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 interfere1 with his absurdity2. Every individual has his particular way of living, which he pushes to folly3, and the decided4 sympathy of his compatriots is engaged to back up Mr. Crump’s whim5 by statutes6, and chancellors7, and horse-guards. There is no freak so ridiculous but some Englishman has attempted to immortalize by money and law. British citizenship8 is as omnipotent9 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 patriotic10, 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 every thing 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 delicacy12 with a foreigner, they ask him whether such a thing is made in his country.” When he adds epithets13 of praise, his climax14 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 arrogance15 habitually16 exhibits itself in allusions17 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 postponing18 or disparaging19 one’s own things in talking with a stranger, are seriously mistaken by them for an insuppressible homage20 to the merits of their nation; and the New Yorker or Pennsylvanian who modestly laments21 the disadvantage of a new country, log-huts, and savages22, is surprised by the instant and unfeigned commiseration23 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 insular24 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 trample25 down all nationalities with his taxed boots. Lord Chatham goes for liberty, and no taxation26 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 recreated 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 incompatible27 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, celebrated29 among our Scandinavian forefathers30, for his eloquence31 and majestic32 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 any body. 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 squeaking33 or a raven34 voice, he has persuaded himself that there is something modish35 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. For, it sets every man on being and doing what he really is and can. It takes away a dodging36, skulking37, secondary air, and encourages a frank and manly38 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, precisely39 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 any thing, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling40 up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.”
There is also this benefit in brag28, 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 disposition41 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 monarch42, 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 unwilling43 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 any body, 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 conceit44, though brighter men among them make painful efforts to be candid45.
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 treatise46 on political economy, in a philosophical47 essay, in books of science, one is surprised by the most innocent exhibition of unflinching nationality. In a tract11 on Corn, a most amiable48 and accomplished49 gentleman writes thus: — “Though Britain, according to Bishop50 Berkeley’s idea, were surrounded by a wall of brass51 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, virtue52, 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 economists53; 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 anecdotes54.
But this childish patriotism55 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 abatement56 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 discriminating57 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 boisterous58 dulness of a fire-club into a polite circle. Nature and destiny are always on the watch for our follies59. Nature trips us up when we strut60; 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 parasite61, who got a lucrative62 contract to supply the army with bacon. A rogue63 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 faction64 to the episcopal throne of Alexandria. When Julian came, A. D. 361, George was dragged to prison; the prison was burst open by the mob, and George was lynched, as he deserved. And this precious knave65 became, in good time, Saint George of England, patron of chivalry66, emblem67 of victory and civility, and the pride of the best blood of the modern world.
Strange, that the solid truth-speaking Briton should derive68 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 pickledealer at Seville, who went out, in 1499, a subaltern with Hojeda, and whose highest naval69 rank was boatswain’s mate in an expedition that never sailed, managed in this lying world to supplant70 Columbus, and baptize half the earth with his own dishonest name. Thus nobody can throw stones. We are equally badly off in our founders71; and the false pickledealer is an offset72 to the false bacon-seller.
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1
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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statutes
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| 成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程 | |
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chancellors
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| 大臣( chancellor的名词复数 )； （某些美国大学的）校长； （德国或奥地利的）总理； （英国大学的）名誉校长 | |
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citizenship
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| n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份) | |
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omnipotent
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| adj.全能的，万能的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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postponing
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| v.延期，推迟( postpone的现在分词 ) | |
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disparaging
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| adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难 | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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laments
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| n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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commiseration
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| n.怜悯，同情 | |
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insular
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| adj.岛屿的，心胸狭窄的 | |
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trample
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| vt.踩，践踏；无视，伤害，侵犯 | |
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taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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incompatible
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| adj.不相容的，不协调的，不相配的 | |
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brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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squeaking
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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modish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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skulking
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 ) | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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52
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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abatement
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| n.减(免)税，打折扣，冲销 | |
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discriminating
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| a.有辨别能力的 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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59
follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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60
strut
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| v.肿胀，鼓起；大摇大摆地走；炫耀；支撑；撑开；n.高视阔步；支柱，撑杆 | |
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parasite
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| n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客 | |
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lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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knave
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| n.流氓；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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66
chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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68
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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supplant
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| vt.排挤；取代 | |
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founders
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| n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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