed this to Wordsworth, who took it in +one hand, then drew out his own watch, and held it up +with the other, before the company, but no one making +the expected remark, he put back his own in silence. I +do not attach much importance to the disparagement of +Wordsworth among London scholars. Who reads him +well will know, that in following the strong bent of his +genius, he was careless of the many, careless also of the +few, self-assured that he should "create the taste by +which he is to be enjoyed." He lived long enough to +witness the revolution he had wrought, and "to see what +he foresaw." There are torpid places in his mind, there +is something hard and sterile in his poetry, want of grace +and variety, want of due catholicity and cosmopolitan +scope: he had conformities to English politics and +traditions; he had egotistic puerilities in the choice and +treatment of his subjects; but let us say of him, that, alone +in his time, he treated the human mind well, and with an +absolute trust. His adherence to his poetic creed rested +on real inspirations. The Ode on Immortality is the +high-water mark which the intellect has reached in this +age. New means were employed, and new realms added +to the empire of the muse, by his courage.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xviii-result"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id71">CHAPTER XVIII.--RESULT.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">England is the best of actual nations. It is no ideal +framework, it is an old pile built in different ages, with +repairs, additions, and makeshifts; but you see the poor +best you have got. London is the epitome of our times, +and the Rome of to-day. Broad-fronted, broad-bottomed +Teutons, they stand in solid phalanx foursquare to the +points of compass; they constitute the modern world, +they have earned their vantage-ground, and held it +through ages of adverse possession. They are well +marked and differing from other leading races. England +is tender-hearted. Rome was not. England is not so +public in its bias; private life is its place of honor. +Truth in private life, untruth in public, marks these +home-loving men. Their political conduct is not decided +by general views, but by internal intrigues and personal +and family interest. They cannot readily see beyond +England. The history of Rome and Greece, when +written by their scholars, degenerates into English party +pamphlets. They cannot see beyond England, nor in +England can they transcend the interests of the +governing classes. "English principles" mean a primary +regard to the interests of property. England, Scotland, +and Ireland combine to check the colonies. England +and Scotland combine to check Irish manufactures and +trade. England rallies at home to check Scotland. In +England, the strong classes check the weaker. In the +home population of near thirty millions, there are but +one million voters. The Church punishes dissent, +punishes education. Down to a late day, marriages performed +by dissenters were illegal. A bitter class-legislation gives +power to those who are rich enough to buy a law. The +game-laws are a proverb of oppression. Pauperism +incrusts and clogs the state, and in hard times becomes +hideous. In bad seasons, the porridge was diluted. +Multitudes lived miserably by shell-fish and sea-ware. +In cities, the children are trained to beg, until they shall +be old enough to rob. Men and women were convicted +of poisoning scores of children for burial fees. In Irish +districts, men deteriorated in size and shape. The nose +sunk, the gums were exposed, with diminished brain and +brutal form. During the Australian emigration, +multitudes were rejected by the commissioners as being too +emaciated for useful colonists. During the Russian war, +few of those that offered as recruits were found up to the +medical standard, though it had been reduced.</p> +<p class="pnext">The foreign policy of England, though ambitious and +lavish of money, has not often been generous or just. It +has a principal regard to the interest of trade, checked +however by the aristocratic bias of the ambassador, which +usually puts him in sympathy with the continental Courts. +It sanctioned the partition of Poland, it betrayed Genoa, +Sicily, Parga, Greece, Turkey, Rome, and Hungary.</p> +<p class="pnext">Some public regards they have. They have abolished +slavery in the West Indies, and put an end to human +sacrifices in the East. At home they have a certain +statute hospitality. England keeps open doors, as a +trading country must, to all nations. It is one of their +fixed ideas, and wrathfully supported by their laws in +unbroken sequence for a thousand years. In <em class="italics">Magna +Charta</em> it was ordained, that all "merchants shall have +safe and secure conduct to go out and come into +England, and to stay there, and to pass as well by land as +by water, to buy and sell by the ancient allowed customs, +without any evil toll, except in time of war, or when +they shall be of any nation at war with us." It is a +statute and obliged hospitality, and peremptorily +maintained. But this shop-rule had one magnificent effect. +It extends its cold unalterable courtesy to political exiles +of every opinion, and is a fact which might give +additional light to that portion of the planet seen from the +farthest star. But this perfunctory hospitality puts no +sweetness into their unaccommodating manners, no check +on that puissant nationality which makes their existence +incompatible with all that is not English.