THE MAN OF THE NORTH,
AND
THE MAN OF THE SOUTH;
OR
THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE.
Translatedfrom the French of
CH-VICTOR DE BONSTETTEN.
Ce serait A tort que l'on voudralt s6parer ln Polltique des circonstances g6en6rales de race, de climat, de configuration g6ographique, de
traditions historiques de toute nature dont elle est A beaucoup d'6gards
une resultante.                               BAUDRILLART.
NEW YORK:
IF. W. CHEIISTTERN.
PHILADELPHIA: FREDERICK LLYPOLDT.
BOSTON: A. K. LoRING AND S. URINXO.
CINCINNATI: IR. CLARKE AND CO.
BALTIMORE: JAS S. WATERS.
1864.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
F. W. CHRISTERN,
In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States,
for the Southern District of New York.
R. C(RAIGHEAD, PRINTER,
81, 83 & 85 CENTRE-STREET, NEW YORK.




TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
THE author, M. de Bonstetten, whose work, L'Homme
du Midi et L'tHomme du Nord, is now given to the
public in an English translation, was born in 1745 at
Berne, of an ancient and noble Swiss family. Having
lived eighty-seven years, he died in 1832 at Geneva. He
was not without political experience, having undergone
some of the sad reverses of the political treadmill. He
was a friend and disciple of the celebrated Charles Bonnet, and had much intercourse and correspondence with
other distinguished men of his time. Acute in his observations, cultivated in his tastes, familiar through travel
with the men and the society of many climes, and casting over all the mellow hues of a highly-wrought imagination, there are few works more fascinating than the
one now translated. Published thirty-seven years ago,
if it has any application to our own great national crisis
it will be without any party spirit, and wholly on
impersonal and philosophical grounds.
Like all political prophets, M. de Bonstetten was
greatly mistaken with regard to this country. The perpetuity of its unbroken unity was too dazzling to his
eyes not to delude him. Any prophecy based on tile
institutions of a country, and not on the moral and intel



Vi                   PREFACE.
lectual condition of its people, is likely to be purblind.
It is necessary to have a great mastery over the past
and present condition of things to have much keen
insight into the future. Our imagination travels much
faster than our civilizing tendencies, and the real ever
lags behind the ideal.
Our author attaches much importance to the modifications which climate superinduces upon our inborn
faculties, and not, it would seem, without reason. But
whether men are sufficiently sober in their judgments to
make allowances for such things is an open question.
The perusal, however, of our author's work will prove
highly instructive and suggestive, and may lead to a
more liberal view of the differences which exist between
masses of men apparently of the same race. As there
are different avenues that lead to heaven, there may be
different means of arriving at political perfection. The
attempt to cast everything through the same mould, to
force all through the same orbit, may serve conventional
purposes, but is not very descriptive of the real lines of
motion peculiar to humanity. The standard of human
judgment must advance with the growth of society if
we would avoid the dead level of Chinese immobility.
If the work now translated will in any way aid to this
end, the labor of the translator will be more than compensated.




CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
TIHE TWO CLIMATES,..        9
CHAPTER I.
AGRICULTURE,......                      21
CHAPTER II.
LIBERTY.......  27
CHAPTER III.
INDIFFERENCE TO THE FUTURE,...  34
CHAPTER IV.
RELIGION...                             38
CHAPTER V.
OPINIONS, FASHIONS, CUSTOMS, COTERIES,.  40
CHAPTER VI.
MENDICITY,.......50
CHAPTER VII.
HABIT,.......  51
CHAPTER VIII.
POESY,.......  54
CHAPTER IX.
SUICIDE,                                 60
CHAPTER X.
DRUNKENNESS,..  63




Viii               CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
INSTRUCTION,......  65
CHAPTER XII.
LITERATURE AND CRITICISM,...  70
CHAPTER XIII.
SUSCEPTIBILITY,.               75
CHAPTER XIV.
A DIGRESSION ON PATOIS,..           79
CHAPTER XV.
LOVE...                               87
CHAPTER XVI.
CICISBEISM,.....   96
CHAPTER XVIT.
FRIENDSHIP,.. 101
CHAPTER XVIII.
COURAGE,..                           113
CHAPTER XIX.
CONQUESTS,....                       119
CHAPTER XX.
VENGEANCE...              121
CHAPTER XXI.
THE ITALIANS,..... 125
CHAPTER XXII.
EDUCATION,.131
CHAPTER XXIII.
TIHE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON HUMAN SENTIMENTS AND HAPPINESS,... 160
CHAPTER XXIV.
WHAT WE HAVE BEEN, AND WHAT WE ARE,
OR 1789 AND 1824.                   175




THE
MAN OF THE NORTH
AND
THEE MANN OF THE SOUTH.
THE TWO CLIMATES.
THE  effect of climate on man has often
struck me as a subject imperfectly comprehended. Climate is but one of the many
causes that affect man; its influence, though
always operative, is felt but gradually through
effects which sometimes would appear to be
foreign to it. To all the regulations made
to guard against it, it occasionally yields;
religious' enthusiasm, attaining to a certain
degree, modifies its influence; even opinions




10     TlE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
purely philosophical, like those of the Stoics,
may override it.  Moreover, what is North
and South when the question of climate occurs? A polar altitude is but one element
of climate, and a vertical altitude another.
Both Greenland and Lapland may be found
among the Swiss Alps, and if Northern people
prized sheltered localities more, we would
sometimes encounter in the North the climate
of Italy. Has not the Reformation appeared
here and there in Southern mountains, and do
we not find despotism existing in the North?
Man's history is like a piece of tapestry
on which diverse colored threads appear
and disappear as they traverse the -meshes
of its woof.  Climate is a thread  of this
description, appearing and disappearing at the
bidding of the great disposer of all things.
In discussing facts due to a multiplicity of
causes, it sometimes happens that one cause
becomes isolated, which, in the nature of things,
cannot act independently. Human actions
never being wholly traceable to climatic agency,
we must possess full knowledge of every cause
affecting them before we can assign to any a
special influence.  Until this knowledge is
obtained abstractions are pointless; it is neces



THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         11
sary to accept life's phenomena collectively, as
they present themselves to the observer's attention. Selecting the continent of Europe as a
field of observation, I propose to note some of
the modifications produced by climate on man
in that region.
The first perceptible effect of climate on man
in Europe is the feeling of renewed life, which
every'traveller experiences on crossing the
Alps to visit the south of Europe.' e is
conscious of a sudden change, and, if he is
watchful of his emotions, he finds himself
another being according as he is on this or the
other side of these grand barriers. On entering Italy its brilliant sky impresses him, its
luxuriant vegetation, and the garlands of vines
suspended from tree to tree above the waving
grain. The colors of the landscape vary, and
the mountains no longer present the same hue;
the deep valleys of the Alps are gone, while
naked rocks towering upwards in jagged summits seem to form a line of separation between
the two skies of Italy and Switzerland. The
tones of a musical and sonorous language fill
the ear, accompanied with ceaseless pantomime,
and a mobility of expression which excites
the astonishment of the Man of the North.




12     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
The sky of the South at night is often of a
deep blue, its dark mantle glittering with innumerable stars, whilst the Northern firmament
is always grey, and, approaching the pole, as
lifeless as the desert soil beneath it. In Italy
the public worship and majestic temples, the
monk's dress and gay processions, the paintings
and statues, the sacred chants, the motley uniforms, the animated gesticulations of the people,
everything in short through which the senses
can affect a northern meditative nature, draws
the spirit away from self-consciousness, leading
it to act harmoniously with impressions derived
from outward things.
I know not why it is one experiences among
the Italians, a sentiment of personal independence never completely realized in the North!
There is in Italy no annoyance from curiosity,
while to the north of the Alps one is gauged,
and measured according to the petty standard
of every petty town he happens to pass through.
In Italy people appear to be absorbed with
their own impressions, to such a degree as to
leave no room for intolerance, everybody acting consistently with his own proclivities.
Add to this an expansion of one's nature, a
development of the organs through which they




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         13
operate, and a feeling of independence ensues
that never dies.
Pass the Apennines on the way to Rome or
Naples, and the characteristics of the South
become more marked. The traveller imperceptibly enters volcanic regions; he finds the
mountains, especially the rocks, assuming new
shapes. Instead of sharp pinnacles peculiar to
the Alps, he gazes on rounded summits, while
caverns of mysterious depth, subterranean passages, and catacombs filled with the dead, open
their shadowy portals before him. The lines
of the distant prospect grow soft and harmonious; the boundaries of earth and sky seem to
commingle; the seasons disappear in perennial
verdure, and vegetation thrives with the utmost
luxuriance.
The clouds of the sky of Rome display
mountainous forms and aerial valleys of surpassing grandeur, and in the rosy light of sunset
suggest visions of a magic land floating in
space, and radiant with purple and gold. On
summer nights dancing fireflies illumine the
woods and fields, flashing over them by millions,
concealing the earth as it were with a mantle
of stars. At Naples and again in Sicily the
volcano adds its magnificence to a landscape
2




14      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
already surcharged with richness. The smoke
from its colossal form rises in artificial clouds
grander, more poetical, and often more terrible
than the tempest-cloud; in a calm atmosphere,
as it rests on the peak of the mountain, a stupendous inverted pyramid, its dark o'erhanging mass seems to threaten the earth with its
downfall. Standing on Vesuvius' side during
an eruption I beheld the landscape of Naples,
its bay, the sea, and the islands, suddenly illuminated by the grand fiery jet of the angry
crater; as the fitful flame of deep ruddy hue
arose, accompanied with subterranean thunder,
the sea and land beneath glowed as if overspread with a carpet of fire; profound darkness immediately followed, and the earth trembled under my feet.
To such sublime spectacles add the vestiges
of former ages. the apparitions so to say of all
centuries arising in every direction, and in
every diverse form of ruin. It is not without
emotion that on approaching these your hand
rests as it were on the ages of Nero and Constantine.
Now pass the Alps from South to North.
On entering Switzerland, the traveller is struck
with the repose of its grand masses of moun



THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.          15
tains; their summits in the midst of the clouds
appear no longer to rest on earthly foundations.
Deep valleys with their mysterious recesses,
and crests of mountains lost in the sky, form a
solitude in which life is, as it were, suspended;
water is transformed to rock, confirming the
general aspect of immobility. The overhanging seas, composing the glacier region, exhibit
the forms of waves, but waves without action,
like all that appertains to the kingdom of death.
Even the features of the people of the Alps express repose; their laws and manners denote
immobility, every attempt at innovation being
received with horror; moral and physical life
seems to be paralysed in the realm of the glaciers.
The charm of Germany is due to its men of
learning, to its taste, to a respect for talent and
thought, and to a spirit of goodness and hospitality amongst the people. At Lunenbourg
the aspect of the country begins to change. It
is in the district of Lunenbourg that the traveller first encounters the lakes so profusely scattered over the vast surface of middle Europe.
In the swampy plains their stagnant waters intensify the melancholy tone of the landscape;
a lifeless expanse contracts the horizon., beget



16      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
ting a frightful sentiment of loneliness; it seems
as if the earth had dwindled away, and was
about to vanish in the dissolving mist.
In the Danish Isles, the lakes are surrounded
by green hills, dotted with majestic beeches,
willows, and gigantic alders, with numerous
flocks and herds, and a varied cultivation,
affording a pleasing prospect; but there is no
sublimity or mystery, as amid the defiles and
passes of the Alps. The sky of this climate,
always charged with vapor, never displays the
splendor of the sky of Italy.
Beyond the Baltic, the tops of the mountains
have crumbled by some mysterious convulsion,
and spread their debris over the immense
areas around them. Rocks still stand split to
their lowest foundations, the sea filling their
clefts with its waters, and projecting itself far
into the interior in the shape of numerous currentless rivers. In Sweden, as in Norway and
in northern Russia, many of the valleys consist
of lakes of still water, or otherwise form portions of the sea. The charts of Sweden and
Norway represent coasts indented with lakes
and deep river-like gulfs. Advancing northward we find the beech of the Baltic succeeding
the fir-tree; after the firs, follow immense




THE MAN OF TIIE SOUTH.        17
forests of pine decked with snow-white moss,
in which the Laplanders and reindeer obtain
their winter subsistence. The birch finishes
the series of the great plants of the vegetable
kingdom of the North, becoming almost herbaceous on the shores of the polar ocean. Here
life ceases, or rather plunges into the sea where
submarine pasturage supports the whale, and
harbors in the dark abysses of the polar waters,
a world of life unknown to man. What a
spectacle to contemplate these regions of night
more densely populated than the illuminated
world above! The color of the polar sea
proves it to be a realm of life, as a drop of
water contains myriads of insects; the smallest
of creation's products exists side by side with
the most gigantic.
The sky of the North, obscured during half
the year by clouds, is never but of a dull blue
even when most beautiful; in the short nights
of summer, on the Danish islands, only stars of
the first magnitude are visible, placed, as it
were, on a background of grey. The interval
between sunset and sunrise is a moderate twilight. I remember wandering through a wood
on a lovely summer night, and hearing amid
the surrounding foliage the low twittering of
2*




18     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
birds perched everywhere around me; these
sounds were scarcely perceptible, though harmonious with the universal repose of nature;
the mild radiance of the twilight, like the
music of the birds, seemed not to appeal to the
senses, but rather to a mood of meditation and
thought.
Although much less water falls in the North,
yet, descending in fine rain and mists, it is
much longer in falling than in a Southern climate.  Storm-clouds and thunder-gusts are
rarer, and display no majestic forms. The sky
of the North possesses no striking physiognomy.
The triple suns called halos are not seen as
often in the North as the aurora-borealis, which
again is not as frequent in Norway or in Iceland as in Greenland.
The cultivated plains of the North are
divided into extensive farms, presenting everywhere high inclosures of naked walls flanked
with earth and protected with trunks of trees,
surrounded by deep ditches. In the centre of
these vast inclosures arise square tenements
projecting above the bare surface, oftentimes
without trees or gardens, the wind whistling
around them  incessantly. Everything about
the dwelling of the man of the North betokens




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         19
loneliness; there is no sound but the monotonous moan of the blast; the eye rests on no
object except the grass-covered tombs of
ancient Scandinavians. The traveller hastens
accordingly to seek comfort in the most attainable retreat. Within the great square court
of the farm, sheltered from gales by its surrounding buildings, he finds every description
of domestic animal with the members of the
family mingled together pell-mell, presenting
to view a kind of terrestrial Noah's ark.
The immense expanse of the coasts of Norway and Sweden is more violently swept by
the winds than the interior of the country;
these coasts, bristling with rocks, and reefs,
lashed by a foaming sea, and unceasingly
attacked, mined, corroded as it were by the
waves, appear to be a battle-ground for the
raging elements. There is no sound but the
dashing of breakers alternating with the wild
shrieking of the wind. At the lighthouse of
Kulla the atmosphere is often so dense that the
lustreless sun resembles a blood-red moon,
appearing gradually to yield itself to the overpowering mist. No sooner has the orb of day
passed below the horizon than everywhere in
the surrounding darkness the roar of wind and




20     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
wave increases, raging with redoubled violence;
man apparently deserted by nature abandons
himself to emotions of fear. It is therefore
conceivable with what delight an inhabitant
of this clime retreats to his cherished dwelling,
his hearthstone, his family; to that universe
of enjoyment which in all ages and places the
magic of the heart is so well able to provide
for him.
In the foregoing sketch of the leading phenomena of the two climates I have endeavored
to present points of view adapted to the ideas
which I propose to develop in the body of
this little work.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        21
CHEAPTER I.
AGRICULTURE.
TIHE direct influence of climate on man has,
perhaps, been exaggerated by Montesquieu;
its indirect influence, however, is extraordinary.
What contrasts we behold between the rural
economy of countries in which the labors of
the field are continuous, and that of countries
in which the interval of labor is six, seven,
and even eight months!
In the South the variety and multiplicity of
crops is only limited by the labor, capital, and
time which the cultivator is able to bestow on
them; in the North the inhabitants give their
attention only to their fields and meadows, and
in high latitudes to their meadows exclusively.
Before the war with the English all vegetables
consumed in Norway, at Berghem and at
Drontheim, were procured from Holland; it
was not rare to find hay at Christiania imported
from Ireland. It is only thirty or forty years




22     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
ago that a now celebrated Norwegian introduced into his country the cultivation of
gardens. Again in our days (1825) the vegetable market of Copenhagen is supplied by
HTollanders transplanted to Denmark at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, forming a
little colony in the midst of a great capital,
and presenting the singular spectacle of a
foreign people preserving for over three centuries, the customs, language, and peculiarly
quaint costume of its former estate.
A simple system of agriculture, with time to
mature it, has, among the people of the North,
created a spirit of order which strongly contrasts with the usages of a southern latitude.
Observe how neat everything is about the
dwelling of the inhabitant of German Switzerland; how clean his wells and springs, how
substantial his stacks of fodder and manure,
how comfortable his folds, how trim his
gardens, how carefully pruned his trees; what
a well garnered store of fuel and how admirable the arrangement of his domicile. This
spirit of order which is noticeable on his premises he carries with him into the administration
of his family, and often into the public affairs
of his village. From this systematic course




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        23
result those well regulated habits which
constitute the basis of public security and
public morality.
The cultivators and laborers of the-south of
Europe, never subject themselves to fixed
hours. At HIyeres, in the month of February,
I have known washwomen to pursue their
avocations all night, by the side of a stream that
flowed beneath my window. At almost all
seasons of the year people drive carts, and are
going and coming at night, as well as during
the daytime. The custom of retiring within
doors, merely for slumber, prevents regular
habits from taking root. It happens accordingly that the house of the man of the South is
never the altar of his patriotism, whilst to the
inhabitant of the North it is about the same as
a shell to the snail-he could not exist without
it.
In the South, through constant occupation
outside their dwellings people do not concern
themselves as much about their subsistence as
the people of the North; from this proceeds a
habit of eating little and of eating badly, since
anything seems to be good to an appetite
sharpened by pure air and the cravings of
hunger. The kitchen of the South is often




24      THE MIAxN OF THE NORTH, AND
found beneath trees and under vines, or is set
up in fields and in pastures. Thus do we see
an onion, a bunch of grapes, a few figs, or a
little garlic, suffice to sustain the Spaniard, no
matter whether he is on his own soil or exposed
to the risks of the battle-field.
Clothing and warmth are almost as imperative
to the Northern man as subsistence. The man
of the South may well dispense with these, for
sunshine is often to him a substitute for heat,
and dress. To vanquish the inhabitant of the
North it is simply necessary to obtain possession
of his dwelling, whilst the man of the South
can exist wherever he finds the sun, a tree,
or any corner of the earth unknown to his
enemy. The Spaniard, again, is an illustration
of the great desideratum of the man of the
South, namely, that which is due to reflection
and forecast. His courage is unwisely directed;
he loses through lack of reflection what experience, rationally applied, would enable him to
profit by. On the other hand this very lack
of reflection, coupled with the ignorance arising
from it, serves the man of the South marvellously. A mind accustomed to reflection calculates danger, whilst danger to a courageous
man is completely ignored. The reflecting




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         25
man sees all and knows all, except the mysterious movements of the heart, and the fire of
passion which often constitutes the privileged
endowment of the man of the South. It is
evident by what I have first stated that the
southern man is disposed to act without reflecting, and the northern man to reflect without
acting.
In comparing altogether the Agriculture of
the North with that of the South we find the
North presenting a succession of crops, that is
to say, a process of cultivation in which calculations are based on the rotation system of culture; whilst in the South attention is given to
a uniform mode of culture, with due regard to
the quantities of anything produced in the same
region.
In the South, richness of soil and a fine
climate permit a greater diversity of production
than in the North, where climate excludes
many growths of great utility. And again, the
man of the South is not only rich in various
products but he has also leisure to bestow on
their cultivation; the man of the North on the
contrary who is confined to his dwelling during
the winter months, is so destitute of time that
he cannot devote much of it to labor. Most
3




f26    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
phases of national customs have their source
in agriculture. It is evident that the system
of agriculture in the North gives to the homebound man leisure for thinking, and favors
the growth of the imagination and ideas;
whilst in the South broad sunshine and the
senses in constant activity provoke thoughts
out of the depths of the soul to dwell in a
world of realities.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         2 7
CHIIAPT   R  II.
LIBERTY.
IT is in the nature of things that political
liberty, that is, the prevalence of law,
should be established among nations given to
order rather than among those given over to
anarchy. In regions where winter prevails
life requires more sanitary regulations and forethought than in the South; hence a multiplicity of laws and arrangements which a despot
may not violate without imperilling his people's
existence. In the North houses are necessary,
clothing, fuel to give heat, and provisions to
sustain life, in short, innumerable things which
the ruler is obliged to conserve. It is not
under an inclement and unpropitious sky that
one would think of felling a tree in order to
have the fruit.
Let not the forms of law be misapprehended.
No constitution, apparently, is more despotic




28     TTIE  MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
than that of Denmark, and yet no people are
freer than the Danes.* The revolution rendering the king despotic, having grown out of opposition to the nobility, necessarily forced the
monarch to respect the people. The principles
of every monarchy require also the monarch to
respect the nobles. It is, therefore, the interest
of the king of Denmark to protect equally all
branches of the state. Moreover the respect
for things indispensable to life, peculiar to man
in the North, leads to such complicated regulations, that, notwithstanding the constitutional
form of despotism, a certain degree of liberty
is a natural consequence. This seemed to me to
be the condition of Denmark in 1799 and 1800.
False ideas prevail in the South concerning
the nature of northern serfdom. When Denmark attempted to abolish serfdom the serfs
themselves refused to support the measure,
which shows that the institution is not so op* Danish liberty lies in the heart of a good king; but this
kind of liberty lacks some guarantee for the future. In fine
weather it is easy to navigate the ocean in a skiff, but who
would like to expose himself for any length of time in any
vessel without some guarantee against probable danger?
What well-disposed king would object to sanctioning the
perpetuity of a good administration I




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         f29
pressive as is generally believed. The portion
of the soil in Denmark abandoned to the use
of a Danish peasant is so extensive that any
Swiss farmer would be glad to accept it on the
same conditions as those which form the tenure
of the Danish serf. To give liberty to such a
peasantry would be tantamount to depriving
them of all sources of revenue.
Serfdom of this description was, at its origin,
the most natural thing in the world. Before
money came into use it was natural for the farmer to pay in labor what he could not pay for
in coin; money being but the representative
of labor, the latter necessarily existed before
the former. It is a remark of Dalrymple in
relation to this natural serfdom that history has
no record of the time when slavery was
abolished in England. Practically speaking,
the care and anxiety of this species of reform
is all on the side of the seignor, the serf alone
enjoying the inappreciable happiness of freedom from responsibility. When the labor of
the serf proves to be inadequate for his support
the seignor is obliged to repair his dwelling
and provide for his maintenance.
The evil resulting from this type of slavery
evidently affects the peasant less than the lord,
3*




30     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
and still less the state. A system of serfdom
greatly favors indolence and improvidence, and
to such an extent that society can make no
progress out of its infantile condition, but by
abolishing it. Previous to the existence of industrial pursuits, social habits were so simple
that actual servitude never degenerated into
personal slavery. Among the Germans, says
Tacitus, master and slave are on a level as to
habits and education, the great difference
between the serf and the freeman being this,
the former remains at home while the latter
goes forth to battle.
Industry once inaugurated, servitude became
odious. At the origin of slavery the cultivator
enjoyed a portion of his lord's estate, but
when the cultivator became an artisan, or a
trader, his new avocation no longer afforded
him personal security, protection for his property, or the rights of justice.
The abolition of serfdom, conducted in such
a way as not to injure anybody's rights, is so
difficult that although Denmark has labored at
this noble work for over a century she has not
yet accomplished it. The gradual abolition
of serfdom which we have observed in the
North, whilst in the South negro slavery is




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.               31
seen established by those very nations which
had banished servitude from their own soil
proves, other circumstances being equal, that
the climate of slavery is in the South and that
of liberty in the North.
Let us produce a body of nations before us;
let us cast our eyes over the last ten centuries
of history, and we shall find that despotism
becomes more and more burdensome on the
shores of Africa and Asia, while liberty
preponderates more and more in Europe, with
shades of difference in which the easily recognised influence of climate is everywhere
observable.
Great nations spring from a union of many
tribes; hence the origin of all nations in freedom; the smaller a nation the more it approximated to the paternal type of government and
the greater its liberty.* Traces of liberty are
accordingly found in all climates; but there is
* We see a certain degree of liberty preserved in Arabia
because on a desert the nature of the soil keeps man in tribal
communities. On the same principle we find liberty among
high mountains separating men into more or less distinct
societies. It was the instinct of despotism which inspired
Bonaparte with the idea of removing the great barrier of the
Alps by constructing his magnificent roads over them.




