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diff --git a/39862.txt b/39862.txt deleted file mode 100644 index eda0b75..0000000 --- a/39862.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6573 +0,0 @@ - ENGLISH TRAITS - - - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: English Traits - -Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson - -Release Date: May 30, 2012 [EBook #39862] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH TRAITS *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - ENGLISH TRAITS. - - - - BY - - - RALPH WALDO EMERSON. - - - - - NEW AND REVISED EDITION. - - - - BOSTON: - JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, - Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co. - 1876. - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1856 AND 1876, - BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON. - - - - UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., CAMBRIDGE. - - - - ---- - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER I.--FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND. - CHAPTER II.--VOYAGE TO ENGLAND. - CHAPTER III.--LAND. - CHAPTER IV.--RACE. - CHAPTER V.--ABILITY. - CHAPTER VI.--MANNERS. - CHAPTER VII.--TRUTH. - CHAPTER VIII.--CHARACTER. - CHAPTER IX.--COCKAYNE. - CHAPTER X.--WEALTH. - CHAPTER XI.--ARISTOCRACY. - CHAPTER XII.--UNIVERSITIES. - CHAPTER XIII.--RELIGION. - CHAPTER XIV.--LITERATURE. - CHAPTER XV.--THE "TIMES." - CHAPTER XVI.--STONEHENGE. - CHAPTER XVII.--PERSONAL. - CHAPTER XVIII.--RESULT. - - ---- - - - - - ENGLISH TRAITS. - - - - -CHAPTER I.--FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND. - - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _morality_ 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 -_gradated_ 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." - -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? - -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 Caesar'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, _not even by -name_. 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. - -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. - - -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 Judaeus, 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 _up_ -to him would be to speak falsely; but a man whom he looked _at_ 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 _trinism_ and -_tetrakism_, 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.' - -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." - -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,-- - - Born unto God in Christ-- - - -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 _that_ 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.' - -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. - -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. - -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, "_Qualis -artifex pereo!_" 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 _that_ -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. - -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. - -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. - -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.' - -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.' - -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. - - -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. - -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). - -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. - -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. - -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: _chtema es aei_], 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. - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER II.--VOYAGE TO ENGLAND. - - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _esprit du corps_, by which we adopt into our self-love -everything we touch, makes us all champions of her sailing-qualities. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -'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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER III.--LAND. - - -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 -_Times_ newspaper, which, by its immense correspondence and reporting, -seems to have machinized the rest of the world for his occasion. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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. - -As soon as you enter England, which, with Wales, is no larger than the -State of Georgia,[1] 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. - - [1] Add South Carolina, and you have more than an equivalent for the - area of Scotland. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _good stand_. The old -Venetians pleased themselves with the flattery, that Venice was in 45 -deg., 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. - -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." - -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.' - -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." - - - - -CHAPTER IV.--RACE. - - -An ingenious anatomist has written a book[2] 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. - - [2] The Races, a Fragment. By Robert Knox. London: 1830. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _Hoosiers_, -_Suckers_, and _Badgers_ of the American woods. - -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. - -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. - -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 _power_ 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. - -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. - -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. - -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? - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 Linnaean 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. - -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. - - -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. - -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. - -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. - -The _Heimskringla_,[3] 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. - - [3] Heimskringla. Translated by Samuel Laing, Esq. London: 1844. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _Beauty and the Beast_, or long before, in the Greek legend of -_Hermaphrodite_. 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 _mitissimus -praedonum_, 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. - -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." - -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. - -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. - -They come honestly by their horsemanship, with _Hengst_ and _Horsa_ 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. - -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. - -"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.' - - - - -CHAPTER V.--ABILITY. - - -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. - -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? - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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."[4] 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."[5] - - [4] Antony Wood. - - [5] Man's Soule, p. 29. - -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. - -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? - -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." - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _doubling_, 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. - -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. - -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, _habeas-corpus_, 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -"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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _in their race_. 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. - -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,-- - - "Let India boast her palms, nor envy we - The weeping amber, nor the spicy tree, - While, by our oaks, those precious loads are borne, - And realms commanded which those trees adorn." - - -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. - -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. - -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.[6] - - [6] See Memorial of H. Greenough, p. 66, New York, 1853. - -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.[7] 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. - - [7] 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER VI.--MANNERS. - - -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 -_pluck_. 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 -_aplomb_, 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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, _Leave all hope behind_. 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. - -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." - -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. - -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."[8] 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. - - [8] "Relation of England." Printed by the Caraden Society. - -English stories, _bon-mots_, 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? - - - - -CHAPTER VII.--TRUTH. - - -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. - -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 _cache_ 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 -_truth-speaker; Alueredus veridicus_. 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, _Fare -fac_,--Say, do,--of the Fairfaxes; _Say and seal_, of the house of -Fiennes; _Vero nil verius_, 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. - -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. - -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 Stael 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. - -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. - -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 Athenaeum. 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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _Trimmers_ to the time-servers, whom -English character does not love.[9] - - [9] 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. - -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 _perfidious -Albion_. But suspicion will make fools of nations as of citizens. - -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 _esprit d'escalier_. 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 L100 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:-- - - "In close intrigue, their faculty 's but weak, - For generally whate'er they know, they speak, - And often their own counsels undermine - By mere infirmity without design; - From whence, the learned say, it doth proceed, - That English treasons never can succeed; - For they 're so open-hearted, you may know - Their own most secret thoughts, and others' too." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII.--CHARACTER. - - -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 _feuilletous_, 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. - -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; _ils -s'amusaient tristement, selon la coutume de leur pays_, 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. - -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? - -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. - -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 - - "The ruggedest hour that time and spite dare bring - To frown upon the enraged Northumberland." - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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."[10] - - [10] Fuller. Worthies of England. - -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."[#] - -[#] Heimskringla, Laing's translation, Vol. III. p. 37. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER IX.--COCKAYNE. - - -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. - -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,"[11] 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. - - [11] Printed by the Camden Society. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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. - -The habit of brag runs through all classes, from the _Times_ 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."[12] - - [12] William Spence. - -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. - -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. - -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. AEsop 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. - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER X.