</p> +<p class="pnext">What we must say about a nation is a superficial +dealing with symptoms. We cannot go deep enough into +the biography of the spirit who never throws himself +entire into one hero, but delegates his energy in parts or +spasms to vicious and defective individuals. But the +wealth of the source is seen in the plenitude of English +nature. What variety of power and talent; what facility +and plenteousness of knighthood, lordship, ladyship, +royalty, loyalty; what a proud chivalry is indicated in +"Collins's Peerage," through eight hundred years! +What dignity resting on what reality and stoutness! +What courage in war, what sinew in labor, what cunning +workmen, what inventors and engineers, what seamen +and pilots, what clerks and scholars! No one man and +no few men can represent them. It is a people of myriad +personalities. Their many-headedness is owing to the +advantageous position of the middle class, who are always +the source of letters and science. Hence the vast plenty +of their æsthetic production. As they are many-headed, +so they are many-nationed; their colonization annexes +archipelagoes and continents, and their speech seems +destined to be the universal language of men. I have +noted the reserve of power in the English temperament. +In the island, they never let out all the length of all the +reins, there is no Berserkir rage, no abandonment or +ecstasy of will or intellect, like that of the Arabs in the +time of Mahomet, or like that which intoxicated France in +1789. But who would see the uncoiling of that tremendous +spring, the explosion of their well-husbanded forces, +must follow the swarms which, pouring now for two +hundred years from the British islands, have sailed, and +rode, and traded, and planted, through all climates, +mainly following the belt of empire, the temperate zones, +carrying the Saxon seed, with its instinct for liberty and +law, for arts and for thought,--acquiring under some +skies a more electric energy than the native air allows,--to +the conquest of the globe. Their colonial policy, +obeying the necessities of a vast empire, has become +liberal. Canada and Australia have been contented with +substantial independence. They are expiating the wrongs +of India, by benefits: first, in works for the irrigation of +the peninsula, and roads and telegraphs; and secondly, +in the instruction of the people, to qualify them for +self-government, when the British power shall be finally +called home.</p> +<p class="pnext">Their mind is in a state of arrested development,--a +divine cripple like Vulcan; a blind <em class="italics">savant</em> like Huber +and Sanderson. They do not occupy themselves on +matters of general and lasting import, but on a corporeal +civilization, on goods that perish in the using. But they +read with good intent, and what they learn they +incarnate. The English mind turns every abstraction it can +receive into a portable utensil, or a working institution. +Such is their tenacity, and such their practical turn, that +they hold all they gain. Hence we say, that only the +English race can be trusted with freedom,--freedom +which is double-edged and dangerous to any but the +wise and robust. The English designate the kingdoms +emulous of free institutions as the sentimental nations. +Their own culture is not an outside varnish, but is +thorough and secular in families and the race. They are +oppressive with their temperament, and all the more that +they are refined. I have sometimes seen them walk with +my countrymen, when I was forced to allow them every +advantage, and their companions seemed bags of bones. +There is cramp limitation in their habit of thought, +sleepy routine, and a tortoise's instinct to hold hard to +the ground with his claws, lest he should be thrown on +his back. There is a drag of inertia which resists reform +in every shape; law-reform, army-reform, extension of +suffrage, Jewish franchise, Catholic emancipation,--the +abolition of slavery, of impressment, penal code, and +entails. They praise this drag, under the formula, that +it is the excellence of the British constitution, that no +law can anticipate the public opinion. These poor +tortoises must hold hard, for they feel no wings sprouting +at their shoulders. Yet somewhat divine warms at their +heart, and waits a happier hour. It hides in their sturdy +will. "Will," said the old philosophy, "is the measure +of power," and personality is the token of this race. +<em class="italics">Quid vult valde vult</em>. What they do they do with a will. +You cannot account for their success by their +Christianity, commerce, charter, common law, Parliament, or +letters, but by the contumacious sharp-tongued energy +of English <em class="italics">naturel</em>, with a poise impossible to disturb, +which makes all these its instruments. They are slow and +reticent, and are like a dull good horse which lets every +nag pass him, but with whip and spur will run down +every racer in the field. They are right in their feeling, +though wrong in their speculation.