ernment, and in. the succession of theoretical experiments in France; while in Britain, the deliberate slowness, prudence, and accurate perceptions of the Teuton, are manifest in the gradual improvement and steadiness of their political arrangements." (Here she quotes a passage from Johnson's Physical Atlas.) "The prevalent political sentiment of Great Britain is undoubtedly conservative, in the best sense of the word, with a powerful undercurrent of democratic tendencies which give great power and strength to the political and social body of this country, and make revolutions by physical force almost impossible.* * * * Great Britain is the only country in Europe which has had the good fortune to have all her institutions worked out and framed by her in a strictly organic manner; that is, in accordance with organic wants which require different conditions at different and successive stages of national development—and not by theoretical experiments, as in many other countries, which are still in a state of excitement consequent upon these experiments. The social character of the people of this country, besides the features which they have in common with other nations of Teutonic origin, is, on the whole, domestic, reserved, aristocratic, exclusive."[1]
The spirit of the above contrast is truly and accurately reproduced in the lines of a great poet:—
- ↑ "[Mrs.] Somerville's Physical Geography," ch. 33.
