abject and filthy, than in the East, and their food is lower and more precarious. The useful arts are less advanced; the towns are little better than collections of huts, without any of that decorative architecture which has distinguished Oriental cities. (10) Writing, instead of being intricate and hard of acquisition, is scarcely practised at all. There are no sciences, and no literary 7 works; and, in general, it may be said that the African are to the Oriental, what the Oriental are to the European nations. An antithesis, analogous to those which we have been examining, existed between the Greeks and Barbarians in antiquity. All Greeks differed in certain respects from all Barbarians;(") and these common differences exercised a material influence upon the political institutions of each group of communities. Now it is plain that, when we are seeking to determine generally the operation of any political cause, such as a certain system of judicature, taxation, punishment, military or naval organization, &c., our researches will be greatly facilitated if we assume as our basis some definite state of political society, such as that belonging either to the Oriental or the European type. (40) Le monarque de Loango est un nègre, qui ne porte point de vêtemens, qui marche pieds nuds, qui habite une hutte de paille, qui s'asseoit par terre, et mange avec les doigts.'-Comte, ib. c. 30. A similar description applies to the reguli of the other negro tribes of Western Africa. (41) On the antithesis between Greeks and Barbarians, see Grote, Hist. of Gr. vol. ii. p. 377 ; K. F. Hermann, Gr. Ant. § 7; Wachsmuth, Hell. Alt. i. 1, p. 139. Compare the remarks of Dionysius, Ant. Rom. i. 89, as to Rome not being of barbarous origin. Plutarch speaks of the native Epirots being Hellenized in manners, letters, and laws.-Pyrrh. i. The antithesis of Barbarians was transferred by the modern Italians to their own countrymen; but it designated in this case no marked difference of civilization. See Machiavel, Principe, c. 26: Esortazione a liberare l'Italia dai Barbari.' Similar ethnological distinctions may be drawn in other cases; thus, Gibbon says: 'If we inquire into the characteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great portions of human kind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or moveable tents; by a close dress or flowing garments; by the marriage of one or of several wives; by a military force, consisting, for the most part, either of infantry or cavalry; and, above all, by the use of the Teutonic or of the Slavonian language, the last of which has been diffused by conquest from the confines of Italy to the neighbourhood of Japan.'-c. 10. We may even limit our field of vision still further. We may, instead of co-ordinating several cognate nations, confine ourselves to a single nation, and investigate the operation of political causes in reference to its peculiar position and circumstances. For this purpose, we must look to its history and historical statistics, and to the facts which serve to distinguish it from all other nations. In this way, we are brought to the question of national character-its nature and causes. § 5 That nations (like individuals and smaller bodies, as regiments, schools, clubs, &c.) have a character, both moral and intellectual, is a fact which has been long since recognised. (42) In speaking of national character, however, we must distinguish between the collective character of the nation, considered as an individual, and the separate characters of the individual persons of whom it consists. A nation, as represented by its government, may have a collective character, independent of the character of any of its citizens, and this character may appear in its acts at successive periods of time. A government may, for example, be faithless in its public engagements, though the persons composing that government may be honourable in their private transactions. A false morality respecting national interest and patriotism may induce persons to resort to means, in behalf of their country, which they would scorn to use for themselves. Again, there may be a predominant character of the individuals of a particular country—they may be daring and impetuous, or timid and cautious; they may be warlike or unwarlike, lazy or (42) See the elaborate comparison between the national characters of Athens and Sparta, in the funeral oration of Pericles, Thuc. ii. 37; and the general remarks in Polyb, iv. 21. As to the peculiar laws and customs of each country, see Zenob. v. 25, in the proverb vóμos kaì xópa. Tam civitatium, quam singulorum hominum mores sunt: gentes quoque aliæ iracundæ, aliæ audaces, quædam timidæ : in vinum, in venerem proniores aliæ sunt. Atheniensem populum fama est celerem et supra vires audacem esse ad conandum: Lacedæmoniorum cunctatorem, et vix in ea quibus fidit ingredientem.'