On National Character. 337 
we were in like manner to unfold the trans- 
actions of each succeeding generation, and 
assign to them their respective characters, it 
would be evident on comparing them toge- 
ther, that all along the character of the na- 
tion was the same, only new circumstances 
occasioned new expressions of it. If we even 
turn back to the period of which Tacitus and 
Czesar were the historians, and compare the 
Germans and French of those days, with the 
Germans and French of the present, we shall 
discern the same people ; and if we take a wider 
scope, and place before us the maxims of alk 
the rude and barbarous nations that we are 
made acquainted with, we shall be able to di- 
vide them into classes, and to form an estimate 
of their present and future character.. For 
instance, it is a maxim of most. barbarous 
nations, that theft, and what is always con- 
nected with it, lying, are honourable. With 
other nations, truth and honesty are sanc- 
tioned. In the first class we may place the 
Spartans, the Romans, the Scythians, with 
all their descendants ; and thus we embrace 
nearly the whole of Europe. In the other 
elass we may place many nations of Africa, 
perhaps some tribes of America, the Chi- 
nese, and the Laplanders. Parke bears ample 
testimony to the kindness, the integrity, and 
Uu 
