e chorus of public opinion. Surely
it is nationality rather than patriotism which leads it thus to
speak in scorn of the successful efforts of enlightened nations
to win from every corner of the earth the riches which nature has
scattered over it.

The incorrectness of the press is very great; they make strange
work in the reprints of French and Italian; and the Latin, I
suspect, does not fare much better: I believe they do not often
meddle with Greek.

With regard to the fine arts, their paintings, I think, are quite
as good, or rather better, than might be expected from the
patronage they receive; the wonder is that any man can be found
with courage enough to devote himself to a profession in which he
has so little chance of finding a maintenance. The trade of a
carpenter opens an infinitely better prospect; and this is so
well known, that nothing but a genuine passion for the art could
beguile any one to pursue it. The entire absence of every means
of improvement, and effectual study, is unquestionably the cause
why those who manifest this devotion cannot advance farther. I
heard of one young artist, whose circumstances did not permit his
going to Europe, but who being nevertheless determined that his
studies should, as nearly as possible, resemble those of the
European academies, was about to commence drawing the human
figure, for which purpose he had provided himself with a thin
silk dress, in which to clothe his models, as no one of any
station, he said, could be found who would submit to sit as a
model without clothing.

It was at Alexandria that I saw what I consider as the best
picture by an American artist that I met with. The subject was
Hagar and Ishmael. It had recently arrived from Rome, where the
painter, a young man of the name of Chapman, had been studying
for three years. His mother told me that he was twenty-two years
of age, and passionately devoted to the art; should he, on
returning to his country, receive sufficient encouragement to
keep his ardour and his industry alive, I think I shall hear of
him again.

Much is said about the universal diffusion of education in
America, and a vast deal of genuine admiration is felt and
expressed at the progress of mind throughout the Union. They
believe themselves in all sincerity to have surpassed, to be
surpassing, and to be about to surpass, the whole earth in the
intellectual race. I am aware that not a single word can be
said, hintin