History of English Literature Volume 3 (of 3)Taine, Hippolyte
History
History of English Literature Volume 3 (of 3)
Taine, Hippolyte
English literature -- History and criticism
framed; the machine is solid, but it turns slowly on its hinges, and the
hinges generally creak and are rusty. When we look at the people closer,
it seems that their various parts are independent, at least that they
need time to let sensations pass through them. Their ideas do not at
first break out in passions, gestures, actions. As in the Fleming and
the German, they dwell first of all in the brain; they expand there,
they rest there; man is not shaken by them, he has no difficulty in
remaining motionless, he is not wrapped; he can act wisely, uniformly;
for his inner motive power is an idea or a watchword, not an emotion or
an attraction. He can bear tedium, or rather he does not weary himself;
his ordinary course consists of dull sensations, and the insipid
monotony of mechanical life has nothing which need repel him. He is
accustomed to it, his nature is suited for it. When a man has all his
life eaten turnips, he does not wish for oranges. He will readily resign
himself to hear fifteen consecutive discourses on the same subject,
demanding for twenty years the same reform, compiling statistics,
studying moral treatises, keeping Sunday schools, bringing up a dozen
children. The piquant, the agreeable, are not a necessity to him. The
weakness of his sensitive impulses contributes to the force of his moral
impulses. His temperament makes him argumentative; he can get on without
policemen; the shocks of man against man do not here end in explosions.
He can discuss in the market-place aloud, religion and politics, hold
meetings, form associations, rudely attack men in office, say that the
Constitution is violated, predict the ruin of the State; there is no
objection to this; his nerves are calm; he will argue without cutting
throats; he will not raise revolutions; and perhaps he will obtain a
reform. Observe the passers-by in the streets; in three hours we will
see all the visible features of this temperament: light hair, in
children almost white; pale eyes, often blue as Wedgwood-ware, red
whiskers, a tall figure, the motions of an automaton; and with these
other still more striking features, those which strong food and
combative life have added to this temperament. Here the enormous
guardsman, with rosy complexion, majestic, slightly bent, who struts
along twirling a little cane in his hand, displaying his chest, and
showing a clear parting between his pomaded hair; there the over-fed
stout man, short, sanguine, like an animal fit for the shambles, with
his startled, dazed, yet sluggish air; a little further on the country
gentleman, six feet high, stout and tall, like the German who left his
forest, with the muzzle and nose of a bulldog, tremendous savage-looking
whiskers, rolling eyes, apoplectic face; these are the excesses of
coarse blood and food; add to which, even in the women, the white front
teeth of a carnivorous animal, and big feet solidly shod, excellent for
walking in the mud. Again, look at the young men in a cricket match or
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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