32      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
this great difference between a Northern and
Southern climate; in the North man's primitive liberty has been constantly perpetuated,
whilst in the South it has been extinguished.
Rome possessed admirable laws, but Rome
never had a fixed and stable constitution under
which all classes of citizens could repose in
security. The forum was ever a battle-ground
for the impassioned spirits of the imperial city.
How great the difference between liberty like
this and the liberty of the United States of
America, of England, and of old Holland, where
all efforts tend to preserve the constitution
which the people themselves have created. At
Rome each day's labor was devoted to destroying the work of the previous day. Contrast
the turbulent Grecian democracies with the
democracies of Italy in the middle ages, and
with the Swiss democracy! What repose characterizes the aristocracies of Zurich, Berne,
Lucerne, and Soleure! What factions at Carthage, always in agitation, like all the aristocracies of Greece and Asia, as well as the aristocracies of Italy in every age.
Notwithstanding so many facts demonstrating the influence of climate, it is no less true
that this influence is a cause so subordinated to




TIHE IAN OF THE SOUTH.       33
other causes that the most anarchical government of all was that of Iceland, while Sparta
and Venice underwent but few revolutions.
The liberty of man is in the ascendency of his
reason, the liberty of a nation is in that of its
law, which is nothing but reason applied to the
body politic. There is no development of
either except though a knowledge universally
diffused of the relationships by which good
laws are maintained among nations and sound
morality among individuals. To develop the
growth of reason should be the aim of all
governments, for with that growth liberty
exists everywhere, and without it nowhere.
A  representative constitution for nations
without enlightenment does not insure liberty,
whilst a constitution without national representation secures freedom so long as principles can
be universally diffused and provision made for
their discussion.




34     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
C H AP.T ER  I II.
INDIFFERENCE TO THE FUTURE.
-NDIFFERENCE to the future is a remarkable trait in Southern character. At Rome
and at Naples, indeed throughout Italy, it is
customary to consume the whole of the day's
provision, so that in the best households, and
in many inns, there is not a crust of bread in
the evening, and frequently not a crumb to be
had. Whatever remains of the day's supply
is appropriated by the Italian domestics, who
regard a surplus as their property. If strangers
prudently provide beforehand, by making purchases in times of plenty, the prodigality of
servants is such as to render their care a loss.
When servants do not, by some miracle,
expend their wages in advance they will, on
receiving them, if women, invest them in
trinkets, and if men, in silver buckles or entertainment at a cabaret. On my representing to
these people the inconvenience of having no




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         35
reserve fund for accidents, they gravely inquired of me where they could conceal money,
considering it to be the perquisite of robbers as
were their masters' stores for themselves.
Let the reader reflect a moment on the influence of a climate producing a harvest almost
every month of the year. It is evident that
precaution could not be generated in such a
climate! At IIyBres the orange trees would
be laden with fruit the whole winter were it
not gathered for exportation before it reaches
maturity; the gardens bloom throughout the
year; olives are gathered in winter; the sea is
almost always accessible, and birds are so
abundant as to supply both the poor and the
rich. Honey might be consumed at all times,
as the bees are constantly busy. In Provence
snails abound, and are prized by all gourmands.
Let us add that in the South the sun and the
labors of the field are substitutes for clothing
and fuel. I have seen an old man at Hybres
sitting all winter in the sun, amusing himself
singing the Latin terms of the service which he
had caught in his attendance at mass.
Oppose to this picture the terrible phenomenon of winter in high latitudes where death
seems to descend with the snowflakes. Imagine




36      THE MAN OF THE NORTIJ, AND
man buried alive in this vast tomb of nature;
fancy the long winter nights and blasting frosts
that accompany them! Preceding this universal lifelessness comes the falling leaf, admonishing man of his mortality.  The beneficent
streams and fountains are stayed in their
course; the tempest is loosened in its fury;
cultivation ceases long before the approach of
winter; the birds migrate, and all signs of life
go with them; in the desolate forests bears
and wolves alone remain their sole inhabitants.
The sea is inaccessible, and everything betokens
famine. The necessities of life and the means
of providing for them are as far apart as if
separated by an immense abyss. Abandoned
thus by nature it is no wonder that man strains
every nerve to anticipate his future wants.
There is accordingly for the man of the
North a season consecrated to forethought
and reflection; while in the South man has no
urgent necessity to interfere with or arrest the
play of his imagination. In this respect there
is an immense difference between the man of
the North and the man of the South!
The necessities of life in the North strongly
stimulate the thinking faculties and develop
habits of reflection. For self-protection in win



THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         37
ter, man constructs houses and procures supplies of food; a season of dearth brings
economy and provident calculation. In the
South, on the contrary, man lives from day to
day; crop follows crop scarcely requiring a
thought; foliage and flowers display unfading
luxuriance; the present is everything, the
future being lost sight of in a ceaseless activity
of the imagination and unbounded enjoyment.
Worship in the South is always dramatic and
entertaining; miracles transpire daily; whilst
in the North religion confines itself to the
future, drawing on the past for its lessons and
solely preaching to man the empire of reason
over the passions.
Improvidence produces indolence, which, in
a climate where the fibres of sensibility are
always active, and the mind always interested,
gives perpetual delight; whilst this same indolence weighs down a Northern nature insensible to that intestine vitality which imagination
alone can generate. An Italian woman will
remain at her window unwearied during the
entire day, simply glancing at men passing as
they happen to strike her fancy or not, whilst
a Northern woman would die of ennui.
4




38      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
C HI-1A-P T CE lR  I'V.
RELIGION.
ON comparing the religion of Northern with
that of Southern people we find a less climatic difference than in their phases of political
liberty.
The various sects of the reformed religion
that have originated in the North have never
sustained themselves in the South. It is
because imagination adds to faith, while it is
the nature of reason to abstract from faith
whatever is not doctrinal. Sects born in the
North are, like all mystic sects, the result of a
sentiment generated in retirement and obscurity,
and always introverted; whilst the religions of
the South, born under the bright rays of the
sun, tend to the adoration of external objects.
Mystics proceed from the heart to the object;
Southern nations on the contrary proceed from
the object to the heart. It follows accordingly
that worship in the South directs itself to




TIlE MAN OF THE SOUTI.        39
whatever affects the senses, and in the North
to whatever disposes one to contemplation.
Mystics love to fill the chambers of the soul
with visions, as Italians love to decorate the
walls of their temples with paintings. WThat
obstacles Moses had to contend with in preventing the worship of idols among the Jews!
During the Lower Empire the worship of the
senses in the South triumphed over the Iconoclasts, whilst in the North it is now abolished.
Christianity at its origin held to mysticism;
it was simply a worship of the heart combined
with a love of our fellow-creatures, particularly
of the oppressed and suffering. It is owing to
this that the reformers did not pretend to be
innovators. They did nothing in fact but lop
from religion the parasite branches which a
Southern sun had grafted on it. It was a
development of reason that led to a reform
through a protest against abuses. If the human
mind should ever again retrograde, it will probably retreat upon the domain of the imagination and adopt leading dogmas which, owing
to advances made by reason, are now  repudiated.




40     THE MAN OF THE N ORTII, AND
aC   _APT t E   Vq V.
OPINIONS, FASHIONS), CUSTOMS, COTERIES.
IN countries where the passions rule, the
opinion of a coterie, and of society, is nearly
powerless; every man being occupied with his
own thoughts has no time to bestow on the
opinions of others. Hence it is that in a country like Italy, the opinion of a coterie has the
least weight, whilst among nations of social
habits opinion is the god to which all render
homage.
There is nothing more remarkable than the
invariability of the laws, of the religious usages
and customs which, according to Montesquieu,
prevails in the Orient. This invariability
amongst Eastern people is accounted for by the
great influence which a wholly sensuous religion exercises over them. The more a religion
affiliates with the senses the greater the number and variety of ceremonial observances. In
countries where reason rules and not the




THIE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         41
senses, religious observances are all but null, or
at least, arbitrary; where imagination rules
they are woven into the tissue of daily life, and
are perpetuated by the clergy who have an
interest in maintaining whatever gives them
dominion over their fellow-men.
The people of the South stand in such need
of fixed customs that those who do not abound
in religious observances, as, for example, the
Chinese, draw themselves together by civil
practices, in assuming ceremonial codes as complicated as the religious codes of the ancient
Egyptians. It is by comparing the religious'
practices of the South with those of the North
that the great difference between the two climates becomes so striking.  Tacitus remarks
that the ancient Germans, instead of possessing
temples and statues, had consecrated forests
where the gods revealed themselves through the
reverential spirit which these sacred groves inspired. Deoruwnque nomninibus appellant secretun
illud quod sold reverentia vident. In the churches
of the North of Europe an affectation of nudity
prevails, as in the ceremonies of Northern mystics, an absence of positive form, to such an
extent that these holy men scarcely dare to
move, whilst the Southern dervish will whirl
4*




42     THE M1AN OF THE NORTH, AND
myriads of times on the point of his foot without stopping.
The religious faith of all nations is, as we
have seen, ever controlled by some dominantsentiment. Among all people superstition is
born of fear. The oriental Ahriman and
Ormuzd, the two geniuses respectively of good
and evil, arose out of the sentiments of fear and
of hope. Faith rests upon sentiment even
among civilized nations. Did not incredulity
at the English court succeed to the terror
inspired by puritanism? The impiety of the
Regency, was it not born out of the ennui produced by the asceticism of the aged Louis Quatorze? And do we not in our own day see all
attempts in France to revive religious motives
characterized by great sensitiveness to the impiety of the Revolution?
The great principle of the immutability of
customs and usages is due to religion. A
monk's garb is simply the dress of antiquity
preserved by custom, and ill the course of time
consecrated by religious statute. So ancient
are the forms of religious exercises that many
of those used in the mass are said to have been
practised by the Romans before the advent of
Christianity, for example, the manner of raising




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         43
the hands in prayer. Palmas ad sidera tendens
is no longer employed except in the service of
the mass.
How slight the connexion is between religion
and the superstitious faith of Southern people
appears in the circumstance of a gentleman of
my acquaintance at Naples, who had some pretension to intellect, denying the existence of a
deity, and at the same time believing in the
miracles of St. Januarius!
The money-making spirit which prevails
amongst the most enlightened people of Europe
tends to favor manufactures, and to vary
gradually everything belonging to fashions and
customs. The mutability of luxury singularly
counterbalances the immutability which religion is constantly tending to establish amongst
men.
Ancient Egypt was formerly the centre of
every religious usage, of every unalterable custom, and of every form of morals which religion could establish amongst men. We find in
our days the same immobility in the Indian
peninsula. Modern France, on the contrary, is
the centre of change in all those matters, presenting a singular contrast to the immutable
customs of the Orient. In France, nothing is




44     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
permanent but changes of fashion and diverse
modes of display. Fashion being simply a
love of elegance among the superior classes
naturally changes rapidly in order not to
become vulgarized by imitations of the inferior
classes. Hence a source of inconstancy which
often sweeps away customs, principles, distinctions, everything that reason strives to fix as
unalterable.
France situated between the glowing sky of
the South and the dreamy regions of the North
seems to present a happy fusion of the two
ways of living in these two climates. In countries where the passions predominate, man is
accessible only through the passions; in those
where thought prevails, only through thought.
It is necessary to prove to the Northern man
what you are obliged to make the Southern
man feel. The Frenchman alone is at once
accessible through the two avenues of reason
and sentiment. We find his mind accordingly
more open to all kinds of truth than that of
any other nationality; he may be susceptible
to prejudice, but, not being rooted, his prejudice will be less dangerous than that of the
man of routine, or of him who is under the
dominion of passion. Toleration is a natural




TIlE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        45
consequence of this trait, for toleration cannot
exist among men who never abjure an opinion
nor among those whom the passions sway and
who are obedient to the dictation of priests.
This same temper of soul, equally open to
influences of the head or heart, prevents the
French from being profound when no great obj ect
keeps them bound to an idea, so that, in France,
the same man may be superficial in his opinions
and yet become profound in his researches.
A nation always prone to influences, whether
of the head or heart, will be volatile in its
tastes but not inconstant in things demanding
constancy, since the sensibility which breeds
preferences perpetuates them less through habit
than through taste constantly kept in a state of
excitement. Such a nation is eminently social
because, accessible through the head as through
the heart, it has more to gain by intercourse
with mankind than any other nation. It will
also be remarkable for geniality, since it alone
possesses that tact which implies that man is
at once capable of thinking and feeling, which
dreamy or impulsive natures can never comprehiend. It will be carried away by novelty
since nothing will prevent it from constantly
indulging it.




46      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
When a little variety happens to be associated
with a taste for novelty there ensues a love of
fashion which consists much less in a desire to
possess any particular object than in a ceaseless
longing after variety; a thing is coveted less
for itself than as a substitute for what it
replaces. The taste of such a nation will be
perfect in ephemeral matters, and often mediocre in appreciating things dependent on profound sentiment. Accustomed to feel and
think simultaneously it will treat much on
matters of taste, and will badly appreciate
what can be but felt or thought. Its politeness
will supersede its principles, whilst the more
northern nations have more principles than
politeness. A nation naturally good soon forgets injuries, its benevolent sentiments always
affording an open door to easy and speedy
reconciliation.
A nation more volatile than reflective is incapable of being governed by a constant love of
an unwieldy constitution; it prefers monarchy,
because to fixed and just principles monarchy
often superadds a variety of forms; national
goodness combined with a lively sense of justice and order leads such a nation to reject a
blind and brutal despotism almost as naturally




THE MAN OF THE SOUTII.        47
as its volatility leads it to repudiate a spirit of
republicanism.
There is in the theory of moral sentiments a
phenomenon which, perhaps, has not yet been
developed. In every class composed of like
individuals, for instance, what is called a
coterie, a central opinion is formed which
gradually controls the entire body. As there
is a peculiar pleasure in cherishing sentiments
in harmony with those of people with whom
we associate, it follows that in exclusive communities a dominant sentiment prevails. A person may without any trouble differ in ideas
from those associated with him, but not in conventional opinions.
An opinion which is formed from the union
of accordant opinions is very noticeable in political bodies, as, for example, in aristocratic
senates. In these constituted and sovereign
bodies are formed maxims which when once
established in fixed laws no longer admit of
discussion. Like the ballast of a ship they
keep the great political machine in order, and
are valuable as long as the relationships on
which they are based, continue; when these
terminate they lead to political death.




48      THIE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
In reunions destined merely for amusement
every individual is judged according to the
standard opinion established in the coterie he
belongs to. It is not unusual to see persons of
merit become victims of conventional opinion
where mediocrity prevails, The more cohesive
and exclusive a society is, and the more its
character, good or bad, is developed, the more
despotic and proscriptive it becomes.
The spirit of party once fixed in an exclusive society it becomes impossible to cross its
limits, seeing that whoever would free himself
from it would be as one against many. But it
must be observed, that opinions being once
confined in a uniform circle, it is to be seen that
in this prison the strongest sentiments are swallowed up by the weakest, so that party spirit
tends to concentrate itself and to become more
and more restricted; all discussion, being
gradually given up in leading ideas, at length
becomes null. Hence the prejudices of small
towns, which are nothing but expanded coteries wherein every ray of knowledge is extinguished if it is not constantly renewed by
study.
The less an opinion is discussed the more
widely it is received, for it is discussion, it is




TMIE MAN OF THE SOUTH.       49
knowledge which circumscribes opinion. The
prodigious sway which dogma exercises over
ignorant minds is thus accounted for. A ruling
opinion no longer discussed is soon hedged
round with conclusions and insignificant opinions which at length overpower the mind and
ultimately exclude from it the faintest rays of
intelligence.
What I state of coteries applies to every
assemblage of men great or small. Political
bodies of every kind have their maxims; every
nation has its national opinion, its own peculiar
characteristic; each town, each village possesses
its own creed, its own dogma. But the
sciences, commerce, the fashions, and the
varied march of time and events constantly
break down those barriers which tend to isolate
man from man and to narrow more and more
the circle of their stagnant conceptions.
5




50     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
CHAPTEnR VI.
MENDICITY.
REGARD mendicity as ineradicable in the
South. There the impulse of pity is a standard need which propagates mendicity quite
as much as lack of employment. There is no
spectacle more remarkable than Rome on f6te
days, when the people display their picturesque
finery, and the beggars their exaggerated costumes in the shape of the most recherche rags,
in other words, the most disgusting ones, contriving to expose counterfeit wounds, limbs,
and sores, and oftentimes simulating the last
stages of death. A religion based on martyrdom is always fostering the sentiment of pity;
on grand f6te-days and on penitential occasions
it is as much a necessity for the devout to give
as for a beggar to receive. At the North mendicity can be regulated by the police and by
poorhouse laws, which is an impossibility in the
South.




