Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View — John Shaqi
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
Beyond the certified beyond, we see dimly through the mists of
history, hosts of men marching, ever marching from the east, spreading
some toward Norway and Sweden, some skirting the Baltic Sea to the
south; driving their cattle before them, and learning the arts of
peace and war, and self-government, from the harsh school-masters of
pressing needs and tyrannical circumstances, the only teachers that
confer degrees of permanent value. They become fishermen and small
landholders in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. "Jeudi," or Jupiter's day,
becomes their god Thor's day, or Thursday; "Mardi," or Mars's day, is
their Tiu's day, or Tuesday; "Mercredi," or Mercury's day, is Odin's
or Woden's day, or Wednesday.
These men trained to solitude in small bands, owing to the
geographical exigencies of their northern country, become the founders
of the particularist or individualistic nations, Great Britain and the
United States among others. Those who had gone south, driven by
pressure from behind, follow the Danube to the north and west, find
the Rhine, and push on into what is now southwestern Europe.
It is worth noting that the Rhine and the Danube have their sources
near together, and form a line of water from the North Sea to the
Black Sea, a significant line in Europe from the beginning down to
this day. This line of water divides not only lands but nations,
manners, customs, and even speech, and what we call the North, and
what we call the South, may be said to be, with negligible exceptions,
what is north and what is south of those two rivers. It is and always
has been the Mason and Dixon's line of Europe.
All of these peoples mould their institutions, from the habits and
customs forced upon them by their surroundings. The members of the
tribe of the Suevi, now Swabians, were not allowed to hold fixed
landed possessions, but were forced to exchange with each other from
time to time, so that no one should become wedded to the soil and grow
rich thereby. Readers of history will remember, that Lycurgus
attempted similar legislation among the Spartans, hoping thus to keep
them simple and hardy, and fit for war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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