the cataracts of the Nile; of unknown islands in the Yellow Sea; of the interior of India; or of any other tract which other travellers might be apt to picture out with the illusions of their fancies; but I would cautiously receive his account of his immediate neighbours, and of those nations with which he is in habits of most frequent intercourse. However I might be disposed to trust his probity, I dare not trust his prejudices. It has also been the peculiar lot of our country to be visited by the worst kind of English travellers. While men of philosophical spirit and cultivated mind have been sent from England to ransack the poles, to penetrate deserts, and to study the manners and customs of barbarous nations, with which she can have no permanent intercourse of profit or pleasure; it has been left to the broken-down tradesman, the scheming adventurer, the wandering mechanic, the Manchester and Birmingham agent, to be her oracles respecting America. From such sources she is content to receive her information respecting a country in a singular state of moral and physical development; a country in which one of the greatest political experiments in the history of the world is now performing?; and which presents the most profound and momentous studies to the statesman and the philosopher. That such men should give prejudiced accounts of America is not a matter of surprise. The themes it offers for contemplation are too vast and elevated for their capacities. The national character is yet in a state of fermentation; it may have its frothiness and sediment, but its ingredients are sound and wholesome, it has already given proofs of powerful and 5) Das gelbe Meer (Hoang-hai), der nördlichste Theil des chinesischen Me ers, welches sich im Osten und Süden Chinas vom japanischen Inselreich bis in die Gewässer zwischen Anam und Borneo erstreckt. 6) to ransack (mit scharf. s) eigtl. plündern, dann genau durchsuchen, durchforschen, (altn. schwed. ransaka v. altn. rann Haus und saka arguere, nocere, vergl. ags. hâm--socên, nhd. heimsuchen). 7) is performing: Verbindung von to be mit dem Partic. Präs. eines transitiven Zeitworts in medial-passivischer Bedeutung, welche der neueren Sprache angehört; vergl. Mätzner, Engl. Gr. II, p. 56. 8) sound gesund, kräftig, tüchtig, ags. sund, dtsch. gesund, verwandt mit dem gr. odos, lat. sanus bezeichnet den Zustand; wholesome gesund, heilsam von whole ganz, gesund (ags. hâl, nhd. heil, urverwandt mit gr. zaλós schön) und some (dtsch. sam, also wholesome heilsam) bezeichnet die Wirkung. That is wholesome which does no harm to our physical constitution but possesses the passive quality of health. Nahestehend dem wholesome ist healthy: That is generous qualities; and the whole promises to settle down into something substantially excellent. But the causes which are operating to strengthen and ennoble it, and its daily indications of admirable properties, are all lost upon these purblind observers; who are only affected by the little asperities incident to its present situation. They are capable of judging only of the surface of things; of those matters which come in contact with their private interests and personal gratifications. They miss some of the snug conveniences and petty comforts which belong to an old, highly-finished, and over-populous state of society; where the ranks of useful labour are crowded, and many earn a painful and servile subsistence by studying the very caprices of appetite and self-indulgence. These minor comforts, however, are all-important in the estimation of narrow minds; which either do not perceive, or will not acknowledge, that they are more than counterbalanced among us by great and generally diffused blessings. They may, perhaps, have been disappointed in some unreasonable expectation of sudden gain. They may have pictured America to themselves an El Dorado, where gold and silver abounded, and the natives were lacking in sagacity; and where they were to become strangely and suddenly rich, in some unforeseen, but easy manner. The same weakness of mind that indulges absurd expectations, produces petulance in disappointment. Such persons become embittered against the country on finding that there, as everywhere else, a man must sow before he can reap; must win wealth by industry and talent; and must contend with the common difficulties of nature, and the shrewdness of an intelligent and enterprising people. Perhaps, through mistaken or ill-directed hospitality, or the prompt disposition to cheer and countenance the stranger, prevalent among my countrymen, they may have been treated with unwonted respect in America; and having been accustomed all their lives to consider themselves below the surface of good society 10, and brought up in a servile feeling of inferiority, they healthy which actively promotes or increases our bodily strength (Graham, English Synonymes). 9) El Dorado (span. v. d. Artikel el u. dorado vergoldet part. p. v. dorare vergolden) das Goldland, in Europa ehedem Bezeichnung des angeblich an Gold und Silber unermesslich reichen Landstriches in Südamerica, der Cordilleras de los Andes im spanischen Guyana, am See Parime, in dem jetzigen Venezuela. 10) below the surface of good society = unter dem Niveau (wörtl. become arrogant on the common boon of civility 11; they attribute to the lowliness of others their own elevation; and underrate a society where there are no artificial distinctions, and where, by any chance, such individuals as themselves can rise to consequence. One would suppose, however, that information coming from such sources, on a subject where the truth is so desirable, would be received with caution by the censors of the press; that the motives of these men, their veracity, their opportunities of inquiry and observation, and their capacities for judging correctly, would be rigorously scrutinised before their evidence was admitted, in such sweeping extent, against a kindred nation. The very reverse, however, is the case, and it furnishes a striking1 12 instance of human inconsistency. Nothing can surpass the vigilance with which English critics will 13 examine the credibility of the traveller who publishes an account of some distant, and comparatively unimportant country. How warily will they compare the measurements of a pyramid, or the descriptions of a ruin; and how sternly will they censure any inaccuracy in these contributions of merely curious knowledge: 14 while they will receive, with eagerness and unhesitating faith, the gross misrepresentations of coarse and obscure writers, concerning a country with which their own is placed in the most important and delicate relations. Nay, they will even make these apocryphal volumes text-books 15, on which to enlarge with a zeal and an ability worthy of a more generous cause. I shall not, however, dwell on this irksome and hackneyed 16 der Oberfläche) der guten Gesellschaft. 