h he is continually liable to mistake, and always to
overrate without objects of comparison; `_nimium se aestimet necesse
est, qui se nemini comparat_.' He will always think himself wise who
sees nobody wiser; and to know the customs and institutions of foreign
countries, which one cannot know well without residing there, is
certainly the complement of a good education."

After all, is there not a happiness in this delusion on the part of the
American majority, and is not the feeling of admiration of their own
country borrowed from ourselves? The feeling may be more strong with
the Americans, because it is more egotistical; but it certainly is the
_English_ feeling transplanted, and growing in a ranker soil. We may
accuse the Americans of conceit, of wilful blindness, of obstinacy; but
there is after all a great good in being contented with yourself and
yours. The English shew it differently; but the English are not so
good-tempered as the Americans. They grumble at everything; they know
the faults of their institutions, but at the same time they will allow
of no interference. Grumbling is a luxury so great, that an Englishman
will permit it only to himself. The Englishman grumbles at his
government, under which he enjoys more rational liberty than the
individual of any other nation in the world. The American, ruled by the
despotism of the majority, and without liberty of opinion or speech,
praises his institutions to the skies. The Englishman grumbles at his
climate, which, if we were to judge from the vigour and perfection of
the inhabitants, is, notwithstanding its humidity, one of the best in
the world. The American vaunts his above all others, and even thinks it
necessary to apologise for a bad day, although the climate, from its
sudden extremes, withers up beauty, and destroys the nervous system. In
everything connected with, and relating to, America, the American has
the same feeling. Calculating, wholly matter-of-fact and utilitarian in
his ideas, without a poetic sense of his own, he is annoyed if a
stranger does not express that rapture at their rivers, waterfalls, and
woodland scenery, which he himself does not feel. As far as America is
concerned, everything is for the best in this best of all possible
countries. It is laughable, yet praiseworthy, to observe how the whole
nation will stoop down to fan the slightest spark which is elicited of
native genius--like the London citizen, who is enraptu