"I have no doubt he is right."
"And Frenchmen are very different from Englishmen," added Flora.
"And both from Americans. And the Dutch from all three. We might go on indefinitely."
"Yet they are all descended from Noah's sons," Meredith remarked.
"It is a very curious subject, and rather deep for some of the present company. Many things go to make the differences between one nation and another. In the first place, the several families of Shem, Ham and Japheth are all strongly marked."
"Are they, sir?"
"Then, among the tribes of any one family, differences grow up from many causes. From the sort of country they inhabit, the climate that prevails, the scenery their eyes rest on, the ease or difficulty of obtaining food, and the means necessary to that end; from the religion they believe in, their situation with respect to commerce and intercourse with other nations; their habits of life superinduced upon all these."
"But the modern Saxons live where the old Saxons did, sir?"
"Barely. The country was at that time all one wild tract of forest and moor, where life had need be of the simplest; and where it was sustained in great measure by the chase and by a rude husbandry. No cities, no churches, no libraries, no merchants, no lawyers, no fine furniture, no delicate living. Nobody therefore wanted money, and nobody tried to get it. That makes all the difference in the world, children."
"Money, Uncle Eden?"