^ 



XV. 



THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 



Every nation at tlie present day is a compound 

 of numberless distinct elements; but few nations 

 are more absolutely compound, more closely inter- 

 mixed of varying races, than the English people 

 and its offshoot, the American race. Even if we 

 take merely the well known historical components 

 of the population in England proper, omitting 

 Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, we have 

 an extraordinary conglomerate of the most diverse 

 Celtic and Teutonic elements. As Defoe long ago 

 satirically observed, when he wished to cast ridi- 

 cule upon the supposed purity of blood in certain 

 sections of the community, — 



** With easy pains you can distinguish 

 Your Saxon, Norman, Danish English." 



The real fact is, of course, that almost every indi- 

 vidual in our existing society can trace his descent 

 in one line or the other to Saxon, Norman, Dane, 

 and Celt alike, and to many still older and all but 

 forgotten components of our very mixed British 

 Tiationality. Each of us has necessarily two 



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