5951. THE ENGLISH. The English are of such a temper, that, if anything is written which is not approved by those of whom they have once formed a favorable opinion, they see nothing in it except the letter, or sense of the letter, and not the general sense, or are like one who hears a speaker and attends only to the words of the speech and its eloquence, and not to the speaker's meaning. But when anything written is approved by those of whom they have formed a favorable opinion, they do not then see the sense of the letter, but the general sense. They are, then, as it were in illustration regarding the thing written, so that the approval [of those they esteem] confers illustration on them. Hence it is, [that] when anything is commended by these, it is procured by thousands; but, if not commended, it is not procured by anyone, scarcely by one in the whole kingdom. So like are they all to one another.