</p> +<p class="pnext">The feudal system survives in the steep inequality of +property and privilege, in the limited franchise, in the +social barriers which confine patronage and promotion to +a caste, and still more in the submissive ideas pervading +these people. The fagging of the schools is repeated in +the social classes. An Englishman shows no mercy to +those below him in the social scale, as he looks for none +from those above him; any forbearance from his superiors +surprises him, and they suffer in his good opinion. But +the feudal system can be seen with less pain on large +historical grounds. It was pleaded in mitigation of the +rotten borough, that it worked well, that substantial +justice was done. Fox, Burke, Pitt, Erskine, Wilberforce, +Sheridan, Romilly, or whatever national men, were by +this means sent to Parliament, when their return by large +constituencies would have been doubtful. So now we say, +that the right measures of England are the men it bred; +that it has yielded more able men in five hundred years +than any other nation; and, though we must not play +Providence, and balance the chances of producing ten +great men against the comfort of ten thousand mean men, +yet retrospectively we may strike the balance, and prefer +one Alfred, one Shakspeare, one Milton, one Sidney, one +Raleigh, one Wellington, to a million foolish democrats.</p> +<p class="pnext">The American system is more democratic, more +humane; yet the American people do not yield better or +more able men, or more inventions or books or benefits, +than the English. Congress is not wiser or better than +Parliament. France has abolished its suffocating old +<em class="italics">régime</em>, but is not recently marked by any more wisdom +or virtue.</p> +<p class="pnext">The power of performance has not been exceeded,--the +creation of value. The English have given importance +to individuals, a principal end and fruit of every society. +Every man is allowed and encouraged to be what he is, +and is guarded in the indulgence of his whim. "Magna +Charta," said Rushworth, "is such a fellow that he will +have no sovereign." By this general activity, and by +this sacredness of individuals, they have in seven +hundred years evolved the principles of freedom. It is the +land of patriots, martyrs, sages, and bards, and if the +ocean out of which it emerged should wash it away, it +will be remembered as an island famous for immortal +laws, for the announcements of original right which +make the stone tables of liberty.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xix-speech-at-manchester"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id72">CHAPTER XIX.--SPEECH AT MANCHESTER.</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">A few days after my arrival at Manchester, in +November, 1847, the Manchester Athenæum gave its annual +Banquet in the Free-Trade Hall. With other guests, I +was invited to be present, and to address the company. +In looking over recently a newspaper report of my +remarks, I incline to reprint it, as fitly expressing the +feeling with which I entered England, and which agrees +well enough with the more deliberate results of better +acquaintance recorded in the foregoing pages. Sir +Archibald Alison, the historian, presided, and opened the +meeting with a speech. He was followed by Mr. Cobden, +Lord Brackley, and others, among whom was +Mr. Cruikshank, one of the contributors to +"Punch." Mr. Dickens's letter of apology for his absence was +read. Mr. Jerrold, who had been announced, did not +appear. On being introduced to the meeting I said:--</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: It is pleasant to me +to meet this great and brilliant company, and doubly +pleasant to see the faces of so many distinguished persons +on this platform. But I have known all these persons +already. When I was at home, they were as near to me +as they are to you. The arguments of the League and +its leader are known to all the friends of free trade. +The gayeties and genius, the political, the social, the +parietal wit of "Punch" go duly every fortnight to +every boy and girl in Boston and New York. Sir, when +I came to sea, I found the "History of Europe"<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id53" id="id52"><sup>26</sup></a> on +the ship's cabin table, the property of the captain;--a +sort of programme or play-bill to tell the seafaring +New-Englander what he shall find on his landing here. And +as for Dombey, sir, there is no land where paper exists to +print on, where it is not found; no man who can read, +that does not read it, and, if he cannot, he finds some +charitable pair of eyes that can, and hears it.</p> +<p class="pnext">But these things are not for me to say; these +compliments, though true, would better come from one who +felt and understood these merits more. I am not here +to exchange civilities with you, but rather to speak of +that which I am sure interests these gentlemen more +than their own praises; of that which is good in holidays +and working-days, the same in one century and in another +century. That which lures a solitary American in the +woods with the wish to see England, is the moral +peculiarity of the Saxon race,--its commanding sense of +right and wrong,--the love and devotion to that,--this +is the imperial trait, which arms them with the sceptre +of the globe. It is this which lies at the foundation of +that aristocratic character, which certainly wanders into +strange vagaries, so that its origin is often lost sight of, +but which, if it should lose this, would find itself +paralyzed; and in trade, and in the mechanic's shop, gives +that honesty in performance, that thoroughness and +solidity of work, which is a national characteristic. This +conscience is one element, and the other is that loyal +adhesion, that habit of friendship, that homage of man +to man, running through all classes,--the electing of +worthy persons to a certain fraternity, to acts of +kindness and warm and stanch support, from year to year, +from youth to age,--which is alike lovely and honorable +to those who render and those who receive it;--which +stands in strong contrast with the superficial attachments +of other races, their excessive courtesy, and short-lived +connection.