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Untitled Article
doctrine that Germany excels all nations in science and intellect , England in industry , France ( as having the most widely-spread sympathies ) in morality . This was doubtless intended merely as a general indication , not to be taken literally , but with many explanations and modi * fi cations ; Borne of which you are , I know , a \ vare of , and I may have Opportunity of suggesting others in the course of this correspondence .
What I am now going to mention is , however , literally true , and is , I think , the principal truth contained in M . Chevalier ' s remark . It is , that the German nation is eminently speculative , the English essentially practical , and the French endeavour to unite both qualities , having an equal turn for framing general theories and for reducing * them into practice . As far as this goes , the palm of intellectual superiority , you see , belongs to France , and not to Germany . Considered
in other points of view , I could prove that it belongs to England . In short , I conceive it might be shown that every one of the three nations possesses some intellectual and some moral qualities in a higher state of developement than either of the two other nations ; and that each excels in some department , even of industry ; witness the woollens of Saxony , and the well-known superiority of your country in almost all fancy articles .
* But this is not the point I intended to enlarge upon just at present . What I meant to say was , that if any person has ideas which he thinks important to propound to the public of Germany , it is a positive recommendation to them that they are brought forward as part of a systematic theory , founded on a combined view of history , and on a general conception of philosophy , literature , and the arts . This would
perfectly chime in with the tendency of the German mind , views very extensive , and therefore , of necessity , promising „ only a gradual and distant realization , have a better chance of being listened to in that country , than those of a narrower kind . Even in France , though the general and systematic character of any opinions are no recommendation to the public attention , neither are they a positive hinderance .
But in England they are so . $ ' The extremely practical character of the English people , that which makes them , as men of business and industriels excel all the nations of Europe , has also the effect of making them very inattentive to any thing that cannot be carried instantly into practice . The English people have never had their political feelings called out by abstractions . They have fought for particular laws , but never for a principle of legislation . The doctrines of the sovereignty of the people , and the
rights of man , never had any root in this country . The cry was always for a particular change in the mode of electing members of the House of Commons ; for making an act of parliament to meet some immediate exigency ; or for taking off some particular tax . The English public think nobody worth listening to , except in ho far as he tells them of something to be done , and not only that , but of something which cjbji be done immediately . What is more , the only reasons they will generally attend to , are those founded on the specific good consequences to be expected from the adoption of the specific proposition . Whoever , therefore , wishes to produce much immediate effect upon the English public , must bring forward every idea upon its own intle-
Untitled Article
802 Comparison of the Tendencies
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 802, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/70/
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