11) on the common boon of civility wörtl. auf Grund der gewöhnlichen Gabe, Gewährung von Höflichkeit; deutsch etwa: sobald die gewöhnliche Höflichkeit gegen sie beobachtet wird. 12) striking mit gleicher Anschauung im Dtsch. schlagend. blos auf Merkwürdigkeiten bezieht. = ein Wissen, das sich 15) dopp. Accusativ bei make, deutsch etwa: sie behandeln diese apokryphischen Blätter wie classische Werke; text-book in dem jetzt veralteten Sinne = a book with wide spaces between the lines, to give room for the observations or notes, sodann = a volume, as of some classical author, on which a teacher lectures or comments; hence any manual of instruction = Lehrbuch; an educational treatise; a school book (Webster). 16) to hackney (v. hackney Miethpferd aus hack Miethklepper u. nag, nhd. Nickel-Pferdchen, wovon franz. haquenée) abnutzen; Partic.: abgenutzt, abgedroschen. topic; nor should I have adverted to it, but for 17 the undue interest apparently taken in it by my countrymen, and certain injurious effects which I apprehended it might produce upon the national feeling. We attach too much consequence to these attacks. They cannot do us any essential injury. The tissue of misrepresentations attempted to be woven round us are like cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant. Our country continually out - grows them. One falsehood after another falls off of itself. We have but to live on 18, and every day we live a whole volume of refutation. All the writers of England united, if we could for a moment suppose their great minds stooping to so unworthy a combination, could not conceal our rapidly growing importance, and matchless prosperity. They could not conceal that these are owing 19, not merely to physical and local, but also to moral causes to the political liberty, the general diffusion of knowledge, the prevalence of sound moral and religious principles, which give force and sustained 20 energy to the character of a people; and, in fact, have been the acknowledged and wonderful supporters of their own national power and glory. But why are we so exquisitely alive to the aspersions of England? Why do we suffer ourselves to be so affected 21 by the contumely she has endeavoured to cast upon us? It is not in the opinion of England alone that honour lives, and reputation has its being. The world at large is the arbiter of a nation's fame; with its thousand eyes it witnesses a nation's deeds, and from their collective testimony is national glory or national disgrace established. For ourselves, therefore, it is comparatively of but little importance whether England does us justice or not; it is, perhaps, of far more importance to herself. She is instilling anger and resentment into the bosom of a youthful nation, to grow with its growth and strengthen with its strength. If in America, as some of her writers are labouring to convince her, she is hereafter to find an invidious rival, and a gigantic foe, she may thank those very writers for having provoked rivalship and irri 17) for causal; but for wörtl. = ausser wegen. 18) to live on = weiter fort leben. 19) Ueber owing vergl. S. 38, Anm. 31. 20) sustained = nachhaltig, anhaltend; wörtl. gehalten, gestützt, getragen. 21) I am affected by something Etwas macht Eindruck auf mich. tated hostility. Every one knows the all-pervading influence of literature at the present day, and how much the opinions and passions are under its control. The mere contests of the sword are temporary; their wounds are but in the flesh, and it is the pride of the generous to forgive and forget them: but the slanders of the pen pierce to the heart; they rankle 22 longest in the noblest spirits; they dwell ever present in the mind, and render it morbidly sensitive to the most trifling collision. It is but seldom that any one overt act produces hostilities between two nations; there exists, most commonly, a previous jealousy and ill-will; a predisposition to take offence. Trace these to their cause, and how often will they be found to originate 23 in the mischievous effusions of mercenary writers; who, secure in their closets, and for ignominious bread, concoct and circulate the venom that is to inflame the generous and the brave. I am not laying too much stress upon this point; for it applies most emphatically to our particular case. Over no nation does the press hold a more absolute control than over the people of America; for the universal education of the poorest classes makes every individual a reader. There is nothing published in England on the subject 24 of our country that does not circulate through every part of it. There is not a calumny dropt25 from an English pen, nor an unworthy sarcasm uttered by an English statesman, that does not go to blight good-will, and add to the mass of latent resentment. Possessing, then, as England does, the fountain-head from whence the literature of the language flows, how completely is it in her power, and how truly is it her duty, to make it the medium of amiable and magnanimous feeling a stream 26 where the two nations might meet together, and drink in peace and kindness. Should she, however, persist in turning it to waters of bitterness 27, the lang 22) to rankle (v. rank geil, fett, üppig, vergl. dtsch. rank u. dünn, schwank) eitern, um sich fressen. Die Begriffs entwickelung ist die folgende: to grow more rank or strong in activity or force, as the corrosion of a wound; to fester; to be inflamed in body or mind (Smart). 23) Nominativ m. d. Infin.: Wie oft wird man finden, dass sie ... 24) on the subject of; vergl. das franz. à ce sujet in dieser Beziehung, darüber, und au sujet de was betrifft, wegen. 25) dropt. Die Englischen Grammatiker und Lexicographen verlangen dropped.,,Aber Dichter und Prosaisten haben noch reichlich Verbalformen wie dropt, stept, stopt, whipt, tript etc. aufzuweisen.“ (Mätzner, Engl. Gr. I, p. 373.) 26) a stream ist Apposition zu the medium, dtsch: zu einem Strom. 27) to turn it to waters of bitterness ihn in bitteres Wasser zu |