the taste for pleasure in the Frenchman is measured less by the quantity of wine he pours into his glass than by the time which he takes to choose his vintage.
...the vital warmth which typifies Spanish thought.
At every moment subjective vitality overflows the social cell within which it is supposed to confine itself.
All passions, individual or collective, must incarnate in the individual, must personalize themselves in him, in order to acquire a vital value.
hypocrisy, generally considered a typical British feature, is in reality a general feature
hypocrisy, generally considered a typical British feature, is in reality a general feature.
hypocrisy, generally considered a typical British feature, is in reality a general feature.
While the Frenchman is tolerant in morals and intolerant in politics, the Englishman is tolerant in politics and intolerant in morals.
While the Frenchman is tolerant in morals and intolerant in politics, the Englishman is tolerant in politics and intolerant in morals.
English calm, the crust which covers strong passions repressed by self- control, is a feature symmetrical with Spanish indifference, under which the energies of action accumulate.
English calm, the crust which covers strong passions repressed by self- control, is a feature symmetrical with Spanish indifference, under which the energies of action accumulate.
The volcanic and ungovernable character of Spanish thought, so rebellious to all rules, will contrast with the moderation and the sense of measure which the Frenchman brings to his passion;
The hierarchy is so naturally accepted that the Englishman is hardly aware of its existence, and to this day believes himself to be living in the land of equality.
His well-fed, secure, unambitious, jolly, bon-vivant, expert-in-wine sort of type is the genuine representative of the nation as a whole.
The French, though perhaps less varied in type, less individualized than the English, are, notwithstanding, more individualistic in their requirements. Their enjoyment must be their own.
Less intimately attached to the community than the English, they do not possess that wonderful capacity for vicarious enjoyment which distinguishes the true Englishman.
The State takes upon itself many extra- political duties with significant spontaneity on its part and a no less significant acquiescence on the part of the nation.
Spain is lacking in all hierarchical sense--whether in the natural and instinctive form which this sense takes in England, or in the outward and political form which it assumes in France.
The people takes things as they come, lives and lets live, but will have no hierarchy. In fact, the people does not know, or rather does not feel what a hierarchy is.
the English style of dress is dictated by its leisured aristocracy; the French is governed by a preoccupation for 'correctness' which is deeply bourgeois.
every Englishman consciously or unconsciously fashions himself on the aristocratic model,
As for the family in its wider sense, it is in England little more than a loosely built association of friends, or, better still, of acquaintances, divided, rather than united, by their common interests.
the French family acquires an almost official dignity and rigidity. Hence that proclivity towards official stiffness to be noticed in French family gatherings, particularly in funerals.
The atmosphere of a French home is cordial in its order and calm.
in England, the family sheds its surplus individuals ... In Spain the family keeps them by it and utilizes them to the advantage of the whole.
In other countries, and notably in England, the family sheds its surplus individuals right and left
Children of French pâtissiers and boulangers also know this feeling of gourmand envy and admiration. At my school in Paris in the 1980s, those kids were always the most popular, far more sought after than the children of aristocrats with châteaux in the country.
Leaders suggests a people led, willingly, spontaneously led.
Les élites suggests a mere selection of the best, a setting aside of quality.
Las minorías is but the bare statistical recognition of the fact that a certain type of man, endowed with a certain number of powers, is in a minority.
the whole organization of the public school is strongly hierarchical, as shown even in the curious system known as 'fagging', a practice unthinkable in French or Spanish schools, whereby the younger boys serve the older ones and humbly obey their orders.
The French system differs from the English in two points-...: it is directed towards the cultivation of the intellect not of the will; and it is organized by the State.
The education of the will and character is no special concern of the school.
in France, the aim of education is to develop the intellect of the educated, and, as we know, the true basis of French hierarchy is intellectual distinction
As befits an intellectual nation, this system is carefully specialized in striking contrast with the somewhat general character of English university education.
When passing from the English idea of leaders to the French idea of élites we lost the notion of movement but retained that of hierarchy. In passing now from the French élites to the Spanish minorías, the notion of hierarchy itself goes by the board.
it cannot be said that Spanish education specializes in either character or intellect. Wherever it is conscious and conscientious it is humanistic and general, and aims at the formation of all-round men for the sake of the men themselves.
Add to this the typical Spanish tendency against specialization and it will be understood why Spain should be the land of missed vocations.
Exceptional men in Spain rise therefore from sea level, not from the high lands of a social culture already established. They bring to their position all the peculiarities, singularities, and angularities of their isolated growth.
As if further to emphasize his contempt for logic in political matters, the Englishman has carefully preserved in his official language all the externals of kingly power.
that instinct for co-operation, that objectivity, that absence of self-seeking, of vanity and of personal passion which are typical of the whole race.
In England, local government is a spontaneous local growth
in comparison with the peoples of other countries, the English are truly patriotic in their political activities, and a national argument is sure to go very deep with them.
We recognize here the French tendency to plan everything beforehand, to define and limit areas of thought and action, to lay down le droit, to foresee all possible things.
None of that good humour of a cricket-playing race. In France, a debate is a battle, and arguments are loaded.
In England the man who, instead of coming round and joining the others in the work in hand, sticks to his opinion, is branded as pigheaded. The average Englishman finds it wellnigh impossible to believe that any one but a pig could be so fond of an opinion at all.
