222
Notes on the Evidence bearing
enquired of au esteemed member of this Club, having a large
medical practice at Colchester, as to the amount of injury to
nervous system, &c, caused by the earthquake, we were in-
formed that it had been practically nothing, owing to tho
unexcitable character of the inhabitants of the damaged
district. Among the English-speaking but mainly Celtic
districts of the west, the maps show us that the proportion
of dark people is the same in Cornwall as in Suffolk, in
Ayrshire and Galloway as in Norfolk. Now Ayrshire and
Galloway were the head-quarters of those stern religious en-
thusiasts, the Covenanters, while in Cornwall were achieved
some of the greatest successes of Wesleyanism. If we turn
from these far-apart but equally Celtic districts to the espe-
cially Teutonic counties of East Anglia, we find that in no part
of England did Wesley meet with more discouragement than ill
the diocese of Norwich, which includes Norfolk and Suffolk.
Dr. Jessopp, in his 'Diocesan History of Norwich,' remarks
that Wesley appears to have been shocked and horrified by
the reception accorded him in East Anglia, his journal being
full of lamentations at the perverseness and fickleness of the
people. For not only did Wesley find it difficult to arouse
religious emotion in the breasts of the East Anglians, but
their enthusiasm also tended to cool with unprecedented
rapidity. In three years his Society had almost dwindled
away, and he writes:—"I have seen no people in all England
so changeable as this." And Dr. Jessopp, whose thorough
acquaintance with this district is unquestionable, remarks
that "the cold and lethargic temperament of the East Anglian
people is not easily stirred to enthusiasm; soon roused to
hatred, they are very slow to love, and the emotional in them
seems to be reached only through their resentment." This
evidence as to temperament thus amply confirms the conclu-
sions derived from the labours of Mr. Seebohm and those of
the Anthropometric Committee, that to the mingling of the
dark and fair Teutons, and not of fair Teutons with Celti-
berians, the dark element of our eastern counties is mainly
due.