pamphleteer that the maxim is American, and that it is
never quoted in England--nor, I believe, in the country of its
origin--except in a spirit of irony.

And in the face of this deadly uniformity of sentiments, phraseology,
and quotations, Professor Lasson has the audacity to assure us that
"The German is personally independent. He wants to judge for himself.
It is not so easy for him as for others blindly to follow this or that
catchword!"

We are all, I suppose, unconscious of our own foibles, but I wonder
whether we are all so apt as the Germans to deny them (and very likely
attribute them to other people) while in the very act of exemplifying
them. For example, it is firmly fixed in the German mind that the
English consider themselves God's Chosen People, predestined to the
empire of the world. I have collected numerous instances of this
allegation (Nos. 453-466), but not a single one which is substantiated
by a quotation from an English writer. It is, I am convinced,
impossible to bring evidence for it, unless some expressions to this
effect may be found in the writings of persons who believe that the
English are descended from the lost Ten Tribes--persons who are about
as representative of the English nation as those who believe that the
earth is flat. The English mind, indeed, is but little inclined to
this primitive form of theism. The German mind, on the other hand, is
curiously addicted to it, and I have brought together a number of
instances (Nos. 117-135) in which German writers make the very claim
to Divine calling and election which they falsely attribute to the
English, and denounce as insanely presumptuous.[3] So, too, with
egoism. The Germans do not actually consider themselves free from
egoism; on the contrary, they are rather given to boasting of it (Nos.
212, 213, 248, 300); but while it is a virtue in them, it is a very
repulsive vice in the English. As for cant, which is, of course, the
commonest charge against the English, one can only say that, when the
German gives his mind to it, he proves himself an accomplished master
of the art (Nos. 47, 55, 79, 89, 94, 104, 237, 423). Here is an
example, from a book about Germany by a German-Austrian,[4] which
scarcely comes within the scope of my anthology, but it is too
characteristic to be lost. "_If you want_," says the writer, in
italics, "_thoroughly to understand the German, you must compare the
German sportsman with the hunters of other countrie