-Livy, xlv. 23. Fa ancora facilità il conoscere le cose future per le passate, vedere una nazione longo tempo tenere i medesimi costumi, essendo o continuamente avara, o continuamente fraudolente, o avere alcun altro simile vizio o virtù.'-Machiavel, Disc. iii. 43. On the varieties of national character, see Bodinus, Method. Hist. c. 5. industrious, thrifty or improvident, slow or quick, reserved or communicative. The people may be distinguished by a love of literature and the fine arts, or may be indifferent to them; they may be religious in belief and practice, or the contrary; their prevalent pursuits may be agricultural, commercial, or manufacturing. Thus Italians, Spaniards, Germans, French, Dutch, English,(43) Americans, and, again, Russians, Turks, Persians, Hindus, Chinese, may have certain leading characteristics, which may be further subdivided into the characteristics of particular towns, provinces, and districts. Among the Greeks each state, and even city, had its peculiar character-the Athenians were lively and acute, as were also the Sicilians; (") the Boeotians were slow and heavy; the Lacedæmonians were noted for the brevity of their speech; the Thessalians for their licence:(") again, in Italy, the Etruscans were distinguished by their proneness to religious observances; (4) the Ligurians by their deceitfulness.("") (43) Upon the national characters of the French, English, Spaniards, Italians, and Germans, see Kant, Anthropologie; Werke, vol. vii. p. 250-7. The national characters of the French and Spanish are drawn by Filangieri, Scienza della Legislazione, i. 13. Compare also Goldsmith's Traveller. (44) Siculi-lascivi et dicaces.'-Cælius ap. Quintilian, vi. 3, § 41. 'Quod esset acuta illa gens et controversa naturâ.'-Cic. Brut. 12. Compare Verr. iii. 8; De Orat. ii. 54. On the national characteristics of the Spartans, Ionians, Thracians, and Thessalians, see Plutarch, Alcib. 23. (45) See Wachsmuth, Hell. Alt. i. 1, p. 59-75; Bernhardy, Grundriss der Griechischen Litteratur, vol. i. p. 9. Inde Afros versipelles, Græcos leves, Gallos pigrioris videmus ingenii; quod natura climatum facit, sicut Ptolemæus deprehendit, qui dicit, translatum ad aliud clima hominem naturam ex parte mutare.'-Servius ad En. vi. 723. The people of Alexandria (a various mixture of nations) united the vanity and inconstancy of the Greeks with the superstition and obstinacy of the Egyptians.'Gibbon, c. 10. (46) Gens ante omnes alias eo magis dedita religionibus, quod excelleret arte colendi eas.'-Livy, v. 1. Compare Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. i. 30. So Cæsar says of the Gauls: Natio est omnis Gallorum admodum dedita religionibus.-B. G. vi. 16. (47) 'Vane Ligus, frustraque animis elate superbis, Cato, Orig. ii. ap. Serv. ad v. 700: Ligures autem omnes fallaces sunt.' Nigidius, ib. v. 715: Nam et Ligures qui Apenninum tenuerunt, latrones, insidiosi, fallaces, mendaces.' Compare Cic. de Harusp. Resp. c. 9: 'Quam volumus licet, patres conscripti, ipsi nos amemus: tamen nec numero Hispanos, nec robore Gallos, nec calliditate Pœnos, nec artibus A certain character may likewise, as Machiavel remarks, (“) be hereditary, even in a family, as was the case with many of the great Roman houses: the Claudian family, for example, was long noted for its arrogant and antipopular demeanour ;(49) while the Valerian gens, in early times, was distinguished for its attachment to the popular cause. Similar characteristics have marked particular families in modern states.(50) Many of these national, provincial, or local peculiarities have been embodied in proverbs, and have thus fixed a character upon a district, similar to that which may belong to it in connexion with some physical attribute, or some article of production.(1) A fragment of a topographical work of Dicæarchus, a disciple of Aristotle, upon Greece, has preserved several sayings of this sort upon the cities of Boeotia; (5) and similar proverbs exist with Græcos, nec denique hoc ipso hujus gentis ac terræ domestico nativoque sensu, Italos ipsos ac Latinos; sed pietate ac religione, atque hac unâ sapientiâ, quod deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus, omnes gentes nationesque superavimus.' 