Absence of the Culture of the Affections in England.
Culture of the Affections in France.
Cases like these are very numerous in England, because the affections are left to the chances of accident; they are not sedulously cared for and cultivated. When they are of great strength naturally, and when the conditions happen to be very favourable, there is nothing to prevent their growth, but in less favourable conditions there is nothing to keep them alive. In France all very near relations write to each other when they cannot meet personally on their fête days, all friends write at least a line or two for the New Year, and acquaintances exchange cards. An intelligent Frenchman said to me, “Our culture of the family affections is sometimes insincere, we sometimes express sentiments which are assumed for the occasion, but, on the whole, our customs tend to keep alive the reality of affection as well as its appearance, by reminding us of our relations and friends and of our duties towards them.”
Cause of the Difference.
What is the cause of this difference? Do the English really care less for each other than the French, or is there some hidden reason why they are less demonstrative?
English Shyness.
Due to a want of Culture.
Exceptional Englishmen.
The Clergy.
There is one reason—the English shyness, the English fear of giving verbal utterance to feeling. Now, this is distinctly a want of culture, for the due expression of feeling is, in all the higher arts, one of the best results of culture. There can be no doubt that many Englishmen feel much more than they are able to express, and they certainly appreciate the power of utterance in others, as, for example, in their orators. A few Englishmen boldly go beyond and do express feeling, even in ordinary life, just as a few venture to talk like intellectual men. These few are not uncommonly found among the clergy, at least it has been so in my experience; and this may be due to the culture which religion gives to feeling, and, in the clergy, to the practice gained by the utterance of it in sermons and exhortations.