無Hints
No one document, no handful of documents, can properly be said to reveal the character of a people or of their government. But when hundreds and thousands of documents strike a consistent note, over more than a hundred years, we have a right to say that is the keynote. When hundreds and thousands of documents address themselves in the same ways, to the same overarching problems, we have a right to read from them certain conclusions which we can call national characteristics.
沒有哪一個文件或者少數(shù)文件可以準(zhǔn)確地揭示一國人民或政府的特征。但當(dāng)一百多年來成百上千的文件敲擊出始終如一的音調(diào)時，我們可以說這就是基調(diào)。當(dāng)成百上千的文件以相同的方式解說相同的包羅萬象的問題時，從文件中確鑿的推論，我們可以閱讀出來被我們可稱之為的國家特征。