(_Continued from page_ 165.)
It is almost impossible to lay down any rule which would define the
variations of national manners as having any reference to climate. We
frequently find that the passage of a river, or a chain of mountains,
dividing countries of the same natural features, brings us among an
entirely new people, and presents us with a fresh scene in the melodrama
of life. The inhabitants of Languedoc and Gascony, and the southern parts
of France, are the gayest and most lively of the subjects of Charles X.;
but the moment we have crossed the Pyrenees, we are among one of the
gravest nations in the world, the Spaniards. Again, contrast the
solemnity and deep sense of honour of the Turks, with the vivacity and,
we regret to add, the deceit and bad faith of the unfortunate modern
Greeks. The virtuous spirit will, we trust, revive in the Morea with the
return of civilization and freedom; for, as no one will attribute the
degradation of the modern Greeks from the high moral cultivation of their
ancestors, to any alteration in the climate of their country, so let us
never despair of the return of virtue, of poetry, of the arts and
sciences, whilst Parnassus and Helicon still enjoy the same glorious sun,
and whilst the Isles are still gilded by eternal summer. We want no
proofs that patriotism still lives in Greece, and with that feeling will
ever be associated the powers that are able to invigorate a nation.
Although a mountainous country like Greece, situated in the loveliest
climate in the world, must of course have some effect on the spirit of
the people, yet the degree of it seems extremely uncertain. The Swiss
seem in a great measure to have lost their renown for patriotism, by
their slavish submissions to foreign yokes during the late war, and by
the apathy with which they allow their rights to be trampled on at this
day by a tyrannical aristocracy at home. There is now a proverb of
"_Point d'argent, point de Suisse!_"--a melancholy reflection for a land
where Tell drew his unerring shaft in the cause of freedom--where, so
late as 1798, a patriot of the canton of Schwyz concluded an address with
these words:--"The dew of the mountain may still moisten its verdure--the
sweets of the valley may still shed their fragrance around you--the
purple grape may still mingle with the green vine--the note of the maiden
may still sound sweetly to the ear of her lover--the soft cry of the
infant charm the feelings of the father--the confiding wife may yet
gladden the home of her husband--but the heart of man will be rotten--the
spirit of your ancestors extinguished--Switzerland no more, if you submit
to the French. If you love your country, and value your honour, be men,
and resist. If not, prove cowards, and obey."
Patriotism, however, does not confine itself to mountains, as witness the
history of the ancient and modern republics of Italy; of the resistance
of Holland and Belgium to their oppressors; of the English and French
revolutions. It is unnecessary to look across the Atlantic, to prove the
existence of the pure plant in its most healthy and vigorous growth. The
new world is dedicated to the cause of liberty, and from that good seed
is now springing forth fruit an hundred fold; the progress of
civilization, of knowledge, of virtue, and happiness in the United States,
is, by every recent traveller there, proved to be immense. The example of
her own children is becoming an additional security for right principles
to the mother country; and long may it so continue:
Yes! in that generous cause, for ever strong,
The patriot's virtue and the poet's song,
Still as the tide of ages rolls away,
Shall charm the world, unconscious of decay!
We cannot even contend that the sun has the effect of inflaming the
imaginations of men, and infusing into them either vivacity or a poetic
spirit. The French, Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians are all remarkable
for gaiety; while the Spaniards, Turks, and Chinese, the latitudes of
whose countries vary but little, are noted for a grave and serious
deportment. The land that has given birth to Shakspeare and Milton has no
reason to complain of the want of warmth of imagination. Klopstock and
Goëthe,--the latter now allowed to be first of the living poets,--are
instances of the wide range of the spirit of poetry. Shall we, who have
seen Byron writing, as it were, in the midst of us, yield assent to
calling Greece and Italy the countries of imagination, _par excellence_,
because they have produced Homer and Dante? Assuredly not. We cannot even
admit, as a general proposition, that the languages of the south are
always the smoothest and most melodious, and the northern ones harsh, and
not adapted for music. The liquid, smooth, and effeminate language of
modern Italy is totally different from the strong, energetic, and harsh
Latin used by the ancient Romans. The Arabic will be immediately admitted,
by any who has heard a page of it read, to be extremely uncouth and
disagreeable. The Russian, on the contrary, is soft and musical. And to
recur to a more familiar instance, we shall find the Welsh tongue, on
examination, to be in fact very poetic, and peculiarly capable of giving
force and expression--whether of grandeur, of terror, or of melody--to
the idea the words are intended to convey. Let the reader who understands
the Welsh pronunciation, judge whether the following distich is not an
echo to, and as it were a picture of, the sense of the majestic sound of
thunder:--
"Tân a dwr y'n ymwriaw,
Yw'r taranau dreigiau draw."
The roaring thunder, dreadful in its ire,
Is water warring with aërial fire.
The next specimen will show the capability of the Welsh to express soft
and melodious sounds:--
"Mae mil o leisian meluson,
Mai mêl o hyd ym mola hon."
The mellifluence of these lines, written on a harp, is totally lost in
the translation:--
Within the concave of its womb is found
The magic scale of soul-enchanting sound.
