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132

D0MEST1C MANNEKS OF THE PEUSSIANS.

The Germans, when rated upon this score, teil you that theyconsider such sports childish and unworthy of grown men,even though they pass several hours in the course of the weekengaged in the manly pastime of dominoes!

Moreover, from the presence of two large rivers almost atthe very doorsteps of the Coblenzers, one would naturally haveimagined that the schoolboys in the town would have been asremarkable for their aquatic propensities as our Westminsteror Eton lads. But, no! rowing being rather more laborious a

sensibility of some characters, as well as the gross want of feeling displayed byothers—the difference between a poet and a butcher—a Percy Bysshe Shelleyand a Jack Ketch, for instance—but also to explain why it is that some in-dividuals have such an excess of muscular irritability as to be incapable ofsitting still or remaining in the sarae place, or even attending to the samesubject, for two minutes consecutively ; while others are listless and inactiveas idiots.

The love of hunting, of Walking, of travelling, and among the poorer classof vagabondising, would appear to be referable to such an organic cause; forwe must all admit some difference, either of Organisation or habit, in order toaccount for the differences of character : and perhaps characters never vary somuch among individuals as in their capacities and desire for muscular exercise.

How comes it that one man or one nation is distinguished for its activityand another for its indisposition for physical exertion ? What innate peeuliarityis it which induces "the London Sparrow" to prefer picking pockets to usinghis muscles honestly for his living ? and what organic idiosyncracy makes Cap-tain Barclay so fond of Walking that he ultimately accomplishes his 1000 milesin 1000 consecutive hours? Is it not well known, too, that extravasation ofblood upon the thalamiis or the Corpora striata produces either paralysis offeeling or motion, according to the nature of the nerves affected ? a.nd that insomnambulism the Walking during slumber arises from the fact of the motornerves being imperfectly asleep, while the sensory ones are comparativelydeadened ?

If, then, we admit a physical cause for the more or less perfect privation ofthe functions of Sensation or action, surely it is but extending the same principleto refer the differences of character among human beings, as regards their sensi-bilities and energies, to a greater or less development of the sensory or motoryOrgans.

Following out this same theory, therefore, we are led to believe, that if thebrains of a large number of Englishmen were to be compared with those of thePrussians, the Deutschers would be found to have the motor ganglion at thebase of the cerebrum imperfectly developed.