THE:MAN OF THE SOUTH.        51
C H:A  P rTE   ~VII.
HABIT.
TIE spirit of order and the love of law characterizing the people of the North beget
habits oftentimes of an imperious nature. To
be constantly the slave of habit unwings imagination and deadens the spirit. I am aware
that the man of letters loves regularity in material life; but he loves it only because it enables
him to forget this material life and to surrender
himself to active and refreshing thought.
Except a few rare instances of men who control
their own destiny in spite of habit, a majority
of mediocre minds pass through life in monotonous slumber, awakening only when some unforeseen circumstance arouses them.  In the
South variety of productions, diversity of labor
rising therefrom, the habit of sleeping, of working, and of eating at all hours, the fact of not
being housed, of not being coupled with all
that surrounds us; divine worship, processions,




52      THE MIAN OF THE NORTH, AND
religious associations which are but a series of
fetes and spectacles; the habit of being engrossed by love at all periods of life, all these
aid, in the South, in expanding the imagination.
Habit is one of heaven's great gifts, since, in
the course of time, it alone extinguishes all sorrow. We become attached to our habits as we
advance in life through a kind of friendly
instinct. It is the opiate of habit which enables
us to descend to the grave so gently and imperceptibly as not to be sensible of our approach
to it. Subrepit non  irdtellecta senectus. But
when it concerns us to live, and not to die,
nothing is more destructive than habit, for it
robs us daily of some of life's consciousness,
converting us into mere moving shadows, incapable either of loving, feeling, or thinking.
When we travel, that is, when we cast off
our habits, time seems to expand for our benefit, thus indicating that a flood of new sensations has overwhelmed us and checked the empire of habit. On the other hand, in a uniform
state of happiness life fades away as if lost in a
thickening mist; we become insensible to its
joys, through the absence of everything to provoke its vigor. I have often admired the




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.           53
repose of men of fifty and sixty years vegetating hour after hour in caf6s and other familiar
resorts, without conversation and without
thought, solely occupied day after day completing the circle of their habits.
5*




54     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
C I-HAPTE 1FR  VIII.
POESY.
T]HE poets of Germany, Denmark, Sweden,
and England love to dwell on the beauties
of nature, especially landscape. They devote
themselves to this much more than the poets
of the South. The reason of this is that, in the
North, long winters produce a yearning for
spring, or rather summer, there being, as Tacitus
remarks, no spring or autumn in northern
regions.
In countries of perennial bloom the seasons
imperceptibly dissolve into each other; never
do we find in Southern regions those terrible
contrasts which, even when compared with the
summer charms of Lapland, a Northern winter
presents. De Buch gives a glowing picture of
a fine morning at Altegor, the most northerly
settlement in Lapland. " The weather," he
says, " was mild, the sky serene; and the sea
being calm and dazzling, was disturbed only




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         55
by the gambols of numerous whales whose
movements resembled sudden tempests. The
widespread verdure of the coasts, the attractiveness of the forests, and the innumerable flocks
that enlivened the landscape, all this was delightful." Delightful indeed, transeuntibus the inhabitants might exclaim, to all who, like him,
were temporary visitors. Only because these
pictures are rare do they excite strong and
ineffaceable emotions. Ilomer, Ossian, and
Milton, have perhaps been leading poets only
because, being deprived of sight, the memory
of what they had seen was embellished by their
regrets at no longer appreciating those emotions
whereof the habit, if they had not been blind,
would have robbed them in the long run.
One might be tempted to believe that in a
Southern climate there was more of poesy in
people's breasts than is found under the glacial
skies of the North. History however seems to
demonstrate the contrary.
Poesy supposes two things; sentiment to
give it birth called inspiration, and language
adapted to the expression of this sentiment.
With the man of the North sentiment is more
concentrated than with the man of the South,




56     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
and on this account, always nearer inspiration.
Under a Southern sky sentiment, in being confined to exterior objects, evaporates in enjoyment; under the dun sky of a Northern climate it is self-concentrated. The result of this
is that the feeling of the man of the North is
deeper than that of the man of the South who,
owing (as a compensation) to the pliability of
organs, possesses sooner a harmonious language.
Nothing is less known, even in this inquisitive century, than the customs, the language,
and the poetry of the Scandinavians previous
to the introduction of Christianity.* The religion, customs, language, and even history of
these semi-barbarous people consists entirely
of poetry, miracle, heroism, atrocious crime
or great virtue. The history of man is so confounded with thlat of gods, demons, sylphs,
and gnomes, the reality is so exaggerated by
the marvellous, that a picture of this people
seems like a drama in which fabulous giants
perform amid the sombre shadows and mysterious clouds of a tempest. The narrations of
the mighty deeds of the Icelandic Sagas are
half prose and half verse. But all this poetic
* Towards the year 1000 A.D.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         57
panorama is, unfortunately, poetry in the rudest
form of expression; objects appear as if seen
through a mist, the mind being allowed to conjecture more than the poetic rendering conveys.
In reading these Sagas, these poetic sketches,
containing so many treasures unknown to the
concatenated poetry of civilized people, one is
frequently tempted to complete them. It is
not because the polar nations were wanting in
a sentiment for beauty. In the twelfth century,
in the time of Saxo-Grammaticus and Snorro
Sturleson, no man in Europe wrote Latin with
more skill and purity than these distinguished
historians.
The advent of Christianity at the North,
and the introduction of a foreign and scientific
language (Latin) which immediately followed,
served to arrest the progress of these poetically
barbarous people in perfecting their national
tongue.
After the destruction of paganism these
poetic visions, to be found only in the narratives of the Scalds, only in the Icelandic sagas,
slowly and steadily disappeared. On the revival of a taste for the national idiom, after a
second barbaric period of four or five centuries, nothing but a rude language existed




58    TTHE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
which it required a long time to perfect, not
according to national character, but in accordance with a foreign model. The result of all
this is, that, through the retarded development
of the national idiom a higher order of poetry
amongst northern nations declared its birthright.
The relationship of words to thought is so
intimate and so delicate that every thought
necessarily leaves its trace in language, so that
the language we use is but the result of what
has existed for ages before us. But this series
of impressions, this thread on which thought
is sustained in language, breaks whenever
the native idiom is supplanted by a foreign
tongue. The native language preserves the
charm of association; it is eminently the language of the heart, of the season of youth, and
consequently of poesy.
The difference between the languages of the
northern and southern portions of the continent
of Europe is this: the Swedish, Danish, and
German languages,-have never been essentially
modified by conquests, while the languages of
the civilized people of the South have always
been affected, or in other words, mutilated by
those of their conquerors.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        59
The development of thought among the
Germans has been modified, if not retarded by
their imitation of foreign models; their language,
however, has remained intact, whilst the people
of the South have repeatedly lost theirs. Hence
the Germanic dialects harmonize more closely
with the national character than the composite
language of the South, a large portion of the
terms of which have neither root nor correlative.
To these drawbacks add that the historic
memories of the always enslaved people of the
South can have no such ennobling incentives
as the all but ever victorious and heroic people
of the North. I conclude from all this that
the languages of the South composed of dead
languages* have, for the people who speak
them, reached their final stage of development,
whilst the languages of the North, grafted on
living roots, have additional developments in
store for them.
The ancient Hiellenic tongue is the only one
that unites to the advantages which climate gives
to sentiment and thought the good fortune of
never having been affected by foreign idioms.
* Iberian, Celtic, Latin, Greek, Gothic, etc.




CiU    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
CI APT:ER  IX.
SUICIDE.
MONTESQUIEU was justified in stating that
Northern people commit suicide without
adequate motives, whilst Southern people, in
depriving themselves of life, know why they
do so. Suicide thus shows itself to be a disease
among Northerly nations, while in the South it
is an explosion of violent passion, the object of
which is rather to destroy the author of one's
trouble than to use the dagger against oneself.
I heard in Copenhagen that the suicides in
the kingdom of Denmark numbered over one
hundred and twenty per annum. When I was
in that city it was customary for every one
committing suicide to cast himself out of a
window, so contagious is example in this malady. I have never been able to verify a
single case of suicide during my travels in
Italy, although I doubt not many occur. There
is in the South an exuberance of life, an emo



THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         61
tional need which keeps every organ in perpetual excitement; there is a constant disposition
to enjoy impressions obtained through outward
things, like the bird which all sounds, all
objects, and all motions animate.
I shall never forget dining one day with a
young Englishman of a charming figure, rich,
and very high in rank, who begged me to remain
after his guests withdrew as he had a secret to
confide to me. The secret he wished to disclose consisted of an ennui such as to lead him
to think of taking his own life. I was then
quite young, and felt deeply impressed by
the contrast which his good fortune and weariness of life presented; I blessed heaven and
my father for having endowed me with a taste
for study, a love of life and of labor.
The habit of merging sensation into selfconsciousness, admirable when for purposes of
reflection, becomes injurious, when it is not
accompanied with great intellectual activity.
I have known mediocre men become almost
imbecile through the study of German metaphysics. The habit of detaching oneself from
outward impressions seems to paralyse the organs; the enjoyment of pleasant sentiments is
lost, while the sorrows and trials, inseparably
6




62     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
connected with life, assume additional force.
Freedom from want, always forestalled amongst
the rich, gradually extinguishes pleasant impulses in order to consign man to grief alone.
Ennui, which is but a trifling incident when
transient, becomes destructive when it is prolonged. It is easy to travel a quarter of a
league on a desert, but placed on the sands of
Arabia unable to find one's way, is an image
of him who becomes a helpless victim to ennui.
The man of the South is a stranger to all this,
whilst nothing is more common on this side
of the Alps, particularly in the North, where
long winters give to the mind the habit of
detaching itself from outward impressions, and
of turning inwardly on itself. Is not an empty
mind feeding upon itself, the same as being
condemned to languish on a desert?




THE 3MAN OF THE SOUTH.       63
C IH- iA P T E. Rt  X.
DRUNKENNESS.
DRUNKENNESS, much more common in
the North than in the South, is in the former a selfish indulgence which seems to increase
the higher the degree of latitude. Brandy is
the poison of Norway, Laplan(l, and of all people dwelling beyond the Baltic. Among these
people drunkenness is regarded as a sign of
wealth, as a badge of distinction which, however disgraceful, seems to flatter their vanity.
"I have something to drink," is a common
saying of the rich Norwegians ovcr their cups.
To hear the Danes one would suppose that
without brandy there was no such thing as
health or medicine. With the man of the
South wine is an ordinary beverage, which he
never abuses because it is habitual with him;
whilst the man of the North cherishes it as a
deceitful mistress which leads him to ruin.
Now that destitution (1810) often deprives the




64     THE IMAN OF TIlE NORTHI, AND
Southern man of the wine he is accustomed to
have on his table drunkenness is reviving, there
being many fathers of families who waste their
wages at a cabaret rather than share them with
others.




TIlE MAN OF TIlE SOUTH.        65
C II A P T ER  XI.
INSTRUCTION.
TITll very little instruction a Southern
man makes much more rapid progress in
the sciences than a Northern man. But in
order to effect this progress it is found extremely difficult to fix the imagination on the
objects of instruction. In the South all the
faculties are so active, there is such a tendency
to breed ideas and arouse emotions, that it is
hard to discover the precise moment of settling
a new principle in a young scholar's brain.
The mind, like the soil-and to a much greater
extent-is so prolific, that the more decided the
natural talent the more do the flowers and
parasites already rooted obstruct the teacher's
efforts. Once, however, the seeds of science
are planted, there follows a rapid and vigorous
growth.
In the North the mind inclines more readily
to reflection than in the South; and the ten6*




66      THE MxAN OF TIHE NOTITI}, AND
dency to subjectivity is much more natural to
it. But in fiosty latitudes the mind has not, as
in the South, that vigorous energy which
springs at once to the highest reach of thought.
In the North, method, time, and persistent
effort are essential in order to supply the deficiencies of nature. Comparatively speaking,
however, the mental productions of the two
climates are equal. The man of the South
strives to discard superfluous ideas, while the
object of the man of the North is firmly to
develop an idea. In the South thought must
be constantly pruned, whereas in the North it
must be elaborated by laborious repetition.
It is understood that it is of the sciences that I
speak, for, in the Fine Arts, all equality ceases.
The tropics claim so justly all that belongs to
beauty that the artists of the North have at all
times felt the necessity of a change of climate;
all those who have distinguished themselves as
artists owe their cultivation to Italy, or at least
have felt instinctively the necessity of living
there. When we shall have been taught to
distinguish better than we do now the faculty
of thinking from that of feeling it will be seen
how important it is for the artist to live in a
land where the imagination is paramount.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         67
In France the Fine Arts are, if I may use the
expression, much better reasoned on than felt,
while in Italy they are much better felt than
reasoned on. At Paris one is almost forced
into compliance with the taste of the day;
one is harassed by discussions about that which
can only be felt. All this is an obstacle to the
growth of genius which, in order to mature
itself, requires repose and retirement, like the
diamond whose crystallization is deranged by
the slightest movement.
Contemplate the privileged life of an artist
at Rome! HIis studio is so secluded that we
might almost regard him as an anchorite. The
windows shut out the ground, permitting the
sky only to be visible, ever clear and serene
except when varied by luminous clouds or the
dark canopy of a passing shower. The Apollo
Belvidere, the Laoc6on, the Venus de' Medici,
are the sole forms which fix his attention; a
few favorite poets are his sole study. The century he lives in is almost unknown to him.
Quid Iridatem terreat unice securus. When he
leaves his studio, it is to wander amid the
ruins of ancient Rome, in company with cherished phantoms with which alone he loves to
linger. Does he crave diversion he betakes




68      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
himself to some temple consecrated to the saint
of the day, and in a magnificent structure,
in the presence of the loveliest women, listens to
the music of angels.* Does he long to enter
an assembly of the Olympic gods he resorts to
an inviting gallery where the masterpieces of
centuries await his presence. The indifference
of the holy city to all things of a gossiping
character is such that, notwithstanding one is
in the midst of a great capital, he is more independent than if alone on the barren wastes of
Sahara.  The poor may live in Rome without
shame.  An artist of my acquaintance visited
Rome with thirty crowns in his pocket, and
supported himself for three years in some way
unknown to myself. On returning to his
native land he acquired a fortune.  Mentioning
the circumstance to me he exclaimed: " I am
ashamed of it, for my talent is disappearing in
the execution of insignificant works. Were I
not married I would immediately betake myself
to Rome and again enjoy the solitude and
poverty of my younger days."  Walking one
* There was formerly a f6te almost every day in the year
in honor of some Saint in some one of' the 360 churches in
Rome, at which there was music and assemblages of the most
beautiful women.




THE MAN OF THIE SOUTH.         69
day on the heights of Aqua Pauli in company
with an artist about to leave Rome I saw the
tears spring to his eyes on contemplating the
city from which he was so soon to depart.
At Paris an artist passes his life away listening to discussions on art, while at Rome he
lives only to see and to feel. At Paris ambition exhausts talent in subjecting it to the
caprices of false connoisseurs; at Rome an
artist's ambition consists only in surpassing
himself. Talent and feeling are interdependent,
the purer the one the more perfect the other,
talent becoming corrupt when grafted upon
alien sentiment.
In fostering the Fine Arts all that is neces
sary is to remove obstacles. Obstacles, however, often prevail even against the power of
kings. A  cloudy sky, a certain degree of
temperature, the nature of the people with
whom we are compelled to live, are all obstacles of an insurmountable character. What
is necessary to the artist is simply the privilege
of seeing and feeling the beautiful, of entertaining noble ideas, and of indulging in all
diversions that minister to his talent, and this is
precisely what Rome formerly provided for
him and what perhaps he may even yet at the
present day enjoy there.




70       THE MAN OF TIlE NORTH, AND
C II A       P T F tz XII.
LITERATURE AND CRITICISM.
IT is surprising to find among the works of
erudition  and  criticism  of the South  a
greater number of a mediocre character than
can be found among those of the North. The
Italians, for example, have issued innumerable
volumes treating of the remains of antiquity on
their soil, and yet without throwing much new
light on the subject.* With a few faint
glimpses and numerous citations the antiquaries of Italy produce long dissertations which
never amount to anything. Facility of execution in the south of Europe leads to the production of mediocre works. Too great facility
in speaking and writing is indeed a shoal on
which the lively imaginations of all climates
* When this was written I had no knowledge of the
writings of Visconti, who is the first antiquary of genius in
Italy. It is the misfortune of mediocre writers at the South
to drown their thoughts in words.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         71
are wrecked; the more numerous ideas are, the
more culture is necessary to give them value.
On returning from the south of France I
noticed at Avignon a cluster of neglected windmills, their wings still in motion but turning to
empty hoppers. Here, I said to myself, is an
image of Southern intellect when severe culture makes no amends for defects born of its
richness and vivacity. Erudites prone to publish are like these mills that move but grind
nothing. With a storeofill-digested facts, andan
uncommon facility in the marshalling of words
and ideas, many produce indifferent works that,
with greater labor, would compose good ones.
Less activity of the imagination, and greater
habit of reflection, secures greater solidity to
the works of Northern erudites. The danger
with them is relying too much on systems; the
same inertness which induces an Italian to
write without thinking induces a German to
cling to one idea which he believes to be general, and the Frenchman to adhere to the opinion
of the day.
There is one mode of literary activity the
Italians do not possess, and that is newspapers.
Facility in this line is a great danger for restless and impatient minds.




'72      THE MAN OF TIlE NOTHII, AND
The judgment of the man of the North is
generally better than that of the man of the South.
But if this superiority of judgment belongs
only to the want of imagination, it will have
too little scope.  When such persons pass out
of the narrow circle of their own ideas, no absurdity is too great for them. How many men
reputed of sound judgment have committed
grave errors in times of excitement by overstepping the confines of daily experience I*
Good criticism is evidently a fruit that ripens much faster in the North than in the South.
But when Southern nations bestow on their
talents the careful culture which they require,
we see them possess Quintilians and Longinuses which the men of the North have not yet
equalled.
Mental culture not only tends to augment
the number and richness of our ideas, but to
perfect the instrumentality of thought itself. In
a partial and chance development of our facul* The French Revolution illustrates this remark. How
many instances of excellent magistrates showing incapacity
in political affairs the moment they presumed to step outside
the circle of their daily duties I Similar results are visible in
armies where more men of system are so frequently beaten
by intelligent men without it.




TIIE MAN OF TIlE SOUTH.       73
ties, many defects both of mind and character
ensue. It is only by exercising our faculties
steadily, methodically, and conjointly, that they
become of mutual benefit.
A harmonious development of all our faculties, apparently serving the intellect alone, contributes still more towards producing that repose
of the heart which constitutes happiness. An
undisciplined imagination wearies and misleads
the man it agitates.  A  mental turmoil too
continuous hardens and exhausts the mind, rendering it sterile and incapable of cherishing any
desire for happiness.
The forces of nature in every direction seem
gradually tending towards unity and harmony.
All partial development is, consequently, antagonistic to order. A complete culture of the
mind, with that of the heart to correspond,
has produced the grand imposing characters
which stand out on the paies of history.  The
man of superior intelligence will accordingly
become the social type; he also symbolizes
the happiest man, for the virtues which seem to
exist for the benefit of others, provide also for
the happiness of him who possesses them, as
our vices, apparently acting externally, ever
react in some shape and wound ourselves.
7




'74    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
Men of every clime need to ponder over
these truths, active minds in order to excite
self-distrust, and less active in order to rest
their hopes on labor, method, and courage,
which alone form the true foundation of selfdependence.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.          75
Ca  A P T E A IR  X I I I.
SUSCEPTIBILITY.
THE inhabitants of the North confine themselves to their dwellings one third of the
year, deprived of all resources but those which
they find in their families. Hence the somewhat too meditative character of the Germans;
hence their taste for metaphysics, mysticism,
and the speculative sciences; hence their gentle
and affectionate attachment to those who know
how to comprehend and appreciate them.
Uniform habits, limited knowledge of the
world, and -but little friction with society,
joined to respect for rank and law, render the
Germans formalists, and give them defects characteristic of all German races. Their susceptibility takes umbrage at whatever is not
accordant with their prescribed forms and
usages.
Susceptibility is a weakness of character
little known in France, and still less in Italy.




76        THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
Passionate natures like those of the Italians, are
irritable but not susceptible; a predominant
feeling is too much taken up with itself to have
any link of connexion with that of others.
The gaiety of the French, their great sociability
and their self-esteem free them from this defect;
the English escape it sometimes through the
characteristic quality of their race, pride.* The
Germans, less passionate than the Italians, less
proud than the English, less social than  the
French, are eminently susceptible.  If they fail
to seize at once the import of a word, or the
point of a jest, they turn it over in their minds,
subjecting it to the ordeal of reflection. Now,
to isolate a word or phrase which owes its value
to inspiration or to juxtaposition with other
* There is an important exception to this in the large class
of English females occupying an inferior position in their own
country, who, in foreign lands, exhibit susceptibility in a very
foolish, pretentious manner. Instead of regarding people with
whom they happen to be thrown in contact in society, as
socially qualified for their company, they view them, if not
specially introduced to them, as exceptional characters and
unworthy of attention. This class of English women exhibit
their susceptibility still more ludicrously to their compatriots,
treating them disdainfully as if of inferior rank, being wholly
ignorant that the superior classes in England are most conspicuous for politeness and affability.




