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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: the amount of national capital buried at their feet is so vast,
that we must not wonder if they seem oppressed with greatness and
the sense of empire. Other whites take part in our brabbles, while
temper holds out, with a certain schoolboy entertainment. In the
Germans alone, no trace of humour is to be observed, and their
solemnity is accompanied by a touchiness often beyond belief.
Patriotism flies in arms about a hen; and if you comment upon the
colour of a Dutch umbrella, you have cast a stone against the
German Emperor. I give one instance, typical although extreme.
One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail cutter complained of
the vermin with which she is infested. He was suddenly and sharply
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