The best illustration of the comparative degree of mental excellence
between the southern and northern nations, is, perhaps, that of Bishop
Berkeley, who compares the southern wits to cucumbers, which are commonly
all good of their kind, but at best an insipid fruit; while the northern
geniuses are like melons, of which not one in fifty is good; but when it
is so, it has an excellent relish. Now it is not probable that the same
climate which is favourable to the study of the sciences and to the
reasoning powers, would prevent their being pushed to the utmost extent;
and the solution of this difference may, perhaps, depend on the question,
whether a general diffusion of learning among a people is a state of
things usually accompanied by a remarkable perfection in particular
persons. A man of ordinary acquirements in the present day might have
passed for a prodigy in the thirteenth century; and the novelty and
distinction attaching to one who rises above the rest, is, of course,
more difficult to attain in an age where knowledge is possessed
universally. Inasmuch, therefore, as the liberal arts have been imported
to us from the south, and their progress is as yet not so extensive in
cold countries, the stimulus to their cultivation in the latter is so
much the greater; which is one way of accounting for the giants in
science that have appeared in the north, It is moreover remarkable, that
the northern nations have a stronger apprehension of abstract
propositions, and a greater fondness for generalizing, than seems to be
the case in the south. The difference between a Frenchman and a German is
observable in this particular, by any one who attends to their manner of
telling stories. The former, in giving you an account of his being robbed
by a servant to whom he had been particularly kind, first tells you the
facts, and concludes with a reflection, "_Voila que le monde est ingrât!_"
The German, on the other hand, in order to prove to you the general
proposition of the unthankfulness of men to their benefactors, gives you
the instance that has recently happened. To the one, the fact is
interesting, because it proves the proposition; to the other, the
proposition is a conclusion, which he hastily draws from an individual
occurrence that has suggested it.
The climate does not appear to affect even the bodies of men to any
great degree. We cannot pronounce that it is the sun which makes
the African black, when we see the same heat pouring down on the
copper-coloured American, in the same degree of latitude, though in
another longitude. The inhabitants of Terra del Fuego are of a very dark
hue, approaching to black; and yet that island experiences as severe
cold as any part of the earth, as Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander
have testified. The complexion and appearance of the Jews, and other
emigratory races, is the same in all parts of the world. And a stronger
proof cannot be given, than the marked distinction which still exists
among the three great families that divide Europe. These three have been
for the last 2,500 years, and still are, the Celts, the Teutonic race,
and the Slavonic race.
The Celts have black hair and eyes, and a white skin, verging to brown.
They chiefly inhabit the west of Europe, viz. the south of France,
(called by M. Dupin, _France obscure_,) Spain, Portugal, and the
greatest part of Italy. To them also belong the ancient Britons, the
Welsh, Bretons, Irish, Highland Scotch, and the Manks, or people of the
Isle of Man. The great German race, with blue eyes, yellow or reddish
hair, and a fair and red skin, occupies the middle of Europe. It
includes the Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders, Danes, ancient and modern
Germans, Saxons and English, Caledonians and Lowland Scotch, the
Belgians, the Vandals, and the Goths.
The east of Europe contains the Sarmatian and Slavonic tribes, with
dark hair and eyes, darker skin than the Germans, and larger limbs than
the Celts. This race includes the Russians, Poles, Croats, Slavons,
Bohemians, Bulgarians, Cossacks, and other tribes using the Slavonic
language.
We trust we shall not give offence to such of our readers as wear the
Celtic appearance, if we assume, as undisputed, the general superiority
of the Teutonic to the Celtic or Slavonic races in mental acquirements.
We believe that the German race are pre-eminent for their sense of order,
of law, and of social institutions; and whether they derive these
advantages from the east, whence their origin has now been satisfactorily
traced, or however they have attained them, we have only to reflect on
the civilization introduced by the Saxons into England--on the actual
state of the ancient Britons at present inhabiting Wales and the
Highlands--and on the terrible disorder and barbarism that reigns in
Ireland--to be thankful that the pure Celtic blood has not been allowed
to remain unmixed in these islands.
What, then, it will be asked, is the result of these speculations? Are we
to conclude that the races of men are essentially different, or that the
variations are attributable to the various degrees of moral cultivation
that each nation has received? And our answer is, that we are inclined to
believe the capacities for improvement of races, as of individuals, to
have been differently bestowed by nature; but that none are actually
incapable of culture. There is no land, however sterile, that the art of
man may not make to produce fruit; but the difficulty and expense of
tillage must be in proportion to the intrinsic richness or poverty of the
soil. We fear that the soil of the Negroes[3], of the American Indians,
and of the Esquimaux, must be laboured at early and late, before it
brings forth even an average crop. But we do not despair even here. Still
less could we for a moment depreciate the labours of those who are
carrying education to the utmost bounds of the earth. The more degraded
and stupid the condition of any set of people may be, the more
meritorious and thankworthy are those efforts that are made to advance
them one point nearer to the heavens--one step above the beasts that
perish. The advancement of Hayti, though much overrated, is nevertheless
considerable; and we trust that national independence will co-operate
there also with the progress of learning, for the increase of happiness
and prosperity. A free government, high public spirit, and an eager
desire for wisdom, are permanent securities for the welfare of the state,
and the happiness of the citizens; and though we cannot control nature,
let us endeavour by art to supply what is wanting, where her bounty has
been limited; "let us," in the words of Lord Bacon, "labour to restore
and enlarge the power and dominion of the whole race of man over the
universe of things!"