Well, then, why am I not to say that we English
get our rhetorical sense from the Norman element in us,--our turn for
this strenuous, direct, high-spirited talent of oratory, from the
influence of the strenuous, direct, high-spirited Normans? Modes of
life, institutions, government, and other such causes, are
sufficient, I shall be told, to account for English oratory. Modes
of life, institutions, government, climate, and so forth,--let me say
it once for all,--will further or hinder the development of an
aptitude, but they will not by themselves create the aptitude or
explain it. On the other hand, a people's habit and complexion of
nature go far to determine its modes of life, institutions, and
government, and even to prescribe the limits within which the
influences of climate shall tell upon it.
However, it is not my intention, in these remarks, to lay it down for
certain that this or that part of our powers, shortcomings, and
behaviour, is due to a Celtic, German, or Norman element in us. To
establish this I should need much wider limits, and a knowledge, too,
far beyond what I possess; all I purpose is to point out certain
correspondences, not yet, perhaps, sufficiently observed and attended
to, which seem to lead towards certain conclusions. The following up
the inquiry till full proof is reached,--or perhaps, full disproof,--
is what I want to suggest to more competent persons.
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