And, as he was in the
beginning, so he continued throughout his life and to its close. It is
impossible to conceive of him as an enthusiastic and unqualified
partisan of any cause, creed, party, society, or system. Admiration he
had, for worthy objects, in abundant store; high appreciation for what
was excellent; sympathy with all sincere and upward-tending endeavour.
But few indeed were the objects which he found wholly admirable, and
keen was his eye for the flaws and foibles which war against absolute
perfection. On the last day of his life he said in a note to the present
writer: "S---- has written a letter full of shriekings and cursings
about my innocent article; the Americans will get their notion of it
from that, and I shall never be able to enter America again." That
"innocent article" was an estimate, based on his experience in two
recent visits to the United States, of American civilization. "Innocent"
perhaps it was, but it was essentially critical. He began by saying that
in America the "political and social problem" had been well solved; that
there the constitution and government were to the people as well-fitting
clothes to a man; that there was a closer union between classes there
than elsewhere, and a more "homogeneous" nation. But then he went on to
say that, besides the political and social problem, there was a "human
problem," and that in trying to solve this America had been less
successful--indeed, very unsuccessful. The "human problem" was the
problem of civilization, and civilization meant "humanization in
society"--the development of the best in man, in and by a social system.
And here he pronounced America defective. America generally--life,
people, possessions--was not "interesting." Americans lived willingly
in places called by such names as Briggsville, Jacksonville and
Marcellus. The general tendency of public opinion was against
distinction. America offered no satisfaction to the sense for beauty,
the sense for elevation. Tall talk and self-glorification were rampant,
and no criticism was tolerated. In fine, there were many countries, less
free and less prosperous, which were more civilized.

That "innocent article," written in 1888, shows exactly the same
balanced tone and temper--the same critical attitude towards things with
which in the main he sympathizes--as the letters of 1848.

And what is true of the beginning and the end is true of the long tract
which lay between. From first t