TIHE MAN OF TIIE SOUTH.       77
words is to change its nature entirely. Born
of a passing sentiment its meaning is not to be
judged at the bar of reflection, where it would
not be understood, seeing that sentiment cannot
be translated into thought. We may reason on
the outward relations of impressions and sentiments, but we can appreciate their real value
only in experiencing them.
The susceptibility of the Germans is noted
in the proverbial expression of querelle d'Allemand. In France no idea can be formed as to
how social life may be disturbed by the susceptibility which renders all gaiety perilous. This
defect is very rare in large cities.
To be influenced by some leading feeling is
the counterpoise to this susceptibility. I have
never contemplated the sublime constancy of
the Roman deputies sent to Tarentum  as recorded by Tacitus without admiration; grossly
insulted by a fickle and barbarous people, they
nevertheless appeared in the theatre before the
assembled multitude and acquitted themselves
of their mission, disdaining to make any allusion to the indignities heaped upon them as
they passed through the streets.
In German towns, especially where a patois is
spoken-that is, an imperfect dialect which has
*7




78     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
never been written-any indulgence of wit or
humor is impossible.  And as pleasantry is
often the expression of a cheerful heart, this
refined gaiety can never exist amongst men who
neither know what they -say nor what they
hear.
Susceptibility is one of the causes of that
gossiping taste which distracts small towns, in
which pretensions are as incomprehensible as
the meaning of words. In a small town where,
through ignorance of its own language, people
never very justly know what is said, and what
others feel, the shock of self-love amongst them
is like that of drunken men confined in the cell
of a prison-house.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         79
C IHAP TEIM n X I V.
A DIGRESSION ON PATOIS.
THE reader will allow me to make a digression on the disadvantage of neglecting the
study of cultivated languages. It is very unfortunate that the German portion of Switzerland, which requires but little to possess a pure
language, should be precisely that wherein a defective language prevails. French Switzerland
began to discard its patois nearly a hundred
years ago. I am at a loss to know how it is
that Italian Switzerland, much less cultivated
perhaps at that time than German Switzerland,
should have had a better language than the
neighboring districts of Piedmont and Milan.
The jargon heard daily in some of the German towns of Switzerland contains expressions
so coarse that I have seen the amiable poet
Matheson blush on hearing them fall from very
modest lips. The accent of the most enlightened
town of German Switzerland, Zurich, is so




80     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
harsh and discordant, the ear of the stranger is
so wounded by it, that one is slow in discovering
that these sounds convey ideas, and oftentimes
ideas of a high order.
Foreigners will scarcely comprehend that in
a majority of the towns of German Switzerland
there are really three languages in vogue, the
French, the German of the peasantry blended
with pure German (the dialect spoken in the
assemblies), and the unmixed patois. Out of
these three dismembered languages has grown
a fourth composed of all the others, similar to
the lingua franca of the coasts of Africa, which
is formed out of the diverse tongues spoken on
the shores of the Mediterranean.
But because in German Switzerland there
are two languages to be spoken at once-German proper and the patois —it does not follow
that they should not be learnt; and because
both branches of the German are badly spoken
it does not follow that we should neglect the
third, the French, which has to be brought
into play daily; this, however, happens constantly.
One of the first principles of education is to
learn to do well that which one is obliged to
do; and as speaking is the first object in life,




TILE 3MAN OF THE SOUTH.     81
and the most practical, one ought to learn to
speak correctly.
The idea which mediocre men, and those
destitute of knowledge and taste, entertain of
the art of speaking properly is similar to their
ideas of personal decoration, the style of which
they will ridicule if it is not shaped according
to that of their own country. They forget that
language is not an ornament but a garb suited
to all the emotions of the soul. Who would
like to be clothed in filthy and unseemly rags?
And if wearing rags that simply hang about
the body be loathsome, why should not language-so closely enfolding the spirit according
to some philosophers as to be confounded with
it —be of vital importance to those who are
given to think and to feel?
It is not always in aiming at correct expression, but rather in not thinking of it, that persons
skilled in language have produced those masterpieces which, like the letters of Madame de
Sevign6, and the fables of La Fontaine, have
delighted mankind, and which are more infallibly destined to immortality than works of
greater pretension.
One cannot understand how Swiss ladies,
generally endowed with so many charms,




82       THIE MAN OF THTE NORTH, AND
should attempt to learn music before purging
their language of its discordant tones. To succeed in this there should be no hesitation in
studying their patois, in order to trace the line
of separation between the accents of the two
German dialects.
I lament my ignorance of old languages,*
and would like to be familiar with the language of my ancestors. But to master a language is to be absorbed by it.   The patois
being spoken in the councils of German Switzerland, it is very important to have a knowledge
of it; I have no doubt that speaking it well
would insure more influence and greater
advantages in the councils than is generally
supposed. A report of debates by Frickhart
shows what this language properly cultivated
would accomplish in the mouths of Bernese
orators.t
* It is known that a patois is simply a language that has
been arrested in its growth at a time when the civilization of
the people using it became stationary. The use of French
by the superior classes of Germany has doubtless arrested
the progress of the German tongue. Civilization seems to
have borne itself along with the French language, as we see in
the case of Frederick the Great, retarding, as a matter of
course, the development of the national idiom.
f I question if republican institutions, far from being an




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.               83
Fifty years ago I heard it stated in Switzerland that the acquisition of a little Latin facilitated the speaking of one's native tongue.
Guided by this false maxim people are induced
to learn Latin badly, supposing that the little
knowledge they may have of it, will enable
them to speak their own tongue properly, to
the learning of which nobody attaches sufficient
importance.  And yet these Romans to whom
they devote so much study, declare in their best
works —Study your own language!  During the
two hundred years that the Swiss have studied
the Latin authors, they have failed to comprehend the precepts of Quintilian and Cicero,
which, applied to the Germans, mean this and
nothing more, Learn German!
It is by a knowledge of language that one
learns to think, and to develop one's thought.
Without a command of language what is called
aid in perfecting a living language, do not, on the contrary,
oppose its development. Should a member of the council of
Berne, as in that of Venice or Genoa, use the polished terms
of literature he would appear ridiculous or otherwise not be
understood. A republican system serves to develop a national
spirit, which is always a benefit, but in obliging a man who
thinks to employ the terms of a man who does not think, it
retards the natural progress of language.




84     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
esprit becomes spiritless and wearisome; sentiment itself would in the long run become tiresome, did it not oftentimes create its own language, always good, as the expression of the
heart. Were the letters of Madame de Sevigne
written in commonplace French the reader would
soon weary of her reiterated expressions of tenderness for her daughter, but which, as given by
this remarkable woman, seem to be always new.
A fine mind without adequate powers of
expression is discarded by society.  In ordinary conversation men affect each other only
by the graces of expression, impossible to be
preserved in gross and vulgar language. The
right word in the right place, the sole merit of
expression, is never at hand with persons
imperfectly acquainted with their language.
Every narrative becomes insupportable in the
mouth of a man who speaks badly. Humor,
which generally turns on delicacy of sentiment
and ideas, being a part of the expression in
which it is given, can never live through an
imperfect and unfinished language. From tahe
impossibility of expressing gaiety by words
arises that gross laughter and pantomimic buffoonery which characterizes the amusements
and enjoyment of the lower classes.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         85
It is through the refinement of language
that every nation participates in the general
progress of intellect. Contemplate the reverence of all ages, and of all enlightened nations,
for the Athenians-a reverence, which even in
our days consecrates the very soil that gave
them birth! When Athens had lost its liberty,
it was still protected by the splendor of its
name, and consoled for its downfall by the
memory of its past glory. It is to its language
that Athens owes all these advantages.
I am aware that some instruction in German
is given in the greater part of the schools of
German Switzerland; but this is not sufficient.
So long as a mother is ignorant of the language
her child should use, German will always be
a dead language for Switzerland. A German
theatre would be effective in communicating a
knowledge of that language.
*     X     X     *     *     *
The mastery of a cultivated language raises
the man who thinks to the level of the nation
itself which has perfected this language. To
speak well supposes a habit of attention which
is given to the thought itself; moreover, the love
of letters cannot be very strong without provoking a desire to write. And if the means
8




86     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
of writing are not at hand the love of letters
cannot exist, or if existing will soon be extinguished.
I know of few people possessing greater
natural talent than the Swiss, especially the
Bernese. Were the Swiss to cultivate the
German tongue they would soon place themselves on a level with their teachers. In fancying that they were only triumphing over a
language, they would really effect the greatest
of all triumphs-that of their own talent and
mental capacity, now inappreciable through
ignorance of a cultivated language.




TIE 3MAN OrF THIE SOUTH.           87
C iH A P Ti Et X V.
LOVE.
T is astonishing to see how Love in the South
creates ideas in the blankest minds. An'Italian woman in love overflows with exuberant emotions, and is entirely carried away by
the feeling that sways her. Her impulses,
chasing each other with the rapidity of lightning, produce varied and consuming fires which
prey only on the heart itself. Let love die out
in the breast of this woman, and her mind
becomes as sterile as the scoria of yesterday's
glowing lava.*
In the South Love appeals to the senses, and
through them becomes inconstant. In the
North it drifts into dreaminess, and oftentimes
constitutes the destiny of a whole life. In
* The heart draws its sustenance from the intellect, and
being void of impulse it becomes exhausted. We may say
that Love has no resting-place in desert hearts.




88      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
northern temperaments of this nature the senses
are affected only after the capture of the reason.
It is but gradually that thought yields to the
uncontrollable and mysterious power which
sensibility infuses into impulse; the rule of
duty is stationary, but its application is constantly changing. Hence the beautiful selfillusions which we undergo when in love,
which always result in self-complacency. From
this spring innumerable German, French, and
English romances, whereof love and the morale
constitute, nearly always, the staple entertainment, and from which the Italian romances are
entirely free. I speak not of the romances of
chivalry, in which Love plays but a subordinate part. Compare the romances drawn from
thle Greeks to the Nouvelle Teloise of Rousseau
and you will discover the difference between
these romances better than I can point it out.
If you wish to discover a greater difference still
compare Gessner to Theocritus. We behold
love in the young maiden of Syracuse, setting
on fire all her senses, whilst the mistress of
Gessner's young navigator becomes conscious
of love's impulse only inductively and by reasonings drawn from the history of birds. In
the South love, like a thunderbolt, inflames




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.          89
everything; when at intervals it sheds light
on thought it is like the lightning on a stormy
night suffusing the whole horizon. If Love in
the North burns into enthusiasm it is always
through innumerable reasons that it gropes its
way to the senses. In dreamy, languid natures
the delicate flower of pleasure blooms only in
the shades of thought.
Coquetry is born from the union of Love
with Vanity. This peculiar hymen is found
perfect only in France, where advanced sociability begets an ambition to please by all the
means that can secure distinction.  The love
of Italian women is too intense to be merged
into any other feeling; the emotions of English
women are cloaked from others through pride;
to have love glide into vanity the German
woman is too truthful, too honest, or too reasonable.*
When the wish to please is due to the first
impulse of love, the art of pleasing reaches
that perfection which is still perhaps characteristic of French society. It is only in France
that people seek to captivate what they love
* In Germany the term coquetry bears quite an odious
meaning, that of a shameless gallantry.
8*




90      THE MAN OF TIlE NORTH, AND
by the graces that distinguish them socially.
There is unity of feeling as there is unity of
sound. No intoxication is equal to that which
arises from seeing a beloved object the cause
of pleasure to others; the world then becomes
a temple wherein everything is redolent with
the incense offered to the object of our worship.
The art of pleasing, as all the fine arts,
reaches perfection only through the feeling
which actuates and inspires us. Nothing renders us more charming, it seems to me, than a
spark of love; and men of mind and taste
never more infallibly attain to the art of pleasing than when, carried away by this feeling,
they seek to rise in the esteem of those they
love by drawing to themselves social distinction. Let us survey all the motives, that is, all
the feelings which prompt us to please, and it
will be seen that the pleasure we experience is
always germane to the feeling which puts us in
motion. To please through self-love or vanity
is to counterfeit, seeing that we withhold that
which we promised. Ambition, when it tries
to please, is still more hollow than vanity;
there is a chill in simple benevolence, and politeness falls stillborn on the soul, its results being
little more than negative.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         91
A charm, to be genuine at its birth, can issue
only from a tender feeling, and what is more
so than love which alone binds together all the
beautiful rays of sensibility. It is the very
nature of love to give to manners the witchery and grace which carry us captive, and
which no feeling less ennobling than love
could replace.
The gift of benevolent expression, born of
love, diffuses itself like a perfume over the
whole of life. Friendship is dowered with a
charm also; it is even an artist, it even moulds
new forms, but being shorn of the power of the
senses it has less scope than love.
The amiability which we derive from coquetry implies a combination of love and vanity
which renders one of them active without
absorbing the other. An excess of love renders us indifferent to everything except the
object of it, and the disposition to please, impelled only by selfishness, would become dry
and barren.
Nothing sins more against the very name of
love itself than the notion of some sensualists
who degrade the noblest aspiration of the soul
to a mere carnal pleasure. Habits and customs
grow out of opinions, and the former are con



92     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
stituted by the latter; the virgin soul harbors
love only as a sentiment, with the degraded it
is but a corporeal need. All are true to their
tendencies, and each has a language to correspond; the one that of degradation which is
dead to human dignity, the other that of an
elevated nature which has conserved all its
dignity.
There is no word more profaned than that
of Love. What subject has been more overlaid with drivelling and babbling? And yet
how fathomless its mysteries! Does it not
seem as if our knowledge of any subject was
proportioned to the ratio of its distance, since
that which concerns us the most is that of
which we know the least? We measure the
quantities of sidereal worlds, and yet love is
a mystery to us!
Our feelings doubtless owe their birth to our
corporeal wants; we have all been drawn out
of matter. But the dignity of man is due to
his development and to his ascension from the
material to the immaterial. We now see that
his declension is due to his being metamorphosed from a state of dignified thought and
feeling to that of low animality from which
education and civilization have evolved him.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         93
Contemplate the corrupt ages of Rome and
France, and it will be seen that their ideas of
love kept pace with the degradation of their
manners, and that their theories of love everywhere corresponded to what they practised.
The whole dignity of love is involved in
this question: Are we to honor with the name
of love the seductions of the senses which we
share in common with other animals, even
with insects; or if the feeling which all cultivated humanity has baptized with the name.
of love is not the first instinct of our moral
nature, the great motor of all virtue?
There is an ideal in morality as there is in
art. This ideal is nature in its pristine state;
it is untainted feeling; it is the upright man
whom the breath of vice has not yet tarnished;
it is, in a word, youth become man, as the rose
of a beautiful morning grows with the hours,
and expands from its calyx into full maturity.
Such is man as cast from the true mould of
nature. When love first dawns on his soul
his heart cleaves but to what is good and virtuous; his soul swells with the highest aspirations; and if prone to art he will create beauty
as it springs from the good and the divine.
What is the well-spring of modesty and




94     TIlE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
innocence if not the inborn instinct of the two
sexes which spurns all love not flowing from
the soul, which is not clothed with virtue,
without which we are morally neither father
nor mother? I would ask every tender soul
if in the order of the feelings created in us by
love, the cravings of the heart, the yearning
for virtue in the cherished object, do not supersede all others?  What, moreover, by fallen
natures is designated love, is, in a soul on fire
with it, the most repulsive impulse if not born
out of the heart.
Mystery of mysteries is that great mystery
which ushers man into being! In the history
of the human heart do we not behold nature
striving to substitute the moral for the animal
man, a being of body and soul, to think and to
feel, and destined for higher purposes than those
of mere animality?
Our estimate of women is graduated by that
of love. Among the Turks, steeped to the
dregs in sensuality,. we see the greatest contempt for the unfortunate beings doomed to
slavery and maternity. The time was —happily now changed-when France approximated
in this respect to Turkey.
It is worthy of remark that esteem for wo



THE MAN OF TME SOUTH.         95
men has never been less than when the most
exaggerated phrases of respect have been most
current, so much does flattery ally itself with
contempt as well in the boudoirs of belles, as in
the courts of kings.




96      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
C IE-HAP T FI  R  X XV I.
CICISBEISM.
GALLANTRY  has introduced into Italy a
species of illegitimate marriage called Cicisbeism, which is much less the result of love
than of an indolent disposition common to both
sexes. In a country where the imagination
rules men court the society of women, especially
the younger sons of families, who, excluded by
their elders from following a career suitable to
their pretensions, pass their lives in participatting the indolence of married women. Society,
accordingly, presents the extraordinary spectacle of wives living habitually, to all appearances,
with men adopted by them after their marriage.
The evils resulting from this perverted order
of things are not where one would at first
expect to find them; and female gallantry is
the least of the objections to this system of
Cicisbeism. The great drawback resulting




TMIE M.:AN OF THE SOUTH.     97
from it is the destruction of the family. As
legitimate husbands never have any but illegitimate children, they cannot love these, while
the wives, devoting all their time to pleasure,
scarcely have any intercourse with them.
Hence the neglect of education, and an improvidence which threatens ruin to all noble families no longer sustained by the laws of primogeniture.
The source of this evil is due to the bad
education of women; I will not say of the
women of Italy alone, but of the whole of
southern Europe.  The convent education
given them is the worst of all. A French lady
informed me that in her youth, on reaching the
convent to which she was sent to be educated,
the sisters deprived her of all the choice books
her parents had given her, leaving her only a
book of prayers which she had to repeat in
Latin without knowing a word of that language.
Deprive men of the faculty of reflecting by
closing to them all the avenues of knowledge
and mental culture, and you will see their
attention turned habitually on the senses. It
follows hence that the soul dwelling, so to
speak, in the organs, all impressions will be
9




98     THE MAN OF TIlE NORTH, AND
more imperious and exacting. I remember
having been in the apartment of a young lady
at the Roman capitol, where for the first time I
met her, and of saying to her: " This beautiful
prospect must delight you." She answered me
quite naturally: "Oh, I prefer this window
(giving on a narrow street) from which I can
now and then see passers-by." In some of the
churches of Rome I have seen celebrated pictures in which the nuns had punctured small
holes through which they could see the men
who visited the church to admire its pictures.
Some ladies who had lived in these convents
told me that a young man calling to see these
pictures became the object of a violent passion
on the part of one of these recluses. Religious
education appeals only to the imagination
without giving any direction to the mind, and
provokes a desire for a paradisaical existence.
What would this bliss of feeling, placed in a
young heart, be if not that of love? Are not
the figures of angels and that of Christ the
most beautiful of all forms? What more
beautiful than the Christ of Angelica Kaufmann,
unless that of the fair Samaritan with whom he
is conversing!
Contrast the magnificent temples of Italy




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         99
with the churches of the North, where between
four dingy white walls, and frequently under
the pressure of extreme cold, the most austere
morality is preached, and often so ably as to
command our best attention and fix the mind
by every process of reflection on the necessity
of holding our sentiments in proper subjection
to principle. Instead of watching handsome
young men pass beneath her window the young
girl of the North, housed in the paternal mansion, contemplates only the frozen ground, or
in her chamber, listens to maternal discourses
on domestic economy, duty, morality, and happiness founded on virtue. The tortures of
ennui compel the men of the North, confined
to their firesides, to read, to think, to love each
other, and to occupy themselves with matters
of utility. In such a life as this, seductive
objects never obtrude themselves to entrap the
senses; instead of being busy with the world
without, the mind is absorbed with the world
within; and when, in short, there is no longer
any interest for it in surrounding objects, it
buries itself in reflection. In the South, on the
contrary, a variety of objects keeps the organs
of the senses perpetually active and excited,
whereas in the North they become paralysed




100       THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
through the little charm which external objects
afford them.*
* What is said above of Cicisbeism is no longer of any
value, as the French Revolution has entirely changed the face
of Europe. For twenty-five or thirty years the attention of
people has been, in great measure, given to public affairs,
everything else being secondary. When all interest in public matters is withdrawn, the same causes will doubtless
again produce the same effects.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        101
C H:APTER  XVII.
FRIENDSHIP.
I HAVE sometimes heard the Italians reproached for duplicity, but only by men
of the North who are quite as feeble in comprehending Southern people as the latter are in
comprehending Northern character. The man
of imagination is mercurial, and often in the
eyes of the man of reflection appears hypocritical or defective. An Italian, prompted by
politeness, will congratulate you agreeably to
the exaggerated mode of his country with protestations of friendship which you may take too
literally. Is he to be blamed for the inability
of others to comprehend his language and politeness?
It may be taken for a general rule that the
man of imagination is always an enigma to
those destitute of it. The two faculties peculiar to thought and feeling, the imagination and
the intellect, are so different in their manifesta9*




102     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
tions that as the one or the other prevails its
character is changed. Between the man of
reflection and the man of imagination Friendship is seen to be very different. With the
man of reflection it is stereotyped into order;
with the man of imagination it is rich with
exuberant enjoyment, though often fleeting.
Everything in formal opposition to principle
wounds to the quick the man of reflection, as
much as discordant voices of the soul wound
the heart of the sensitive.
It is remarkable to see the silence that generally prevails in the social circles of England
amongst persons knit together by the strongest
ties of friendship. In that lowering climate
sentiment and thought, always self-concentrated,
seem to be void of language. In a friendship
resting on principle there is a calmness, a
repose arising from a perfect conviction of being
loved, which seems to transform feeling into
contemplation. Were this metamorphosis not
interfered with by accidental causes which
renovate friendship, it would soon decline into
an ordinary compact.
In republics where men are constantly either
crushed or electrified by the spirit of party,
mutual assistance and support become a neces



THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        103
sity. This constant need of an offensive and
defensive alliance singularly evokes benevolent
sentiments, converting friendship into a kind of
bond, so much the more sacred that it seems to
guarantee public safety and every interest upheld by thoughtful men. I do not know if in
England or in America friendships exist between men of opposite parties; friendships of
this class, however, are exposed to such trials
that they are only to be looked for among men
of great integrity.
In a nation eminently social there are conventional friendships (amities de convenance)
which take the place of the political friendships
called by Cicero amicitice forenses. In France
liaisons de societe have all the external marks of
friendship; with ordinary minds they take the
place of it, and really promote it amongst individuals worthy of this feeling so common in
appearance but rare in reality. These conventional friendships are no longer to be found in
the south of Europe. They count for nothing
now among women in Italy. It seems that in
the South the heart is so interwoven with the
senses as to cause friendship itself as in the republics of ancient Greece, to take too often the
very nature of love.




104    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
If Friendship were to be estimated according
to nationalities I would say that a friendship
based on reason is perfect in England, as
friendship founded on the imagination is perfect in France. Germany seems to take a
middle course between these two nations.
Friendship is often as cordial in Germany as
in France, but not as much so as in England,
where it is constantly renewed by party spirit,
and made a virtue through the great interests
with which it is connected. In the South, love
so absorbs all erotic tendencies as in a great
degree to leave no place for friendship. Similar in this respect to exotic plants, Friendship
droops in climes where mental culture or fortunate circumstances do not supervene to keep
it alive.
A word on the nature of Friendship among
men of imagination. With the man of imagination sentiment precedes thought; with the
reflective man thought precedes sentiment.
We possess a logic of ideas, and are familiar
with the laws of analysis, of synthesis, etc.
We can analyse complex relationships, and by
this course attain to comprehension of ideas,
or rather of relationships. All this is as yet
locked up within the range of sensibility. The




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.                 105
problem of feeling remains so unsolved that
although we are constantly using it as a term
we are profoundly ignorant of its meaning and
tendency.*
I have seen friendships the most perfect
spring spontaneously into life, and last as long
as connexions the most matured by reflection.
It is because the heart is as germane to genuine
feeling as genius is to original conception.
* The relation of one idea to another is, so to speak, the
result of evolution. The idea of a triangle contains within
itself the almost infinite relationships of all triangles. But
the conception of a sentiment develops no relationships growing out of any meaning attached to that sentiment. We cannot study the effect of one sentiment on another except as in
music we study the effect of one sound on another.
To comprehend sentiment demands a faculty of observation
capable of rapidly grasping fleeting effects. This capacity is
scarcely ever given to great thinkers who are habitually
mastered by their faculties of reflection. Geometers, for
example, reasoning on certain data, often acquire a tenacity
of idea incompatible with the art of observing man's moral
condition.
The process of reflection is so opposed to the action of the
imagination that one oftentimes excludes the other. In order
to maintain a train of thought the action of the imagination
is necessarily suppressed. We feel indeed on passing from
the chambers of thought to the regions of the imagination as
if the mind were setting forth in a new direction, and yielding
itself up to new impulses.




