CHAPTER XXI. 

 DENMARK, BELGIUM, HOLLAND, GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



DENMARK. 



PHYSICALLY the Danes are a yellow-haired and fair-skinned people, belonging to the 

 Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they are of full medium height, with frames 

 and limbs well proportioned and strongly 

 knit. 



Although an offshoot of the Germanic 

 family of nations, the most characteristic 

 intellectual traits of the Germans are so 

 much modified in the Danes that they 

 fail to be distinctive. The Danes are as 

 courageous, industrious, and persevering as 

 any people in Europe. Judicious and 

 practical in the general affairs of life, they 

 are in science solid and earnest thinkers. 

 On the other hand, one finds a quick sus- 

 ceptibility and a degree of vivacity seldom 

 or never apparent in the ordinary phleg- 

 matic Dutchman, who may be regarded as 

 the typical representative of the racial stock. 

 The celebrated geographer Malte-Brun, 

 himself a Dane by birth, has sketched the 

 character of his countrymen. He cannot 

 be charged with attributing to them 

 imaginary virtues or concealing their 

 shortcomings in his picture. "It may be," 

 he says, "that the humidity of the air and 

 the quantity of flesh and fish they con- 

 sume have contributed to make this nation 

 heavy, patient, and difficult to move. In 

 former times insatiable conquerors, they are 

 now brave, but peaceable; little enter- 

 prising, but plodding and persevering; 

 modest and proud, but not over-assiduous. 

 They are cheerful and frank among com- 

 patriots, but somewhat cool and ceremonious 

 towards foreigners. Imitators of other 

 nations, we also find them discriminating 

 observers. Constant, romantic, and careful 

 of their cherished aims, they are capable of 

 a rush of enthusiasm, but rarely of flashes 

 of inspiration. Although bound by strong 



<iy Lund. 



A DANISH BRIDE. 



481 



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