Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
3. Then, as a third thing, much depends on the peculiar national
character. Well, the freemen in the North and South are chiefly from the
same race, this indomitable Caucasian stock; mainly from the same
composite stock, the tribe produced by the mingling of Saxon, Danish and
Norman blood. That makes the present English nation, and the American
also. This is a very powerful tribe of men, possessing some very noble
traits of character; active and creative in all the arts of peace;
industrious as a nation never was before; enterprising, practical; fond
of liberty, fond also of law, capable of organizing themselves into
great masses, and acting with a complete concert and unity of action. In
these respects, I think this tribe, which I will call the English tribe,
is equal to any race of men in the world that has been or is; perhaps
superior to any race that has been developed hitherto. But in what
relates to the higher reason and imagination, to the affections and to
the soul, I think this tribe is not so eminent as some others have been.
North and South, the people are alike of Anglo-Norman descent.
4. Another cause of our prosperity, which depends a great deal on
ourselves, is this--the absence of war and of armies. In France, with a
population of less than forty millions, half a million are constantly
under arms. The same state of things prevails substantially in Austria,
Prussia, and in all the German States. Here in America, with a
population of twenty millions, there is not one in a thousand that is a
soldier or marine. In time of peace, I think we waste vast sums in
military preparations, as we did in actual war not long since. Still,
when I compare this nation with others, I think we have cause to
felicitate ourselves on the absence of military power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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