|The English character

The English seem as silent as the Japanese, yet vainer than the inhabitants of Siam. Upon my arrival I attributed that reserve to modesty^{1, which, I now find, has its origin in pride. Condescend2 to address them first, and you are sure of their acquaintance; stoop to flattery, and you conciliate their friendship and esteem3. They bear hunger, cold, fatigue4, and all the miseries5 of life without shrinking, danger only calls forth6 their fortitude7; they even exult8 in calamity9, but contemp is what they cannot bear. An Englishman fears contempt more than death; he often flies to death as a refuge from its pressure, and dies when he fancies the world has creased10 to esteem him.}