106    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
The adage of " il faut se connaitre pour
s'aimer," seems applicable to men incapable of
friendship based on the immediate and intimate union of two congenial spirits. The
friendship of common minds usually rests on
similarity of taste or on a mutual disposition to
indolence. Our sentiments are as mysterious
as the tones of music. To what sources can
we trace those floods of sympathy which have
their reason of being in motion? There are
even in our moral sentiments deep-seated relations which chance makes known and inspiration unfolds; it is from  these relations that
arise the cordial and often durable friendships
of men of imagination. It is doubtless of these
that La Bruyere has said: " There is a point
in elevated friendship to which men of mediocrity can never attain."
Intercourse amongst the sexes leads to friendship of a peculiar cast. Whatever in love
transcends the carnal senses may be called
friendship. With the savage love is an appetite, more fleeting than any attachments
amongst most of birds. But as mental culture
advances love becomes more and more the
gauge of a constant and living friendship. In
the friendship that blossoms from love, this




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        107
first fire of the heart comes from nature; it is
nature herself which evokes in two souls the
tender melodies which without this first resurrection would have remained silent. It is the
resurrection of the soul which seems to determine the nature of our character. There is
nothing like first love to elevate or degrade the
moral being; did we know how to make the
proper use of it, it might become an important
means in the education of youth. To waken
the heart, to quicken the mind, to arouse the
social sentiments, to stir up that yearning for
happiness which makes us do so much both for
ourselves and others, all this belongs to the
first dawn of love, without which man is but a
blank, a mere automaton.
Friendship between man and woman has no
existence in the South because it becomes too
easily transmuted into love. This is much rarer
in the North than in France. There is not in
the North that delicate essence of love which
always renders friendship between the two
sexes so intoxicating. Even when the thoughts
of love are dead in the soul its memories are
always vital enough to hanker after the tender
ties whereof all friendship between the sexes
is composed.




108    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
Friendship between the two sexes is perfect
only in France. The Frenchman accessible at
all times both through head and heart keeps the
avenues of his soul always open; he is pleased
through the intellect, and pleased through the
heart. The sentiment that would ripen into
love in the South is not always in France suffi
ciently cordial to pass beyond the limits of
friendship, while in the North love after a few
aberrations lapses into duty. The Frenchman
alone is sufficiently electric to emit sparks
whenever a woman affects him either through
the head or heart. From this affectionate disposition arise manners remarkably social, and
which, as a result, never fail to strengthen character.
In the South people remain young too long;
in the North they become old too soon. The
Frenchman alone, and occasionally the German, placed climatically between the two ages,
seem to enjoy both.
The palmy ages of Rome and of ancient
Greece were eras of friendship. The polity of
a republic and the claims which it has on all
its citizens in creating a desire for mutual esteem
develops those benevolent sentiments which,
assumed at first, finally end in a full realization.




THE MIAN OF THE SOUTH.         109
What Ovid has said of love is true of friendship:
Scepe tamen verb finxit simulator amari.
In aristocracies ambition is a necessary evil,
because men in such a state of society are
either at the apex or base of the social scale.
There can be no principle of equality when
the ruling class is at the apex of the scale.
The constant desire of ruling over others, or
of waging war against our rivals, unfolds to
a remarkable degree every desire capable of
strengthening the party through whom there is
ascent to power.
In antiquity the republican form of government, in drawing men away from habitual
intercourse with women, rendered friendship
much more common among men than it would
seem possible to be in modern times.
The prodigious changes caused by the French
Revolution in directing the attention of all
men to national affairs compelled women to
attend more to their families than they were
accustomed to do under the old regime. Family
life was the gainer by it, while what is conventionally called society lost by it for a while.*
* In countries where good habits prevailed women appeared
10




110       THIE MAN OF rHE NORTH, AND
A higher degree of civilization, perhaps, in
associating the compulsory duties of the
family to the optional duties of society, will
link family to social virtues, more important
and consequently more binding  than we imagine.
The material bearing of everything having
reference to the future implies a concordance
of its constituents which leads to a final destiny.
In morals, where pleasure is an evil only when
it is out of place, it is precisely the same.
Relatively to the complete development of the
social man our affections could never be out of
sometimes to have lost the will to please, as if this will had
reference only to that which was repudiated by morals. It
is with society as it is with the soil —as we sow so shall we
reap; its gifts are priceless when one knows how to obtain
them, but, neglected, it yields nothing but weeds.
Starting from the principle that there is a fraternal link
between man and man, that each is a sound, a reverberation
of the great social keyboard, who would not be led to ring
harmonious changes on it were it only to avoid the discord
and pangs that afflict every man who despairs of himself?
Everything affects the man of sensibility: Living in society
we are always unconsciously open to friendship or hatred,
to pleasure or pain, to vivacity or boorishness; we are never
stationary. The skiff wends its way when the oars are at rest,
whilst an imperceptible current sweeps us away to regions of
anguish and care.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        111
place, as the accord between our tastes and
duties would be such that our pleasures, far
from disturbing the social order, would become
on the contrary the firmest fulcrum of that
order. It cannot be denied that we are on the
way to this destiny.
We are disposed to look with too much indifference upon what is called society. It is in
society that manners, I might almost say, laws,
are formed. With highly civilized nations
social reunions are weighty tribunals. It is in
order that they may be enjoyed in society that
men seek riches and the badges of ambition.
The man who feigns indifference to society is
seldom insensible to it. Who more sensitive
than Rousseau while in the very act of setting
at naught the opinion of others? A young
man on first entering society becomes virtuous
or vicious, stupid or intelligent, according to
the impressions he receives from it. It is to
society that the man of letters appeals; it is for
it that he becomes eloquent. Kings even covet
the approbation of society. Did not Alexander
make overtures to the Athenians? And if we
could recall the ever memorable Athens would
it be given over again to a vile rabble by a
second Alexander? Every man bows before




112     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
the final decision of that august tribunal called
society.
Let the reader reflect on the wars of the
Revolution, on the conquests of the French, on
all the upheavals peculiar to that time, and he
will be astonished at the humanity of the victorious kings standing in triumph before the
walls of Paris after so many cruel and devastating wars. It is to the universal diffusion of
intelligence, to French civilization, to the salons
of Paris, let it be said, that the humanity of so
many victorious nations, restrained and guided
by their commanders, is due.
What I term salon being but a concentration
of dominant opinion, is indeed found among all
nations. There are salons in Switzerland, in
Paris, and in London; wherever social life
prevails, there are combinations of the moral
forces of the community fashioning manners,
customs, and laws, and controlling the destinies of civilized humanity.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        113
C IHAI.P: TE R X VIII.
COURAGE.
THE people of the South are the most cowardly or the most courageous of men
according to the motive which they may have
of being the one or the other. When contending without purpose or reason they are more
alive to danger than either the Russians or the
Germans; but with a purpose, they will
accomplish, with equal discipline and tactics,
more than any northern nation is capable of.
From what should the feeling of courage
arise if not from the justness of the cause which
leads us to expose our lives? If the Southern
soldier is badly officered, if he has an unskilful
and ignorant general, or if he thinks he is
betrayed, he will be painfully alive to the
criminality and perfidy of his commander. It
follows accordingly that soldiers under an unskilful or treacherous general will be the first
to detect that they are badly handled, and the
10*




114     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
first to relax their efforts. And again, if their
leader should fail to show them the justness of
their cause, the soldiers of the South would be
the first to become discouraged.
The Roman republic was admirably constituted to ensure victory.  Love of country
deepened in Rome in proportion to the public
danger, so that reverses strengthened courage.*
Never did the Roman character attain to a
higher standard than after the battle of Cannae.
It was after this defeat-resulting in the cultivation of all the higher virtues-that the beautiful soul of Scipio was formed. From the
times of Caesar down to modern times there is
no period in the history of Italy calculated to
inspire its people with a high degree of courage.
For whom could Italy have fought-under
what chiefs and for what rulers?  And for what
purpose if it was not as Felicaia has saidPer servir sempre o vincitrice o vinta.
The Italian republics of the middle ages, constituted to inspire enthusiasm, often waged war
with hirelings, and to that extent rendered
* Livy remarks that the Spaniards displayed greater resources in reverses than any other nation, which is the case
in our day.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         115
themselves unworthy of victory. In these
trafficking republics military courage, in detaching itself from public virtue, gradually declined.
Among the Greeks, especially the Spartans,
and in ancient Rome, war engendered patriotism, and patriotism engendered a martial spirit.
There being an equality of disciplination
everything yields to the enthusiasm of the
people of the South, whilst in the North,
courage, sustained by reason alone, outlives enthusiasm, it being the nature of enthusiasm to
be transitory, that of reason to be enduring.
It is with the military spirit of the two climates as it is with the productions of the earth.
In countries where nature seems to furnish
everything man becomes negligent; where
there is a dearth of natural productions man is
fruitful in resources. The loveliest regions of
the earth present deserts, poverty, and personal
want; in lands where snow prevails there is
both abundance and a self-provident spirit,
showing that we must seek the priceless gifts
of nature in the soul, and that she unlocks her
treasures only for those in possession of her
golden keys.
In national wars Courage implies a love of
the state, and especially of its constitution




116    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
where there is one. In the last war between
the French and the Swiss some of the cantons
displayed remarkable courage, not, however,
in the defence of Switzerland but in defence
of their own districts. Berne, isolated and torn
to pieces, fought admirably for its aristoracy;
and Underwald, when attacked, displayed a courageous spirit worthy of antiquity. IHad the
Swiss loved the confederation as the people
of the cantons loved their local constitutions,
they would have defended themselves in a
manner exceeding all expectation. It was thus
with the Greeks, who, bound together by no
community of feeling, never defended themselves nationally, while the bravery of their
separate states is the admiration of all ages.
America, without a constitution, resisted
English power through interest in the safety of
all, out of which has issued a constitution strong
enough to maintain national liberty in combination with the independence of each particular
state. The first Swiss Federation grew out of a
contingency, and was temporary. No public
interest, universally recognised, gave life to the
political scheme of an hour! Never did the
nation maintain war as a nation; attacked but
once, its defence was partial and without unity.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.       117
The present union, scarcely adapted to the
necessities of internal government, will it provide and maintain the required resources for
national defence?
I remember dining with several generals at
Milan, at the headquarters of the commanding
officer of the French army (Napoleon being at
Arcole), when the conversation turned on
the fighting capacity of the different peoples
with whom the French had waged war. The
palm was unanimously assigned to a few regiments of Neapolitan cavalry, who had exhibited
more skill and bravery than the forces of any
other power. Twenty years later, however,
these same Neapolitans showed a great lack of
military prowess, because they fought without
a purpose. No northern army could have been
defeated like these Neapolitans; men of system
and reflection never would have abandoned
themselves so entirely to the feeling of the moment as these men of the South did.
Should the enthusiasm of Southern people
ever be found in combination with good tactics
their victories will be equal to those of the
French. In long wars, and under skilful leaders, an army becomes a civic body exhibiting all
the characteristics of true patriotism. This




118    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
was the case under Frederick the Great in the
seven years' war, during which the soldiers
became ardent and devoted citizens of their
camps.  Wherever and whenever circumstances or accident bring men together for their
common benefit, enthusiasm and love of glory
will be the natural consequence.
With the Greeks of our day we see a prolonged state of terror gradually harmonizing
jealous and barbarous chiefs, resulting in victory and independence to a nation as active
and intelligent as oppressed and unfortunate.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        119
CHAPTER2 XIX.
CONQUESTS.
jEGARDED  as a body the men of the
North have sought, in making conquests,
to establish stable communities, and to constitute legislative systems* so conformable to
their own character, that to shake their foundations would require a revolution unheard of
in the annals of the world.
There is this marked difference between the
conquests of Northern and Southern powers;
the former grow into nationalities, the latter
into segregations. The northern people conquer
as a body, and for the benefit of all; the southern people, on the contrary, are but the victims
and instruments of those who lead them to victory. Buonaparte's conquests were as personal
as those of an oriental despot. In the successive wars waged by him he thought only of
* Feudalism.




120    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
himself. Always alive to the inferiority of his
birth in the midst of the ancient European
dynasties, his sole object was to humiliate his
rivals. Between him and Alexander there is
this difference; Alexander contemplated in his
conquests the founding of an empire worthy
of a pupil of Aristotle, whilst Buonaparte
never regarded his victories in any other light
than as contributing to the establishment of
himself and family.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        121
C   A P T ER X:X.
VENGEANCE.
THE most remarkable trait of Southern character is a thirst for Vengeance, a trait especially noticeable among the inferior classes.
This baneful passion has scarcely any existence
in the North, and forms one of the sharpest
lines of demarcation between the two climates.
It is well to state that Vengeance is a passion
peculiar to people ruled by the imagination.
Every passion checked in its course produces a
reaction corresponding to its intensity. The
habit of being constantly face to face with external objects, without being attended with
internal consciousness, gives the senses a prodigious control, and consequently the passions
which they call out. In countries where the
administration of justice is slow, costly, beyond
the reach of the poor and feeble for all, man
thus placed claims the right to defend himself
as he best can. Such a state of things leads
11




122    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
finally to assassination with impunity. This
was precisely the case in the papal states before
the revolution and in the Neapolitan kingdom,
where the poor assassinated each other without
any notice being taken of it by the tribunals.
A thirst for vengeance is so peculiarly the
bane of people ruled by the imagination that it
prevails amongst all savage nations, with this
difference, however, that when the latter become civilized the natives of the North yield
to the control of reason much sooner than
those of the South who never fully yield to it.
There were no assassinations among the ancient
like those of the modern Romans. I doubt if
an instance can be found either in the histories
of Greece or of Carthage, because reflection
subjected to law all the passions subversive
of society. As I said before, the influence of
climate, though constant on man, is graduated
by the agencies set in motion by man to guard
against it.
The self-control of an irritable man in the
North is such that in many duels, for instance
those among the Norwegians, knives only
whose blades were a certain number of inches
in length were used; each combatant held his
weapon so as to inflict no deeper wound than




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        123
that which the stipulated measurement of the
blade would warrant. I was assured at Copenhagen that no instances were known of this
regulation having been violated, even during
the heat of the contest; whilst in Italy the
assassin always rushes on his victim in an
unarmed state.
Long, I might almost say, perpetual resentment is a distinguishing mark of Southern
character. In our mental theories we do not
perceive that memory is but the resuscitator of
our experiences, and that it always continues
the character of the faculty which it represents.
The remembered things of the imagination are
stamped with passion, those of the intellect
with calmness and reflection; we are exhilarated with the remembrance of that which we
have only felt; we are soothed, on the contrary, with every thought due to reflection.
Hence it follows that the man of the North,
more accustomed to reflect than to feel, draws
his feelings through his reason, and in thinking
of the object of his rage gradually becomes
calm. Feeling, therefore, is subordinated to
reflection. With the man of the South, on the
contrary, feeling, far from subsiding, is ignited
by every reminiscence, so that time, which




124     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
calms down the man of reflection, does but fur
nish fuel to the man of imagination. In the
Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini we see an almost
ecstatic state of feeling, which he records as
having experienced on seeing the time approach
for the assassination of an object of longcherished resentment. I know nothing in history which better signalizes the depth of longtreasured vengeance than the detailed narrative of this assassination.
The imperfect system of criminal law in the
South is another cause of the thirst for vengeance. In Italy everything seems to favor
the assassin. Religion, and in Latium the
desert wastes, offer him security and refuge.
The all but national thirst for revenge becomes
an obstacle to the establishment of good criminal laws, and it but too often happens that the
most necessary laws are the last to be established.




TIlE MAN OF THE SOUTII.       125
CHI APTER XXI.
THE ITALIANS.
N\OTWITHSTANDING the great number
of travellers who have written on Italy
and the Italians there are few people moro misunderstood. Like Sancho Panza's geese, all
travellers seem to have followed each other
in the same track. Pleasure-seekers have
lodged in the same buildings, employed the
same ciceroni, and retained the same valets;
all have been surrounded by the same rogues,
male and female, that haunt the resorts-frequented by strangers; there have been in every
town beaten tracks all leading strangers to the
same society.
In France and Germany, and indeed throughout the whole North, mental culture is often
the privilege of the nobility, but especially of
what was once denominated the tiers etat.*  In
* The professional, and the better portion of the middle
classes.
11*




126    THIE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
Italy the education of the nobility, generally
intrusted to lacqueys and monks, was formerly
so bad that they were not as a class superior
even in manners to the common people. Numerous exceptions to this rule might be found
in the larger towns. The few persons of both
sexes who have been instructed prove that
with equal facilities there is more mind and
talent in the South than in the North. The
mind of the two climates is like the productions of the two climates-the North has no
superiority over the South except that which is
owing to labor, method, and perseverance.
In order to see Italy to advantage, and to
appreciate the Italians, the traveller should
leave the beaten tracks and seek society among
those who are not familiar with foreigners; he
should mingle with all classes, and sojourn for
a time in the smaller towns. During my visit
to Bologna I happened to read aloud to a few
friends a chapter in Lalande's Travels concerning the character of the Bolognese. My valetde-place, who was present, appeared to listen
with great delight. On asking him the cause
of his pleasure he replied: "All that came
from me-I gave the information!" And he
repeated the questions put to him by Lalande




TIlE 3IAN OF THE SOUTH.      127
and his own responses. I learned through this
man that Lalande passed but a few days in
Bologna-and yet he ventured to describe the
manners, customs, and character of the Bolognese! This is the way in which books of
travels are written.
Some men of letters judge the Italians according to impressions derived from reading
Machiavelli. The nation has to suffer for the
vices of a few among the great, the standard
being the atrocious policy by which low, ambitious men, through craft and deceit instead
of talent, have sought to maintain their supremacy. In detailing the stratagems of the petty
tyrants of his day, as a mechanic would describe
a machine, Machiavelli exposed the secret
springs of the political life of that epoch. But
the picture he gives of these tyrants is simply
a portraiture of the tyranny of the feeble, and
not sspecially that of the great Italian nation.
The influence which large towns exercise
over smaller ones is less in Italy than in France,
where the point of centralization seems to control the entire nation, Hence the success of
the Italians in preserving their individuality.
Out of Rome there is scarcely an inn to be
found: your lodging is in the house of some




128    THE MIAN OF THE NORTH, AND
private individual, who, on the slightest recommendation, receives strangers with unlimited
confidence and in the most hospitable manner.
I once reached Palestrina (ancient Praeneste) at
night in company with five or six persons, and
before ascending with my carriage into the
town, I sent to inform the master of the house
at which we were to lodge of my arrival.
Although without a letter of introduction,
which I had forgotten, we were warmly welcomed by an amiable family, who carried their
kindness so far as to let us have the story occupied by themselves. On another journey in
Italy I was detained several days by an accident to the post carriage in a town (Macerata)
in which I had no acquaintance, and unprovided with letters of introduction. A banker to
whom I was an entire stranger, offered and
gave to me all the money I required to enable
me to continue my journey to Rome.
It is evident from these examples (and I
could cite many others) that the Italians do
not merit the charge of being distrustful and
inhospitable. Like all people led by the imagination they trust those able to inspire them
with confidence, and are mistrustful of those
that displease them. I have found the Italians




TIIE BMAN OF THE SOUTH.      129
generally more disinterested than any other
people I am familiar with. I imagine, however, that if they were to deceive they would
do so better than people endowed with less
finesse.
I believe I observed that people in the North,
through a sentiment of benevolence, perhaps
of curiosity, are disposed to treat strangers at
first sight with great confidence. This confidence is sometimes so blind as to lead to dangerous results through the distrust which it
begets.
In the South judgment is often the result of
a simple impression; in countries where the
senses are less alive than in the South people
judge of persons and things according to general ideas. With persons of strong imagination
ideas are subordinated to the senses; with men
given more to reflection than to the senses
ideas take precedence of the senses. It follows accordingly that the first are subject to
error, the latter to apprehension and prejudice.
A single idea is generalized by the man of
imagination. Like the Italian woman he says:
All ugly men are without merit; or, like the
French woman, the unfashionable man is a fool.
A reflective man, on the other hand, sometimes




130     THE MtAN OF THIE NORTaH, AND
applies a cherished principle to the first case
presenting itself without giving it the least
examination. Helvetius regarded all men as
impelled by selfish interests; Malebranche resolved everything into divinity; and Buffon
saw organized molecules as the materialists of
our days see ideas in matter.
In the North people like to indulge their
prepossessions; and especially to terminate
quickly all investigations that require the evidence of their senses. Tropical natures are
disposed to judge from feeling, or according to
what they imagine rather than according to
what they see. To place oneself at the window in order to see what is going on in the
street is the last thing, it would seem, that
occurs to a Northern nature; whilst the last
thing occurring to a tropical nature is to go
within himself in order to project himself into
the outward world.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.                 131
CH:APTERE XXII.
EDUCATION.
IF a history of Education* were to be written,
the art of rearing children would be seen to
grow with the growth of intelligence. Among
partially educated people parents follow no
other guide, in relation to their children, than
that of a blind instinct. The idea of shaping
a man's character, the power to subject his temper to principle, belong only to the most enlightened parents. Among uncivilized nations
children are entirely unrestrained; parents
never reprove them, and punish them only
* In Europe the term Education has a different import from
what it has in America. There the term denotes more particularly the effect of family and social life on individual character, the influence of morals, deportment, habits, and opinions prevailing within family and social circles. It is not, as
with us, confused with the term instruction, which there commonly signifies knowledge obtained in schools, in professional
occupation, and through intercourse with the world at large.
TR.




