Civilization, Modern -- 19th century; Literature -- History and criticism
The German and Keltic races, thus distinguished in the days of Cæsar,
are equally distinct to-day. Catholicism, the religion of a priesthood,
a ritual, and authority, prevails among the Kelts; Protestantism among
the Germans. Ireland, being mainly Keltic, is Catholic, though a part
of a Protestant nation. France, being mainly Keltic, is also Catholic,
in spite of all its illumination, its science, and its knowledge of
"intellectual laws." But as France contains a large infusion of German
(Frankish) blood, it is the most Protestant of Catholic nations; while
Scotland, containing the largest infusion of Keltic blood, is the
most priest-ridden of Protestant nations. This last fact, which Mr.
Buckle asserts, and spends half a volume in trying to account for,
is explained at once by ethnology. Wherever the Germans go to-day,
they remain the same people they were in the days of Tacitus; they
carry the same blue eyes and light hair, the same love of freedom and
hatred of slavery, the same tendencies to individualism in thought
and life, the same tendency to superstitious belief in supernatural
events, even when without belief in any religion or church; and even
the same love for beer, and "lac concretum," now called "schmeercase"
in our Western settlements. The Kelt, also, everywhere continues the
same. He loves equality more than freedom. He is a democrat, but not
an abolitionist. Very social, clannish, with more wit than logic, very
sensitive to praise, brave, but not determined, needing a leader, he
carries the spirit of the Catholic Church into Protestantism, and the
spirit of despotism into free institutions. And that physical, no less
than mental qualities, continue under all climates and institutions is
illustrated by the blue eyes and light hair which the traveller meets
among the Genoese and Florentines, reminding him of their Lombard
ancestors; while their superior tendencies to freedom in church and
state suggest the same origin.
Nineteen hundred years have passed since Julius Cæsar pointed out
these diversities of character then existing between the Germans and
Kelts. Since then they have passed from barbarism to civilization.
Instead of living in forests, as hunters and herdsmen, they have built
cities, engaged in commerce, manufactures, and agriculture. They have
been converted to Christianity, have conquered the Roman empire,
engaged in crusades, fought in a hundred different wars, developed
literatures, arts, and sciences, changed and changed again their forms
of government, have been organized by Feudalism, by Despotism, by
Democracy, have gone through the Protestant reformation, have emigrated
to all countries and climates; and yet, at the end of this long period,
the German everywhere remains a German, and the Kelt a Kelt. The
descriptions of Tacitus and Cæsar still describe them accurately. And
yet Mr. Buckle undertakes to write a history of civilization without
taking the element of race into account.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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