LOVE AND INDUSTRY 187 



in Spain appears to be tinged by traditions of the 

 worship of Diana (the moon-goddess) to which the 

 ancient Spaniards were particularly affected. The 

 Madonna is commonly represented in Spanish art 

 as standing upon the crescent moon. There is no 

 essential difference between a bull-fight and the 

 games of the Roman circus : now, as then, a 

 cruel spectacle touches the very heart of the 

 people. Northern manners, on the other hand, 

 have during the past ten centuries been so com- 

 pletely transformed as to present few material 

 traces of their former complexion. In the north, 

 Christianity has changed its character, and has 

 become a religion of morality rather than of 

 ceremonial. 



And there appears to be a momentous difference 

 between the north and the south in the relative 

 strength of the two instincts which have been 

 described in Chapter IV as reproductive and provi- 

 dent. These are the mainsprings of the two leading 

 objects of life to perpetuate our kind, and, by 

 foresight and industry, to ameliorate our condi- 

 tions. The former is undoubtedly more insistent 

 amongst Mediterranean than amongst Baltic peo- 

 ples. In southern countries the young attain sexual 

 maturity earlier : this is a physical peculiarity 

 which can hardly leave character unaffected. 

 The passion of love, which in the north is an 

 episode, in the south is an abiding stimulus : 

 judging by their literature, it is hardly paradoxi- 

 cal to say that southerners think only of love, 

 whereas the people of the north have a thousand 

 interests. We may figure to ourselves the in- 

 fluence of this propensity upon the national 

 character if we recollect what it was to be in love 

 ourselves. So affected, we exhibited some of the 

 leading features of the Mediterranean tempera- 

 ment ; we were impulsive, little concerned with 



