A Brief History of the North, Part I, Part II, Part III

It seems that the Latin races are far more deeply attached to their Catholicism than we northerners are to Christianity generally. Unbelief in Catholic countries means something quite different from what it does among Protestants, while with us it is rather a return to the spirit, or non-spirit, of the race. The Christian ideal blossomed forth in France, as much as ever the pale sun of the north would allow it. How strangely pious for our taste are still these later French skeptics, whenever there is any Celtic blood in their origin. 48. Let us repeat after him these fine sentences, and what wickedness and haughtiness is immediately aroused by way of answer, in our probably less