132    THE MrAN OF THE NORTH, AND
when in anger; when punished during parental anger the children are rendered afterwards
still more wilful by being abandoned to every
caprice that belongs to their age.
It is impossible for Northern people to form
an idea of the irascibility sometimes encountered in the children of Italy, and especially
among Neapolitan children. I have seen one
of the latter three or four years old in such a
rage that its bite was as much to be dreaded as
that of a viper. No angry outburst of our
Northern children can give any idea of such a
child, nor of the frightful cries uttered in its
rage. And yet nothing is comparable to the
gaiety of Neapolitan children during their happy moments. I remember passing an hour on
the sea-shore at Astura, watching two young
half-naked Calabrians about nine years of age
and but just landed from a Neapolitan vessel;
they were running about on the strand romping with each other and dabbling in the waves
of the sea. The antics and sports of our schoolboys may be called repose itself compared with
the agility and address of these children, and
especially when contrasted with the inexhaustibly fertile invention displayed by these little
savages.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         133
With such sports and in such a climate we
can see how exercises calling upon both mind
and body develop the whole system. It is
owing to this that the Neapolitans are such
excellent models for the sculptor. If the masterpieces of ancient Greece were due to the
genius of its artists, the artists undoubtedly
owed their models and inspiration to the gymnasium, an institution which could only arise,
and maintain itself, in a Southern climate.
H abits of unrestrained freedom, while greatly
promoting the growth of the physique, develop
the passions to a still greater extent. Children
in the South are never obliged t6 apply themselves to anything requiring close attention,
the result of which is that they become incapable of giving attention to anything except to
that which strikes their fancy. A  child is
taken to church, and if it happens to cross the
parent's mind a few prayers are taught it and
thus its education is finished.
In lands where winter prevails, children are
confined to the house for five or six months of
the year. Here, under parental eyes, they are
more or less affected by the climate, which
obliges them  to wear close-fitting garments,
and to live in circumscribed apartments. The
12




134     TIIE MAN OF TtIE NORTH, AND
gloom of indoor life and its restraints are more
favorable to reflection than life in the open air,
and that spirit of independence created by an
outdoor life in the South. All constraint, however, whether of body or mind, interferes with
perfect physical development.   Hence the
scarcity of those fine forms north of the Alps
which are so serviceable to artists as models.
Social necessities, likewise, and the division of
labor in manufactories and elsewhere, deteriorate the proportions of the various members
of the body. It is with men in society as it is
with trees in the forest-each takes the proportions which a little space and the adjoining
trees permit, the tree that has plenty of air
and sunshine displaying the most magnificent
forms and the most luxuriant foliage.
If there are irascible children in the South,
the parents are no less so. I have seen at
Marino an enraged mother dash her child
against a wall and stamp on it until its cries
could no longer be heard. Near the house I
occupied at Albano, a mother, importuned by
the cries of her infant in its cradle, would often
beat it until its expiring voice changed to a
kind of rattle, which, the first time I heard it,
led me to believe that the child was dying. I




TIlE MIAN OF THE SOUTH.      135
was told indeed that children frequently die
from this treatment.' The police take no notice
of such things, and the neighbors never meddle
with the affairs of others. This want of fellowfeeling in families is a characteristic trait of
Southern nations, mnd is due to the unsocial
qualities of their natures and to the habit of
leading an out-of-door life.
These irascible Southern parents, when not
angry, permit their children to do as they
please. So long as these children do not attack
each other, they can with impunity attack
everybody else, and, in many districts, it is dangerous to trifle with their waggery. We can
see accordingly how intercourse between such
parents and such children provokes the passions,
and how such an education is calculated to
check the use of reason.
There are traces visible, but in other forms,
of a system of education equally vicious prevailing in the most cultivated communities of
the South, and even in the best society. I was
one day dining at a certain large town, and the
conversation turned on the subject of education.
saving remarked that parents in the South of
France were in the habit of spoiling their children, there immediately arose such a storm of




136    THE 3MAN OF TIIE NOL1TI, AND
words against me that I was forced to support my
assertion with proofs. A lady present, who
sympathized with my views, related in confirmation of them the case of a little girl who,
on seeing a companion better dressed than herself, spoiled her frock by pouring oil on it, the
act meeting with no punishment whatever
from the girl's parents. She mentioned another
case, naming both place and persons, of a child
who took it into its head to box the ears of an
old peasant, who called to transact some business with its father. This child, wishing to
carry out its purpose, and finding itself unable
to reach the old man's ears, began to cry and
to stamp violently on the floor, until its father,
to appease it, finally raised it in his arms, and,
having obtained permission of the peasant, put
the little monster close to his head, and allowed
it to box away at its pleasure.
The ascendency which children obtain over
their parents is quite legitimate; it is through
this they acquire that superior tact and that
constant activity which is so peculiar to them.
It is an established fact that among all men,
and even animals, who live together socially,
some eventually obtain supremacy over others
by superiority of resources, quite as naturally




TIhE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        137
as fluids varying in specific gravity seek their
own level.  Perpetually active children, endowed with that nice tact of detecting weaknesses in a superior, always prevail over indolent parents, unaccustomed to the employment
of their thinking faculties, and, consequently,
deficient in well digested principles.
In the North, especially in Northern Germany, and in Denmark, the education of all
classes, but particularly the lower classes, is
very carefully attended to. It is especially so
in countries where the reformed religion prevails. I believe it is as rare to find men in
these countries unable to  read, write, and
cipher, as it is to find men in the South familiar with these rudimentary branches of education, without which no progress can be made.
In countries where there are serfs, as, for
instance, in Denmark, the seignors who are
obliged to support them have made it their
duty to treat them so well that the abolition of
serfdom proves to be much more beneficial to
the seignor than to the serfs. Under the
regime of serfdom the lands were not well cultivated, and the seignor was the loser. But
the peasant, who had no profit in his labor, and
who knew that his master was obliged to feed
12*




138       THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
and to lodge him, worked but little and worked
badly, even his own soil, so that everybody
lost by it.*
Since the abolition of serfdom the seignors
follow the noble custom of interesting themselves in the people on their estates as if they
were their own children. I have seen, for
example, at the residence of the well known
family of Reventlow, one of whose members
carefully superintends the interests of the peasantry, piles of copybooks sent for inspection by
the schoolmasters teaching in the villages of
that vicinity.
Religious instruction, it seems to me, is as
perfect in Denmark as it well can be. This is a
* The peasants had their own portions of land to which
they were fully entitled on condition of working the land of
their master. This system, in its origin, was the simplest
thing in the world. The seignor, instead of paying in money
-which he had not-paid for the labor of his peasants in
land, of which he had an abundance. The less commerce,
industry, money, and population there were, the better the
system worked. The peasant was attached to the soil, as the
farmer is to his landlord. But when, through the general
development of agriculture and knowledge, the resources of
labor became multiplied, this regime was found to be inadequate; the lands alike of lord and serf suffered equally, and
to such an extent that the abolition of serfdom became a
benefit to all




TIE MAN OF THE SOUTH.              139
great advantage, since, independently of other
advantages, it is the sole means of anticipating
fanaticism, which through the growth of mysticism seems to have spread itself widely over
England. An exaggeration of religious ideas
leads finally to incredulity, as is apparent in the
irreligion of the reign of Charles II., which was
brought on by puritanism.
There are two populations in Switzerland,
neighbors to each other, the one occupying the
canton of Berne, and the other the canton of
Lucerne.* The government and the climate
of the two districts are about the same, and
yet with a soil alike, one is poor, and the other
comparatively rich. On sojourning some time
in this region I was struck with the disproportionate wealth of the two divisions under
apparently  equally  favorable  circumstances.
* I know of no population more amiable than that of Entlibuch (Lucerne). A singular custom exists there. On a certain day of the year each village despatches to the neighboring village a sort of herald who announces that on the following day there will be sung to it a recitative of all the
folly committed by the said village during the past year. It
is rare that any offence is taken at this bit of humor. The
verses of these mountaineers are long or short according to
the power of the poet's lungs, who takes breath at every
ccsura. The Luceruese love dancing, and are good musicians




140    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
On a closer examination I found that this inequality of wealth had its source in education.
In Entlibuch, which is catholic, the people
were unable to write or to cipher, whilst in the
Bernese Emmenthal, which is protestant, everybody read and ciphered admirably. This single circumstance had sufficed to render the
catholic canton tributary to the protestant.
Ai history of Education would be a fresh and
entertaining subject. A respect for this first
of all arts would be found to be increasing with
the progress of knowledge. Sixty or eighty
years ago, in Denmark, the woman who had
charge of the children was of less consequence
than the one who took care of the hogs and
poultry. At present, there is no country in
Europe where the advantages of education are
better understood than in Denmark. Public
institutions and private schools are as carefully
attended to there as domestic education. And
yet there is perhaps in this country less education among the nobility than among the middle
class, which is a great evil.
To the numerous family reunions of Copenhagen, in which all ages are represented,
parents are ashamed to bring children badly
brought up, which leads them to look carefully




THE MAN OF TIlE SOUTII.      141
to their manners; children even learn to respect
each other. I know of nothing so delightful
as these reunions of people of every age. These
advantages, however, can only be appreciated
in countries where people have something to
say to each other, which supposes some degree
of instruction and broad sympathies, the vitality of which depends on knowledge.
The education of all classes in the South is
in the hands of the monks; and although the
clergy have not always lagged behind their age,
the partial views which they entertain, coupled
with their monastic culture, prevent them from
being good instructors. I have been amused
frequently in Italy, on seeing in the convent
corridors the representations of miracles with
-which the monks fill the heads of the people.
A history of these miracles forms a large portion of the element of popular faith.
The only education suitable to children of all
ages is the education of the heart; this education is combined naturally with the simplest
comprehension of man and his relationships;
through it the great principles of all true religion are finally attained.
A capuchin's instruction necessarily leads to
fanaticism. The man who believes without a




142    TIlE MAN OF TIlE NORTH, AND
reason cannot sustain himself with one. Intolerance is the inevitable result of a mind that
has exhausted its resources; it is owing to this
that men become irritated when the opinions
of others are different from their own. To
give the mind ample scope is to extend the domain of toleration. Monastic institutions not
only impart false ideas, but in giving the
mind a method inverse to that of the order of
truth, render it incapable of forming sound
judgments on anything. All the operations
of human  reason tend to this-to believe
nothing for which there is not a sufficient reason. To teach men to believe without reason
and against reason is to undermine humanity
in one of its divinest gifts, the reasoning
faculty.
The religious instruction of the North, in
not being intrusted to mendicant monks, gives
it immense advantage. So great is the influence of these orders with the people of the
South that one may truly regard them as their
only instructors. What the various orders of
Capuchins are to the lower classes, the Jesuits
are to the upper classes; between the two the
natiolal mind is deposed, which is impossible
in the North.




THE MAN OF TIIE SOUTHt.      143
Gallantry in Italy and in almost all Southern countries, having destroyed many families,
the children, especially those of the upper classes,
have been but too often abandoned to the care
of ignorant, superstitious, and vulgar domestics.
That which in the South renders the education of the people all but impossible is, that the
climate allowing the peasantry to be out in the
fields the whole year, their children are so occupied there during the day as to leave no time
for them to go to school. The Italians are
fully alive to the necessity of instruction. I
remember that having to settle an account
with one of their ostlers I asked him if he
could not give it to me in writing. He answered me with an air of pride: " Do you suppose, sir, I would be an ostler if I knew how
to write?"
There is a custom of great utility to be found
in the South of France, for example at Hyeres.
The mothers who are obliged to go out to work
every day leave their infants with a woman
whose business it is to take charge of them
during their mothers' absence, for which service
they receive the sum of one sou each. This
is about as far as the education of the people
of Provence has progressed.




144    THE MIAN OF THE NORTH, A.ND
I have stated that Education attains to perfection in proportion to the advance of knowledge. Man has made a great advance when
he knows how to subordinate his tastes and
caprices to principle. Self-sacrifice is not common to the poor any more than it is to the rich.
But a good education implies much less the
sacrifice of early impulse than it implies fulness of knowledge. There are few good fathers and fewer good mothers who would not
adopt with pleasure whatever they believed to
be beneficial to their children. There is nothing
more difficult than to perceive the relationships
between the child that we are educating, and
the full-grown and perfect man that we would
wish it to be. The father who permitted his
child to box the old man's ears would surely
have said: "The poor child is ill, very low
indeed,-it would not do to irritate it; —such
odd fancies as boxing an old man's ears will
disappear as he grows older." Moral principles
so often give way when brought to bear on
things of the heart, that if we do not observe
them instinctively, spontaneously, they are
gone.
The rich know little of the value of money.
The great advantage of wealth is to provide




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        145
us with means for acquiring knowledge, for
with knowledge we possess everything. But
this knowledge comes to us only through a
complete and finished education. The manufacturing classes are instructed through the
manipulation of objects themselves. A manufacturer's son becomes instructed in the fabrications of his father; through a knowledge of
them he acquires a fund of information which
his parents' example, his energy, economy,
love of order and labor enable him to turn to
advantage. The workman becomes temperate,
prudent, and economical, through the necessity
of supporting himself by his labor. Virtue in
him is due to his being a workman, while the
natural consequences of wealth are indifference,
love of pleasure, pride, and frequently contempt
for all mankind. Even were the wealthy to
escape all these perils in youth, they would not
surely escape that indolence which, by all nations, is very justly called the mother of all
vice. Nothing, accordingly, but a complete
and finished education can protect the opulent man from those vices which attach to
his position; naught, therefore, but the best
directed effort can place on a level with
his advantages, the young man condemned
1]




146     THE MIAN OF THE NORTH, AND
by wealth or rank to every corrupting influence.
I have often regretted that some of the more
important principles in the educating of children could not enter into the systems of instruction of both sexes, and especially in that of
women. Note the instincts of a young girl:
everything tends to make her a good mother,
and a good instructress. What care she bestows on her dolls! How she loves to caress
and to chide them! How patiently she strives
to teach them! Are not these so many indications of the taste of her sex for the office
of instructress? Give her children to educate,
and see the benefits that will accrue to her.
The defects which she cannot see in herself, she
will soon perceive in her pupils, and this may
lead her to think that she is not wholly free
from them herself. Children are, in intercourse
with one another, greatly influenced by the
behavior of their companions. There is no
better time than when this occurs to point out
the duty of one to the other; to teach children
their proper relationship to each other is not
less important than to give them their lessons.
The education which the father of Horace
gave to his son has excited the admiration of




TtIE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        147
all ages. Horace's father proceeded from precept to example. Were such a man reproached
as a miser, as a libertine, or as a spendthrift,
the young poet's father made the son feel how
degrading these vices were. Did the virtue of
another excite praise, he showed him the advantages of virtue, so that each precept was
fortified by a striking example, and to this
example was always attached the approbation
or contempt of others.
When precepts contrary to the inclinations
and self-love of children are directly inculcated,
they are never so effective as when the children
themselves can be made to see them in their
relation to others. To instruct one class of
children, through the instruction that should
be given to another, would at last end by
becoming direct, and this direct instruction
would draw their attention to their own conduct; and what is more, becoming fathers and
mothers, these same children, instead of adopting haphazard conventional maxims of education, would be in a condition to follow the principles practised and developed in their youth.
Opinions on Education are, in all countries,
so fixed that we cannot disregard them with
impunity.  At Subiaco, a town in the Sabine




148     THE MA~N OF THE NORTH, AND
mountains, I remember having seen in an
assembly of ladies, a child about six months
old encased in a body of whalebone like a snail
in its shell. I could not avoid laughing at the
sigh.t, and afterwards pitying the little martyr.
It would be hard for the reader to realize the
indignation of the mothers against me; and
when their indignation was over they became
so eloquent in showing me the necessity of their
course that, on leaving them, I was disposed to
believe that an infant without a body of whalebone would probably fall to pieces, seeing,
according to the views of those ladies, that the
backbone would break like glass.
The majority of men even of those called
reasonable, are controlled by the prevalent opinion of the town or country in which they
happen to dwell. In the South of France it is
a common thing to hear mothers say that there
is only one happy period in life-that of infancy;
and that children must never be robbed of this
by constraint or control. This maxim is taken
literally from Rousseau, without any knowledge on the part of those who use it, that
Rousseau's work Emile,* from which it is taken,
* " Emile" introduced some beneficial changes in the early
treatment of children. It discredited the absurd practice of




THE MAN OF THE SOUTIH.              149
is wholly opposed to anything of the kind.
Before Rousseau became in France an authority in educational matters, it was but too common to punish children. We have reason to
believe that when the punishment of children
was sanctioned by public opinion in France,
those who now spoil and pamper their children, would then have punished them, so little
hold has reason upon men, most of whom have
but merely borrowed ideas of her.
Education in early times and amongst all
people was confined to the family, and each
family living away from all other families, the
education of children consisted of nothing but
an imitation of what was seen amongst the
parents; at a late period'it would seem that
each family gradually took the particular turn
swaddling infants like mummies, to the manifest injury of
their tender limbs; it induced mothers of the higher ranks to
suckle their children instead of committing them to the care
of nurses; it corrected several wrong principles of early education, such as that of ruling children through fear, of considering them as slaves having no will of their own, and of
terrifying them by absurd stories and fables; it inculcated
freedom of body and mind, the necessity of amusement and
relaxation, of appealing to the feelings of children, of treating them like rational beings. Rousseau may be truly called
the benefactor of children.  Gallery of Portraits.  Tr.
13 




150      THE MIAN OF THE NORTH, AND
which each profession adopted. We see in the
comedies of Moli$ere that there was a time in
France when all classes and professions in society had marked habits, manners, costumes,
and a distinctive language.* The lawyer, the
courtier, the soldier, the physician, the partisan,
the devotee, without including Messrs. Purgon,
seem to those of the present day to be caricatures, whilst in their generation they were so
many living portraits. We see that comedy
was supplied with characters already formed in
the times of Moliere. Good comedy issued
naturally from the sharp contrasts presented by
so many distinct classes of men. The habits
and costumes with which each class was labelled, so to say, necessarily affected personal character, which at that time was more strongly
defined than at present, just as a wild animal
possesses more defined characteristics than the
same animal domesticated. Again, the sharply
defined manners of the age of Moliere were
* The first thing the spectator notices [in the middle age
period] is the distinction of the several classes by their several costumes. He can tell at a glance the calling of a man
from the color and other qualities of his dress. The gentleman is not confounded with the trader, nor the pert apprentice with the finished craftsman. Secularia. Tr.




THE MAN OF TliE SOUTH.         151
better adapted than those of our day to comedy
of the school of Plautus and Aristophanes,
which seems to have arisen in an age equally
as prolific in caricature as that of Moliere.
One of the remarkable effects of education
in modern times, especially in France, is thus
noticed by Montesquieu: "We receive," he
says, " three descriptions of education, that of
our parents, that of our tutors, and that of
society; what we are taught by the latter overthrows all ideas derived from the former."
In France, more than anywhere else, a young
man found in society the instruction which was
to guide his future life. Whatever advantage
this species of education possessed is due to the
eminently social qualities of the French, who
better know than any other nation how to diffuse their ideas. A rapid circulation of ideas
is for the mind what a specie currency is for
commerce, a reliable source of wealth. Rarely
are ideas or money interchanged without profit.
The necessity in France of being easily
understood in conversation, prompts thinking
men to impart great clearness to the ideas which
they put in circulation.* It happens accord* A great deal is said about the perspicuity of the French
language. It is not necessary to commend this language for




152       THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
ingly that these ideas enter rapidly into circulation, and finally become current through the
use which is made of them.
its perspicuity, since all languages demand the same attention
in this respect as the French.  The lucidity of French'authors is due to the social qualities of the nation, and not to
the language itself; it is their sociability which has made
their language a circulating medium for all refined people.
Scientific terms are excluded from it; logical formulas and
labored processes of reasoning are also avoided; long phrases
are rarely tolerated, these being reserved, very properly, for
passionate outbreaks. Tedious periods, like those of the German, the Latin, and the Italian languages, with the verb at
the end of the sentence, to bind together a group of incidental
phrases, are contrary to the impatient spirit of conversation.
This spirit is essentially dependent on tact; it supposes a
quick perception of that which inspires conversation, and of
that which demands silence; it supposes a mind capable of
attending to two things at once, the subject itself, and the
sentiment of the speaker. Women, and sometimes great
men, are remarkable for this twofold capacity. It excludes
long phrases, as being better calculated for the tribune than
for the salon.
The great sociability of the French nation naturally gives
a conversational form to its language, and as language exercises a secret influence on ideas, it serves in its turn to render
the nation sociable.
No language is richer than the French in conversational
material; none possesses such a fund of well-turned phrases;
we also see, in almost all European countries, that ceremonial
terms, and everytfiing belonging to polite society, are expressed in French phraseology.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.                 153
The habit of frequenting social circles had on
the youth of France a singular effect, particularly on their manners.
Another cause of the perspicuity of the French language is
owing to the general prevalence of conversation, which gives
the inappreciable advantage of testing the effect of one's
phraseology, an effect that never can be imagined if one has
not experienced it.
In order to insure the success of a work in France, it must
be put, so to say, on a conversational footing with the nation.
The verdict of society in Paris is the law of the empire. To
secure readers a hearing must be obtained of the judges presiding over this tribunal, who are at once the leaders of society
and the umpires of perspicuity in ideas and expression.
Where social tastes, however, are too exclusively prevalent
in a nation, language deteriorates through the limited range
of ideas that are current in what is generally called society,
that is to say, it becomes impoverished.
This impoverishment is one of the causes of obscurity in a
language, since the fewer its terms the more do the significations of a single term augment. The context and other collateral aids have to be brought forward in order to arrive at
the meaning of the term made use of, thereby adding another
difficulty to all the others. Again, some caprice, some particular fancy of a clique, fashion, in fine, may prescribe certain
valuable terms, or introduce others solely to express the ideas
of a coterie. The improper use of pronouns is another cause
of obscurity; these sometimes beset one like traps in a discourse, as if to keep one constantly on his guard, the reader's
situation being somewhat like that of a workman compelled
to operate with an inferior instrument.




