I may note that in all this Bagehot was
a typical man of Somerset. He was so in
appearance, with his high colour and sturdy
form, the representative of a dark-haired race
which is scarcely Celtic but, we may suspect,
older and more aboriginal, and he was equally
of Somerset type in his mental make-up, the
fellow-countryman of Locke and of Hobbes



80 IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS

(highly typical, like Wren also, though both
came from neighbouring Wiltshire) and of
Thomas Young, of Pym and of Prynne and
of Hales the " ever memorable," of the wonder-
ful Roger Bacon, so daring and so insolent, and
of Dunstan, if indeed he really belongs here,
the most versatile_as well as the most forceful
of English saints. They are a sturdy people,
independent to arrogance, even contentious in
their caution and scepticism, determined to
see things clearly and to see them for them-
selves, and so seeing many things that had
never been seen before, yet tenacious and
conservative; and Father Parsons, the last
devoted martyr of the ancient faith, was a
man of Somerset. They are not apt to be
carried to any point of exaltation. Their
most authentic poet, before Southey, is Daniel,
for they are poets in the world of thought,
even of science, rather than in that of emotion,
but they are largely responsible for so great a
figure in English literature as Fielding, and
entirely, in another field, for Robert Blake,
while Dampier, alike in his strength and in
his weakness, is their characteristic son. Their
ideal state would seem to be a sort of Re-
publican Toryism in life, and robust Positivism
in thought.
POPPIES 81

Now this is an admirable temper of mind.