By a bold intellectual operation the Préfet and his Sous- Préfets are made to represent the whole executive in their local capitals.
in Spain the characters on the political stage owe their prestige to their own personality, and their own personality it is which gives strength and driving power to the principle or cause which they happen to have espoused.
the Spaniard tends to judge things and people with the standards of a theatre-goer....His criterion is dramatic.
it is a fact that the political opinions of the immense majority of Spaniards are fluid and wayward.
a great and forceful villain is as important a character as a great hero, and the spectator instinctively accepts the right of such prominent men to be on the stage.
in virtue of his tendency to invert social values, classifying them in an egocentric order, the Spaniard often gives his vote for reasons entirely foreign to objective politics--to oblige a private friend, for instance.
The personality of the Spaniard leads him too often to adopt an attitude of ownership rather than of service in connexion with his functions.
It was through a natural evolution, determined by the dispersive tendencies inherent in Spanish psychology, that such movements ultimately led to the wars of emancipation.
France's policy, even that of the monarchy of the' Roy très chrestien', was always lay, and indifferent in matters of religion.
Of the three countries, Spain is the only one in which an ȧesthetic attitude is natural, spontaneous, innate, and general.
That art is, in Spain, a spontaneous and universal attitude is evident to the most unobservant.
Colour is the predominant category of Spanish art.
There is hardly a scene of nature in the whole of Spanish painting,
Compare French with Spanish dancing; French feminine elegance with Spanish feminine movement and grace. --
... A signal example of the French attitude towards creative work. It is all planned beforehand. Method, foresight, all the qualities we know to be those of the intellectual, shine with special brilliancy in French art.
those 'isms' which appear periodically in the fields of literary and artistic criticism in France: symbolism, parnassism, romanticism, classicism are the names of generations, banners, labels which the critical intellect affixes to this or that period of French literary and artistic life.
No sooner is he moved by an aesthetic emotion than the Frenchman instinctively and unconsciously deflects it towards intellectual aims, i.e. towards aims of knowledge.
Unconscious in Spain, conscious in France, art was bound to be self-conscious in England.
... Literature is by far the best and most successful of English arts. Literature is in England eminently social. The novel is a direct reflection of the life of the people
Such seems to be the true explanation of this apparent paradox, that the usually inartistic, unpoetic people of England should have produced the greatest poets in Europe.
Love is in Spain as spontaneous, as uncalculating, as volcanic as Spanish nature would lead us to expect.
We know that envy is the specific Spanish vice. In the realm of love, envy becomes jealousy. Love is jealous in Spain.
Love in France is, like everything else, dispassionate.
Truth, that urge for truth which is the mainspring in the French soul, strengthens this frank and open attitude in matters of sex.
pride makes the Spaniard suffer agony in the throes of jealousy, while vanity saves the Frenchman from attaching too much importance to the feelings of the woman who turns away from him.
the world of emotions rooted in sex becomes an underworld. It has a respectable manifestation: sentimentalism; and an escape:... Which goes by the name of romance.
... the growth of some of the peculiarly English love flora; for instance, the frequent friendships between men and women...
English illustrated periodicals are, with some honourable exceptions, obsessed by it, and serve it under all sorts of disguises--art, sport, society--...
French illustrated periodicals... Treat sex as an open affair, even as a joke, but, though dwelling on it to the point of monotony, they are not obsessed by it.
The passionate and individual character of Spanish patriotism is undoubtedly the best explanation of the fact that it is easier to make a Spaniard die for his country than live for it.
Power is not what attracts the Frenchman in all these epochs of his military past. What attracts him is the sight of pageant, the light which it irradiates, for light is ultimately the true element of the French spirit.
The patriotism of a people spontaneously organized as a team, it has the limits of the team, i.e. it stops at the frontiers of the race. Here, none of that universality which we were able to observe in France.
In Spain religion is above all an individual passion, just like love, jealousy, hatred, or ambition.
Fraternity, therefore, is apt to be taken for granted, and to be matter-of- course and even cold; it is compatible with indifference and even with cruelty. Yet it is, perhaps, the most important factor in Spanish life...
... The intellect of the French nation is not merely analytical. It is also constructive.
Hence the strong ethical character of English religion. Religious bodies take a powerful interest in collective tasks.
there is always something of seriousness, which calls the imagination rather to thoughts of labor
the towns are in general well built, and are embellished by the proprietors with a sort of good-natured care.
there is everywhere to be remarked a certain love of the beautiful...
As there is no capital city in which all the good company of Germany finds itself united, the spirit of society exerts but little power; and the empire of taste and the arms of ridicule are equally without influence.
In literature, as in politics, the Germans have too much respect for foreigners, and not enough of national prejudices.
The Germans are, generally speaking, both sincere and faithful; they seldom forfeit their word, and deceit is foreign to them.
It is imagination more than understanding that characterizes the Germans.
it is difficult to grow accustomed to the slowness and inertness of the German people; they never hasten to any object; they find obstacles to all;
We must also like the Germans for the good-will manifested in their respectful deference and formal politeness, which foreigners have so often turned into ridicule.
Enthusiasm for the arts and poetry is joined to habits even low and vulgar in social life
Stoves, beer, and the smoke of tobacco surround all the common people of Germany with a thick and hot atmosphere, from which they are never inclined to escape.