--WEALTH. - - -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. - -I was lately turning over Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_, 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." - -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 _eclat_, 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." - -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. - -'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 -L300,000,000 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _poissardes_ and -barricades; no mob; but drowsy habitude, daily dress-dinners, wine, and -ale, and beer, and gin, and sleep. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER XI.--ARISTOCRACY. - - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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."[13] - - [13] Fuller's Worthies, II. p. 472. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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 _perdu_ 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. - -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."[14] 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. - - [14] Reliquiae Wottonianae, p. 208. - -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. - -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 _castra_ or camp of the Lear or Leir (now Soar); -Rochdale, of the Roch; Exeter or Excester, the _castra_ 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." - -'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. - -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 chaaeaux 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." - -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. - -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. - -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. - - -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 _ennui_, 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?" - -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. - -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. - -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, -_le talent de bien faire_, gives a majesty which cannot be concealed or -resisted. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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;[15] 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. - - [15] Dibdin's Literary Reminiscences, Vol. I. xii. - -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. - -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. - -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 "_Causes Celebres_" 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 Mecaenas 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. - -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 -_artistes_, 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. - -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. - -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."[16] 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." - - [16] Huber, History of English Universities. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER XII.--UNIVERSITIES. - - -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 _alumni_ 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. - -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. - -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 _our_ 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, _Benedictus benedicat; -benedicitur, benedicatur_. - -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. - -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 _Athenae Oxonienses_, -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 _Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio_ and -_Iconoclastes_ 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. - -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. - -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 -L1,668. - -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.[17] - - [17] Huber, II. p. 304. - -"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 L50 to L70 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.[18] - - [18] Bristed, Five Years at an English University. - -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. - -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 L200 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 L150,000 a year. - -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 -_Corpus Poetarum_, 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 _dura ilia_, 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. - -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. - -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."[19] - - [19] Huber, History of the English Universities. Newman's Translation. - -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."[20] - - [20] See Bristed, Five Years in an English University. New York, 1852. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII.--RELIGION. - - -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. - -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."[21] - - [21] Wordsworth. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -Another part of the same service on this occasion was not insignificant. -Handel's coronation anthem, _God save the King_, 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. - -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. - - -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. - -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."[22] 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. - - [22] Fuller. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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 _vis -medicatrix_. - -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 L4,000 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 _conge d'elire_, 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. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -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. - -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, _souffrir de tout le -monde et ne faire souffrir personne_, 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. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV.--LITERATURE. - - -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 Stael, "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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -Bacon, capable of ideas, yet devoted to ends, required in his map of the -mind, first of all, universality, or _prima philosophia_, 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 _dry light_ 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." - -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 _constants_, 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." - -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. - -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. - -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? - -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. - -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. - -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 _accommodations_: 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. - -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. - -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. - -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 aesthetic 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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." - -[#] Preface to Wilkins's Translation of the Bhagvat Geeta. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER XV.--THE "TIMES." - - -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. - -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. - -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. - -The late Mr. Walter was printer of the "Times," and had gradually -arranged the whole _materiel_ 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. - -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. - -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 Fouche'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. - -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. - -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. - -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; _it is so_, and so it shall be. - -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. - -"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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI.--STONEHENGE. - - -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, _Kunst_ 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." - -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. - -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. - -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 _sarsens_ or -Druidical sandstones are not found in this neighborhood. The -_sacrificial stone_, 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. - -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 "_Acta -Sanctorum_," 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 _Acta Sanctorum_ 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. - -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. - -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 _cursus_[23] 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 _cursus_. 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 _lapis Heracleus_, 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 _arcanum_, 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 _Magnes_ the son of _AEolus_, who married -_Nais_. 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. - - [23] Connected with Stonehenge are an avenue and a _cursus_. 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. - -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. - -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, (_Qu._ 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. - -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 _ad -infinitum_. And the nave of a church is seldom so long that it need be -divided by a screen. - -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. - -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, "_Monsieur, je n'en vois pas la necessite_."[24] 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. - - [24] "Mais, Monseigneur, il faut que j'existe." - -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. - -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 L2,000 a year, that -were meant for the poor, and spends a pittance on this small-beer and -crumbs. - -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."[25] 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. - - [25] History of the Anglo-Saxons, I. 599. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII.--PERSONAL. - - -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 _bonhommie_. 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 Athenaeum 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. - -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. - -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 _Edinburgh Review_ 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." - -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. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII.--RESULT. - - -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. - -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. - -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 _Magna Charta_ 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. - -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 aesthetic 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. - -Their mind is in a state of arrested development,--a divine cripple like -Vulcan; a blind _savant_ 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. _Quid vult valde vult_. 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 -_naturel_, 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. - -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. - -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 _regime_, but is -not recently marked by any more wisdom or virtue. - -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. - - - - -A few days after my arrival at Manchester, in November, 1847, the -Manchester Athenaeum 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:-- - - -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"[26] 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. - - [26] By Sir A. Alison. - -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. - -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. - - - - - THE END. - - - - - Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH TRAITS *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39862 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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