154     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
It must not be supposed that politeness consists only in matters of mere ceremony. True
politeness has its source in the best qualities of
the heart. It teaches us to restrain envious
passions; it creates a habit of thinking of
others; it excludes everything that can wound
the feelings; it teaches us to forget ourselves,
and the expression of esteem for others is all
ready either in act or word. The language of
politeness can be in its origin only the expression of genuine feeling; when it ceased to be an
expression of true feeling its form was preserved both in manner and word.
When at a later period virtue was jeered at,
men degenerated into scoffing and ridicule,
and while assuming the garb of regard and
respect, secretly inflicted injuries on those least
expecting them. In short, the fatal flaw between corruption of manners and expressions
indicative of virtue gave rise to sinister thoughts
and robbed language of its mission and true
import.
When the whole French social system crumbled at the Revolution every factitious element
in society disappeared with it, and every man
returned to his natural proclivities. Out of
this order of things good arose to some and




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        155
evil to others, society remodelling itself, not
according to still undefined usages, but according to the transient phases of the Revolution
and the characteristics of individuals.  Language, manners, habits all had to be recast.
But as the intellect of the century, far from
being extinguished, was everywhere paramount
and untrammelled by impediments, intelligence
and manners gradually advanced, either through
the death of old superstitions, or by what the
mind, enlightened by experience and the generally diffused knowledge of the times, could
add to them. One of the leading effects which
this general convulsion produced, was to banish more or less all its dialects, by subverting
in language, as in manners and customs, almost
everything that pertained to France before the
Revolution. The conscription everywhere established, and war declared against all nations,
by banishing dialects left everywhere traces of
an improved language; the desire to read grew
with the increase of readers, and newspapers
became, almost throughout the globe, one.of
the necessaries of life.
I have to add a word on the subject of national instruction.
A true system of national instruction, the




156    THE MrAN OF T-IE NORTH, AND
only serviceable one, is that which confines
itself to imparting knowledge appropriate to
every man's pursuit. It is important that the
laborer and the farmer should understand agriculture, the gardener gardening, the shepherd
sheep, and the wine-grower the culture of the
grape. Instruction of this kind is alone profitable to the people, because it alone relates to a
class of ideas preliminary to each calling. It
is only on such a foundation, already prepared
by education and by the necessities of life, that
the rudiments of useful instruction can be laid.
A husbandman acquiring some knowledge on
a model farm will profit by it in subsequent
labor; he will get into the habit of analysing
the nature of his work; his knowledge extending itself more and more, will render his occupation more and more pleasant and necessary to him. It is the knowledge that is gained
by us in our own calling that will profit each
of us in everything within our own jurisdiction.
Those who think there is danger in instructing the masses, always imagine that the instruction given them will lead them to reason on
matters beyond their comprehension and foreign to their calling. The best means of preventing this evil is not to. allow their ideas to




THE MIAN OF THE SOUTH.       157
run at random, but to direct the knowledge of
each in accordance with the demands of his
condition. To suppose that men's thoughts
can be in one direction, and their occupations
in another, is to reverse the order of things.
Our object should be to confine the knowledge
of each man to his peculiar calling, to fasten
his ideas to the duties of his condition, and in
this way give greater stability to the social system.
The absorbing topic with the masses is how
to provide for the necessities of life. A man
unintermittently devoted to gaining his own
livelihood will always take an active interest
in whatever tends to improve his condition.
Any instruction that appeals to this end will
be the most profitable to him. It is in itself a
source of happiness, and it is in the enjoyment
it provides that pleasure is always found in
harmony with duty. All true pleasure flows
from a source like this, and the life of man is
not completely happy or tranquil without it.
That which constitutes the wealth of a nation
is not a few perfect farms, a few examples of
superior cultivation, but a universality of good
cultivation, one that implies intelligence universally diffused; as bread is necessary to every
14




158     THE BEAN OF THE NORTII, AND
village so are the means of instruction necessary
to every man.
In respect to the masses there can be no mistake in this principle, that useful instruction is
the basis of moral instruction. It is the instruction suited to the calling of each that gives to
man those ideas of order which are the foundation of justice and the source of morals. The
individual, quite as much as the nation, has his
measure of ideas. Ideas which tend not to
order, tend to disorder. To what use would
you have man devote his activity if not to the
good to which he attaches it! Ignorance is not
altogether due to the absence of thought, but
is, on the contrary, often'due to the activity of
thought abandoned to chance, so frequently
destructive. Seditions and revolts frighten
people, but are not these traceable to popular
ideas which are at the mercy of the passions, and
which interfere with the consolidation of society?
*      *       *       *       *
As a conclusion to this long chapter I shall
state that the great difference between the education of the man of the North and the man of
the South is this, that, with the former it is the
result of reflection, and with the latter it is due
to external objects.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        159
The man of the South will sooner attain a
high degree of civilization than the man of the
North; but the slower advance of the man of
the North will infallibly enable him to arrive
at rational principles. The result of this is
that imagination develops itself faster in the
South, and the faculties of intelligence in the
North.
The man of the North, in neglecting his education, will degenerate faster than the man of
the South, who will never be without the education of the outward world, and that of the
passions.
In the North the book of nature is closed the
greater part of the year, whilst in the South its
most attractive pages are always open for man's
perusal. Among the civilized nations of the
North the long winters are devoted to the
analysis of thought, whilst in the South every
month of the year is calculated to seduce the
imagination with its beautiful images.
In the South civilization ebbs and flows
rapidly. The civilization of the North, based
on principle, is slower in its march, but, owing
to a combination of science and reason, is infinite in its flight.




160     THE MAN OF THIE NORTH, AN D
C3HAPTEr     XXIII.
THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON HUMAN SENTIMENTS AND
HAPPINESS.
IN countries where the imagination rules ideas
flow more rapidly than in countries where
the habit of reflection prevails. With men
given to the imagination feeling is married to
the senses; with men given to reflection it is
closely allied to reason. In Italy one is loved
according to his ability to please; our early
predilections, in the North, are also due to the
senses, but as we are under the dominion of
reflection, it is imperative that the head should
sanction the impulse of the heart. To break a
tie in the North we must unravel in thought
the threads of the affections; in the South they
become detached through the senses. Hence
it is that in the North the sentiments are a subject of endless discussion, while in the South
to make feeling a matter of discussion is very
rare.




T-IE MAN OF THE SOUTH.           161
Habits of reflection in the man of the North
generate moral qualities which tend to render
the affections permanent. The tenacity of feelinog which results, therefore, is doubtless a blessing when carried into love and friendship, but
when carried into checkered feeling is a great
misfortune.  Feelings of an agreeable nature,
particularly those denominated pleasure, are
fleeting, while it is the very nature of sorrow
to be more lasting than pleasure. This order
of nature, in itself, is to be deplored; but
what is still worse, is, that when the feelings
of sadness are long increasing on the one side,
the capacity to enjoy pleasure decreases on the
other. I have often observed that persons of a
reflective turn of mind who have suffered much,
become insensible to agreeable emotions, regarding them apparently with aversion. This disdain of pleasure, however, which they affect, is
but incapacity to feel it; to propose diversion
to such minds is like proposing to a sick man
to dance.
Many false notions grow out of the inability
to entertain agreeable sentiments.* Thought
* There is no essay known to me which contains more
truth, than that on Happiness by Fontenelle. That portion
14*




162      TIHE MAN OF THE NORTII, AND
generally follows the bent of our humor-our
peculiarities of feeling, —or, rather, is controlled
by the dominant sentiment which inspires it.
In this dominion of sensibility over thought
amongst sad and reflective persons, we often
discover systems of gloomy ideas as destructive
in their effects as they are false in their principles. As we often see bats nestle within lofty
gables so do the most distorted conceptions
often seek shelter in the dark corners of the
most exalted ideas.
The true antidote to this morbid humor
(which frequently assumes the mask of reason)
is reason itself. A dreamy temperament is
owing to a peculiar structure of the nervous
system; now it is the province of reason to
guard our ideas from its undue influence by
modifying the range of the imagination.
The mind naturally inclines to that which
best promotes its activity. In the North, where
of Happiness which is in the power of man to attain, is composed of petty enjoyments within the reach of all and in every
situation of life. By bestowing thought on pure and accessible pleasures there is ever a growing appreciation of their
value. And what is of' still more consequence, a relish for
agreeable sensations is never lost. The effect of this is to
preserve the heart and mind in a healthy tone, without which
there can be no happiness.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTI.        163
outward objects present few attractions, the
mind gives itself up to inward contemplation; when this becomes incoherent it is idle
fancy; when it is employed methodically, and
free from the caprices of the imagination, i
becomes reflection.
To think is a pleasure in the North. It is
the necessity of every reasonable being in such
a climate. The inhabitant of the North, instead
of looking for objects of enjoyment without
him, descends into the recesses of his own
nature for his enjoyments. Outward objects
constitute the happiness of the man of the
South; the inhabitant of the North finds it
within himself. Like a butterfly, the man of
the South lives on the nectar distilled daily
from the flowers that grow on his own soil;
while the man of the North, on the contrary,
is the diligent bee who nourishes his mind on
that which he has garnered in seasons of sunshine and bloom.
Social relationships are paramount in countries where nature, during half of the year, has
no life for man. Whatever in such climates is
not appropriated to the demand of the outward
world is consecrated to social communion. It
follows, therefore, that the study of man and




164     THE AMAN OF THE NORTH, AND
his social relationships takes root much sooner
in the North than in the South. Men are consequently closely drawn together by the necessities of life and the need of mutually assisting
each other.
It is a Northern poet, in a poem rich with
sublime thoughts, who declares that
"' The proper study of mankind is man."
No knowledge so absorbs and satisfies the soul
as knowledge of oneself. Whilst every other
study makes us forgetful of life, the study of
ourselves renders us mindful of it. A man
accustomed to self-observation, discovers in
himself phenomena which light up the very
recesses of his being. We see the pleasure of
the botanist on discovering a new plant, and
the transports of the philosopher on discovering a great law of nature. But these satisfactions, though rare, are found outside of ourselves, while a study of oneself furnishes an
inexhaustible source of delight springing from
the very centre of our being. Systems are
constructed by the naturalist, by the man of
science, but they are not his dwelling-place;
the heart has no allotment in such mansions,
whilst a knowledge of ourselves lives with us




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        165
like a bright luminary for ever cheering and
warming us. In addition to the science of the
naturalist, of the chemist, of the man who
studies other things than himself, there may
be a character feeble in will and weak in principle-one who, when requiring the forces of
his own soul, is a stranger to them from never
having courted familiarity with them.
In the consciousness of moral and mental
power there is an inappreciable enjoyment, as
there is in the discovery of all psychological
truth. When the art of self-observation is
mastered, man discovers in himself a continent,
an unknown world in which he may conquer
everything he desiresfor his own benefit. This
study serves him in all times and in all places;
it enables him to dispense with society and
with books; it alone reconciles him with his
kind by constantly reconciling him with himself. To live harmoniously with our fellowcreatures is, with most men, an accident, whilst
it should be an object of study. We agree or
disagree with each other according as we know
how to maintain ourselves in harmony with
each other's sentiments. These laws of social
concord must be sought for in ourselves, for our
self-relations are no less varied and complex




166    ThIE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
than our relations to others; we are good or
bad companions to ourselves according as we
know how to live well or ill with the laws of
our interior constitution.  Life, indeed, is but
a body of necessities and desires, gratifications
and discomforts rapidly succeeding each other,
and ever reviving in new and diverse shapes.
To these conditions of our sensibility correspond our thoughts, which appear and disappear
according to the mysterious needs of our consciousness which is ruled by the imagination.
Happiness proceeds from the harmony which
is maintained between this action of thought on
the one side and that of sensibility on the other,
both of which inward movements are apparently vague and irregular, but really are as
subject to inflexible law as all terrestrial phenomena. The study of these laws, which constitute the destiny of man, is of all studies the
most neglected!
An ignorant and vulgar man is ignorant and
vulgar with himself; his vulgarity displays
itself as much in his own person as in the
society of others. Without constant self-watchfulness, and the steady exercise of our reason,
we undermine our own individual respect.
We often forbear speaking to others of that




TIHE MIAN OF THE SOUTH.      167
which is painful to them, and yet indulge
thoughts and reflections in our own breasts
which are ruinous to us. All the observances
of society, all those which make our intercourse
with others pleasant or painful, can well be applied to oneself. This is easily understood.
We belong to society through the same necessities and the same ties that belong to our own
feelings.
As the other sciences are, so is the science of
humanity, which is uncertain and erring in its
very incipiency. I will not say that error is an
avenue to truth, but it is a road which must be
travelled in order to attain gradually to useful
and permanent results. Physical science was,
at its birth, but metaphysics, astronomy but
astrology, and chemistry but alchemy.
It is the same with the science of man.  We
have to grope through errors a long time before
we ascend to the moment when one truth
becomes the parent of another. As yet we
have scarcely an idea of the great classes of
phenomena which may shed some light on the
nature of our existence. Memory and imagination are still confounded, and no one has yet
clearly separated the imagination from the intelligence. There is an imperfect comprehen




168     THE MAN OF TILE NORTH, AND
sion of the correspondence between the phenomena of organization and the laws of thought,
and yet they are interchangeable. At one time,
natural philosophers deny the existence of the
soul; at another, we have dreamers who deny
the existence of bodies. The mystics seek to
be free from the influence of the imagination,
whilst men of the world, of the Epicurean class,
deny the power of reason.
The true principles of morality are yet to be
discovered along with a more correct knowledge of the faculties of the soul.
It is commonly believed-and a great mistake
it is-that the natural sciences enable us to dispense with a knowledge of ourselves. There
is a point in the highest regions of the natural
sciences where the theory of the facts becomes
so abstract and ideal that it can be controlled
only by a more advanced knowledge of the
instrument of thought itself. It would seem
that chemistry has already reached that advanced point when it requires metaphysics rather
than facts to guide it.* Method is to science
* A chemist of forty years ago [the time at which our
author wrote], well versed in the subject as it then stood,
w;ould be utterlyl lost in the new names and facts, and new




TH!E rMAN OF THE SOUTH.       169
what machinery is to the industrial world; as
the spinning-jenny draws out thread so does
method guide thought. Our inward perceptions, however, are still so confined that we
often mistake one wheel for anotfher; it becomes
us, therefore, if we would attain to any perfection in the highest regions of science, to study
the instrument we employ, that is to say,
become familiar with the faculties themselves
of thought, and of the laws of their development.
There is no study that has greater attractions
than that of moral philosophy. The laws of
our existence unfold themselves before us from
the moment that we know how to observe ourselves from a proper point of view; when this
takes place we cease to stand alone, and to be
alienated from ourselves.  All our moral destinies yield to the empire which we form within
ourselves. The thought which hangs solitary
in the brain of the man ignorant of himself,
becomes a twofold charm to him who has acquired a knowledge of the conditions of his
own existence. In learning to realize the laws
combinations, which appear in the works of the present day.
Sir Henry Holland. 1862. Tr.
15




170     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
of our own vitality, we become cognisant of
the various noumena, which make up our being,
and to which we hold for good or evil by various ties. The harmony of all these interior
forces is but another word for happiness. The
first condition of self-knowledge is that of probing our own consciousness. To do this effectually we must not be haunted by exterior
influences; a retired spot is necessary for meditation; secret thought disappears before the
light of the sun. It is thus with all strong
impressions; they gradually efface the perceptions of our inward world, and banish all selfscrutiny.
The secrets of our own souls are destined to
come to us from the gloomy climes of the
North. The sweet feeling of repose is born
from cooling sensations, whilst the feeling of
heat, when not excessive, leads to motion.
We must seek moral philosophy in the North,
its true birth-place.
We see in the poems of Ossian, in the Scandinavian mythology, and at a more recent
period in the visions of Scotch and English
mystics, and in the philosophical revelations
of Kant, a disposition at one time to idle fancies, at another to contemplation, fruitful in




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        171
poetry, in truth, and in varied projects. Let a
sound philosophy be propagated throughout
this land so rich in thought, and the most sublime conceptions will be seen to flourish in
these regions of snow and fog, and shed brilliant light over the climes of the South.
Let not the English forget the times of
Charles I. They ought to dread more than
they do those mystic vapors which, like stormclouds, are raised up, and massed together on
all sides. It belongs to the thorough study of
moral philosophy, and especially to a sound
theory of the imagination, to dispel these sentimental visions which, on the appearance of
certain truths, as the nature itself of the thinking and cognisant being, take flight. It would
have been time lost to have undertaken a few
centuries ago to refute the astrologers; since
the advent of astronomy astrology has given
way without a struggle, like the disappearance
of darkness before the light. It is never by
battling against error that we overthrow it; it
is by enlightening man, who is the seat of it.
If the Fine Arts are native to the sunny
skies of the South, moral beauty, by way of
compensation, is native to the North. As in
northern climes the aurora borealis is some



172    TIlE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
times a substitute for daylight, so moral beauty
often compensates the man of the North for
the absence of that artistic enjoyment which
his clime seems to deny him.
Music has its source in the folds of our sensibility. WVe are at one time in, at another
out of harmony with the feelings of others.
But as the tone of our feeling is constantly
varying, harmony at.best is but momentary,
and often the result of accident. It was thus
with musical harmony before the science of
music was born. The harmony, however, of
our own interior forces always exists. Centuries succeed one another, nations appear and
disappear, without taking from men the art of
adapting themselves to each other. It belongs
to moral philosophy, to a sound theory of our
sentiments, both being founded on a correct
colligation of facts, to discover the laws of
unity between cognate beings. This sublime
unity, in annexing itself to ideas of order, of
principles, and of virtue, seems to be allied to
those laws of supreme wisdom, which in the
eyes of the soundest philosophy govern and
rule the universe.
The true philosophical spirit is that of the
observer. The observing spirit applied to




TIIE MAN OF THZE SOUTH.      1 S
oneself is an indwelling light, which, although
lighting up our inward darkness, adds life to
the will; whilst the study of objects exterior to
milan never reaches down to the motive principle of human action. Hence, we see men often
become great through external circumstances,
who in themselves, that is intrinsically, are
worthless.
The transport of the senses under the burning sky of the South often renders the inward
thought dead. It thus happens that the manll
of the South, under the dominion of external
nature, does not know, like the man of the
North, how to rule his life by stringent principles. If we are to assign greatness to the men
of antiquity, we must do so rather in view of
their passions than their principles.
Not to suffer is to be happy in Northern
climes; the absence of pain there is enjoyment.
When we hear the moaning of the wind, when
snow-flakes thicken the air and carpet the
earth, the father of a family, whose enjoyments
are all drawn around him, is content with the
roof that shelters his wife, his children, his
hearthstone, and his home. Such a man is
qualified to indulge in the pleasures of hope,
and to live in the domain of thought; the less
15*




174     TIIE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
nature gives, the more he delights in his family,
in the resources of his mind and heart, and in
all surrounding objects. In the South, on the
contrary, the absence of pain is less felt. Pleasure abounds everywhere, and is always man's
chief object. The man of the South, placed
like a king of the universe under the canopy
of an ever serene sky, daily revelling in flowers and fruits, dazzled with the 6clat of life, and
intoxicated, not with ideal, but with sensual
gratification, has no distant future to anticipate,
or remote past filled with cherished souvenirs,
to supply to him the charms of his existence.
In the midst of nature's bountiful gifts, ever
the subject of keen sensations, and exposed to
all the risks of a life not maintained by selfexertion, he is destined never to live with himself and enjoy the benefits of self-communion.
The man of the North, on the other hand,
endowed with the sublimest of all gifts-that of
directing his own destiny-proves to us that
human dignity, as well as power and happiness,
resides in thought and in reflection far more
than in any other agency that ministers to the
progress of our race.




THE MIAN OF THE SOUTII.      1 5
C H AP T ER XX I V.
WHAT WE HAVE BEEN, AND WHAT WE ARE, OR 1789 AND
1824.
iTHE foregoing chapters consist of the reminiscences of my varied life; I have painted the manners and morals of nations as I have
found them. Most of the pictures thus given
belong now to another condition of society, to
a former era, to an epoch beyond the grand historical barrier called the Revolution; almost
all have disappeared, leaving but fragmentary
portions of that which can no longer be restored. The Alps are seen to separate people
who bear no affinity to each other. Thus is it
with that great revolutionary cordillera dividing off two centuries, separating men so different that people like myself, who have lived
during both epochs, are astonished to find our.
selves unchanged.
Is it not strange that not only the French,
but the European people generally, have lost to




176   TIE MIAN OF THE NORTH, AND
a greater or less degree the institutions possessed by them before that event? And yet this
revolution seems to be foreign to nations which
opposed it! Let us take the French as an example, that we may see the transmutation which
they underwent, and what is true of them is
not the less so of their imitators.
The sword on one side, and the chapeau
under the left arm-these- relics of ancient chivalry, these tokens of respect and of slavery
to beauty and rank-have disappeared, together
with hair-powder and superfluous lace; habitual forms of exaggerated esteem have given
way to the simple and natural language of the
heart, and to what is appropriate; with the veneration for the great has disappeared all contempt for the humble. Whatever of servility
that once entered into the respect for women, is
now replaced by esteem or indifference; women are now addressed like men, being spoken
to or neglected according to the merits, charms,
or mental accomplishments, which it may be
supposed they possess. Beauty despoiled of
coquetry remains as a simple souvenir-it concerns us no longer to think of it. Men and
women commingle in the salon as if they were
of two diverse nations, each speaking the lan.




