e_ with the true
cause of original sin. "Does any one imagine that the forbidden fruit
would ever have been tasted if Adam had been daily occupied in tilling
the earth, and Eve, like a good housewife, in darning fig-leaf aprons
for herself and her husband? Never!" The observation would lead one to
imagine that the Bible was a scarce article in Kentucky. He passes on
from Adam to the banker and merchant of the present day, and informs the
reader that they command a high respect in society, but it would be
deemed a shocking misapplication of terms to speak of any of them as
gentlemen. After which truthful statement, he enters into a long
definition of a gentleman, as though he thought his countrymen totally
ignorant on that point: he gets quite _chivalrous_ in his description:
"He ought to touch his hat to his opponent with whom he was about to
engage in mortal combat."[BM] After which remark he communicates two
pieces of information--the one as true as the other is modest:
"Politeness is deemed lessening to the position of a gentleman in
England; in America it is thought his proudest boast." Of course he only
alludes to manner; his writings prove at every page that _genuine
American feeling_ dispenses with it in language. His politeness, I
suppose, may be described in the words Junius applied to
friendship:--"The insidious smile upon the cheek should warn you of the
canker in the heart." By way of encouraging civility, he informs the
reader that an Englishman "never appears so disgusting as when he
attempts to be especially kind; ...in affecting to oblige, he becomes
insulting." He confesses, however, "I have known others in America whom
you would never suspect of being Englishmen--they were such good
fellows; but they had been early transplanted from England. If the sound
oranges be removed from a barrel in which decay has commenced, they may
be saved; but if suffered to remain, they are all soon reduced to the
same disgusting state."

His discriminating powers next penetrate some of the deep mysteries of
animal nature: he discovers that the peculiarities of the bullock and
the sheep have been gradually absorbed into the national character, as
far as conversation is concerned. "They have not become woolly, nor do
they wear horns, but the nobility are eternally bellowing forth the
astounding deeds of their ancestors, whilst the muttonish middle classes
bleat a timorous approval.... Such subjects constitute their fund of