pected to be able on
occasion to drink a considerable amount of wine or spirits without showing
the effects of it, either in his conduct or in his speech. "Drink thy
share of mead; speak fair or not at all"--that was the old text, and a
very sensible one in its way.

Laughter was also condemned, if indulged in without very good cause. "The
miserable man whose mind is warped laughs at everything, not knowing what
he ought to know, that he himself has no lack of faults." I need scarcely
tell you that the English are still a very serious people, not disposed to
laugh nearly so much as are the men of the more sympathetic Latin races.
You will remember perhaps Lord Chesterfield's saying that since he became
a man no man had ever seen him laugh. I remember about twenty years ago
that there was published by some Englishman a very learned and very
interesting little book, called "The Philosophy of Laughter," in which it
was gravely asserted that all laughter was foolish. I must acknowledge,
however, that no book ever made me laugh more than the volume in question.

The great virtue of the men of the North, according to the "Havamal," was
indeed the virtue which has given to the English race its present great
position among nations,--the simplest of all virtues, common sense. But
common sense means much more than the words might imply to the Japanese
students, or to any one unfamiliar with English idioms. Common sense, or
mother-wit, means natural intelligence, as opposed to, and independent of,
cultivated or educated intelligence. It means inherited knowledge; and
inherited knowledge may take even the form of genius. It means foresight.
It means intuitive knowledge of other people's character. It means cunning
as well as broad comprehension. And the modern Englishman, in all times
and in all countries, trusts especially to this faculty, which is very
largely developed in the race to which he belongs. No Englishman believes
in working from book learning. He suspects all theories, philosophical or
other. He suspects everything new, and dislikes it, unless he can be
compelled by the force of circumstances to see that this new thing has
advantages over the old. Race-experience is what he invariably depends
upon, whenever he can, whether in India, in Egypt, or in Australia. His
statesmen do not consult historical precedents in order to decide what to
do: they first learn the facts as they are; then they depend upon their
own common