</p> +<p class="pnext">You will think me very pedantic, gentlemen, but holiday +though it be, I have not the smallest interest in any +holiday, except as it celebrates real and not pretended +joys; and I think it just, in this time of gloom and +commercial disaster, of affliction and beggary in these +districts, that on these very accounts I speak of, you should +not fail to keep your literary anniversary. I seem to +hear you say, that, for all that is come and gone yet, we +will not reduce by one chaplet or one oak-leaf the +braveries of our annual feast. For I must tell you, I was +given to understand in my childhood, that the British +island from which my forefathers came, was no lotus-garden, +no paradise of serene sky and roses and music +and merriment all the year round, no, but a cold, foggy, +mournful country, where nothing grew well in the open +air, but robust men and virtuous women, and these of a +wonderful fibre and endurance; that their best parts were +slowly revealed; their virtues did not come out until +they quarrelled: they did not strike twelve the first time; +good lovers, good haters, and you could know little about +them till you had seen them long, and little good of them +till you had seen them in action; that in prosperity they +were moody and dumpish, but in adversity they were +grand. Is it not true, sir, that the wise ancients did not +praise the ship parting with flying colors from the port, +but only that brave sailer which came back with torn +sheets and battered sides, stript of her banners, but +having ridden out the storm? And so, gentlemen, I feel +in regard to this aged England, with the possessions, +honors, and trophies, and also with the infirmities of a +thousand years gathering around her, irretrievably +committed as she now is to many old customs which cannot +be suddenly changed; pressed upon by the transitions of +trade, and new and all incalculable modes, fabrics, arts, +machines, and competing populations,--I see her not +dispirited, not weak, but well remembering that she has +seen dark days before; indeed, with a kind of instinct +that she sees a little better in a cloudy day, and that +in storm of battle and calamity, she has a secret vigor +and a pulse like a cannon. I see her in her old age, +not decrepit, but young, and still daring to believe in +her power of endurance and expansion. Seeing this, I +say, All hail! mother of nations, mother of heroes, with +strength still equal to the time; still wise to entertain +and swift to execute the policy which the mind and heart +of mankind require in the present hour, and thus only +hospitable to the foreigner, and truly a home to the +thoughtful and generous who are born in the soil. So +be it! so let it be! If it be not so, if the courage of +England goes with the chances of a commercial crisis, +I will go back to the capes of Massachusetts, and my +own Indian stream, and say to my countrymen, the old +race are all gone, and the elasticity and hope of +mankind must henceforth remain on the Alleghauy ranges, +or nowhere.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst small">THE END.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst small">Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<div class="container footnotes smaller"> +<table class="docutils footnote-group" frame="void" rules="none"> +<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup> +<tbody valign="top"> +<tr class="footnote" id="id3"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id2">[1]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Add South Carolina, and you have more than an equivalent +for the area of Scotland.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id5"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id4">[2]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">The Races, a Fragment. By Robert Knox. London: 1830.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id7"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id6">[3]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Heimskringla. Translated by Samuel Laing, Esq. London: 1844.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id10"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id8">[4]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Antony Wood.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id11"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id9">[5]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Man's Soule, p. 29.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id13"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id12">[6]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">See Memorial of H. Greenough, p. 66, New York, 1853.