ESSAY XX.

T

Of NATIONAL CHARACTERS.

HE vulgar are apt to to carry all national charac

ters to extremes; and having once established it as a principle, that any people are knavish, or cowardly, or ignorant, they will admit of no exception, but comprehend every individual under the fame cenfure. Men of fenfe condemn thefe undiftinguishing judgments: Though at the fame time, they allow, that each nation has a peculiar fet of manners, and that fome particular qualities are more frequently to be met with among one people than among their neighbours. The common. people in SWITZERLAND have probably more honesty than those of the fame rank in IRELAND; and every prudent man will, from that circumftance alone, make a difference in the truft which he reposes in each. We have reason to expect greater wit and gaiety in a FRENCHMAN than in a SPANIARD; though CERVANTES was born in SPAIN. An ENGLISHMAN will naturally be supposed to have more knowledge than a DANE; though TYCHO BRAHE was a native of DENMARK.

Different reasons are affigned for these national characters; while fome account for them from moral, others from phyfical caufes. By moral caufes, I mean all circumstances,

cumstances, which are fitted to work on the mind as motives or reasons, and which render a peculiar fet of manners habitual to us. Of this kind are, the nature of the government, the revolutions of public affairs, the plenty or penury in which the people live, the fituation of the nation with regard to its neighbours, and fuch like circumftances. By phyfical caufes, I mean those qualities of the air and climate, which are supposed to work infenfibly on the temper, by altering the tone and habit of the body, and giving a particular complexion, which, though reflexion and reason may fometimes overcome it, will yet prevail among the generality of mankind, and have an influence on their manners.

That the character of a nation will much depend on moral causes, must be evident to the most fuperficial obferver; fince a nation is nothing but a collection of individuals, and the manners of individuals are frequently determined by these causes. As poverty and hard labour debafe the minds of the common people, and render them unfit for any science and ingenious profeffion; fo where any government becomes very oppreffive to all its fubjects, it must have a proportional effect on their temper and genius, and must banish all the liberal arts from among them.

The fame principle of moral causes fixes the character of different profeffions, and alters even that difpofition, which the particular members receive from the hand of nature. A foldier and a priest are different characters, in all nations, and all ages; and this difference is founded on circumstances, whofe operation is eternal and unalterable.

The uncertainty of their life makes foldiers lavish and generous, as well as brave: Their idlenefs, together

with the large focieties, which they form in camps or garrifons, inclines them to pleasure and gallantry: By their frequent change of company, they acquire good breeding and an openness of behaviour: Being employed only against a public and an open enemy, they become candid, honest, and undefigning: And as they use more the labour of the body than that of the mind, they are commonly thoughtless and ignorant *.

It is a trite, but not altogether a falfe maxim, that priefts of all religions are the fame; and though the character of the profeffion will not, in every inftance, prevail over the perfonal character, yet is it fure always to predominate with the greater number. For as chymifts obferve, that fpirits, when raifed to a certain height, are all the fame, from whatever materials they be extracted; so these men, being elevated above humanity, acquire a uniform character, which is entirely their own, and which, in my opinion, is, generally speaking, not the most amiable that is to be met with in human society. It is, in most points, oppofite to that of a foldier; as is the way of life, from which it is derived t.

As to phyfical caufes, I am inclined to doubt altogether of their operation in this particular; nor do I think, that men owe any thing of their temper or genius to the air, food, or climate. I confefs, that the contrary opinion may juftly, at first fight, fecm probable; fince we find, that these circumftances have an influence over every other animal, and that even those creatures, which are fitted to live in all climates, such as dogs, horfes, &c. do not attain the fame perfection in all. The courage

* See NOTE [H].

+ See NOTE [I].

VOL. I.

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of bull dogs and game-cocks feems peculiar to ENGLAND. FLANDERS is remarkable for large and heavy horfes SPAIN for horfes light, and of good mettle. And any breed of thefe creatures, transplanted from one country to another, will foon lofe the qualities, which they derived from their native climate. It may be asked, why not the fame with men * ?

There are few queftions more curious than this, or which will occur oftener in our enquiries concerning human affairs; and therefore it may be proper to give it a full examination.

The human mind is of a very imitative nature; nor is it poffible for any set of men to converfe often together, without acquiring a fimilitude of manners, and communicating to each other their vices as well as virtues. The propensity to company and fociety is ftrong in all rational creatures; and the fame disposition, which gives us this propenfity, makes us enter deeply into each other's fentiments, and caufes like paffions and inclinations to run, as it were, by contagion, through the whole club or knot of companions. Where a number of men are united into one political body, the occafions of their intercourse must be fo frequent, for defence, commerce, and government, that, together with the fame fpeech or language, they must acquire a resemblance in their manners, and have a common or national character, as well as a perfonal one, peculiar to each individual. Now though nature produces all kinds of temper and understanding in great abundance, it does not follow, that he always produces them in like proportions, and that in every society the ingredients of industry and indolence, valour

* See NOTE [K].

and

and cowardice, humanity and brutality, wifdom and folly, will be mixed after the fame manner. In the infancy of fociety, if any of thefe difpofitions be found in greater abundance than the reft, it will naturally prevail in the compofition, and give a tincture to the national character. Or fhould it be afferted, that no fpecies of temper can reasonably be prefumed to predominate, even in those contracted focieties, and that the fame propor tions will always be preferved in the mixture; yet furely the persons in credit and authority, being ftill a more contracted body, cannot always be prefumed to be of the fame character; and their influence on the manners of the people, muft, at all times, be very confiderable. If on the first establishment of a republic, a BRUTUS fhould be placed in authority, and be tranfported with fuch an enthusiasm for liberty and public good, as to overlook all the ties of nature, as well as private intereft, fuch an illuftrious example will naturally have an effect on the whole fociety, and kindle the fame paffion in every bosom. Whatever it be that forms the manners of one generation, the next muft imbibe a deeper tincture of the fame dye; men being more fufceptible of all impreffions during infancy, and retaining thefe impreffions as long as they remain in the world. I affert, then, that all national characters, where they depend not on fixed moral caufes, proceed from fuch accidents as these, and that physical caufes have no difcernable operation on the human mind. It is a maxim in all philofophy, that caufes, which do not appear, are to be confidered as not exifting.

If we run over the whole globe, or revolve all the annals of history, we fhall difcover every where figns of, a fympathy or contagion of manners, none of the influence of air or climate.