by hard work. Nature compels him to it. But he knows how to revenge himself on her; he compels her to work, and subdues her with iron, and fire. All England pants with this strife. Man there seems to be enraged, and as if beside himself. See yon red face, that wildly gleaming eye! One might suppose that he was drunk. But his head and hand are firm and sure. He is only intoxicated with blood and strength. He manages himself like a steam-machine, which he crams to excess with fuel, to get from it as much work and speed as is possible.
"During the middle ages the Englishman was much the same as he now is, far too well fed, driven to trade, and warlike when industrial pursuits were wanting.
"England, though vigorously pursuing agriculture and cattle-raising, did not then manufacture. The English produced the raw material, other people turned it to profit. Wool was on one side of the Channel and workmen on the other. But while princes quarrelled and fought, the English cattle-dealer and the Flemish cloth-factors lived in the best accord, and in an undisturbed alliance. The French, who wished to break this bond of union, atoned for the beginning of it with a hundred years of war.[1] The English
- ↑ Heine has previously declared that the English begun these wars, vide p. 331.—Translator.
