Inasmuch, therefore, as the liberal arts have been imported
to us from the south, and their progress is as yet not so extensive in
cold countries, the stimulus to their cultivation in the latter is so
much the greater; which is one way of accounting for the giants in
science that have appeared in the north, It is moreover remarkable, that
the northern nations have a stronger apprehension of abstract
propositions, and a greater fondness for generalizing, than seems to be
the case in the south. The difference between a Frenchman and a German is
observable in this particular, by any one who attends to their manner of
telling stories. The former, in giving you an account of his being robbed
by a servant to whom he had been particularly kind, first tells you the
facts, and concludes with a reflection, "_Voila que le monde est ingrat!_"
The German, on the other hand, in order to prove to you the general
proposition of the unthankfulness of men to their benefactors, gives you
the instance that has recently happened. To the one, the fact is
interesting, because it proves the proposition; to the other, the
proposition is a conclusion, which he hastily draws from an individual
occurrence that has suggested it.
The climate does not appear to affect even the bodies of men to any
great degree. We cannot pronounce that it is the sun which makes
the African black, when we see the same heat pouring down on the
copper-coloured American, in the same degree of latitude, though in
another longitude.
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