The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1858-12-28
Yo..uth on. National characteristics


NJ Kossuth delivered an interestinglecturc
at Edinburgh recently on the characteristics
Of the principal European nations. we
extract few points: .
M. Kossuth referred to the English word
ncommon sense word highly characters
tic of the national mind. but which had nc.
proper equivalent in either French or Ger
man. the French sens comnun and the Ger
man ganeinsian expressing ideas entirely
different. On the other hand, the master
word Of the French national character was
esprit which de6ed the whole philUgical
profession to translate into English. Inc
essence Of the German character was express
ed by the word gemuth but take oxford
and Cambridge, take the Sorbonne ana
French Academy, and every French ana
English scientific circumlocution office, and
though they pounded them all to powder and
dust, they would not make one particle OF
German gemnth either in English or French,
The Hungarian was, to his knowledge, the
only language possessing both the Enelisn
common sense and the German gemuth,
but the French esprit it had not
NJ Kossuth showed that Germany had
prnduced the printing press and the Refor-
nation, and continued: People in England
will say, 81 am an Englishman; there you
have the article ofindyiduality ''an, and
there you have the 'man.' You have
him in the Scotchman, lrishman, nobleman,
| gentleman, alderman, yoeman the liveryman,
and the old form of address, "le men OF
England Everywhere you meet the man.
The designation of nationality, rank, oftice,
are but adjectives with him; the man is the
substantive. Your neighbor there across
the Channel will not say that he is French-
man, he will say that he is French, he drops
his personality and makes himself an adJec-
tive, his country is his substantive. Verify,
the language ola nation is the mirror OF its
character Hence the French genius cen.
tra.ises; the English individualises The
French can tell of powerful state; the
English of free nation, which never feared,
and never will fear, any Power on earth,
NJ kossuth came to what he termed the
rather amusing chapter of the social rela-
tions of France and England. A French
man and his wife stood on terms of equality;
in England no such equality existed Mar
riage in France was a company. formed under
the tacit understanding of''limited liability;
in England it was a solemn contract, tue
fulfllmept of which, when affection subsidized
duty took its place. The house of the Eng
lishman was his sanctuarg-his castle
The Germans would say He is at his house,
and the French, HE is chez lui, or at him
SELF Laughter. We Hungarians, too,
(said NJ. Kossuth) have our word home, and
it is indicative of our national CHI racter that
we apply to our private homes, the door Of
which is seldom shut and to our national
home, our fatherland love of private home
and love of national home form the national
groundwork of the character of Hungary
Judge then what it is to be an exile.
An Englishman, resumed NJ. kossuth
would live twenty years in house without
knowing his neighbor; a Frenchman would
know all of them in twenty-iour hours. Let
the sociable Frenchman be planted among
the tatooed islanders Of the South Sea, and
in two years he would be found tatooed; put
an Englishman in the same position, and he
would be the king of the island in that time