nervous energy."

There is much truth in this. One may stand at Charing Cross and watch
the hurrying crowds and only now and then catch sight of any one who
suggests the burly John Bull of tradition. The type is not a common
one, at least among city dwellers.

But when we attribute a temperament to a nation, we do not necessarily
mean that all the people are alike. We only mean that there are
certain ways of thinking and feeling that are common to those who have
had the same general experience. The national temperament is
manifested not so much in what the people are as in what they admire
and instinctively appreciate.

Let us accept the statement that the English are a quick-witted and
romantic people who have accepted with pleasant equanimity the
reputation for being quite otherwise. Why should they do this? Why
should they take pride in their reputed stolidity rather than in their
actual cleverness. Here is a temperamental peculiarity that is worth
looking into.

John Bull may be a myth, but Englishmen have been the mythmakers. They
have for generations delighted in picturing him. He represents a
combination of qualities which they admire. Dogged, unimaginative,
well-meaning, honest, full of whimsical prejudices, and full of common
sense, he is loved and honored by those who are much more brilliant
than he.

John Bull is not a composite photograph of the inhabitants of the
British Isles. He is not an average man. He is a totem. When an Indian
tribe chooses a fox or a bear as a totem, they must not be taken too
literally. But the symbol has a real meaning. It indicates that there
are some qualities in these animals that they admire. They have proved
valuable in the tribal struggle for existence.

Those who belong to the cult of John Bull take him as the symbol of
that which has been most vital and successful in the island story.
England has had more than its share of men of genius. It has had its
artists, its wits, its men of quick imagination. But these have not
been the builders of the Empire, or those who have sustained it in the
hours of greatest need. Men of a slower temper, more solid than
brilliant, have been the nation's main dependence. "It's dogged as
does it." On many a hard-fought field men of the bull-dog breed have
with unflinching tenacity held their own. In times of revolution they
have maintained order, and never yielded to a threat. Had they been
more sensitive they would have failed. Their