You must excuse me; but Germans are always metaphysicians, and they can't help it." "Go on; be German," said Michael.
"Lieber Gott! As if I could be anything else," said Falbe, laughing.
"We are the only nation which makes a science of experimentalism; we try everything, just as a puppy tries everything.

It tries mutton bones, and match-boxes, and soap and boots; it tries to find out what its tail is for, and bites it till it hurts, on which it draws the conclusion that it is not meant to eat.

Like all metaphysicians, too, and dealers in the abstract, we are intensely practical.

Our passion for experimentalism is dictated by the firm object of using the knowledge we acquire.

We are tremendously thorough; we waste nothing, not even time, whereas the English have an absolute genius for wasting time.