ABSTRACT

That which alone causes any material interest to exist, which alone enables any body of human beings to exist in society, is national character: that it is, which causes one nation to succeed in what it attempts, another to fail; one nation to understand and aspire to elevated things, another to grovel in mean ones; which makes the greatness of one nation lasting, and dooms another to rapid and early decay ... A philosophy of laws and institutions, not founded on a philosophy of national character, is an absurdity.