On National Character. 353 
only to be effected by many generations, but 
which when once accomplished is permanent; 
so that a nation, when it has attained a degree 
of civilization, never loses it ; it becomes 
part of the constitution, I may say, of the 
nature of the man; in the same way as 
domestication becomes part of the nature or 
constitution of an animal. A people may 
become stationary; they may become igno- 
rant ; but they never a second time become 
savages. 
Yy 
