The good or evil of these characteristics I do not propose to examine, nor can they I think be determined; for they will vary ac cording to the very various ethical systems which abound in the modern world, and every reader will determine for himself whether he approves or disapproves of the Gallic temper. It is such as I have described it.
It will next be remarked that the French, such as they are, have had since the fall of the Roman Empire a very large and dispro portionate influence upon the mind of Europe. This truth is so generally appreciated that it needs no expansion here, but a few examples will make it evident to all. French has been the language of a governing class from the river Tyne to the river Euphrates, and from the Atlas Mountains to the mouths of the Rhine.
Feudalism and the whole structure of me diaeval society were Gallic in origin. The Gothic architecture is a Gallic invention, as is the collegiate university. The systems of mili tary fortification in the 12th, in the 16th, the 17th and the latter 19th centuries, are French; the French framed the first code of laws since the fall of Rome—it became at once the bapis for every code throughout Europe. The French road is the model of the German and the Italian road, and to-day the weights and meas ures of European civilization are French; while, to mention a detail of no great importance, the French language becomes, with every year, more and more the medium of international communication and especially the medium in which is expressed the general result of Euro pean thought.
This permanent and, as it would seem, un due preponderance of the French mind, is in part no doubt due to the mixture of excessive energy with excessive precision which is the vice, or virtue, of the French. But a very large part, and the more easily ascertainable part of this influence, must be laid to causes of another kind—causes more material and dependent upon the sequence of history out side the frontiers of Gaul, and the geographical position of the quadrilateral which the French inhabit; as also to some extent to the influence of soil and climate.
In order to appreciate these measurable causes of French preponderance, let us exam ine the boundaries of that quadrilateral, and estimate its physical qualities and its historical position.
The French, as I have said above, inhabit nearly all the • territory anciently known as Gaul. and the boundary which may be set to the Gallic temper runs as follows: Taking first a point upon the shores of the Bay of Biscay some 20 miles north of the Spanish frontier, the Atlantic coast is the boundary until the Bay of Quiberon is reached; from that point upon the coast of Brittany the line drawn vaguely north and 'south to the coasts of the channel, excluding to the east the highly different Armorican type which, if place names and folklore arc any guide, has probably lain permanently beyond this boundary since a period prior to the Roman invasion.
From the point upon the channel so determined, the boundary proceeds eastward and northward along the coast (including the Channel Islands and their dependencies) to a point about half way between Calais and Dunquerque. Thence it strikes inland, including such places as Tournai, Mona, Charleroi, Namur, Liege, but a few miles east of the latter town and some what west of the old castle of Limburg• the boundary turns sharply to the south and in a somewhat undulating form, after striking the Belgian frontier at Gouvy, runs a trifle west of that line, passes a mile or two east of Arlon, about half way between that town and the frontier, and so reaches the point where France, Luxemburg and Belgium meet, a point in which artificial and political boundaries curi ously correspond with real divisions of men.
The limit of which I am speaking next fol lows the short Luxemburg boundary, and cuts in a line less defined than most parts of its course from the top corner of Lorraine to within a march or so of the Rhine.
This section is difficult to define, from the fact that the population is not possessed of sharply marked characteristics. Between the Gallic belt of Belgium and the non-Gallic, a boundary as sharp as that made by a river or a wall can be discovered by the most super ficial observer. There is more difference be tween Liege and Maestricht than there is be tween, let us say, an Irish and an English town. But in Lorraine no such sharp differentiation of architecture, manners and general way of life is to be discovered. Language is no guide here, the habits and aspect of a German-speak ing village are the same as those of a French speaking village, and one can only speak of a gradual transformation from the purely French town of Metz to the purely German belt which extends, as I have said, to within about one day's march of the Rhine. The belt between can only be described as mixed.