, after all, go far to make up the sum of human happiness.
As for the Americans, the general aspect of their society is dreary and
monotonous in the extreme. Whatever "our first circles" may say to the
contrary, there is a great equality of manners, as of other things,
amongst them; but if the standard is nowhere very high, it never falls
so low as with us; if there is less refinement and cultivation amongst
the higher classes, (we beg Demus' pardon for the expression,) there is
on the other hand less grossness, certainly less clownishness, among the
mass. Of course there are many individuals in this, as in other
countries, remarkable for natural grace and genteel bearing; but the
class which is pre-eminent in these respects, is very small and
ill-defined. The great national defect is a want of sprightliness and
vivacity, and an impartial _insouciance_ in their intercourse with all
classes and conditions of men. For if inequality has its evils, it has
also its charms; as the prospect of swelling mountains and lowly vales
is more pleasing to the eye than that of the monotonous, though more
fertile champaign. Now, as the relation of patrician and plebeian, of
patron and client, of master and servant, of superior and inferior, can
scarcely be said to exist in the United States, so all the nice
gradations of manner which are elicited by those relations, are wanting
also. The social machine rubs on with as little oil as possible--there
is but small room for the exercise of the amenities and charities of
life. The favours of the great are seldom rewarded by the obsequiousness
of the small. No leisure and privileged class exists to set an example
of refined and courtly bearing; but there are none, however humble, who
may not affect the manners of their betters without impertinence, and
aspire to the average standard of the Republic. Hence, almost every
native American citizen is capable of conducting himself with propriety,
if not with ease, in general society. What are fine ladies and gentlemen
to him, that he should stand in awe of them? Simply persons who have
been smarter or earlier in the field of fortune than himself, who will
"burst up" some fine morning, and leave the road open to others. The
principle of rotation[6] is not confined to the political world of the
United States, but obtains in every department of life. It is throughout
the same song--

"Here we go up, up, up,
And here we go down, down, down."