48 Pare che non solamente l'una città dall' altra abbi certi modi e instituti diversi, e procrei uomini o più duri, o più effeminati; ma nella medesima città si vede tal differenza essere nelle famiglie l'una dall' altra.' -Disc. iii. 46. (49) See the speech of Sempronius the tribune against Appius Claudius, in Livy, ix. 34. Tacitus (Ann. i. 4) mentions the vetus atque insita Claudiæ familiæ superbia.' Compare Sueton. Tiber. c. 2. (50) Such free states as are not mere aggregates of individuals, changing their character and sentiments with every outward impression and momentary impulse, owe this steadiness mainly to the subsistence of houses and corporations, in which principles and feelings are transmitted for ages as an heirloom from generation to generation. Were a Russell to prove false to the principles of 1688, he would be deemed a shocking instance of unnatural degeneracy. But above all other nations did the Romans maintain this unity between forefathers and their posterity, so that the life of a house in the republic was like that of one man; the descendant received the principles of his ancestor as a law, and his plans as a trust that he was charged to execute.'-Niebuhr's History of Rome, vol. ii. p. 377. (51) Compare Athenæus, i. c. 49. (52) Ἱστοροῦσι δ ̓ οἱ Βοιωτοὶ τὰ κατ ̓ αὐτοὺς ὑπάρχοντα ἴδια ἀκληρήματα λέγοντες ταῦτα· τὴν μὲν αἰσχροκερδίαν κατοικεῖν ἐν Ωρωπῷ, τὸν δὲ φθόνον ἐν Τανάγρα, τὴν φιλονεικίαν ἐν Θεσπιαῖς, τὴν ὕβριν ἐν Θήβαις, τὴν πλεονεξίαν ἐν ̓Ανθηδόνι, τὴν περιεργίαν ἐν Κορωνείᾳ, ἐν Πλαταιαῖς τὴν ἀλαζονείαν, τὸν πυρετὸν ἐν Ογχήστῳ, τὴν ἀναισθησίαν ἐν ̔Αλιάρτῳ.—Dicaearchus, Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. ii. p. 260; ed. Didot. The Cretans were proverbial for their mendaciousness, see Zenob. iv. 62, and other parcemiographers, in the word Kpnričew; and the commentators on Callimach. Hymn. Jov. 8. Kpñtes deì ψεύσται. respect to towns or other districts of Italy, France,(") and England. (4) The proverbs respecting national or local character are generally unfavourable, and often vituperative-they appear to be the expressions of the antipathy of neighbours or strangers.(55) The causes of national character are to be found partly in the physical, and partly in the moral circumstances of the nation.() Much depends upon the nature of the territory, (57) its geographical position, its climate, the qualities of its soil, its rivers and waters, its salubrity, its proximity to the sea, its size, form, and boundaries-much likewise depends upon the race and physiological peculiarities of the inhabitants. The national character is, again, partly determined by the government, (58) religion, laws, scientific opinions, and usages of the people, though the latter are, to some extent, the consequence as well as cause of the national character. The physical conditions of the national character are given quantities, and are not modified by the re (53) See Leroux de Lincy, Proverbes Français, série vi. and vii. tom. i. p. 187-259. (54) Ray's Proverbs, p. 233, from Fuller's Worthies of England. (55) For example: 'C'est un avocat de Valence- Again: Quatre choses sont difficiles: cuire un œuf; faire le lit d'un chien; enseigner un Florentin, et servir un Vénitien.'-Leroux de Lincy, ib. p. 200, 201; see also, above, the characteristics of the Boeotian cities. Les Turcs ne parlent point du peuple de Damas sans observer qu'il est le plus méchant de l'empire; l'Arabe, en jouant sur les mots, en a fait ce proverbe: Chami, choumi-Damasquin, méchant; on dit, au contraire, du peuple d'Alep, Halabi, tchelebi-Alepin, petit-maître. Par une dis tinction fondée sur le culte, on ajoute que les Chrétiens y sont plus vils et plus fourbes qu'ailleurs; sans doute, parceque les Musulmans y sont plus fanatiques et plus insolens.'-Volney, ib. tom. ii. p. 146. (56) Upon the causes of national character, see Hume's Essay on National Characters, part i. essay 21; and Chenevix, Essay upon National Character, vol. i. p. 16. See likewise Kant, ib. p. 247, and the treatise of Zimmermann, Vom Nationalstolze. (57) Territory influences the character of nations-1, by its extent; 2, by the manner in which it has been acquired; 3, by the uses to which it is applied; 4, by the nature of its boundaries, as contributing to its security.'-Chenevix, ib. p. 40 (58) On the assimilating influence of a common government with respect to national character, see Chenevix, ib. p. 301. In p. 314, he points out that government is an effect, as well as a cause, of national character. |