with impulsions or tranquil and surrounded with calmness,
so are all the operations and the whole running-gear
of the human machine entirely transformed. In
like manner, again, according as the ulterior development
of the representation varies, so does the whole development
of the man vary. If the general conception in
which this ends is merely a dry notation in Chinese
fashion, language becomes a kind of algebra, religion
and poetry are reduced to a minimum, philosophy is
brought down to a sort of moral and practical common
sense, science to a collection of recipes, classifications,
and utilitarian mnemonics, the mind itself taking
a whole positive turn. If, on the contrary, the
general conception in which the representation culminates
is a poetic and figurative creation, a living symbol,
as with the Aryan races, language becomes a sort of
shaded and tinted epic in which each word stands as
a personage, poesy and religion assume magnificent
and inexhaustible richness, and metaphysics develops
with breadth and subtlety without any consideration
of positive bearings; the whole intellect, notwithstanding
the deviation and inevitable weaknesses of the effort,
is captivated by the beautiful and sublime, thus conceiving
an ideal type which, through its nobleness and harmony,
gathers to itself all the affections and enthusiasms
of humanity. If, on the other hand, the general
conception in which the representation culminates is
poetic but abrupt, is reached not gradually but by
sudden intuition, if the original operation is not
a regular development but a violent explosion—then,
as with the semitic races, metaphysical power is wanting;
the religious conception becomes that of a royal God,
consuming and solitary; science cannot take shape,
the intellect grows rigid and too headstrong to reproduce
the delicate ordering of nature; poetry cannot give
birth to aught but a series of vehement, grandiose
exclamations, while language no longer renders the
concatenation of reasoning and eloquence, man being
reduced to lyric enthusiasm, to ungovernable passion,
and to narrow and fanatical action. It is in
this interval between the particular representation
and the universal conception that the germs of the
greatest human differences are found. Some races,
like the classic, for example, pass from the former
to the latter by a graduated scale of ideas regularly
classified and more and more general; others, like
the Germanic, traverse the interval in leaps, with
uniformity and after prolonged and uncertain groping.
Others, like the Romans and the English, stop at the
lowest stages; others, like the Hindoos and Germans,
mount to the uppermost.