The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-03-05
THE ENGLISH IN THE OLD WORLD

all other foreigners in animal power, and
is appropriately called John Bull. Be
tween John Bull and other animals
there is a peculiar affinity, and the
horse seems more nearly related to man
in England than in other countries.
Punch, the great exponent of the ma
tional characteristics, selecis for his
companion logged dog. Sentimental
ladies in England lavish all the wealth
of their affections upon parrots or
poodles; and pet animals as in other
countries they pet poets. A cattle show
is almost as popular in England as a
horse race, and the OK and the COW
prosper IN that island as nowhere else.
b eff and mutton are more extensively
consumed in England than elsewhere,
and spread over the land an animal
halo OF succulent substantially. This
is often mis- taken for greater vigor,
when 1t merely represents a supera-
bundance of beef. The cattle dealers,
who may be said to keep stalls in every
English stomach, would be IN "a constant
state of mutiny II the meat were not
seasoned with strong libations of half
and-half stout, ale, porter. sherry and
port wine. The Englishman, high or
low, carries with him flavor of all
these fat morsels and juicy Ingredients.
humanity, warns up toward beasts.
The tears shed by Jacques over the
wounded stag are national tears. The
agony of Sterne over the unfortunate
donkey is national agony. Human
beings may rot like rats, but there are
numerous societies for the protection of
! cattle. There are women in England,
| of very hard natures, who make mon
strOus cats the object of their special
| alteration. The common English woman
dotes upon her hideous grimalkin as
the noblewoman upon her graceful
pony. In no other country is there
! such n passion for Newfoundland dogs.
The Englishman is proud of things
which are perfectly plain and intelligi-
I BILE, and in which he can invest his af-
fections without compromising himself
in any way. This can be done with
/ impunity with the lower animals, but
not with man, in whom there are higher
elements. The Englishman stiffens to-
ward his fellow-men in the same pro-
] portion that he unbends toward brutes.
The heavens, as if indignant at the
exaggerated idolatry in England of all
| that is animal and earthly, are constant
| ly frowning upon Albion but dense as
| their fogs arc, they are not denser than
the clouds which these peculiarities
| give to the social atmosphere. The re-
| alities of life ara hard everywhere, but
nowhere harder than in England, where
| all the avenues Of sentiment and fancy
are shut mp by the Chinese wall of stern,
unrelenting, stubborn facts, and where
all the more lovely attributes Of heart
| and i'm ginntion are drowned in the
Black sea of dark realities. No wonder
/ English poets excel all other poets in
| Added fn fba animal nj re
which they share with their country
mon, is the organic rebellion of genius
against the treadmill prosiness of the
island. This imparts terrible vehe-
mence to their feelings, and makes the
literature of the country as distin-
guished for its brilliancy as the daily
life of the people is notorious for its
dullness. In a O. untry where common
place is the Iule and originality the ex-
ception, society presents the appearance
of a dead level and the great states
men of the nation seem to soar so high
towards heaven, because the masses of
their countrymen vegetate in the earth.
They tower up like pyramids on prai-
RE or Himalayas upon plains; but they
| are, after all, only local phenomena and
are rather conspicuous islanders than lof-
| ty men. They are part andparcel of E. g
land and not of universal humanity. Ma
cauly writes history as if Adam had
| been a wing, and as if the deluge had
swamped all platforms except that of
| Melbourne and Russell. When an
Englishman speaks of foreign country
he never refers TO the impression it
makes on him as a man, but as an Eng
lishman. The very God whom Eng
lishmen adore seems rather to be an Eng
lish than an universal deity. The Old
Testament is, on the whole, more con-
genial TO an Engli, Imam than the New.
This is but natural in a country where
poverty is a crime, and where law is as
revengeful as Nemesis, as inhe1ible as
fate.
The English are VIGOROUSLY unable
TO cope with the Germans in originality
aud depth of thought with the French
and Irish in ingenuity and brillianoy of
mind with the Italians and Spanish in
blending the vigOr of noble manhood
with the graces of almost womanly ten
derness and with tho Americans in
quickness of perception, IN practical
genius, aud that executive power which
produces great ideas ready-made for
action. Now, in order to relieve them
selves from this uncomfortable fact of
inleriority, the English have, from time
to time immemorial, assumed a thorough
faith IN their own superiority over all
other people. It has become as diff
cult TO root out this eonceit as to Frest
the land of England from the grasp oftlie
aristocracy, or from the bishops their
fat livings Probably the occupation
of London by a French or a Russian
army and the quartering of foreign
troops in the clubs of Psli-mau, in Bel.
grave, GrosvenOr, and st. James
squares, and in the country houses of
the aristocracy and the gentry, would
be welcomed by every comprehensive
English philanthropist as a national
blessing in purging England from this
offensive arrogance and although ma
hcious persons may question the Ell
cheney OF such cure, there is no doubt
that the truly philosophical mind would
hail the experiment with delight.
England has taken prominent part
IN the history of civilization, but no
more so than America, Germany ana
France. With all our appreciation of
England we cannot join in the school.
boy raptures of Anglican New England
ers over the "mother country, "or in
Emerson's provincial ecstacy at the
sight of the commercial and territorial I
splendor of the merchant princes and |
mobiles Of Britain. There are minds 4
that cannot get over the swaddling /
clothes of Magma ChsrtA, and that seem /
to hive an mistocratio pnsdileo6on for I
this pledge of progress, because &c was /
wrested from the crown. not by the
mass IS OF the people but by the masses
Of the nobies. g. Lh
Upon the excessive democracy of
America the excessive aristocraoy of
acts with many minds, as a
d sort Of conservative sedative snd
whenever they are disgiIsted here with
one thing or another they seek an arti-
scial relief in patrician eflusion about
81 the English gentleman I" Now there
is certainly no copntry in the world
With so many observation-disclosures gem
-lomen carrying their ordinary minds
With s1eh self-possessed steadiness as
N England. In originality of ideas
'hey are not superior to the potman who
solls their ale, or to the psasant who /
olouChs their soil anil w. q, 49,, I