THE M]ANN OF TIIE SOUTH.      177
guage peculiar to himself or herself. IIence
his neglected toilet, those loose neglige pantaloons; black clothes of the finest cloth, and of
remarkable neatness, constitute all the luxury
of modern attire. With unpowdered, uncurled
locks, a head of the present day bears some
resemblance to the heads of antiquity.
What vain speeches, what useless formality,
what affectation and ceremonial mockery, have
disappeared with the towering head-dresses and
expanded skirts of the women of former times!
What deferential observances and spurious
compliments are gone with the small-clothes
and frizzled heads of the men! What conventional flattery and superannuated pretensions are laid aside with rouge! What remnants of a false and barbarous taste lie buried
and forgotten along with the hoop-petticoats
of our great-great-grandmothers, and the enormous perruques of our grandfathers!
Let us see what constitutes the new order of
men.
The French nobles of the ancient r6gime,
despoiled by the Revolution of their titles,
wealth, and hopes, found themselves reduced
each to his own personal merits. The road
leading to fortune, and all the avenues to am



178     THE MAN OF TIlE NORTH, AND
bition, being closed, how did they bear the
burden of their numerous misfortunes!
Holding various offices in my own country
at the time of the Revolution, and brought in
contact with large numbers of French emigrants, and having opportunities to observe
them closely, it was a matter of surprise to me
to see how many useful qualities they possessed, accompanied with the agreeable habits
and manners so characteristic of that nation.
Determined to be happy with the people around
them-an essential point in the art of pleasing
-they enjoyed everything, and were proud
to be content with an exile which, fortunately
for them, they believed would not be long.
The absence of resentment and despondency,
their natural gaiety, sometimes in the depths
of poverty, while rendering them agreeable to
others, rendered them not less so to themselves.
I have seen M. Le Noir, formerly Lieutenant
of Police at Paris, cheerfully mount a peasant's cart in order to journey to a neighboring town, and his journeys were rarely without
instruction to himself and to others.
HIow strange it is that these emigrants, who
estimated people with whom they were compelled to live so truly, could never comprehend




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        179
the men and the society of their own country.
Their regrets for what they had lost so intensified their souvenirs of their native land, as to
render them incapable of appreciating anything
apart from that which they themselves once
enjoyed in it. From this resulted the singular
anomaly of persons, clear-sighted in respect to
what was novel, but utterly blind to that which
concerned themselves. A similar phenomenon
was indeed observable amongst men of every
country in Europe, holding at this time any
prominent position; all judged the Revolution
unwisely; all were clear-sighted in relation to
past events, but more or less blind in their
views of the present. The ability to perceive
the transient, the judgment to estimate the
future, are they gifts refused to those in high
places? Or is the sentiment of man's power
such as to make him think he can command
time itself to stand still for his especial benefit?
It was a remarkable thing to see in France,
and in all countries under French rule, men of
all classes stripped of everything factitious and
conventional. There was intercourse without
ceremony, and conversation without that commonplace verbiage which is so convenient for
people who have nothing to say; people would




180    THE 3MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
accost each other with thoughts and not
phrases; no one entered society, not even that
of the Emperor, without finding himself immediately in earnest conversation with him.
A mission fulfilled in the Italian portion of
Switzerland obliged me to make repeated journeys to Milan (in 1795-6-7). How great the
contrast between the inflated, pompous display
of the officials of the Swiss cantons, and the
prompt decisive action of the men of the
Grande RPpublique! At Milan I was presented
to the Proconsul, at that time almost a king in
Lombardy, representing the people of * * * *
This potentate received me at the top of a staircase without coat, vest, stockings, shoes, or
pantaloons, in fact, in- his shirt, and almost
naked. I could not refrain from smiling in
contrasting this African costume with the
bands, and wigs, and long full robes, enveloping my Helvetian neighbors. It gave me pleasure to converse with the French soldiers. On
inquiring of a general if it was allowable to
put questions to them, and on receiving a
favorable answer, I went so far as to demand
of one of them why the war had been carried
into Italy;-" In order to have no enemies at
home," he replied with peculiar energy. On




THE MAN OF'THE SOUTH.        181
mentioning General Buonaparte, they smiled
complaisantly as if I had spoken of a mistress.
To illustrate the high opinion which they entertained of his courage, one soldier told me that
the general would not advance his right foot
before his left to save his life. I cannot conceive of a more perfect combination of liberty
and obedience, nor imagine a discipline more
free from pedantry than that which was displayed by the army of Italy. The terrible war
in which it was engaged seemed to it to be a
party of pleasure. There was no dread of
fatigue or suffering; enthusiasm reached its
highest pitch. A soldier had lost a leg, and
whilst the wound was being dressed I approached his bed, as if attracted by sympathy,
and exclaimed, " You must be a great sufferer!"
"' Ah, citizen," he replied, " suffering is nothing
when a man suffers for his country." What
could not be accomplished, and what was not
accomplished with men of this stamp! The
politeness of the officers of this army was a model
of that natural politeness which characterizes the
new regime. In the absence of conventional
forms the goodness and cheerfulness of the
young heroes seemed to stand forth in bold
relief.
16




]82     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
Abandoning details, however, let us glance
at the general effect of the Revolution on
all European nations, and especially on the
French.
Previous to the Revolution every man lived
by himself within the circle of his own interests, pleasures, and individual cares, without
reading his fate in the public journals, or in
the passing events of the day. At that time
kings were similar to the gods of Epicurus,
seemingly indifferent to the fate of all created
beings; only a few of the Olympian order being
allowed to enter their presence, the rest of the
human family fulfilled their destiny as best they
could. Ideas of public welfare had no existence,
since man's destiny was confided to the hands
of a few ministrants exclusively qualified to
do as they pleased with the millions of mutes
for whose benefit they were specially created.
No man had conceived of morals as forming a,
subject of public interest; vice was avoided
solely from motives of personal calculation.
If by chance the eye fixed itself on the courts
of kings, it was to gaze on a spectacle, a heralded curiosity, amusing, melancholy, or scandalous, as the case might be. That noble political ideas did sometimes pass like dreams




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         183
through the speculations of philosophers must be
admitted, but it was only as literary aliment as
with Gliick and Piccini. It was only after the
roar of the tempest of revolution had made
itself heard, that all eyes fixed themselves
earnestly and steadily on that point of the political firmament from which the deluge was
seen sternly advancing, spreading terror and
chaos everywhere, and scarcely reflecting the
faintest rays of hope.  From  that time no
nation has ceased to look upwards I
Everything belonging to the past, its wealth,
its rank, its reputations, in short the whole
fabric of society having crumbled, there arose
universally a sentiment of equality that absorbed all minds. Every man said to his neighbor,
" I am as good as you I" Law and authority
once set aside, there remained only momentary
individual rights; the casual conflict of these,
similar to the contact of electric clouds, produced the passing explosion of the revolution.
Here was an opportunity to reconstruct thesocial edifice! From this chaotic confusion,
however, there issued, not social order but, on
the contrary, a tempest of passion, which ended
in terror. This reign of universal terror, like
the rolling cylinder passing over the turf, sim



184    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
ply prepared the bowed and prostrate heads
of the people for despotism.
This despotism temporarily regenerating,
was wholly of a new order. Based entirely
on force, it revived nothing that could -irritate
the newborn spirit of equality. The names,
the titles, the old fortunes, and the old reputations, formerly provocative of so much jealousy, remained entombed in the past; —all
the new dignities and insignia that succeeded,
far from being objects of envy, existed simply
as stimulants to the aspirations of the new men.
Along with old institutions, moreover, disappeared countless prejudices and the thousand
absurd results of ancient ignorance.  Thus
disengaged from the ruins of a former period,
the new spirit showed itself to be so superior
to the old as already to demonstrate the benefit
derived from the absence of former institutions. The despot knew how to profit by
the light of a new epoch, and being himself
a luminary, forestalled in his subordinates the
false measures and narrow views of mediocrity, which, operating badly in the present,
are always preparing still greater evils for
posterity.  Genius, when  it strikes, strikes
with the precision of lightning, whilst Igno



TIHE MAN OF THE SOUTI.       185
rance descends broadcast, like the devastating
hailstorm.
Let us now contemplate the effect of this
tempest on the morals of the French.
Wide-spread terror and universal ruin, descending like a flood on the dissolute manners
of the great and the rich, brought back into
family life, and into a recognition of duty, the
men whom prosperity had hitherto seduced
therefrom. Virtue seemed now to have become
the asylum of misery. It was, on the other
hand, with horror, and as if to affright mankind, that the demons of the storm were observed to revel in all the exaggeration and
nakedness of vice. But from so many dire
misfortunes many unforeseen blessings were
evoked.
Religion, the consoler of the unfortunate,
deserted her insolent conquerors to minister to
their victims, and the worship of the heart, not
a prescribed ritual as in our days, succeeded to
the immorality of the Revolution.
The old social barriers once removed, every
avenue to fortune was opened to talent and
courage; hence the prodigious impulse given
to men of genius, the need of whom at this
time, when all was to be recast, was deeply
16*




186      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
felt.*  Hence the conquests of the French due
to the superiority of their talents: hence the
colossal grandeur of a man who could only
perish through self-destruction.
After the paroxysm of the Revolution had
subsided in France, there prevailed universally
a spirit of lassitude. In travelling over the
South of France in 1810, I noticed that the
dominant sentiment in every breast and in
every place was a willingness to endure any of
the evils of despotism rather than again encounter the risks of a second convulsion.t
This lassitude continued to increase with the
increase of the evil; all dazzling illusions subsided, and gave way to sad realities.  And yet,
although France was covered with ruins, one
could scarcely believe that there lay still concealed beneath these ruins unheard of means
of prosperity!
In these days, when all things are submitted
to calculation, when planets and gases are
* Letters had become a place of refuige and repose at a
time when, everybody and everything being suspected, there
was no security anywhere else.
t This national disposition was afterwards misunderstood as
well by those who wished to excite as by those who wished
to prevent a second revolution.




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.            187
weighed in a balance, the value of empires is
also estimated with the like certainty.
The Revolution of 1789 was due to a deficit
of fifty millions, a sum which the financial resources of that day could not provide for. The
twenty-six years that followed cost the country
in destruction of property, in extravagance, and
in current expenses, at least four thousand million francs, perhaps double that sum;* and
yet, strange to say, the same empire in 1824,
apparently so exhausted, pressed forward, all
but indifferent in bearing the burden of a debt
of three thousand millions, besides reducing the
interest of the public debt out of the general
abundance. The wealth of a nation accordingly is not founded on its material basis, but
rather on a moral basis; what process of calculation could ever have produced an estimate of
the financial results which we of the present
day admire in the now happy land of France!
This extraordinary financial phenomenon
proves that national prosperity is to be measured according to the degree of activity  that
* The assignats alone were said to amount in nominal value
to the enormous sum of forty-five billions, according to Ramel,
the successor of Cambon.




188     TIlE MAN OF TIHE NORITH, AND
generally prevails, combined with the maintenance of order, that is to say, the existence of
good laws. The Revolution produced national
activity; the Emperor knew how to direct this
spirit of activity with consummate ability.
Under Buonaparte the French empire suffered
under the enormous weight it was made to
carry; but the giant was strongly constituted;
all thle talent and energy the nation possessed
was brought into service, and a few years' repose
sufficed to restore the nation to its pristine vigor.
Out of the revolutionary struggle exaggerated opinions were generated as a natural consequence. These opinions, repressed under
Buonaparte, expanded prodigiously at his fall,
and in doing so led to one of those reactions
which are always so dangerous in politics.
It is the nature of every will to express itself
by desires and in efforts as vigorous in degree
as the repression is to which it is subjected.
Let this repression be removed, and proportionally to the nature of the force that held it in
check, so is its reaction; and as every action
produces a reaction, it is evident that a prolonged reaction necessarily leads to oscillations,
which, far from restoring tranquillity, renders its
return still more remote.




THE MIAN OF TIlE SOUTH.     189
Other dangers threaten the man who, instead
of directing national excitement, would seek to
check it. As we are only able to judge by our
souvenirs, and incapable of estimating the fulture except by the past, it happens that men
who are fondly attached to the past judge the
present according to impressions derived from
a former state of things; so that, far from attaining the desired end, they necessarily miss it in
taking their stand-point at a non-existing period.
These principles, well understood and generously applied by the authorities that have twice
acted as restoratory agents in France, were not
so acted upon subsequently by the party of the
opposition.  Hence new aggressions by the
latter, who, considering themselves sustained
by the nation, have continued to struggle
against a power the strength of which they misconceived. Since the second struggle the authorities have abandoned the policy which
these principles demanded; it remains to be
seen whether they are not preparing further
reactions against themselves in the future.
I may be permitted a few words on the
exaggeration of religious ideas.
We discover an exaggeration of religious
ideas in both the dominant faiths of Europe.




190      THE MAN OF THE NORTH, ASD
Among the Protestants, especially in Germany
and in Switzerland, the reaction of religious
ideas is due, much more due to theories of
conscience than to ceremonial observances. In
France, on the other hand, we find the religious polity everywhere strengthened; spiritual
agents or soldiers are created and organized,
and all places abound in missionaries, crosses,
crucifixes, and images of suffering; the thunder of the preacher is everywhere heard producing unrestrained terror; the pulpits are
transformed into volcanoes, where heaven and
hell open out at will for the salvation or
damnation of sinners. Among the Protestants
of the North it is the conscience, it is religious
revivals, which go on increasing without end,
frequently resulting in insanity, as we see in
Switzerland and Germany.*
* In Switzerland, near Berne, within a period of ten years,
young girls have been known to smother their grandfathers;
and lately, at Zurich, a young girl took the life of a sister, and
then crucified herself, all with the very best of motives.
Once admit that the religious revivals one experiences are
the inspiration of God, and there is no limit to the faith
attached to them, there is no limit to the vagaries of the imagination fed by religious excitement. Do not all men who
believe themselves inspired pursue the same course, the prin



THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.         191
There is, perhaps, at the present day, a spirit
of emulation among Protestants which leads
them to compete zealously with the Catholics;
religious zeal is inconsiderately fomented by
innumerable foolish pamphlets distributed with
bibles, which, happening to accord with the
present over-religious excitement of a few towns
and villages, helps to swell to an unnatural
degree, and beyond all reasonable limits, a
very legitimate sentiment. To kindle too freely
religious excitement, without sobering it down
by the diffusion of knowledge, is productive of
fanaticism, which is but the explosion of a feeling run mad. What will be the fate of nations
when all these exaggerations and irrational
notions come into conflict! If another Revolution is still dreaded, is it by fermenting fanaticism and exciting passion that its advent can
be stayed?
A knowledge of the theory of reactions is
most indispensable in the art of governing. It
forms a branch of the theory of the sentiments,
and is in itself a part of rational philosophy.
The most brutal despotism recognises the moral
ciple being the same for all? Who dares doubt when Divinity speaks?




192    THE MAN OF TIE NORTHI, AND
order of things, inasmuch as the Sultan, who
severs heads at will, is first compelled to ascertain what pleases or displeases his janizaries
and executioners.
The enemies of science firmly believe that
an indifference to it will render them indepen,
dent of its control. They are not aware that
the subject about which they neglect to inform
themselves is steadily sounding in our ears with
the hum of many voices, and that it is shaping
our destinies whether we hearken to its mandates or not. They are like the bourgeois gentilhomme, who was constantly indulging in good
and bad prose without knowing it; they are
unconsciously fashioning something, the only
difference being this, that what they do not
learn to do well, they are always learning to do
badly. A patient who eats and drinks manufactures medicine for himself without knowing
it, ignorant whether he is doing himself good
or evil, surrendering himself to that principle
which is always adverse to man's best interests
-the capricious principle of chance.
Are not all human things under the dominion of thought? And is it not the thought
which guides all our actions, and all our projects, that shapes the destiny of man? Let




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.       193
a man be ignorant of navigation, and he will
be punished with shipwreck; let him be ignorant of commerce and ruin follows; let the
art of living with our fellow-creatures be unknown to him, and he is punished for his ignorance. In all social actions, even in thought
itself, man is a philosopher without being
aware of it, that is to say, he acts according to
some principle useful to the intelligent, destructive to the ignorant. In all our social actions we follow some vague theory of the moral
sentiments; we desire to produce this or that
effect on those around us, and that determines
our will.  Everybody has some particular
theory of the human heart by which he regulates himself. Who is not aware that the most
valuable of all knowledge is that which throws
new light on man's knowledge of himself? Nobody desires to return evil for evil, —if this is
done it is because man in his ignorance knows
not how to act otherwise.
If there were a state of social harmony in
which the happiness of all would be augmented
by the happiness of each, ought we not fully
to understand that state, without which there
is no harmony on earth, and with which there
is harmony for all? What knowledge, what
17




194    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
study is equal to that of the human heart, the
most neglected of all studies, and of all the
most essential, particularly as it discloses the
dangers of reactionary movements which, in
retarding the great progress of the human
mind, prepares unforeseen explosions, and
which, in polluting the sources of intelligence,
seems to place in question the destinies of
humanity.
And let it not be said that it is not necessary
to occupy oneself with rational philosophy,
because it is not on a level with the physical
sciences. All the sciences commenced by erring. Chemistry began with alchemy and astronomy with astrology. What was medicine a
hundred years ago? What was the knowledge
of man before the origin of the sciences? And
what would we all be now without the labors
of genius? What is there between civilization
and barbarism, but the sciences, without which
we would still be but the melancholy heirs of
nomadic savages? If a knowledge of matter
is of so much importance, that of the moral
man is not less so. Does not the glory and
welfare of nations depend upon it? How can
men be successfully governed if their rulers do
not properly understand them?




THE MAN OF TIHE SOUTH.      195
Ignorant of the interdependence of our sentiments we are like intoxicated men confined
to a dark room,-we push, crowd, maul, and
wound ourselves by a conflict of tastes and
passions; whereas the study of the human
heart would lead us to do only the evil which
we would wish to do, and this-evil, to the man
of intelligence, would be much less than we
imagine.
Sound rational philosophy is a science of the
motive principles of man's nature; it is to
human actions what mechanics is to the motion
of bodies. Matter and mind are always and
continually in the presence of man; they form
the glory and the happiness of him who learns
to subject them slowly to science and intelligence, as they form the torment of him who
would through stupidity renounce reason without which there is no such thing as humanity.
*      *      *      *       *
Political theories present other phenomena
than those of the religious world. A new element makes its appearance in connection with
political theories, an element known to us
under the name of liberal ideas, and which has
thrown the whole system of politics into confusion.




196    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
By the Revolution a new impulse was given
to thought; its demolitions prepared an open
field for its development, added to which all
eyes and interests centred upon public affairs.
From the union of these three causes spring
liberal ideas, that is to say the ideas of an enlightened era applied to the good of the state.
It was not long before these ideas became hostile, and in this manner. The Revolution having shattered all thrones, and set aside the
routine and customs of a former epoch, the
kings reinstated in power, found their habits
and customs in opposition to the new ideas
called liberal. These new ideas were not vain
chimeras; their results were seen to flourish in
England; the friends of democratic ideas saw
them take root in the United States of America;
this prosperity of liberal ideas tended to excite
emulation. There was no disposition on the
part of enlightened men to copy these precise
principles, but to apply them whenever they
could be made useful; it being the province
of mediocrity to copy, and of genius to employ, because it alone knows how to apply and
to modify according to circumstances. There
was a universal demand for constitutions, the
most civilized nations regarding them as the first




THE MIAN OF THE SOUTH.        197
step towards liberty and a necessary result of
civilization. The wisdom and generosity of
the conquerors allowed them.
We have only to frequent the salons, and in
the manners and customs of the men of all
nations we discover that heads and their
thoughts are no longer what they were. Social
order is not the work of man; it is the natural
product of the relationships which time and
circumstance develop. From these relationships proceeds the birth equally of dependence
and liberty. The servitude of the Turk who
peaceably allows his head to be stricken off, is
as natural as the Englishman's opposition to
the slightest exercise of tyranny. The contrasts, which in one nation excite the astonishment of another, exist in every nation from
epoch to epoch, from 1798 to 1824, as well as
in all other epochs anterior to it.
The struggle, of a more or less animated
character, which we contemplate in all nations
of the present day, is but the natural movement
of elements which are everywhere seeking to
coalesce. The revolutionary tree of France,
stripped of its branches at Waterloo, has not
yet been fully articulated with the old royalty
grafted upon its stock.
17*




198    THE MAN OF THE NORTH, AND
Internal policy and external relations are
denaturalized by the war that is waged against
liberal ideas, and all natural combinations have
to yield to the fear which they engender. Instead of controlling men and events outside of
itself, France destroys its natural friends to the
great profit of its rivals; instead of making
her distinguished men valuable to her she
persecutes them to the great detriment of the
public welfare. Does she not act like the man
in the fable who exhausted himself in beating
the image of a lion?
The natural relationships of nations, formerly constituting the basis of European policy,
are no longer observed; imaginary and factitious ones now replace them; battles now are
fought with armies of opinions, and not with
men; we see enemies cut to pieces like Milton's
demons, to be set up again the first opportunity, and in improved shapes.
The real strength of a state consists of the
fundamental relationships on which its power
rests, and not of transient mutable opinions.
For a state to oppose its tyranny to thought
is to maintain a war against shadows. Opinions
are the result of certain conditions of life and
thought; they follow the reality as shadows




THE MAN OF THE SOUTH.        199
follow instead of preceding bodies. It is as a
reality —it is in its source-that we must conmbat it.
In vitium ducit culpae fuga si caret arte.
Monarchies had unquestionably to guarantee
themselves against the current, which could
not be suddenly checked, of the terrible struggle that threatened to overthrow both people
and kings: but the liberals, who are now hated
and feared, do they not form the most enlightened class of the nation? With what is the
great majority of these pretended enemies reproached, if not with an exaggeration of patriotic sentiment, which good kings share alike
with them! The means of prosperity, of knowledge, of wealth, and, perhaps, of some germs
of the higher virtues, are they not possessed by
these men, who are only made enemies by the
hatred shown them, and the persecutions they
are made to endure?
The struggle we now witness is it not a combat between Spanish principles, the sad consequences of which we see developed in the South
of France, and English principles, the glory of
which at the North is spreading itself over
every region of the Earth?




200     THE MAN OF THE NORTH, &C.
Instead of trampling upon, even educationally, the true germs of national virtue, instead
of renouncing principles favorable to public
prosperity, instead of treating as enemies the
most distinguished men whose power can become so useful, would it not be better to employ
these men with these principles than to reject
as enemies that which constitutes the glory and
prosperity of him who would know how to
profit by it?
THE END.