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id15"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id14">[7]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Sir S. Romilly, purest of English patriots, decided that +the only independent mode of entering Parliament was to buy +a seat, and he bought Horsham.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id17"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id16">[8]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">"Relation of England." Printed by the Caraden Society.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id19"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id18">[9]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">It is an unlucky moment to remember these sparkles of +solitary virtue in the face of the honors lately paid in England +to the Emperor Louis Napoleon. I am sure that no +Englishman whom I had the happiness to know, consented, when the +aristocracy and the commons of London cringed like a Neapolitan +rabble, before a successful thief. But--how to resist one +step, though odious, in a linked series of state +necessities?--Governments must +always learn too late, that the use of +dishonest agents is as ruinous for nations as for single men.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id21"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id20">[10]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Fuller. Worthies of England.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id23"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id22">[11]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Printed by the Camden Society.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id25"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id24">[12]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">William Spence.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id27"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id26">[13]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Fuller's Worthies, II. p. 472.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id29"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id28">[14]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, p. 208.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id31"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id30">[15]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Dibdin's Literary Reminiscences, Vol. I. xii.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id33"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id32">[16]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Huber, History of English Universities.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id35"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id34">[17]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Huber, II. p. 304.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id37"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id36">[18]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Bristed, Five Years at an English University.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id39"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id38">[19]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Huber, History of the English Universities. Newman's +Translation.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id41"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id40">[20]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">See Bristed, Five Years in an English University. New +York, 1852.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id43"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id42">[21]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Wordsworth.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id45"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id44">[22]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Fuller.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id47"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id46">[23]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">Connected with Stonehenge are an avenue and a <em class="italics">cursus</em>. +The avenue is a narrow road of raised earth, extending +594 yards in a straight line from the grand entrance, then +dividing into two branches, which lead, severally, to a row of +barrows: and to the cursus,--an artificially formed flat tract +of ground. This is half a mile northeast from Stonehenge, +bounded by banks and ditches, 3,036 yards long, by 110 broad.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id49"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id48">[24]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">"Mais, Monseigneur, il faut que j'existe."</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id51"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id50">[25]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">History of the Anglo-Saxons, I. 599.</p> +</td></tr> +<tr class="footnote" id="id53"> +<td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id52">[26]</a></td><td><p class="first last pfirst">By Sir A. Alison.</p> +</td></tr> +</tbody> +</table> +</div> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em"> +</div> +<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> +<div class="backmatter"> +</div> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39862 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |