Let me come to the point boldly; what governs the Englishman is his inner atmosphere, the weather in his soul. It is nothing particularly spiritual or mysterious. When he has taken his exercise and is drinking his tea or his beer and lighting his pipe; when, in his garden or by his fire, he sprawls in an aggressively comfortable chair; when well-washed and well-brushed, he resolutely turns in church to the east and recites the Creed without in the least implying that he believes one word of it; when he hears or sings the most crudely sentimental and thinnest of popular songs, unmoved but not disgusted; when he makes up his mind who is his best friend or his favorite poet; when he adopts a party or a sweetheart; when he is hunting or shooting or boating, or striding through the fields; when he is choosing his clothes or his profession—never is it a precise reason, or purpose, or outer fact that determines him; it is always the atmosphere of his inner man.

讓我直接進入主題吧: 制約著一個英國男人的是他的內在氣度, 他靈魂內的自然力量. 這跟什麼超自然現象或神祕主義都沒關係. 當他做運動時, 喝茶或啤酒時, 還有點燃他的煙斗時; 當他在他的院子裡或是在火爐旁, 他大咧咧的坐進一個非常舒適的椅子; 當梳理妥當, 他毅然決然的朝東向教堂而去, 他當眾吟誦使徒教條, 絲毫沒有表達出對其中任何一個字的信服; 當他聽見或唱出最渾然天成, 動人或稀薄無力的熱門歌曲, 並不為之所動也不感到嫌惡; 當他決定誰是他最好的朋友和最喜愛的詩人; 當他辦場派對或和甜心女郎約會; 當他去打獵或是射擊或是划船, 又或是橫跨原野; 當他選擇要穿上身的衣服或是他的職業-這些從來都不是取決於一個絕對的理由, 或是目標, 或是任何外在因素; 一直都是他的內在精神氣度在做決定.

Instinctively the Englishman is no missionary, no conqueror. He prefers the country to the town, and home to foreign parts. He is rather glad and relieved if only natives will remain natives and strangers strangers, and at a comfortable distance from himself. Yet outwardly he is most hospitable and accepts almost anybody for the time being; he travels and conquers without a settled design, because he has the instinct of exploration. His adventures are all external; they change him so little that he is not afraid of them. He carries his English weather in his heart wherever he goes, and it becomes a cool spot in the desert, and a steady and sane oracle amongst all the deliriums of mankind. Never since the heroic days of Greece has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls, and fanatics manage to supplant him.