A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It was Henry Thomas Buckle who was the first to realise the value of a critical study of the influence of nature upon individuals and peoples. One glance at the map of Europe shows most clearly how the peculiar position of England must have influenced the character of the English. England is an island with precipitous cliffs, surrounded by an angry sea which makes navigation specially dangerous, by reason of storms and reefs. These circumstances have induced a more complete isolation of the country and its inhabitants than has been the case with other islands. Buckle remarked that England was seldom visited by foreigners up to the middle of the eighteenth century1. The nation's prolonged isolation is the actual explanation of its most outstanding characteristic, which is insularity: its wholly original independence of attitude both in business and government affairs. This marked independence, moreover, explains why the English awoke to the theory of 1 political freedom ' centuries before continental peoples and incorporated it in their lives. (Magna Charta, 15th June, 1215.) To this independence, this self-assurance, can be traced really most of the remaining qualities of the English race which have caused an unshakable stability throughout centuries as in no other European nation. English self-assurance does not 1 Even under George III, when the Countess de Boufflers visited England her wish to become acquainted with England was regarded as a great service. ' Car on remarquait qu'elle etait la seule dame Fran- chise de qualite qui fut venue en voyageuse depuis deux cent ans: on ne comprenait point, dans cette classe, les ambassadrices, ni la duchesse de Mazarin, qui y 6taient venues par necessiteV—L. Dutens, Mdmoires d'un voyageur qui se repose. Paris, 1806. Vol. I, p. 217. [3]